The New Additions

Well at the MMC conference I picked up much more than just a few dry goods. I went coral shopping :). I purchased my corals from Paul's Corals, he had a nice display and all his corals looked outstanding and were moderately priced. Best of all he brought so many, he had crates and crates of corals waiting to be sold.
Here is what I brought home:

1. Green Slimer (Acropora yongei)
2. Blue Tort (Acropora Tortuosa)
3. An unknown montipora ( I think Montipora Sponodes)
4. Green/Brown Zoas (Zoanthus sp.)
5. Brown/Red Zoas (Zoanthus sp.)
6. Green Milli (Acropora millepora)

I floated the bags in my tank to temperature acclimate them and then got to work and placed them in my tank.


Now for the Pictures!!!
The Green Slimer - Already looks great in my tank (pic 1 day after adding)
Blue Tort - A slower growing coral that is more dificult. (pic 1 day after adding)Unknown Montipora, I am calling this one 'the blob' is green but covered in brown polyps, seems to plate but branch too. (pic 1 day after adding)
Greenish/brown Zoas -- Just another pleasing variety for my tank! I have remounted the plug as of this picture (pic 1 day after adding)

Brown/Orange/Red Zoas -- Like the other variety I picked up, interesting and this specimen really pops under my actinics
Green Milli -- A hairy cool looking yet beautiful coralI am very happy with all my new additions to my 55g mixed reef. I personaly love the Slimer and the Milli. I lately have been noticing good polyp extension, especially at night by my Blue tort. I think it is trying to feed but I am not sure. As for the 'blob' I am still trying to get a scientific name but I am thinking it is Montipora Sponodes, If anyone knows for sure just comment on this post, Email me @ henryhockey101@gmail.com or PM me (for RC) my member name is Henryreef.

Tank Update

A general tank update has been long overdue. Overall the tank has been doing great, but there are several areas in which i need to either improve or eliminate.

1. The Skimmer is really making tons of micro bubbles so I only run it at night. This problem will be fixed once I install my sump and upgrade skimmers (hopefully very soon) more on this next weekend
2. I really need to add some more LR I talked about this earlier. I need more LR mostly for coral growing space.
3. The sand is littered with shells and general rock derbies. It does not look very white either. I think once I add the Live rock I will dump a nice big bag of crushed aragonite (sand) in and pick out all those rocks so I get a better look. Until then this is relatively minor.

On the plus side of things my water parameters have been looking nice, to the point that I don't test weekly anymore. I think I will test today, and post result later today or tomorrow. I am also doing a water change today, probably a large one. Also the BTA anemone and most of my corals have been looking great. I think I will create a page that details "A day with my BTA" where I will take a picture of it every hour or two for one day, so you can see how it looks at different times of the day.

Next week I won't been in town as I am going to Washington DC !!!!! I will have my Dad manage the tank. Hopefully he won't kill everything! Also many updates will come out this week. You can read about them in detail if you scroll down to the end of the last post. I also have been subscribed to Google Anaylitics which is a really cool program that analyzes the usage of your site. I would highly recommend it, and I will post more about this sites usage when the numbers come in.

This site also has been changed slightly and I added a hit counter at the bottom of the page. I changed the logo slightly and more changes are coming. I really need to get around to setting up my own domain and creating my own website.

Finally here are some shots from my tank:
The BTA tentacles :)
Now for a quick M. Setosa update: It has been doing awesome and has really colored up.

Now for a quick teaser: Find out whats in the bag (this is the livestock i brought home from the MMC) later this week!!
I will probably update this blog with my test results later today or tomorrow, but until then see the last post for schedule.

RC Announcement

I finally have gotten around to posting this:
THE RC Announcement

I have been a member of Reef Central fora while now and highly recommend it! It is a great informative and interactive site. You can learn alot by talking to the members there. Recently Reef Central (RC) announced some big things that are coming. The announcement is located on the all the forums on RC
screen shot of SPS forum with the announcement circled:I highly suggest you go there and check it out Here is the link.
The announcement details some awesome new features:
Now for a little news from my tank:

1. The sump project is comming along nicely, but I am wavering over what I should do about a wooden structural bit that block me from putting in a large sump (>15g). I will have more on this later
   
2. The skimmer has been making micro bubbles so I only run it at night now.
3. The new additions look AWESOME, I will have more on them this weekend

The tentative post schedule:

• Saturday - update about my tank and trip
• Monday - my NEW additions
• Thursday (next one) - My new dosing scheme
• Saturday/Sunday - my sump add on and why it is a problem and difficult.
  

