Updates and OSRAS conference

It’s been over a month since my last real post. Ugh, that’s disappointing. Well, the NEERS conference has finally come and gone and I have made some additions and upgrades to the tank system.

Let’s start with the big Premium Aquatics order. The RO/DI unit is working brilliantly. With a garden hose Y-splitter from Lowe’s and a little bit of drilling into a 5-gallon bucket, I’ve got a fantastic handy product water reservoir that fills in just an hour. The RO/DI unit is rated at 100 GPD, not that I’ll ever be able to hold that much product with the system and storage I have right now. But no more awful tap water! I’m very convinced that the new clean water has contributed largely to the control of the hair algae.

Float valve fitted into my drilled bucket, connected to the RO/DI unit.

The RO/DI sits on top of the dryer.

View of the garden hose Y-splitter connected to the cold-water laundry hook up (the green knob).

Full view of the RO/DI unit installed.

RO/DI unit and my product water reservoir.

I’ve situated the Rock Mags in the tank and they do fill up the awful ugly back space nicely. I love how they purple up rather quickly. Even the new ones are starting to change. I haven’t drilled these yet, as I haven’t quite decided where I want to put the frags I have yet.

Two of the three new large Rock Mags.

I don’t have a good photo of the Natural Wave timer, but it’s also working wonderfully. It has made a great cross current system, as my two circulation pumps alternate with left side on for 30 seconds, then right side on for 30 seconds. This rate seems to keep all the corals happiest, as they aren’t blasted continuously.

I did get to attend the Ocean State Reef Aquarium Society conference in Rhode Island last weekend and had a great time. I ended up meeting a fellow reefing hobbyist (a friend from college) down there. I picked up some nice little zoanthid frags (you can never have too many zoas in my opinion) in addition to some great free loot! I had the opportunity to talk to many hobbyists from New England which was nice. I was able to sit in on Greg Hiller’s talk, which proved very useful as a reminder not to skimp on water changes and water quality tests. This has made me more determined to actually log my parameters every week. I’ll be doing this on aquarist.me.

All of my free loot from the OSRAS conference.

I tested everything when I got home from the conference and what would you know, the calcium was really high and the KH was REALLY horribly low. No wonder my corals aren’t growing. Fortunately I have BRS calcium and alkalinity solution mixed that I can dose to counteract this.

I went out today hoping to pick up a couple of skunk cleaner shrimp for the tank today (I really miss my Jacques) but both PETCO locations near me did not have any. Hopefully next weekend. One good thing I will say for the PETCOs in my area is that their aquatics departments are filled with knowledgeable staff. Seriously. These people actually know saltwater tanks and several of them keep reef tanks themselves. I do truly favor supporting local businesses, but hey – when you want a shrimp, you want a shrimp.

Well, that’s about all I’ve got right now. I’ll aim to be better about posting every week or so.

The Liebster Award

Here are the rules for this lovely award :
1. Accept the award, post the picture of the Liebster Award on the top of your post and say who nominated you for the award and list their blog site.
2. List 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers for the Liebster Award and list their blog sites.
4. Notify the bloggers of their award.
5. Ask the  award winners 11 questions to answer when they accept their Liebster Award.
6. Answer the questions left for you by the blogger who gave you the award.

Thank you Tom for this Award! Check out Tom’s blog here

11 Random Things About Myself

1. I am an avid reef hobbyist
2. I enjoy playing pop and popular Christian rock music on the piano
3. My favorite animal is the killer whale, Orcinus orca
4. I named my cat Loki after the Norse god, not Marvel’s Avengers
5. I love to SCUBA dive and snorkel
6. I am a sucker for a romance sci-fi movie or novel
7. I recently became addicted to League of Legends
8. I am obsessed with Avatar: The Last Airbender
9. I have seen every episode of Seinfeld, and “The Marine Biologist” is my favorite
10. I took 6 years of Latin in school and loved every minute of it
11. I live in a family compound and have my own house right on the water

My Nominations

1. Kansan Reef
2. Zechenia
3. Aquarium Water Pump
4. A Practical Fishkeeping Blog
5. Jimmy’s Fishies
6. Aditix Aquarium
7. SaltWaterPlus
8. Aquaec
9. Applied Reefing
10. Teenage Conservationalist
11. phytoplanktonic

