November Update

Its been awhile since I posted. Not much going on with the tank itself, stuff is growing. Patches of cyano have popped up but nothing to freak out about (although I think I said that last time and then it totally got out of hand). I'm not as worried about using the chemi-clean now as I was before, especially since I have figured out how to control the skimmer output. 

I ended up having to go another round with the majanos. Some grew back due to their placement, I found it easier to kill those majanos that were facing "up" than those that were facing "out".  So a few came back, and some stayed away. I went after about 20 or so this time and I figure I had about a 75% success rate.  I also found two large patches of them after the fact so I'll have to go another round with them.

Last weekend was a total cluster on the equipment front. I decided to have a go at the bearings on my vortech mp40. It was pretty noisy and I had isolated the noise to shoddy bearings. Following this thread on ReefCentral I took the dry side apart and tried to get the bearings off. One was already off and embedded in the back side of the motor cover. Easy peasy. The second was on there pretty good. I had a pretty good grip on the magnet to get the bearing off, but the magnet twisted and was soft enough that it tore.  Then about 30 seconds later I dropped the damned thing on the cement floor and it was toast. Typical. The one thing it says not to do in the thread and it happens to me.  I tried gluing it back together but it looked ugly and was a terrible glue job, so much so that it didn't even fit in the motor again. Not surprising as it fell apart in like 10 different chunks.  Anyway a plea went out on Canreef and someone answered the call and shipped me one of their spare drysides. I will be forever grateful.  It even has good bearings and is nice and quiet :)

So the day after killing my vortech I decided my skimmer could use a good cleaning. I took off the collection cup and tilted the skimmer body to drain out the water.  Damned thing broke at the seam (from the main tube where it tapers to hold the collection cup). Suffice it to say I was unimpressed. However it was a clean break and a few applications of weldon 16 and we're back in business.  It ain't pretty but whatever, it runs and its not like anyone looks in there anyways. 

So ya, after that I pretty much gave up on any tank equipment maintenance. Screw it, from now on I'll just do waterchanges and leave it be. At least until it knows its after Christmas. I swear my tank knows when my birthday and Christmas is coming up and something major has to break (ie. wavebox on my birthday last year). Its nice getting a big ticket item as a gift but not when its to replace something broken.  "Ya I already have one of those and it broke so heres another one. Whee." Not nearly as fun as getting something new and exciting! ;)