New Lighting

I just got my order from Marine and Reef. I ordered a Current Sunpod with 2 x 150w HQI Metal Halide. It also contained 9 blue and 9 white moonlights. I can control which color (or both) I use. The main reason I wanted to upgrade is that ironically the corals that do the best in my tank are the harder to keep SPS, so I decided I wanted to keep more of it. I also really wanted to keep a clam. I knew that I would need better lighting to keep them so I looked around and decided that this was the best fixture that I could afford (I would have rather gotten the 250w version with PC & supplement, but 600-700$ light was not in the budget). It was 410$ and came with free shipping and a timer. I was very happy with it. It was a bit bulkier and heavier than my older fixture, but this was to be expected. The 14K MH have a great balance of white and blue. My Anemone has bubbled up somewhat in response to this change in lighting. I really love the blue moonlights as they cause my corals to look un real as some of them glow under this light. I just wish that they put all blue moonlights rather than 1/2 so the blue light would reach all my corals and not just a few. All in all I am very happy with this 5 star fixture :) I created a page on google doc. describing in detail the process. Click this link http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg83zfhp_52gh38zjdb

Sunday - the w/c

I did a big 21g water change today, my tank has been long over due for it. I also treated the tank with product called Rid Ich + by Kordan just incase. I found no side effects so far (after 1 day).... My skimmer pulled out a lot of weird colored skimmate, so I think it removed some of the medacine. Here is a Pic of the product, located on the left.

The week in review

A lot has happened this week, to sum it up the Tomato clown Confit came down with ich and was unable to be saved. I think Ich was also the cause of the Royal Grammas demise. I tested water and it looked great Salinity 1.026, kH 12-13, Calcium 450. I did not test for Nitrates, as the tank looked great and probably had 0. The Sun Coral and Anemone have both been doing awesome, and the Anemone has completely recovered from its fall. I also found the reason why my BTA deflates and looks like it is going to die for about 30 minutes each day. The reason is it is pooping, and getting new water for its tentacles. I watched it carefully today when it did that, and it released a bunch of nasty brown stuff, which I identified as poop. I QT the Tomato before it died, and non of my other fish are showing signs of ICH, so I think we are in the cure. I made a quick list of fish I am thinking of adding to replace the 2 that I lost:

--- Mandarin ( I have LOTS of Pods)
--- Flame Angel
---Coral Beauty
--- Foxface
----Firefish

Confit

He didn't make it through the night. I am so sad that I Have lost 2 fish to Ich. But my other fish do not show signs of it so, i think they are clean, but if they do break out i will know what to do. I also did buy some Ich medicine just in case. Well on a better note my BTA looks great and is really doing well.

Bad news

My tomato clown Confit is near death, and covered in ICH. I found him laying on the sandbed and I am crushed. He was my first fish and is the cutest little guy ever. Ich could have also been the cause of death for my Royal Gramma. I moved Confit to a make shift hospital tank. It is just an airstone, lights and heater. I lowered salinity in that tank to 1.018 ppm which will kill the Ich parasites that cover his body. I just don't know if he will survive until then..... This is a sad moment in my reefing life. It is ironic that i get the parameters right and my reef begins to mature and thrive and then my fish come down with Ich.

what a sad day sigh.......................

Water Parameters

This is my Royal Gramma - Trident she died about a week ago and is dearly missed.

I test weekly and here are my goals and my result form last saturday

Temp: 81 F (last sat. 80)

Nirtates: >5 ppm (last sat. 0)

Ca: 450 ppm ( last sat. 380 - low for me)

kH: 9-11 dKH (last sat. 10)

The Evolution

I added several fish and corals and here is a list of the inhabitants

Fish

Tomato Clown - Confit

Tomini Tang - Phoenix

Yellow Tailed Damsel - Halo (ironic isn't it)

Fish that did not make it :

-Royal Gramma - Old Age (i think)

-Yellow Headed Jawfish - Jumped out

-Bangi Cardinal - sick when I got it - eaten by brittlestar

Corals

Yellow Polyps (Parazoanthus sp.)

Sun Coral (PIC is Above) (Tubastrea sp.)

Torch Coral (Euphyllia sp.)

Montipora (Montipora Foliosa or Capricornis I can't tell)

Zonthiads (several varites all Zoanthus sp.)

Favites (favites sp.)

Ricordia & Mushrooms (Ricordia yuma & Discosoma sp.)

Birds nest (too lazy to remeber latin name)

Trumpets (ditto above)

Other Inverts

Brittle Star

Tuxedo Urchin

100's of snails and hermits

Bubble Tip Anemone

Introduction to my reef

I have had this system running since august 2007. It was originally going to be a FOWLR (fish only with live rock) but it then morphed into a mixed reef with mostly Zoo's and LPS. Here is the startup equipment list:

Tank: 55 Gallon all glass (i have weird dimmensions: 36 x 19 x 18)

Lights: 36" Current Nova Extreme HO (4 x 39 wt T5's)

Filtration/Skimming: CPR Backpack Fuge (skimmer and fuge)

Macro: Cheato & Caluerpa

Flow: 2 x Tunze nano streams, 1 x Hydor Kroilia

R.O. - 24gpd unit by coralife

Sand/Rock: 60lbs Aragonite snad & 50lbs Fiji Live Rock

Up top is what the tank looked like when it was first started up almost 1.5 years ago: