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 State of the Tank: (cont.) |
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| This is something I should have done some time ago,
by the way, but vanity prevented it. I've always liked
the relative clean overall look of my tank; unencumbered by various powerheads, wires, hoses,
and other man-made objects poking onto the reef face screaming "This isn't really the ocean, you know. It's a completely artificial life support system, sustained wholly by all the smoke and mirrors you're forced to look at right here". Up until now, I just couldn't get past this. But again, when suddenly faced with the alternative of sick and dying corals, I think it's time I
got over it...at least, a little bit. People who have
them on smaller tanks than mine tell me that it
doesn't take long for them to become 'invisible'.
Indeed, proof of this came while I was recently
visiting Tong's Tropical Fish in Fountain Valley, CA
and after spending several minutes ogling one of their
display tanks full of beautiful (and mostly not for
sale) "SPS" and "LPS" specimens, I was asked to
quickly turn my back and describe the tank's water
movement system. I could not. And when I turned
to look again: Tunzes. So don't be surprised if, by
next month, my tank has a little different look to it.
Hopefully, some of you won't be able to put your
finger on it right away other than to say, "Well, for
one, his corals look a lot better this month".
3. Upon the advice of a few who know a heluva lot
more about this than I do, I am taking my Phosban
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reactor offline and trying a Korallin Sulphur Bead
Biodenitrator. These devices are rarely used (or even known about) in this country but supposedly very
effective in keeping nitrates extremely low to
nonexistent when other methods have failed. As I am
still learning myself and I am still a ways from
hooking it up, I'll save methodology and
explanations until a future update but the device
looks like a calcium reactor filled with little yellow
(sulfur) balls.
4. I'm gonna drag my sump pump/Python contraption back out and blow behind and between the rocks once a week like I used to.
5. I have already repopulated the tank's 'clean up crew' with the addition of 100 new Golden Astrea snails and 300 new Cerith snails from Reeftopia.com. These two species are the only ones I bother with anymore as they do a good job, don't go at each other, and they don't die without a sandbed.
6. I am continuing to work with Marc Levenson (RC's Melev) on his 'Bubble Tower' (see last month's update) in hopes of eliminating the use of my micron socks altogether. It appears that this may take a little longer than I'd hoped due to the logistics of the sump, the fact that I'm not there to provide Marc the information stream he requires right now and finally, once the tower is provided, I'm going to need to cure a lot of rock rubble before I can use it properly. |
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