Christy's Reef

So it was a no go on the CO2 bubble rate. Apparently it turned itself off yet again, even with the pressure cranked (it was suggested that I have it up between 40 and 60 psi, previously my old reactor ran at about 11). It seems to enjoy doing that on Fridays. Friday it seemed fine but I didn't check it again until Sunday when the tank alk had gone from 12 to 8.3. Lovely. I cranked up the pressure again but I don't know about this high alk let alone the alk swings. I'm hoping to get an Aquatronica controller unit and as I already have a solenoid for the CO2 (not hooked up yet, surprise surprise) I'll just let 'er rip and let the controller take care of it.....hopefully. I'm not really fully sure why I'm getting the controller. I'm sure I'll feel better about it once I have it setup and realize its full potential. But for now its just another "neato" piece of equipment that I don't really need but its cool to have. And no, I'm not rich, I'm getting it for a deal... sort of...kinda... I think. I should probably check on that ;)

So as a result of either the alkalinity swings or my phosban being exhausted, I've been experiencing a fair amount of STN lately. I've lost about 5-6 frags so far and half of two colonies (not the brown ones of course!). In an attempt to save a few pieces I've hacked away at the dead parts and remounted several pieces (I now have doubles and triples of several corals). I replaced my phosban with less than the full amount (my tank needs about 2/3 of the container so i'm running on 1/3 now until I can get home to add more, of course nobody local sells it, meh). My suspicions ran to the phosban when I noticed that the dead parts were "greening up" an indication of higher levels of phosphate. I don't have a test kit to measure it though. The phosban has been running since April so its a good bet its done.

Ya know, it seems lately like its never good news. Ever! Guess I had a good run this year. I have this theory about my tank. It only offers me about 2 months of happiness a year. This year I think I probably got a good 6 months out of it. Maybe next year I can try for 8 months. I don't know what I'll do if I make it a full year. Probly lose interest and pick up some other sucky frustrating hobby, like golf :P