After carefully acclimating the corals and mounting them onto rocks, they are now sitting at the bottom of the tank. I will keep them there for about three days, then move them into areas with more intense lighting. They have been cultivated under 400w MH's, so they are used to being blasted with intense light.
Here is a good close up of one of the corals about ten minutes after I put it in the water:
Here is the same coral 24 hours later:
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I sent that hammer colony to live with a friend of mine before I set up this tank. There were actually two separate pieces but I let him have the other half for doing such a good job. It has about 12-14 heads on it. It really is one of my favorite corals.
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I borrowed the camera from work and took a few shots. I really need to get my own camera so I can learn how to use it. Obviously the colors are very different in person, but things are going well. I really need to get off my lazy streak and test the water more often. I think a calcium reactor may be in my future.
A few days after putting that hammer coral back into my tank, my clown fish found a new home.
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I moved the two streams that are inboard of the overflows to the corners of the tank. This not only makes the tank look bigger, but really removes an eyesore of huge pumps in the middle of the tank.
Tank is and will always be bare bottom. Before I do water changes, I put a filter sock on the drains, turn the PH's on full blast, use one of the big ones to blow out the detritus from the back of the tank, and let things run for an hour or so. This removes a lot of crud and allows me to siphon the junk that builds into piles.
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I recently purchased a new camera and now realize I need a tripod in order to take any worthwhile pictures. As I stated above, I moved the two inboard pumps out of the way and it looks a lot nicer.
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I've got some pics coming up in the next few days (I did call this the worst thread you know!!) Today, I started on the oh-so-fun process of removing coralline algae from the glass. This is easy to to when it's towards the top, but the stuff at the bottom is a bit different. In order for me to reach the bottom of the tank, my ear and my armpit must be in the water. I wish I still had my mask and snorkel; they would be REALLY handy right now!!
I'm at the point now where water changes alone are not enough to maintain some of the parameters. I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, I just never figured that later would eventually come around. The coralline algae is really sucking up the Ca and such; there are only a few SPS frags and a clam at the moment. I grabbed some Aquacal and Buffer +dKH Generator from Aquacraft and have been adding them every day. As of right now, two teaspoons of buffer and 1 capful of Aquacal are needed every morning to keep things stable. I can definitely see a Ca reactor in my future. Since I have the regulator and 20lb bottle of CO2 on hand, it won't set me back all that much; GEO all the way!!!
I could add lime to the topoff water, but I do not care for this approach. Should something happen and the ATO fail in the on position, things can go sour really quickly. I've had that happen on another tank and won't go down that road again. Not to mention, I do not have to clean the ATO container every so often; adding lime to the water changes this. Finally, it seems that pumps need to be cleaned more often when using limewater for topoffs. I am getting away with cleaning everything about every 5 months. There is no calcium deposits on anything, just a slime coating. I could probably go longer, but I like to keep the equipment in peak operating condition.
So, there you have it. Another update with no pictures!!
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Adding Kalk is definitely a PITA. I do use it now for all top off water and now that It's been 6 months or so I don't add anything at all. No calcium or alk supplements. I was worried about the mg but WC's seem to take care of this.
I took a Dummy depot bucket and put a spout in the near bottom to remove most of the clear liquid and shoot the rest. I also clean the 5 gallon ATO tank once a week ( OK,OK 2 weeks ) with a scrubbie sponge. Being paranoid I use two float switches that I like to stare at quite a bit checking for any dirt or other debris that might cause them to fail.
I definitely hate mixing it though in the powder form. No matter what it gets up into the air. I wonder if a guy could make a paste that would remain effective and dose this.
If you ever come home and find your Tunze missing you will need to make a trip to WI to get them back.
BTW the other day you mentioned switching to BS from ME. You'll be adding a lot more Aquacal with BS. I always found Ca levels around 400.
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