Hi All,
Everything is going well. Just super busy at a new start up trying to pull together a team and make timelines. Rescued by Vincent a few times - THANKS!
Tank is doing well. I've added quite a few soft corals which are all doing well and just a couple of hard corals. Had a bout with hair algae, followed by some aptasia (really not sure how that got in there as I have been dipping everything) which I seemed to have killed off with a handful of berghia (at least all the visible ones are gone), now basically trying to stay ahead of an outbreak of chaeto in the display tank. It's all good though, I expected a lot of stuff to happen being a newbie and it hasn't been bad, just one thing at a time and not a complete outbreak of multiple issues.
Parameters have been pretty stable using kalk in my ATO and then doing some additional Ca and Alk. Everything is about where I want it except Alk, which I targeting 8ish for some unknown reason. No matter how much I dose, it just stays around 7.3-7.5.
Temp 78
pH 8.1
Ca 420-430
Alk 7.3-7.5
Mg 1250-1280
Salinity 34.5-35.0
Phos and nitrates 0.0
Added a purple firefish and then later a small tomini tang. The firefish hides more now than it did with just the clowns in there. The two cleaner shrimp are almost eating size!
Funny thing happened. The tricolor I originally received from Vincent turned completely white and no ployps were visible for well over a month. Figuring I killed it, I got tired of looking at it and broke it off the rocks with the intent of replacing it. It had melted pretty good, so there was still some pure white smooth skeleton remaining on the rocks. Well quite some time has passed and the white skeleton is now a reddish color and covered in polyps. Go figure.
Next up is I am going to try and get a colony of pods going so I can ultimately add a Mandarin Goby. I could use another fish or two, so suggestions are welcome. I have:
2 clowns
1 small Tomini tang
1 purple firefish
2 cleaner shrimp
Also thinking just for fun maybe an urchin.
I also need some bright blue something in the tank - high flow and high lighting location for one and medium flow and medium lighting for the other. Thoughts?
Can't seem to be able to post a picture of the tank, but I'll keep trying.
Ashley and I'll try and make a club event soon and catch up with everyone. She is actually taking her SAT test right now, so she has been busy as well.
Best regards,
Mike