lol, true. It is so efficient I want to use it daily but must restrain myself.
Thank you
Update time
Well the month of October has been interesting and challenging! After that trip away earlier in the month, things just didn't seem right and I'd been trying to get to the bottom of it.
First is the dosing of Iron and Iodide. I have ceased these as of the 29th Oct since a couple of corals have darkened up and got a light coating of algae. I may lose one since it has been covered in the brown algae since my return earlier in the month. Polyp extension has stopped and it's a pale colour.
Secondly, I realized I let the Alk rise too much and hence some burning of coral tips occurred. I don't know how this occurred as it is all automated however I have learnt from the signs that the corals give. Always a lesson learnt. The corals affected should make a full recovery.
Interesting to note is that the pH at the time also rose a lot (all while I was away) up to 8.6. Over the period of 4 days I ceased any Alk dosing and it fell gradually back to 120ppm (LaMotte). The GHL pH probe has also been re-calibrated.
Some other corals are not looking as good as they did but I'm hoping they will bounce back. The pink birsdnest is not as colourful as it was and few polyps are extended. It has been fragged a little but will probably not survive.
Thirdly, the temperatures have dropped here so the chiller is no longer required therefore it is time to get some heaters.
Finally the sand bed. As already mentioned, I managed to get some gobies and the python vacuum. I refused to manually shift the sand earlier last month as I thought it may contribute to the rise in No3/Po4 and hence increase algae on the corals.
Light at the end of the tunnel
After a couple of days, things are improving on the sand bed situation. There is a lot of dust floating but I guess this will take time to settle. No3 has risen a little however the Po4 is 0.03 (Hanna). I'm looking forward to hopefully bringing these values down during the period of this month.
Anyhow, here are some of the latest pics taken today... 'Day 234'
The video is on it's way