Christy's Reef

Good news and bad news. So I think I have the STN licked. Either that or those pieces that were susceptible to whatever the issue was have croaked and the surving ones are, well, surviving. Thres only a couple that I've been watching with very little STN on them that seem to be hanging in there with no further STN, hopefully they'll recover. Its kind of odd how a coral can be completely dead and white at the base, yet at the tips its business as usual with polyps fully extended with no knowledge of what is going on down below.

So I'm attributing this tank turnaround to a change of my RODI cartridges. I have no idea if thats the case but lets face it, I tried lots of other things without an inkling of success and this one only took a couple of water changes before I was back on track. Anyway, I changed out all the filters and the DI. I kind of wonder if this new DI I'm using doesn't have a buildup of "stuff" in it over time. I mean it just sits there filled with water all the time, and while that water is free of nutrients and junk (whatevers been removed by the RO and filters) I would imagine it can still either grow bacteria or whatever, or perhaps release some of what the DI beads have been removing. I'm not really sure. Prior to this refillable DI cartridge I used the disposable ones which came prefilled and ready to go. I never had any problems (that I know of) with those ones and I replaced them every year or so whether it needed them or not. I guess I'll just have to step it up with these ones. A buddy of mine mentioned that the city he was living in was trying out a new chemical treatment system for their tap water and a friend of his was having issues in his tank as well. He ended up changing out all his RO filters, RO and DI and things totally turned around for him. Perhaps the older cartridges couldn't handle whatever was going through or something. Anyway, I'm glad he passed on that little tidbit of info before I lost my entire tank.

I've been putting all the dead corals up on my lighting hood, mostly because I'm too lazy to walk over to the garbage. Last weekend I took the hood off the tank to replace the VHO bulbs and to clean out the reflectors (note: water changes + sea swirl = mucho splashing on the reflectors!!) and man there was quite the pile sitting up there. It was quite sad actually. Probably about 12 pieces up there, 2 colonies and the rest various frags. Sometimes I really wonder why I enjoy this hobby, and other times I wonder if I really enjoy it at all.

Anyway, I got the reflectors all cleaned up. They were pretty covered in salt splashes and such. I ended up having to use vinegar on them and then windex to get them polished back up. I was pretty hesitant at using the windex but nothing else would get the streaks off of them and they were so incredibly shiny when I first got them. I miss that. My corals probably do too. Anyway, I made sure that it was all good and dry and the windex had evaporated before I put the hood back on. The VHO bulbs seem a bit brighter too. The bulbs were some I had bought off of ebay in a 4 pack. The guy didn't mention that they were used but clearly they have seen some action. Oh well, they're just for adding some blue anyways. I'm on the second set of the 4 pack and considering I bought them about 3 years ago I think I'm getting my moneys worth :p


And more good news, I actually have coralline algae growing on my back glass, a considerable amount of it actually. Previously it would grow, then some issue would present itself and algae would grow on top of it and kill it. I'm actually getting coralline growing on the front glass which, while a pain in the arse to clean, is pretty awesome IMO. They always say that coralline algae growth is a good indicator of tank health. I guess my tank is recovering.

So the bad news. My CO2 tank is out of gas. I just filled the bloody thing at the end of September so only a month and a half out of it versus about 9 months on my old reactor. So much for Schuran being so efficient at using CO2. I guess its efficient, it just has to use a lot of it to do so. I'll have to scope out for leaks or something, with that solenoid on there who knows. I would have thought the solenoid could hook up directly to the regulator but this one doesn't fit onto it, which I find odd as its a Milwaukee and Milwaukee does sell a regulator with a solenoid built in, perhaps its a different model. Anyway, some leak testing is definitely in the works for next weekend. I'll just have to hope the tank can hold its own this week as the CO2 place is closed on weekends.

I'm feeling kind of chatty so I'll just keep writing. Perhaps this will make up for not posting much lately. So I have brown wafer algae in my tank. Lobo something or other. Lobophyta? Lobophora? Whatever. Anyhoo, its really going to town on the tank and was part of the issues I was having with my inability to grow coralline in the tank. The lobostuff would start as a small dot on top of the coralline (which I thought had its own "anti-algae" properties to outcompete other algaes, but apparently I have the wussy form) and then spread out radially until it was the size of a large pancake. Then pancakes would touch and you'd have a huge chunk of it covering the back glass. I'm not sure why it only seemed to want to grow on the back glass, well and the bottom of the tank as well, but always towards the back. Anyway, its on the rock now (oh and another note: when you buy those bali aquacultured corals take them off the plug because theres all sorts of exotic algaes that come in on those things, even Lobophora. So guess where I got it from?!) and its all over the freakin place. Its fairly easy to remove and peels off the rock nicely when you can get ahold of it. But a pain in the arse to keep up with. This stuff is rampant. I even have it growing on my snails and in my powerheads. I've been doing some reading and apparently diadema urchins are supposed to help (not mine though, he's too busy drilling a hole to china through the rock. He's making me the sandbed I always wished I had) and Naso tangs as well. So I've been pondering the intelligence of getting a small Naso. However, I'm sure the tank police and their radar won't be far behind. Besides the fact that these fish grow like stink and get huge. The thought of haivng to rip the tank apart to get him out in a year or isn't really all that attractive to me. However, no brown wafer algae is a rather attractive thought. So I'm torn. I suppose for now I can resist the urge but it will be damned hard if I just happen to find the perfect sized Naso.