So tonight it was the calcium reactor pumps turn to be persnickety. It was making a funky noise, I guess it just needed to be cleaned because it was all intact. Of course you have to drain the reactor and take it apart to get to the pump. Which of course turned out to be a 60 minute cleaning-fest. I can't believe how fast it uses the media. Of course I guess you'd notice it decreasing in a 3 inch diameter tube vs. my old reactor which had a 6 inch diameter. Still it seems that it uses media rather quickly...not that I'm complaining or anything. I filled it up and put a little line on it so it will be interesting to watch.
Of course this all started with me taking some topdown photos, and then noticing that my pink birdsnest in the middle was rampant with caulerpa. Turns out its mostly whats holding that and the blueish acro (to the left of the birdsnest) to the rock. The blue acro is now kind of rickety on the rock, but no doubt the caulerpa will grow and re-cement it to the rock. I'm not too worried about that.
Normally I'm with-it enough to see when its time to prune the algae but I let it slip this time and it was pretty far gone down into a couple of other corals as well. I'm usually good about corralling it in one area. Anyway, after about an hour of picking it out I got a fairly good sized pile, probly the size of a softball or so, I think thats a personal best lately... not a all time one though. My tank used to be pretty fugly in the algae department.
As for the corals, well they're coming along. I noticed the purple cap is starting to get its color back and the polyps seem a bit happier. I think the tan cap will take longer although it wasn't spectacular to begin with, at one time it did have a lovely purple rim but I haven't seen that since probably last year. I'm going to see if I can find some potassium (apparently they're sensitive to that) and a test kit and maybe muck around with that for a bit. Thats down the road though when I make it to a store that carries all that, or when I have a big enough order for mail order.
My computer is being cranky so I'll try to post the pics tomorrow :)
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