Christy's Reef

So I mixed up some salt the other day for a water change. We've been reno-ing our kitchen, basically we gutted it and redid the whole thing, so the tank has been pretty neglected over the past couple of weeks or so. No water changes as my RODI was setup in the kitchen and there was zero room for it in the bathroom so I just thought I'd wait it out. Earlier this week I managed to get it set up in the bathroom (I found a little corner where it fits perfectly for the most part) and made up my normal 15 gallons for a water change.

Now if you've been reading along, you'll know about my salt issues that I had earlier last month. A bucket of Kent was throwing up some wild readings in the calcium and alkalinity department which resulted in me buying another bucket locally, it resulting in the same readings and eventually I succumbed to getting a bucket of Seachem. I've had Seachem salt before and am not enamored with it at all, but what can you do when you live in the sticks? Anyhoo, I did a small waterchange with it and well nothing out of the ordinary happened so all was good. I managed to make it over to the mainland and took the crap bucket of Kent with me and traded it in for a bucket of Instant Ocean. Since then I've been using half IO and half Seachem for fear of the full on Seachem being a problem for larger waterchanges. The first waterchange mixing the two went fine. No problems at all. But for this waterchange I couldn't believe how murky and gross the water was. It ended up I was called away and never got to do the waterchange but no biggie, it gave the water extra time to mix.

So this brings us to today, when I actually have time to do the water change. I take off the lid to the garbage can and everything is coated in a film of white. WTF? I tested for Ca and Alk and both were normal. So where did the white stuff come from? I did the water change as usual and then used the last of it for a water change in my nano. The last bit had some really fine silty crap in it which is now in my nano tank. Nothing looks too upset about it though. I have no idea what it is. I cleaned out the garbage can, the heater and started to clean off the powerhead when I noticed a great clump of what looked like hair in the pump intake. Off to the sink I go to take it apart. So yeah, I take it apart and I swear a small pomeranian emerged. Scads of dog hair. Now, yes we do have a dog, a chocolate lab actually not a pomeranian :P, and I am SUPER careful about making sure the lid is good and tight when I am making water, have water in the bucket and even when there is no water in the bucket. Where the hell did all this dog hair come from? And what has it done to my tank? I wonder if decomposing dog hair could cause issues in a reef tank? GROSS!! Anyway, chalk this up as a note to clean that powerhead more often!! At least the dog hair gets caught up in the powerhead and doesn't end up in the tank.

Oh and I bought two more vanderbilts chromis. One died in the bag on the way home so I only have two in the tank ( one survivor from the previous batch). I can't believe how hard it is to keep these fish alive. What a waste!