Julian's Fourth

[jjbunn]

4/28: Added some macro algae from LA Reefs:

Red Dragons (above)

Blue Scroll (above)

Red Palms (above)

 

[jjbunn]

5/6: SG 1.025. Calcium still at 380mg/L even though I've been dosing kalkwasser for some time. What is consuming it I wonder? Macro algae is growing nicely, although not spectacularly. Bad crab, although disabled, is still being a nuisance by dragging around stuff at the dead of night. All fish are happy and growing.

Am considering trying Metal Halide lights again. I'm not sure that the LEDs are bright enough or have the right spectrum for the Zoas, as their growth is slow. I found a couple of my 20K mogul base bulbs and power supply from my previous tank, and fondly remember their light quality and shimmer. Plugged the bulb and PSU together to make sure still operational. Unfortunately do not have a fixture for the bulb, so I ordered a Hamilton Bali Sun fixture.

Bit of an issue with the Reef Octopus. Had a power cut and it didn't start back up again when power returned. Seems like a faulty pump, as I could get it to restart by lightly bumping the side. CoralVue support are being less than helpful, suggesting a broken impeller shaft, and essentially insisting I disassemble the pump to prove it (rather than simply sending me a replacement) - which means stopping everything of course. But I guess I'll just have to do it at the weekend.

 

[jjbunn]

5/8: Disassembled the Reef Octopus - sure enough, the impeller shaft is broken, and was that way when I got it - it's missing one end! This became obvious after comparing it with the video that CoralVue support pointed me to. Now I'll see what they say about replacing it. I have a feeling that the pump I got was a returned unit ... not good.

Added a yellow sea fan Gorgonian bought from the LFS. After acclimation, I notice what appears to be many yellow brittle stars on the fan's branches!

 

[jjbunn]

5/8: (Later). Red Gorgonian polyps now opening up a bit more:

 

[jjbunn]

5/8: We caught the bad crab with a trap!

Here is the trap: a mason jar angled against the rocks, with a weighted piece of shrimp inside.

We had to wait a couple of hours before the crab was bold enough to go inside. Once he did, he was unable to get out as he couldn't get a grip on the glass sides of the jar.

We put the jar upright, and put a lid on it, and left him in there overnight, as we were unsure what to do with him. By the morning, he was dead.

 

[jjbunn]

5/11: Set up the Hamilton Bali Sun fixture with my 20k MH lamp and ARO ballast. Didn't like the MH light as much as I remembered: it wasn't as bright as the LEDs, and there was a big shadow in the middle of the tank caused by the tank's centre brace. So I removed the fixture after a couple of hours. Also, those things run hot! It was too hot to touch, and the ballast was toasty, too. So much wasted power ...

I guess I will sell the fixture/lamp/ballast on Ebay.

While the MarsAqua was disconnected, I took the time to replace the two red and two green LEDs by four 400nm BridgeLux LEDs I bought a while back. The soldering was easy (tip: use a chisel bit, not a point - better heat transfer). 400nm is right on the hairy edge of the visible spectrum, so they don't look as bright as the other LEDs in the array.

The result is noticeably improved lighting in the tank: the red and green blotches that I used to notice on the sand bed have gone, and the corals seem to "ping" more (but hard to quantify).

Acquired a couple of branches of Kenya Tree Coral and Montipora from a seller on Ebay in Irvine ("express63"). He packed and shipped on Monday late afternoon - by midday Tuesday (the next day) they were acclimated and in my tank. He also gave me two of each piece, instead of just one ... nice!

 

[jjbunn]

5/11: The gorgonian is a Menella. Stirring the sand up a bit caused more of the polyps to open:

Here's one of the two Montipora frags:

Here's a photo of the dark band I saw with the MH fixture:

 

[jjbunn]

5/13: Alk: 400 mg/l, dKH: 8, Nitrates: 60ppm. I don't understand why the nitrate level is not falling, given I now have a bunch of macro algae growing. But I'm no longer worried as everything is doing fine, for the time being anyway.

I used the API test kit to measure Nitrates in the tap water: they were 40ppm. I then measured the distilled water I use for topping up the tank: 0ppm. Looking at the water company's test data, they quote a Nitrate range up to 40ppm, with an average of 20ppm measured.

 

[jjbunn]

5/14: I'm going to start dosing two part from Two Little Fishes. Starting with 10mL of each per day. The Menella is not doing well - sections of the polyps are breaking off most of the branches. Many of the polyps are out, so it does look like it's feeding off stuff in the water, but I haven't added any food specially for it. I'm wondering if I have it in too strong a flow (it's directly in front of a powerhead) so may move it somewhere calmer.

 

[jjbunn]

6/4: Everything ticking along. The Menella is clinging on for life, as are the bristlestars, and it may have even started regrowing some polyps. The Monitipora are growing, albeit slowly. Kenya Tree coral branches are growing faster. Had some more cyano break out, which was quickly cleaned up by this guy:

 

[jjbunn]

6/16: Montipora are growing.

 

[revhtree]

Looks nice!