Garfs SPS cube

[Garf]

Well, it’s now a year old

 

[Garf]

Treated myself to an acro, at the weekend;
And a Favia;

 

[Garf]

Tank still chugging along;

 

[ReefRondo]

Nice looking tank buddy!

 

[Garf]

Nice looking tank buddy!

Don’t look so good now. Did a deliberate kalk overdose to maintain pH at 8.3 (there’s a thread on here somewhere about it). Alk increased slowly over 3 or 4 weeks, everything looked great then POW over a few days 50% of the stuff RTNd, some others had severely burnt tips. Won’t be doing that again. For some reason I just can’t messing with stuff that don’t need messing with lol.
A case in point is since my Alk has started to come back down and the survivors are recovering I’ve removed the skimmer body (just left the needle wheel pump churning up my sump with outside air) and been using some cheap aragonite sand in a mesh bag to remove organics and phosphate. Seems to be working but?..
I’m always just a hairs breadth away from disaster, lol.

 

[ReefRondo]

Not messing with stuff is something I had to learn. Way too many potions and foods you can throw in there all promising to give you the best growth and colouration...I have found since doing the bare minimum and keeping things stable my systems have never looked better. Ok, I have a lot of automation and trident testing which makes my life so much easier but it's hard to not mess with things! I totally get it.

 

[DarkReefer]

I hear ya Garf! I had some issues with my tank before I tore it down for the move and thing were looking terrible.
Think it was potentially due to a lack of regular maintenance ?, I can't recall...Ended up getting Alk swings and phosphate climbing and then was throwing everything at it to try and control this that and the other. Painful.

I'm hoping that the recent teardown to move house and the new set up (currently cycling) was a blessing in disguise and I can get the tank looking amazing this time around!

Though I'll admit not having a tank set up for the last month has been somewhat refreshing (no regular testing/maintenance/time spent). I've even started to wonder if it all goes pear shaped again whether I'll keep at it or give it up completely in order to funnel money/time into other things.
Do look forward to getting my livestock back though!

 

[Garf]

Water clarity is good still, UV, filter sock, bag of sand in sump, 10% weekly water changes, big bag of bioballs (with lots of air bubbles) as only filtration. I’ve almost eliminated all traces of green algae in the system.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Water clarity is good still, UV, filter sock, bag of sand in sump, 10% weekly water changes, big bag of bioballs (with lots of air bubbles) as only filtration. I’ve almost eliminated all traces of green algae in the system.

That Cristal clear, looking awesome.

 

[Garf]

That Cristal clear, looking awesome.

The cleaner shrimp give off young every couple of months or so and the clowns have had a couple of clutches, so everyone looks happy. Gonna be treating myself to some corals soon to replace the ones I nuked.

 

[sixty_reefer]

The cleaner shrimp give off young every couple of months or so and the clowns have had a couple of clutches, so everyone looks happy. Gonna be treating myself to some corals soon to replace the ones I nuked.

That sounds really cool it’s a shame that they end up as food.
Looking forward to see the new additions

 

[Garf]

In went a Pavona;

 

[Garf]

My filefish has found its way into the overflow box and won’t come out, lol. The upside is that he’s demolished the Aiptasia in there.

Anyhow, added a Mille yesterday;

Photo, as usual, taken with a potatoe unfortunately;

 

[Garf]

This maybe a little better, lol;

Also a pic of the QT tank that is being turned into a softy tank by the wife (albeit there’s a purple style frag survivor in there from the DT and a Duncan). Interestingly this tiny tank didn’t have a real ugly stage;

 

[Garf]

He’s out, lol. Had to make him a hidy hole pipe as the kole is giving him grief, probably how he ended up in the overflow box, I reckon.

 

[Garf]

I’ve been messing with stuff again, lol;

Kalk slurry aeration

With ref to @Doctorgori thread a while ago; https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/pulling-air-through-saturated-kalk.580645/ His thread was based around changing a saturated calcium hydroxide into calcium carbonate by reducing the CO2 content in air passed through it to ultimately reduce CO2 in...

www.reef2reef.com

I don’t know if anyone out there uses these Weipro pH controllers (they are great) but I’ve got a hack to turn the single point calibration version into a two point calibration version. You’ll need a screwdriver and a drill, or a sharp knife

 

[Garf]

With the massive bubbly CO2 reducing kalk reactor, pH increases by at least 0.15.
I have been monitoring Alk in this period of increased pH and have found no difference, so far.

 

[DarkReefer]

Always interesting to see what everyone has in their dirty little closet under the tanks LOL
It's one thing that always seems to surprise people visiting. They see the tank and say how nice/cool it is etc. Then you show them the heart of it all and they're like... whoaaa.

 

[Garf]

Been wet about 2 years now;

 

[Garf]

Getting some good sproutage now, finally, lol. Had my first kamoar X1 failure yesterday after over 2 years of pumping around 1.25 litres a day. So I just used my water change dripper until this morning when I could spend time looking at it. Motor was good, spindle rather corroded. Inside the pump head, the tubing, wheels and bearings were in amazingly good condition. There were rust particles coating everything inside the head though, and it was damp (not surprised, located where it is), so washed and dried it all, put it back together, and Bobs your mothers brother, works great again. I love cheap fixes