Project corals.

I think I promised photos of corals that I'm hoping will become good candidates for farming.  The Gemmifera I bought way back in 2007, and it went brown for the longest time, but with my recent change to an ULNS (Ultra-low Nutrient System), it's been getting back the spectacular yellow with blue highlights it had when I first got it.  It's also a fast grower so it coulb be ideal.  The Tenuis is old school, but I love it when it's doing well, and the yellow with blue polyp is awesome, and not something I've ssen in anyone elses tank, though I'm sure it's out there somewhere . . .

Work, work, work.

Spent from 8 to 11 AM this morning doing tank chores.  Cleaned frag tank, cleaned skimmer, dosed 1 L B-Ionic, cleaned display tank, cleaned 2 tunzes for basement system with Muriatic acid, setup a new Tunze multicontroller in the basement so as to create back and forth flow, cleaned PO4x4 reactor and restarted PO4x4 on the system.  Haven't actually tested the water yet to confirm that it needed it, but I have a sneaking suspicion.

Tomorrow I need to clean the upstairs Tunzes.  I also have made a big change in the flow upstairs.  I was using 4 Tunzes simultaneously (2 x 6105s and 2 x 6055s), but they were all set to their lowest power.  Now I put them on max power and run one pair at a time so I can go back to creating an alternating flow pattern.  I had been noticing some anomalous growth formation with my monti's and after talking to Jason I decided it was because I had too much flow in one direction.  We'll see . . .

Going to work.

I always have some slight trepidation as I go to work since I'm gone from the house for 3 or 4 days.  Today is no different.  Cleaned the glass, siphoned the sand bed, added 1L of B-Ionic, and adjusted the RO top off drip (winter dry air) before heading out.  We'll see how it looks on Monday night when I get home : )

Joe

The Banggai Gardener

Never meant to be a fish breeder, but heck if my Banggai Cardinals don't keep producing viable offspring.  Sold 5 last month and I'm taking another 3 month old to Greenwich Aquaria today plus I've got 6 in the sump that are only a couple weeks old and by that I mean living out of the parents mouth.  Don't know how long they hang out in the parent mouth.  Guess I should figure that out and maybe pay a little more attention.

Did some reaquascaping the other day as my anemone moved a couple inches to one side and was encroaching on my latest favorite, my tenuis.  Also took some updated shots of "project" corals.  My Gemmifera is of particular interest as it's getting some amazing coloration and is a relatively fast grower.  After reading the article in CORAL magazine about Dustin Dorton and ORA, I'd love to be able to give him a viable mother colony to create a new commercially grown coral!  Wouldn't that be AWESOME?!?

Today's Maintenance.

8:45 AM.  The whole family is still asleep, but I've been up since 5:33 (trouble with getting older - you can't sleep in)  So far I calibrated a new pH probe and tested my tank water at about 7:30 AM - pH 8.3 then cleaned the basement frag tank and the skimmer.  I also retested the alkalinity since yesterdays reading was so low, and I added 1 L of B-Ionic as a result.  Today's reading was 8.5 dKH

Cleaning the frag tank is a big chore because I'm still getting a large amount of cyanobacteria in that tank.  Not sure why, but it seems to collect some type of spiky detritus.  I have no idea what the stuff is, but the tank has a bare bottom with 2 tunzes blowing on it continuously and it still builds up a layer of hair algae with red slime on the outside.  Fortunately I keep the tank almost empty so it's relatively easy to clean.  At the moment it's slightly more difficult than normal because I am keeping my buddies corals and fish in there until he gets his new tank up an running. 

On another side note if anyone is looking for me on RC, I am no longer there as I have become disenchanted with what I believe to be their heavy hand of censorship.  I was involved in a discussion regarding Red Sea's new product NO3:PO4x, but Randy Holmes-Farley, an Harvard and Stanford educated chemist highly regarded in many fields, felt that the discussion had become too tilted towards "how to use" the product versus a discussion worthy of "his" chemistry forum, and so the moderators decided to shut down the thread.  This was not the first time I have witnessed what I considered excessive interference with RC discussions so as a result I have said "Good-bye" to RC.


Joe

Daily Maintenance.

Yesterday's Chores:

clean glass upstairs
dose 1L B-Ionic
test water parameters

Test Results

• I+              normal
• NO3         0.25 ppm
• PO4          0.04 ppm
• Alk           6.0 dKH
• salinity     35 ppt

Red Sea NOPOX.

So here's a topic which has inspired me to return to my blog:  Carbon Dosing.  I have been using Red Sea NOPOX and it lowered my nitrates to an undetectable level.  Unfortunately, it did nothing for my phosphates even though it claims it is a complete system that can control both.  I used PO4x4 to bring my phosphates down as well and now I plan to run a multi-month study to turn the NOPOX off and on several times and see how it affects the nitrate and phosphate levels.  The question right now is whether or not NOPOX alone can keep nitrate and phosphate levels balanced now that I have brought them both down to low levels.

This is a major shift in philosophy for me.  I have long believed in "KISS" and a reliance on the Berlin System without modification, but this summer and fall I ran into trouble with cyano and was searching for a solution.  By focusing on reducing nitrate and phosphate to levels found in nature I have successfully eradicated the cyano, but I was only able to do so by starting a carbon dosing regimen and adding a small reactor with PO4x4.  This opens up a whole new area that I have not explored:  ULNS or Ultra Low Nutrient Systems.  It's not new to the hobby, but it's new to me so stand by for lots more data ; )


Joe


Be sure to check out my latest video taken with my iPhone.  Personally I can't believe the quality I can get from a simple tool like the iPhone (or perhaps not so simple!)