11 Questions for Me to Answer

1. If you could have any super power in the world, only one what would it be? Talk to animals
2. What was your first car? Technically I learned to drive a 1992 Ford Taurus, but MY first real car is my 2001 Ford Taurus
3. What is your favorite movie? Disney’s The Little Mermaid
4. What is your favorite book? Pride & Predjudice
5. Who is your favorite Poet or Author? Jane Austen
6. What is your Favorite food? Fish n’ chips
7. What was your 21st Birthday like? If you remember it. It couldn’t have been that exciting because I did not drink then, though I don’t remember it.
8. What is your middle name? Marie
9. Do you like it? Yeah, I like it.
10. What is your favorite season? Summer
11. Why? I get to go snorkeling and kayaking in the bay

My Questions for Nominees

1. What is your favorite animal?
2. How many pets have you had?
3. What is/was your favorite subject in school?
4. What’s your typical style?
5. Where have you always wanted to travel but have not been (yet)?
6. Cats or dogs?
7. What is your favorite color?
8. Do you play a musical instrument?
9. What is the length of your typical blog post?
10. What is your least favorite chore?
11. Who was your childhood role model and why?

Hair Algae Update & New Order

Everything seems to be working in regards to controlling the hair algae. One way or another, something appears to be helping kill the algae. I have noticed my SPS corals seem to be losing a little bit of color, but I suspect that is due to the short photoperiod in the tank right now. I am going to try slowly increasing the photoperiod back up to 8 hours, starting with 6 hours a day for a week and increasing an hour every week. We will see if that helps my two brain corals.

I did try using the Chem-Marin Stop Hair Algae on a couple of thick spots away from corals. The product does do what it says it does, making it very easy to pull large hair algae clumps out. The hair algae in and around my  green star polyps looks thinner. I’ve been good about trying to weed it out manually every couple of days. Whether success is due to the AlgaeFix or the short photoperiod, I can’t be sure. I’m going to keep using the AlgaeFix and see what happens though. No loss of any inverts or fish though which is good.

I FINALLY managed to place my big Premium Aquatics order. Lots of stuff this time: 3 large Rock Mags to fill in that awful dead space on the back wall, the Natural Wave timer, a RO/DI unit, and a float valve for my water production reservoir. I can’t wait for the order to ship.

I’m most excited about the Rock Mags. The two small ones I have work great. They are super attractive and make for a great use of wall space. Very easy to drill and customize to my heart’s content, and they attract coralline algae well. I haven’t had them more than a couple months and they are already covered in the good purple stuff. The new circulation pump I bought (MaxiJet) is REALLY strong (like we are talking “Auntie Em!” strong. Cue the Wicked Witch of the West theme and some flying cows). I finally found a spot near the bottom and angled the pump up to the surface. I think the location, combined with the pump pulsing for only a couple minutes, with help add some great wave-like motion without blasting my poor corals. My maze brain seems to love the strong current while my Kenya trees hate it.

I’m not happy that I had to spend the money on an RO/DI unit, but I know I’ll need it eventually anyway. I went with a Premium Reef model, made by Premium Aquatics. This one is rated at 100 gallons per day, so with any luck I should be able to fill my 5-gallon product bucket in about an hour. I hope to have a post dedicated to my RO/DI install with pictures and maybe even a video (though don’t expect any fancy narration or tutorials).

This will probably be my only post for the week, as I’ll be attending NEERS on Thursday and it’s unlikely my order will be in before then. Stay tuned!

Hair Algae Infestation

Okay, first off I know I have been neglecting this blog a little bit. However, I have not been neglecting my tank.

I have been fighting what seems to be an uphill battle with nuisance hair algae that has been getting worse for some time. I have finally come to the realization that I need to stop using tap water for top offs and saltwater making. Yes, I’ve been in this hobby for how long? I know… I should know better…

So… here are the steps I am taking:

Step 1: Stop using tap water. Plain and simple.

Step 2: Obtain RO/DI unit. I have made the decision to purchase finally a RO/DI unit to purify water. I have been holding off on making this purchase due to the cost. But for the health of my tank I can’t avoid this cost any longer. Unfortunately, I have to wait for my next paycheck or tax refund (whichever comes first) to be able to make the purchase. I’ve got a plan of where/how to hook up the unit (laundry hook-up with a Y-splitter seems to be what most hobbyists prefer). In the meantime, I am using distilled water from the supermarket to keep my water level where it should be.

Step 3: Removing phosphates. A couple weeks ago (maybe a month now?), I had ordered some ChemiPure Elite to put in my power filter, in hopes of removing a bunch of the phosphates that are likely driving my hair algae problem. I didn’t realize until AFTER I received the product that I need two units for my tank size. So… the other day I bought another one.

