I know I have not updated this blog since May. There hasn’t been much to report since the hair algae infestation came back worse and in full force. The problem has since been rectified with a thorough cleaning of both my hang-on-back (HOB) power filter and canister filter, and a good scrubbing of all the live rock with hydrogen peroxide. I am running media in the filters now and this seems to be helping. I am running Marineland’s Premium Carbon in the HOB and granular ferric oxide (GFO) from Bulk Reef Supply in the canister filter to help reduce phosphates in the tank that nuisance algae thrives on. My biggest weakness in reef-keeping is definitely doing maintenance, so I’m making sure to set reoccurring reminders in my Google Calendar. I’m changing the carbon and GFO every 3-4 weeks, and cleaning the filters the same day. I’m doing freshwater top offs as necessary, and a 5% water change every week. I test the water parameters the next day, and dose accordingly. So far these actions seem to be working, as the algae has not come back and the new coral frags left in my tank (a Duncan and a dragoneye zoanthid) have been really opening up.
I had plans to implement a sump under the display tank in the system, but the costs and the logistics of the project have forced me to re-think it. Instead, I think I’m going to go with a hang-on-back refugium where I can culture some beneficial algae and copepods. Due to the limited space and size that I have to work with, I think I’ll be going with the smallest CPR AquaFuge 2 that has received many positive reviews. Whether or not I decide on the corresponding light fixture remains to be seen. I won a JBJ Pacifica tablet LED fixture from a contest on Reef2Reef.com and I’m going to see if I can make that work first.
As far as livestock goes… I’ve got my eye on another snowflake ocellaris clownfish to replace the one I lost a while back (I still have one that’s doing well). As soon as I can get the refugium up and running and things are stable, I’ll be picking up the new snowflake. My wonderful fiancé has agreed to stock my tank for my birthday gift this year, so we will be hand selecting a bunch of nice soft corals in February. Eventually I’m hoping that culturing copepods will enable me to keep a mandarin dragonet, and I’d really like to get another royal gramma, a six-line wrasse and a couple of anthias in the tank.
I’ll try to get some photos of the current corals up soon.
Edit: 1-7-2-2013 Below are some photos of the tank inhabitants.
Turbo, the giant Mexican Turbo snail (he’s so big he has a name).
The dragoneye zoanthids have almost fully come back and covered the plug again. These guys literally came back from the dead.
The one snowflake clown just clownin’ around.
That duncan is still alive and putting out new heads.
My Reef Tank 