Christy's Reef

So I've been religious with the Ultralith, mostly because I'm scared of what will happen if I stop again. I wonder if the Ultralith is keeping the water clear and when I don't use it the water is "cloudy" enough to cause brownout? Its certainly not discernable to my eye. I guess if I do stop, I'll fire up the ozone right away and hope for the best. Anyway, I'm resigned to at least a few more months as I had to buy a new batch of UltraBak and UltraMinS as well as some new zeolite. Yes there is an "S" on my forehead sometimes. I don't really consider this stuff to be snake oil, I've seen it in action on another tank and it was damned spectacular. However I think he was using more than just the 4 basics (basics being Bak, MinS, Bio and Ultralith rocks). He was using PowerTrace 1-4 which is basically trace elements. Theres a couple other products as well that I'd like to try, UltraAmin (amino acids) and the actual proper reactor. I often wonder if the success of this system is limited by the fact that I have a lot of ultralith rocks crammed into a small phosban reactor and shaking really doesn't accomplish as much as one of those proper reactors with the pumping handle. Oh well, the thought of shelling out $200 for one at this point doesn't sit well with me. However, I'm sure that "S" will reappear and I'll have those products in hand soon :P

So I had a good long stare at the tank tonight. The purple cap which I thought was a goner seems to have a few polyps out. The tan one..well thats another thing as its polyps are tan colored too. I'll have to get out the long lens for that I suppose. Damn, battery is dead. I'm so used to my point and shoot cameras making noise when they turn on and off. I think I've left it on for about a week now. Lucky I still have my trusty Nikon. I just can't part with it, I'm too in love with its macro capabilities :) On second thought, I think its macro capabilities may be going downhill. Anyways, you can see the damage in these shots. The tan cap(with polyps!. You can see some of the damage, how the coral is lighter than the polyps and there are bubbly bits of algae. Its more obvious on the purple cap and you can see how much color its lost. The purple cap used to be as purple as the polyps, now its a crappy light brown with a dusting of brown algae on it that I have to turkey baste off every day.

I'm just not sure what happened but it appears that the caps got hit the hardest. I have another chunk of purple cap growing on the opposite side of the tank that looks terrible as well. The large yellow cap in the center of the tank has been steadily going downhill for the past 6 months or so. Ever since I had that "burned tips" fiasco. Parts of it die then it gets really crumbly and breaks off at the slightest touch (couple acros did the same). I wondered if the corals didn't have some sort of calcium deficiency/calcium uptake deficiency at some point but levels of Ca and Mg have been pretty stable. I'm tempted to try out some strontium/molybdenum but at this point I think I'll just hang in there and hope for the best.