Back from vacation

I had a nice Memorial Day and spent it at the lake. I came back and found the big BTA had moved and I will see where it decides to settle down tomorrow. I did a 5 gallon ( a little under 10%) water change before I left. The params were excellent before I left also (2 days ago)
Calcium: 420
Alkalinity (kH) : 8.5
Salinity: 1.025
I will test and maybe take a picture or two manana, as for now Henryreef blog wishes you a happy Memorial Day.

Weekend update

I was quite busy this week and didn't have time to take any pictures, but I did test water. The results were:
Calcium: 410
kH: 8.5
Nitrate: 0
Salinity: 1.025

I am very pleased with these results. I also went to Pressue (LFS) and got some kalk, a new refugium bulb, and a new test kit. Sadly I got the 18wt and not the 24wt that I wanted, so I need to make another trip and I might pick up some livestock when I go. Overall it has been a succesful week and my tanks is thriving. I think I will take some growth shots to show the growth on my latest frags.

BTA Split Update and More!

First off I want to recap the BTA split. My large BTA split a month ago due to my ato [automatic top off] failing. It split into 3 different anemones. One took residence in the very back of my tank hidden by tons of rocks. I can't get a good look at it but you can see it (sort of) in this picture
This is the only one I don't really know how its doing. Another took up the spot where the orignal used to be.The final one (the largest) crawled all the way under the rocks and took up recidency near the frogspawn.Zoom-out:I think I may sell or trade the smaller splits off, but I will let them get bigger for now.

The Latest FTS:

I tested water yesterday and here are my results:
Nitrate: 0
Salinity: 1.025
Calcium: a little under 400
kH: 6 (???? I think I am going to get a new test kit as this one is old and that doesn't seem right)

I may go to the LFS today, in which case I will post what I get. I also have lots of big news that will be releasing soon. I am updating the Henryreef News Flash to inform you.


That's all for now! Happy reefing

Update

It has been another busy week, so I could not get another post out. The tank has been doing well, the BTA splits have been looking very good, but I still haven't been able to get any pictures :( I ordered some salt last week and it came yesterday. I got Kent Marine salt which was the cheapest (makes 200g @ $55 shipped). Here are some pictures of its arrival.
I did a large 30 gallon water change yesterday and I think there was something wrong with that water. It was either deficient in calcium or alk, because when I tested the Tank water it was
Calcium: 375
kH: 7
Nitrate: 0
This morning some of the corals looked a little off, I think everything should recover though.

Some posts coming soon:

1. Update (with pics) :)
2. My camera upgrade
3. Big news
4. How to mix saltwater
   

Subscribe to the Henryreef blog

I have recently been using live bookmarks as a way to be notified when a blog or site is updated. It gives you both a bookmark and lists the posts on the site (great for figuring out if there is anything new on a site). Here is a sample
I have created a convenient tutorial for the viewers who are not technology savvy. Remember you must have firefox to use the live bookmarks feature.
Go to the subscribe box:
Click what you want to subscribe to (I recommend posts [in green])Once you have clicked on it a little box appears that looks like this: Click "atom"
or you can chose how you want to subscribe.... I only use the "add to google" which puts it on your igoogle [you don't need firefox for that]. Or the atom, which is what you need to click to get the live feed book mark.

It takes you to a field that asks if you/how you want to subscribe, select Live Bookmarks and click subscribea new window will come up which asks you to name and place bookmark. You can name and place it wherever and hit 'ok' when you are done.

Finaly the New Equipment Upgrade :)

I recently have been working on compiling the materials for a sump. It has been slow going because I have been busy and the stuff is expensive. I decided the first step was to find an acceptable in sump skimmer to replace the crummy cpr backpack. I decided to get a Turboflotor T1000 Skimmer (click here for more info) and upgraded it with an Ocean runner 2700. The initial skimmer with smaller pump is rated to 250 gallons, but I don't know what it is rated for with the better ocean runner pump. I got it very slightly used from someone who upgraded tanks. Here are some pictures of it
Arrival: Assembly
Look at that collection cup!!Finally it is assembled. Full shot (look how big it is 22" tall)Close up
Once I got it assembled I put it on a bucket in my salt mixing container. It produced so much foam!!! So far so good, I will update more on it later. I can't put it on the tank until l I get moving on this sump. One more reason I guess
Skimmer (filling up) on sumpNow for some general news:
agenda:
- general update tomorrow (includes breaking anemone news [yes more crazy stuff has happened])
- How I mix salt post coming in a couple days too.
- skimmer and sump news coming soon too.

I have finally found the cause of the chaos in my reef: The skimmer overflowed and caused a large salinity increase which screwed up my ATO (automatic top-off). The salinity increase caused a calcium and alk precipitation. I tested today and my results were not good.

Salinity: 1.025 (I got it back to normal)
Nitrate: 0
Calcium: 325 (was 450 when I left)
Alkalinity: 4.5 (was 9 when I left)

When I got home here is what the tank looked like (I topped off though) (New anemones circled in red, but are hard to see as they moved into a cave.)
These results prove my theory correct. Surprisingly enough almost all the corals looked fine, maybe even good. I think the BTA split because of these changes, this is relatively common reason for a split. It has a better chance of surviving if it splits. It is currently recovering in a cave, which I hope it will emerge out of soon. I have significantly adjusted my dosing plan to raise the levels. I am both sad and happy over the split, but I am exited to see how it will turn out.
I have lots more news and some stuff that should be arriving this week that I will post about so stay tuned.
Here are some tank Pictures
Birdsnest:

M. spoggodas (need a spelling lesson in latin, not sure if I spelled it right).
A cool pic with my cool logo