Update!
Update!
The tank has been coming along well except for some red turf algae which the Tangs are grazing on, and it seems to be turning brown and disappearing in some spots. I feel like such an idiot as I had some Mexican Turbos that would have mowed it down but I forgot them in the sump and they perished:hammer:
The Arizona summer has also been a true test as even though garage temps hit 96F the tank sits at a cool 79.5F to 80.9, though there were a couple days due to our monsoon storms temps hit 82F and humidity was 65%:eek1:. I've also added a calcium reactor which has been a big relief from dosing 500ml daily...boy was that getting old. I dose 20oz of stock solution of Brightwell's Magnesion and that keeps it around 1260ppm and my bi-weekly 10% water changes takes care of the rest, Ca is solid at 450ppm, Alk 9.3 and PH is steady at 8.2
I also made some improvements to my mixing/water change station, I can now feed ro/di water from storage to mixing container, ro/di from storage directly to the sump if needed, mix salt water in the mix container, pump fresh SW to the sump all with one pump
So now I just switch off the return, drop the rio1700 in the sump connect it to the pvc drain, unplug it when the water in the sump reaches a marked level and pump fresh SW right back in. Total time 10mins
I also switched from Reef Crystals to Red Sea Coral pro as I wanted to get away from the "Added Vitamins" and brown residue that kept on being deposited in the drum...I know it's been said it does no harm but I wanted a "cleaner" salt and so far coral pro has been good. It mixes well and I've noticed less algae growth on the glass could be the red turf out-competing.
I'm going to continue stocking my fish until the majority of them are added, this way I'll have a stable and consistent bio-load established before adding any sps. I've also decided to run ozone so I'll be picking up the Red Sea 200mg/hr unit soon. The wife took tons of pics of the tank tonight as well so I will post them tomorrow, here's one for now though.
The 4 halides ramp up 2 at a time this shot only has two on
:beer:
