Oct 2010
And Dec 2011
I'm kind of disappointed with the coloration I'm getting in the tank, not sure what I am doing wrong other than missing the weekly water changes. They're about every second week now or whenever I can fit one in. Then again I have been having low alkalinity problems too... I guess I need to get back on track. Its time for the yearly bulb swap out as well (hello Boxing Day sales!) so that will be coming up as soon as I get them in the mail. Some of the corals grew pretty well over the year, others croaked or were removed because they were taking over. All in all I need to get back on track and figure out whatever it is that makes the tank happy.
In other news, I removed the turaki. It was just getting worse and worse and only the undersides of the coral seemed to be fairly intact. I found a couple of branches that looked half decent and fragged them off and dipped them in Coral Rx. I also dipped the frag I made a couple months ago as it was showing signs of the same issues the main colony was having, although not nearly as bad. So far the frags look pretty good, but its only been a couple of days.
I also had to remove the yellow scroll (left side, next to the pink pocillipora). There was just no tissue left on it, algae had taken over and the fish were pruning the algae so the tissue had no chance to regrow. The underside of it was completely fine (which I thought was odd) but it just wasn't coming back so I turfed it. On the bright side, while doing that, the yellow acro, marshall tricolor and rosaria on that side (very far left) broke off the rock as one chunk of coral (they've all grown together) and I found an acan which was attached to the yellow acro which was being shaded out by pretty much everything on that side so I disengaged it from the acro and put it in the spot where the scroll was. Its a bit bleached out but coming around. Of course, getting the coral trifecta attached to the rock again was another matter *le sigh*
Bought a Christmas present for the tank. Its called The Portal and made by ivsportal.com Its pretty cool, a magnifying viewer for corals that attaches to the glass and doubles as a glass cleaner.
I don't have high hopes for it actually cleaning the glass but its pretty helpful if you have a bit of scuzz on the glass right in the middle of your viewing area (or to the left of it, ew! sorry about the crap photo!). As for the viewing, its just awesome. They had one set up at the LFS on their display tank and I was sold. Unfortunately not sold on the price, but thanks to some Christmas money, its all mine now ;)
Photo taken through The Portal
I thought a photo taken through it would be pretty neat but it just really doesn't compare to just looking through it. I found that a photo taken through the magnifier or just against the glass was about the same. No matter, that's what I have zoom lenses for. But this is pretty cool, and *if* I had red bugs (and thank goodness I don't) I could easily see them with this viewer without having to squint to search one out like I do without it ;)
Happy Reefing and Happy New Year! :)
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