Christy's Reef

Positive reviews for the wavebox! While it is rather large and unsightly, I've managed to finally figure out its placement in the tank. Apparently I had it a bit too submerged and there were microbubbles everywhere because the top of the box was sucking in water and air. Turns out its not supposed to be fully underwater. I guess it helps if you read the manual :P Anyway, its not shading out the left hand side of the tank as much and the caulastrea underneath it is actually responding well to the reduced light. So besides all that, I don't think I've seen such incredible polyp extension in my corals before. Its just insane. Some of them have turned into shaggy beasts. very encouraging to see. I'd put some pics up but I just realized the battery on my camera is deader than a doornail and needs a charge so it will have to wait.

I still haven't gotten new light bulbs but they're on the way. Its funny how I had those iwasaki bulbs for years before switching to the 10K Ushios and now the Iwasakis are totally intolerable. The colors of the corals are so washed out I can't even tell any color except yellow. I'm gonna try the XM 10K bulbs next. I really would like something with a bit more blue in it without going to 14K though. I might try the Reeflux 12K but after the gong show with the Reeflux 10K bulbs I had I might not bother.

So I tried this meshwheel modification on my euroreef that everyone is talking about on Reefcentral. Its a rather long read (about 60 pages or so) but the gist of it is that you take a piece of plastic mesh material (they've settled on Enkamat being the best type) and zip tie it to the needlewheel impeller of your pump after removing all the needles. They are finding that this breaks up the air coming through the venturi into finer bubbles and the skimmer works more efficiently. Well I'd rather not destroy a $60 needlewheel if I don't have to and I couldn't find any Enkamat anywhere so I tried a yellow plastic potscrubber. I pried it apart and put a couple of layers on the needlewheel and lo and behold, it didn't really work all that well. Not surprising for my DIY skills. I did manage to skim out all of the little yellow plasticky bits that flew off the mesh when I turned on the pump though :P They really aren't designed to be cut up. Its been on there for over a week now and I haven't checked to see if its still on there. I doubt it. Anyway, I finally managed to find a source of enkamat so I'll have a go at that when it gets here.