It’s been many months, but the reef is starting to have lots of bare rock again. It was over run with hair algae about 8 months into ’08, and it never really recovered from that outbreak.
A hardware cycle later, and more stable water parameters = good times.
To recap, my reef was in fine shape; then I moved to Ottawa and things died, then I got algae and ever since then I’ve been going through battles with the thing. A few months back I got a Tunze 9005 skimmer and the break in period didn’t seem that stellar, but I knew it was an improvement.
When we came back from Jamaica (January) the skimmer hadn’t collected much skimmate; not a good sign. I didn’t really have time to investigate the issue, so I made sure I wasn’t over feeding and have been doing the husbandry tasks.
Then I decided to reset the skimmer, and voila! It’s working fantastically! I had been making the mistake of getting my hands inside the reactor, which would deposit natural oil, which had a negative effect on the skimming. User error has been fixed, I think.
I’m so impressed, I don’t believe I’ll get a tank with overflows when we move into a larger place. My skimmer and hang on back refugium is perfect as a large scale “nano” setup.
Since moving to Ottawa my reef has been an eye sore. The initial move was very hard on the system and the majority of the corals didn’t make it, and I couldn’t bring much water so I relied on a low end filter and tap water. The combo of system shock and poor water, mixed with a Coralife skimmer and a pretty crappy light fixture eventually led to an insane hair algae outbreak. It was so bad I didn’t take any pictures.
So last christmas I decided I needed to replace the low performing hardware with something better because the living conditions for the inhabitants just seemed cruel; bad water. I started off addressing the water source and got a nice 4 stage RO/DI filter, and within a month a brand name T5HO fixture with individual reflectors, and a new hang on back refugium with a change of pump location.
This left 1 issue with the overall system. The unwanted bio-load in the system in various forms of dissolved organic compounds (docs) and new algae growth. It was a battle I’ve won in the past when I was lazy with reef husbandry, but this time I had an unexpected variable. One particular fish decided to kill 3 roommates without cause or concern. One of the dead was my lawnmower blenny, and it decided to go into the biggest rock I have before croaking. That’s when it all went wrong.
So, fast forward almost a year and I’ve just swapped my bulbs to a fresh set from UV Lighting and I got a Tunze 9005 skimmer; it’s been a god send. I had to practically close off the air intake during the first month it was in the system so it didn’t overflow almost daily. The collection cup is large, but the lid has 4 small spaces foam can escape from (kinda sucks).
Things were going so good, I didn’t notice the skimmer had started to under perform. After 2 weeks of almost nothing in the cup I remembered how closed the air intake was and opened it up; guessing at a position. I lucked out. In the morning the cup had a nice layer of skimmate and the foam was approximately half way up the neck and bubbling out in huge bursts.
I had been trying bi-weekly and weekly water changes prior to getting the new skimmer; and it just wasn’t enough to keep up with the cycle of new growth & death of the various types of algae that had gotten into the food chain. The Tunze was the missing piece in a complete ‘win’ for this battle. I highly recommend these skimmers.
All of my corals (and fish) are showing great health and growth. One of the latest additions (a mushroom) is spreading at an amazing rate; covering 10% of the rock in a little over a month.
Yesterday I moved my reef with the help of Jay (Celine’s boyfriend). It took a few hours to break down the system and get it to the new pad.
Today I need to finish the setup; there’s only heat and water movement at the moment. This includes making approximately 30gl of new water. We couldn’t take it all, there was stairs.
Sadly only my first pair of fish survived. Stress, I guess. No corals or inverts died.
I shot this video with my iPhone. I should’ve cleaned it and the aquarium glass, it’s not as sharp as it could be.
Out with the nonfunctional, in with the promising. I received a CPR Aquafuge2 (Large) today, and boy is it large. There’s no space on the back of my aquarium now. This appears to be a great setup, but I’ll have a better idea over the next week or two. Right now I have a 5gl jug of water mixing so I’ll probably pick up some chaeto algae for the new addition tomorrow.
It’s not really exciting news, but it’s another step in the overall setup.
It’s taken a few months, but the algae is finally declining. I might get corals shortly after christmas.
I didn’t do water changes for a few weeks after Jen went on vacation to Nova Scotia. The rapid pace of making water prior to her departure had really turned me off working on the reef, so I just let things slide so the skimmer could break in again. It’s going great; the skimmer that is. There’s now an issue of a hair algae outbreak that’s crept onto the rock.
The solution is more water changes. Yay!
I shouldn’t complain, it’s exceptionally easy and not even time consuming to make the water; I’m just about ready to sit back and relax while looking at my awesome attempt at playing God. It’s taking longer than I had hoped.
Yesterday afternoon I found Jimmy H (coral beauty) dead, floating & in bad shape. I have no idea what happened to him; the day before he looked healthy and was eating like usual. I’m starting to wonder if Harrison Ford (dejardin tang) is to blame.
With a little help from Jen, I hung the light fixture last night. It went smoothly. I got it level on my first try, when I slid the legs out I was surprised.