Step 4: Algae eaters! No… don’t go thinking plecos… this is a saltwater reef tank, not a freshwater community tank (not that I don’t love plecos). But… my snail count was down to like 2, and I definitely needed a stronger clean-up crew. I picked up a mix of Mexican turbo snails and Zebra turbo snails (at a great place in Quincy called Lovely Pets) for my tank to help mow down on some of the algae. I keep reading about how many snails will actually effectively do the job, and I’m hesitant to add 60+ snails to my tank. So I went with 13. Of course I did this completely forgetting that snails have a habit of getting sucked to the intake of my canister filter because it doesn’t have a screen on it. After losing 2 snails this week, I have ordered that part and it should arrive this week.

Step 5: Mess with my light cycle. As a biologist, it makes perfect sense to me that another effective way to control algae is by depriving it of the things it needs to survive. Being photosynthetic, taking away the light should help. While I know it would help, I can’t reasonably black-out my tank completely because of my corals (which for all you non-reef keepers reading, need light to support the photosynthetic zooxanthellae that have a symbiotic relationship with the corals, providing essential nutrients). Spending some time Googling methods of controlling hair algae gave me this little gem. SnakeBlitz33 had some good suggestions. I did not feel comfortable using his first method of gradually going from black-out to 3 hours of light/day to 5 hours of light/day. I am sticking with one initial day of black-out with now 5 hours of light/day, to be continued until I get this problem under control.

Step 6: Take a chance and use chemical products. Ordinarily, I am opposed to using such methods. I stand by using natural ocean-like methods. I’m doubting my ability to eliminate this hair algae without some extra help so I have picked up API’s AlgaeFix Marine and am giving that a go. I’m following the directions and am dosing every 3 days. So far, it seems like it *may* be working, but I’ve only dosed twice so far. Reviews of the product were very helpful. It seems like many reef-keepers have had success. So far I see nothing bad happening. I’d obviously stop using it if I noticed bad stuff. I have also ordered Chem-Marin’s Stop Hair Algae product (same order as my intake screen). I’m hoping I don’t need to use it, but I’m determined to fix this awful problem.

I don’t know when my next blog post will be, as I’m spending 80% of my non-working hours preparing for a poster presentation at the NEERS conference in Portland, ME next weekend. I will post when I’m able! 🙂

Planned Upgrades

My tank is constantly changing and undergoing upgrades. My latest planned upgrades involve adding a wave pump timer to make my new MaxiJet pulse, better simulating ocean currents. I’ve been looking into all sorts of fancy high-tech equipment out there and unfortunately most of it comes with a hefty price tag. I did manage to find an affordable timer strip that I think will do the trick. It has 3 adjustable cycled outlets and timing patterns from 20 seconds to 3 minutes. As a bonus, it also has 3 standard power outlets for plugging in other tank equipment.

You can check out the timer here: http://premiumaquatics.com/aquatic-supplies/NATURAL-WAVE.html

I had really good luck with Premium Aquatics when I purchased my ReefBrites from them, and am happy to place another with them.

If you have actually been reading my posts, you might recall that I purchased 2 Rock Mag Jr.s before. I am planning on adding 2 or 3 of the full-size Rock Mags to my tank to fill in the ugly dead space on the back wall.

You can check out the Rock Mags here: http://premiumaquatics.com/aquatic-supplies/AMAG-RLG.html

I envision beautiful growing corals covering the walls in a stunning arrangement. We’ll see how well this goes!

New Sea Star Photos

Here are some MUCH better photos of the new sea stars.

New Livestock!

An adventure in Providence, Rhode Island yesterday resulted in some new life for the tank! I met a buddy of mine from college, another reef hobbyist, and he grabbed the names of some highly recommended aquarium retailers from his local reef club.

First stop: Sea Creature Aquarium – 1455 Mineral Spring Ave, North Providence, RI

• While this place had some nice livestock, nothing particular caught my eye. This retailer had a lot of very reasonably priced dry goods though.

Second stop: Aqua-Life Central – 389 Wickenden Street Providence, RI

• I had read great reviews about this place online. A great local business that specializes in more than just fish, they were VERY busy on a Saturday. I purchased 2 small red sea stars for my tank here.

Super-awful picture of one of the red stars. Best I have for now though.

Third stop: Coral Reef Aquarium – 1464 Fall River Ave, Seekonk, MA

• What a place for corals! I picked up some small live rock pieces at $6/lb and a fantastic maze brain coral. The owners had lost a lot of SPS corals in the recent blizzard, but they still had some great stuff at fantastic prices. This is definitely on my list of places to go back to!

The live rock underneath the brain came from Coral Reef Aquarium too.

Up-close view of the maze brain.

