Jestersix

Crabby's "Elite210" tank at the Romberg Tiburon Center

Added a bunch of corals I got from Boun in a tank trade plus a couple of frags from Green Marine and everything is looking pretty good. All the new corals are growing well Hopefully will get some new pics up soon. The filamentous algae problem continues. Every couple of weeks I manually harvest handfuls of it, and am using filter bags to catch the filaments as they fragment off. The abalone, urchins and snails seem to be keeping new patches from sprouting up, but established patches just keep getting longer. Sand is periodically settling on one of the monti caps so I need to figure out how to deal with that. Probably - take out the sand.
 
The abalone are doing great. I have one in my 12G nano at home and although I rarely see it if I happen to be up at 2-3AM it's usually out and about cleaning the rocks and glass. in the big tank the abs are sometimes apparent during the day.

The algae seems to be dying back bit by bit. Will soon get some fresh pics uploaded.
 
Jonathan

Thank you very much for taking the time to show us (my family and I) your tank and work areas . Here are some pics of your tank and work

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Sergio,

Glad you had fun! Thanks for posting those pics - very nice camera work. If anyone recognizes the rainbow monti let me know - I picked it up at the Feb swap.
 
Thanks to Anthony (A_lee) and Garren, two students in my lab, for helping to set up a BRS GFO reactor yesterday. Let's hope that helps to solve the hair algae problem, which has been diminishing on its own, but not gone completely.
 
In the time since the GFO and a carbon reactor were installed there has been dramatic decrease in hair algae! (FTS next time Anthony remembers to bring his camera). Some corals are looking better, but other corals have been looking a less healthy - bleaching and death in some of the acroporids, some montis not looking great, and one hammer coral that's declined rapidly. Not sure why, but here are a few possibilities that come to mind (other opinions welcome!): First, maybe related to decline in hair algae? Perhaps hair algae are good for corals! Or, could perhaps be related to the fact that today when sticking my hand in the sump I got a big electric shock! First time that's happened. There doesn't seem to be stray current in the tank (as determined by the very scientific "did my hand get zapped when I put it in" method), so might be that coral health is unrelated.

To diagnose stray voltage, I unplugged the heaters but the current still present, so skimmer pump or autotopoff float switches are remaining potential culprits. Will have to look at those tomorrow.
 
The bleaching and hammer recession could be due to the rapid decrease in Phosphates--which often happens when you begin running gfo.
Patrick
 
patrickb said:
The bleaching and hammer recession could be due to the rapid decrease in Phosphates--which often happens when you begin running gfo.
Patrick
Click to expand...

Thanks - I didn't know decreasing phosphates could be deleterious! So, what happens next when gfo maintains low phosphates? (BTW phosphates were always near undetectable, but probably because algae were taking them up).

Jonathon
 
Here are some pictures that Anthony took on Friday. Thanks Anthony! You take great pics. In the FTSs, the tank look shorter in side view and one longer in end view.

corals seem to be recovering from decr. in phosphates, but algae also seems to be coming back a bit.

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During the past 2 weeks nearly all of the hair algae has mysteriously disappeared! Finally! I had stopped using the filter sock for a while, but put it back in to catch the hair algae fragments and I think that helped a bunch. Coral growth and color has been good and last weekend I planted a dozen new $10 frags from Green Marine. What a great shop!

I've added another pair of Tunze pumps on a separate controller to increase flow. There are two pumps on either side of the central rock work that alternate about every 2 hours (so gyre goes L to R and then switches to R to L). The added pair are on one side and are on a 3h cycle, so sometimes they pump with the other 2 pumps on the same side and sometimes they pump against the 2 pumps on the other side of the central rockwork. The result is that sometimes there is a reinforced, faster gyre and at other times there is more turbulence.

I tried to take some more pics but unlike the "pros" anthony and sergio, mine came out blurry. Will keep trying.
 
Here are some photos I took today. Finally got my point-n-shoot to capture a half-decent coral closeup! Best news - ALL hair algae is gone! The April 25th shots still show a lot of hair algae and now there are none. Amazingly, the one-year period before reef tanks stabilize has held true so far here. It's been just about a year since lights went on the tank.





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Thanks Boun. I've enjoyed looking at your tank's progress too. Sadly a few of the frags I got from you didn't fare well during the hair algae war I've been waging since January, but others are doing really well. I am hoping that from this point forward corals I add to the tank will succeed.
 
Dexter is looking good, but isn't as fat as the other fish. He doesn't eat as aggressively, but he eats. He occasionally has ich, but the cleaner wrasse is helping. Once in a while he scraps with the other tangs, but mostly they are friendly. I don't think the parasite is gone, but maybe the fish are able to tolerate it, or maybe they don't get infected because they aren't as benthic as the blenny was.
 
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