75g In Office Build

[Bax]

Still seeing cyano but I do think it's on it's way out. Weekly water changes, changing a small amount of carbon weekly,and adding a second PhosBan reactor all seem to be helping. I think getting my RO/DI unit straightened out is helping as well. My params are all good with the exception of Alk which needs to come up a little so I've been dosing backing soda once a week and that is helping.

On the really cool so side of reefing, spotted several of these asterina starfish hitchhikers. They are really tiny, less than 1/2" across. I was startled by them at first as I had never seen one before and suddenly there were several cruising the LR. They turn out to be harmless grazers.

 

[Bax]

I m still struggling with dead spots in the tank allowing cyano to dwell here and there. So .. I took the plung and pick up a Tunze 6000 ... whoa ... between my CLs, return and the Tunze, it's rock'n in there ... can you say 40 x ... sure you can

 

[Bax]

The cyano and bryopsis are still lingering but appear to loosing ground each day. A big step in that fight was adjusting my skimmer. I had been so focused on getting the thickest nastiest dark liquid and goo collecting in the cup that I was skimming too dry!

I 've adjusted it to collect and 1 or 2" of liquid a day, it is still dark but that has really cleared up my water and improved the nuisance algae problem quite a bit.

I think between that and the flow from the Tunze I on the road to algal recovery.

I transferred my Midas Blenny from QT a little of a week ago and it's doing great! We call him Mighty Blenny as he survived a carpet surfing incident that left him in a pile of salt crud behind my QT and a dive into and out of my overflow box in the display.

So ... I am building covers for the display and egg crate surf guards for the back of the canopy ... which still isn't done yet, but ... I just got another pair of 54w T-5 retros from ReefGeek today so I am inspired to finish it. I think I just need that little extra bit of light to make my SPS happy.

Picked up a real nice acro colony from the LFS and some very nice frags from a local reefer too. The extra flow from the Tunze really seems to perk up the corals.

I'll post pics when I get a chance to do the Photobucket thingy.

Thanks for stopping by ...

 

[Bax]

Things are doing well, I still have cyano but each day it dwindles more and more. I battled cyano with my 26 g tank through its infancy as well and I must say I am doing much better with this tank although I wish I could say this tank never struggled with the plague, but ... what can you do? I feel the only way to avoid this in a small tank is patients and that's a virtue I seem to poses less and less of as I get older.

I am considering one last, temporary, stocking addition to this tank, a Two Barred Rabbit fish.

http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1449

I know they get too big for the 75, but this is the final push to get me ordering my 240 g display for my house as this guy will outgrow the 75 with the year, or less, without a doubt.

They are described as reef safe with caution on LiveAquaria but I got really positive feedback on them in the Reef Fish forum. I think I may pick one up for QT and add some corals in there to see how it does. I could use an algae grazer in this tank and would like to have one for the cleanup after cycling for the new tank project.

 

[Bax]

OK, this is a test, if this picture posts correctly then I will have just posted my first pic from Photobucket. To some this may seem trivial, but I am among the e-challenged so this is big time ... here we go

Dang! ... I think it worked!?!

This id HUGE cause as you know ... this thread is worthless without pics!!!!!!!

 

[Bax]

Yeahaa!!!!

That's my ReefKeeper by the way ... love that thing!

All my pics are on my home computer so that's all for now ... more to follow

 

[Zach117]

I hope you work a lot, otherwise you wont be able to see that reef for two whole days during the week!!!!

 

[Bax]

Zach117

LOL ... I work A LOT!!!
It's been crazy lately too.
I visit my reef at least once aweekend no matter what.

I am glad to see someone, anyone, reads this thread besides me! I thought I was alone!

Here's my midas blenny that I haven't seen except for looking deep into my overflow for ablout 21/2 weeks now.

I went to the LFS to get the virgatus Rabbit and did not like the looks of it so I now have a Foxface Lo in QT. (no pics yet)

 

[Bax]

The only trouble I seem to have is that I can only post one pic at a time.

Here's a violet gemmi I've had for a little while now.

And a lavender gemmi I just got

And a full tank from today ... please disregard the nuisance algae and still unfinished canopy ... as mentioned above, I work a lot!

WOOHOO!!! the hat trick! 3 pics in one post ... I am an e genius!

 

[Bax]

Here's one more shot of my favorite coral colony ... a real close up. There are a pair of acro crabs living in there .. somewhere.

Here's a before and after of the tank, this first pic is from some time around September of last year just after adding any livestock

This is just this week

Happy Reefing!

 

[Bax]

Sorry for the large size of that coral pic ... I am still learning the ins & outs of Photobucket.

If you scroll right there's some really cool detail of the polyp structure. I am not really that good with the camera at taking macros either so it just kind of suprised me. That's why I posted it, it's worth a look.

 

[Bax]

So I stopped into the office yesterday, Sunday, to pick up some supplies for a school project my daughter was working on, ... and my return pump is frozen.

Oddly enough it's been on my mind to pull it and clean it as it's been running for six months now. Anyway, I have a spare Mag 7 so I pulled the frozen one out. Boy was it HOT! And replaced it with the new one.

I don't know how long it had been stopped, and given the pump proximity to my Kalk feed not a surprise really. But what is interesting is that both these pumps were brand new. Yet the one I just installed is really performing much better. I had to add a ball valve today to restrict flow which was never an issue with the first Mag 7.

So that's something to keep in mind with these Mag pumps, check your performance when installing a brand new one. I was always surprised by how little flow I got from the other but just figured it to be head loss thru the Sea Swirl.

 

[Bax]

I finally found a pic of my GEO Kalk reactor, it really helps, but I am considering a small Ca reactor as well:

Here's a pic of my pink stylophora, I have had it about three, maybe four months, accidently fragged it by dropping a PVC cutter on it, but it's doing well:

 

[Bax]

I think these are better shots of the tank (less washed out)

From the end by mt desk:

Left side front:

Right side front:

Hope you like'm

 

[ohioreef]

Looking good!!

 

[Bax]

Thanks ohioreefer!

Sorry for the large picture size, still trying to figure all this e-stuff out.

Here's the Blood Shrimp, he runs the fish cleaning station

 

[BV4fish]

I'm liking the size of the pictures actually. It gives us more to look at; more detail. It would only be a problem if your tank was ugly, which I doubt there is anyone reading this thread that thinks your tank is an eye sore! Looking good.

 

[Bax]

Thanks BV4fish ... it's getting there ... I hope

 

[Bax]

Here's a full tank shot from last week with a little better exposure:

I need much practice with the camera, and owners manual, to figure out how to take better pics.

 

[Bax]

Changed a few things around & added a nice new colony & some clams ... pics tomorrow