State of the Tank: (cont.)
April 2006: (cont.)

It may take a day or two but I really do try to answer all of you (provided I actually have an answer) but I appreciate your just stopping by to say 'hi' too. Just thought this needed to be said.

Okay, so let's get to the month's happenings. And because we were just talking about it, I'll start with the equipment. Now, to show you how relatively uneventful things were this month, the biggest news here was that we dialed down the 'back' set of Tunzes to 60% so the carom off the front glass wouldn't be so hard on the Frogspawns and Palyothoas. Pretty darned exciting, right? In my opinion, this hasn't really made much of a difference (if you notice in the tank shot, the Frogspawns in particular still look pretty tight) although maybe it's too early to tell. I don't want to dial the Streams down much more for fear of losing any benefit to the 'SPS' and there seems to be a good deal of benefit to the 'SPS'. So I'm hoping the 'LPS' and polyps can somehow get used to the added flow, as it won't be going away any time soon.

The Korallin Sulfur-Based Biodenitrator still seems to be working well but it sure looks like hell inside the canister...lots of grunge, etc. I can't seem to find to find any information regarding the cleaning of the unit or even if it's supposed to be cleaned at all. I think we're just going to go for it though, well away from the house of course, since I can just imagine what it must smell like in there.


Besides, it looks like quite a bit of the aragonite has dissolved so that has to be recharged anyway. Can't see how any of this could hurt anything but if it does, you'll be among the first to know...and probably to smell it.

Everything else seems to be running fairly well. My ORP is hovering around the 400mV mark pretty consistently now. Quite the pain to keep those probes calibrated though. And I'm seriously considering converting my kalk doser from the dose-once-every-24-hours type to the constant drip dose type. Seems like it makes more sense with regards to stability. I don't expect this to become a monumental task like a few of my other exploits (just a readjustment of my Litermeter, really) so maybe I'll have some word for you in an update or two.

Let's move on to Fish:

First of all, the Bimaculatus Anthias are finally in the reef tank: Five females and one male . This shoal was assembled from individuals obtained from both my LFS's and Foster & Smith's Live Aquaria and they range in size from about 2-3 inches. Here is a shot of some of them together in my refugium before the move .

Why Bimacs? Well, first of all, I had wanted another species of Anthias to go with my Bartletts and Olives for quite some time.

Smart jump back 1
©2006 Michael G. Moye