Long overdue: MMC and New Additions!

Wow this has really been long overdue, but the MMC (mid-west marine conference) was a BLAST! It was really great and I learned a lot. To sum it up the day began at about 6:30 as we began the drive out to Cranbrook science center where it was held. I then proceeded to check out the vending hall. There were lots of vendors and lots of live stock! Steven Pro of Icecap marine was there and had a nice ice cap both set up. I went to all the talk which included MOFIB, Sumps/acrylic, breeding, aquascaping and more. It was really great. I entered the raffle and got some nice livestock (see later). It was a total success and a great event. Here are some general pictures from the event.

Now for the goodies I picked up! (not livestock):

Some of my favorite stickers:

And of course (crappy pic) a Melev's Reef Sticker!I also picked up an aqua lifter powerhead to set up a better kalk dosing system (I will post it later)
I also got my own name tag!
Coming soon:

• Livestock I picked up at the MMC and general tank pics
• Setting up a kalk doser under your tank with an aqua lifter dosing pump
• Reef Central special announcement (see the top of all forums, NOTE: this is not me posting or desinging it)
• My Sump Project (still happening as I need more $$$ :0)
  

CPR MOD

I recently modded a CPR Aqua Fuge skimmer. I connected two large air pumps with a gang valve to get max psi on a single outlet.
This air would be forced through a long tube of airline tubing that would power an airstone in the main skimmer chamber. This increased foam production would help maximize the power of the CPR fuge skimmer. Here is a quick model of what i needed to drill.
The black lines are where I will make a hole with my drill
The Red where I will run the airline tubing from pumps to the airstone through.
The Green is the foam.
I did this relatively easily and it took all of 10 minutes. Here is how it looked when it was done: (NOTE: my collection cup is dirty and the tubing is highlighted in red.)
It worked great, but needed some time to break in and get it right. Here is the foam production right after I turned it on:

----Henry Aspegren (henryreef)
----SET TO AUTO PUBLISH @ MONDAY 9:45 AM

Lots of news

Last weekend I was very busy so I was not able to post all of what happened on Sunday. First off I did a CPR back pack/fuge mod which I will post sometime later this weekend. Secondly I did a large water change for trace elements. Tomorrow i am going to the Midwest Marine Conference at the Cranbrook institute of Science. There are several speakers and numerous vendors, of them Marc Levenson (aka Melev) is speaking. There is a raffle and it will be an overall fun time :) I will post more about it later tomorrow or Sunday.

Click Here for Thread on RC about the MMC
More Info (club's site) Here

This is a big weekend and this blog will be updated alot in the comming days.

New Ideas

Over the past couple days I have decided I want to add about 50 or so pounds of live rock as this will both increase my ability to handle nitrates and provide more surface area for corals to grow on. I will keep the rock in a holding tank (aka a big brute trashcan with heater and powerhead) and add a piece a week so as not to overload my system. I have not purchased any rock or set this up so more updates are on the way.

The sump and culture projects are still moving along, but at a slow pace as I don't have the capital to complete them (feel free to donate ;) ). I am mostly in the planning stage still, but I have made good progress on the phyto setup.

I also have reached a very balanced Ca -- alk ratio. I don't really buffer at all, except the Kalk i top off with. I have not tested water in a while and don't intend to as everything looks great and i am confident my alk and ca are where they need to be.

The M. Setosa has grown noticably and colored up. It has taken on a orange color and you can see the polyps. It is amazing how much it has grown in only a few weeks. Here is a photo (very blurry as it is still too small for my crumy digital camera to get.The left side of the tank is still very barren and does not have many rocks (note: this is one of the reasons i want to add live rock) here is a Pic of the left side. NOTE: m. setosa
Here are some general shots of the tank:

Back from Vacation

I got back yesterday and was very happy to see my tank was in prime condition :) ... I decided not to do my water tests as it was looking very nice. I have wanted to get a clam for awhile and think my tank would suit one nicely. Here are some various photos of Clams.

Photo credit: melevsreef -- maxima

Photo Credit: Saltwater fish.com -- Squamosa

Derasa