Last stop: Rhode Island Aquarium & Pet Center – 905 N Main St, Providence, RI

• And just when I said I wasn’t buying anything else – never say that before you go into a store. Bangaii cardinals. At $11.99 each. Yes, I bought 4. Best price I have ever seen for these guys. Staff was incredibly knowledgeable and very friendly. Not very many corals, but great fish prices.

Four new bangaii cardinals.

Another shot of the bangaiis.

I have recently discovered a great aquarium site called aquarist.me. You can find my tank listed here. I will be updating this site with my livestock and parameters log.

New Photos

Here are a couple of photos of my tank from today. Enjoy!

Nemo Found Me!

It’s been a couple days since Winter Storm Nemo found me in Kingston, MA. Thanks Nemo, for all the wind, the seawater crashing on my house late Friday night and all the seaweed I found in my driveway Saturday when I was shoveling all the snow you brought me. I went 89 hours without power, and honestly, if it weren’t for my reef tank, I don’t think I would have minded too much. Don’t get me wrong – it was inconvenient having to read by candlelight and using a lantern in the bathroom after 5 PM – but it wasn’t the end of the world. The tank on the other hand…

Well, the tank was at about 75 degrees Friday night at 8:40 PM when we lost power. I kept close watch on it, hoping the power would come back on soon. After about an hour, I wrapped the tank in several layers of blankets and towels to preserve as much heat as possible. I also tried to cover the window near the tank with a blanket, using some lime green duct tape to keep it in place. The tank was at about 69 degrees 8 AM Saturday morning. My goal was to keep the tank as close to, while preferably above, 70 degrees as possible. Having at least taken the time to Google what to do for your tank when the power goes out, I found every plastic container that would fit in the tank and filled them with boiling water. Yes, I boiled water on my stove-top (thank goodness for propane!) for hours. This really really helped. Changing out the water every couple hours kept my tank right at 70 degrees.

The one time I let our cat Loki sit on top of the tank… he knew he was just doing his part to keep the tank warm.

Loki: I didn't do it! Nemo: My bad...

On Sunday I remembered that I had a battery operated air pump in my aquarium supplies and got Mt. Wannahockaloogie hooked up and running. The water circulation from the air pump seemed to help disperse the new added heat faster. Thank goodness for my uncle who brought over a charged car battery and an inverter to run the pumps and the heaters in the tank. The battery lasted several hours, and I was able to provide some filtration, circulation and even a little heat. When the battery died, I went back to boiling more water. Later Sunday my uncle ran a REALLY LONG extension cord (100+ yards) from his generator to my house to power the whole tank. I ran everything except the lights until he powered down the generator while everyone was sleeping, just from 1:30am – 6:30am. The tank was cooler Monday morning, but some new boiling water in the bottled and the generator back on brought up the temperature quickly.

Monday afternoon I gave in and ran the lights too, in hopes of making the corals happy. The tank did very well all day, and I noticed the corals all seemed to open up. The snowflakes seemed a little stressed, as I found them hiding in some new places, but they bounced back in no time at all.

1 PM Tuesday the power came back on! And there was much rejoicing. I may or may not have done a little happy dance…

All-in-all I am pleased to report that my tank completely survived Nemo. I am in the process of working on some new updates this month and I will post pictures accordingly. I’m hoping to get some beautiful anthias to add some color to the tank, but first I have to nip this nasty green hair algae in the bud. I want to work on building up a better cleaner crew, perhaps another sand-sifting star might be good and I definitely need some new snails. Future plans include building a sump as well as getting a RO/DI system in place. Maybe with the sump I can even get a UV sterilizer up and running.

In other news, I had an absolutely wonderful Valentine’s Day at the New England Aquarium with Jamie. It’s not true love, if there aren’t fish involved. I drooled over all the fantastic corals and Jamie was able to ID lots of fish on his own! I planned a scavenger hunt challenge for us in which we needed to find: 10 red animals, 1 animal without a heart, and 2 animals we wouldn’t want to hug or kiss. I got some great pictures of reef fish today (see below) and picked up some new NEAq magnets for the fridge. I now have 3 clownfish magnets (yes, clownfish completely dominate my house). I even won tickets to see the new 3D IMAX film “The Last Reef”!

New post coming soon.

Seahorse - New England Aquarium

Coralle butterflyfish - New England Aquarium

Ocellaris clownfish - New England Aquarium

Mandarin dragon - New England Aquarium

Thriving Torch

Well, of all the frags that I got from the Ocean Explorium, the torch is still doing well. The others… not so well. I’m not sure what happened. I hope to get some photos of the torch up soon (after I clean the tank of course).