Monthly Update

I haven't been able to get any posts out lately, mainly due to a busy schedule. There is not much to report in terms of tank news, the tank continues to do well and thrive even though it is essentially running skimmer less and with little filtration other than live rock and a small fuge. The corals continue to grow and do well. Something major is in the making, but I can't make any promises. What I will say is either a new tank is on the way or a major overhaul is going to happen on the current one. I will talk more about this on another post due to come out later this week.

The reef podcast show Reefcast that I talked about back in January (see this post: http://henryreef55.blogspot.com/2009/01/reefcast-update-test-results.html) is back from several months of no new releases. The new show (episode 31) is now available for download! Click the latest show button on the home page to download it or go to http://reefcast.com/downloads.php. I love this show and have learned so much from it! I think it is a great entertaining and educational podcast (for more of my thoughts on reefcast check out my prior post, liked above). The latest show is 2hrs and 48minutes of reef craziness and a great show! I strongly think you should check this podcast out.

Since this is my first post in august I will re-post the July 2009 FTS to end the month.
I will have a major post disscussing the possible major overhauls and summarizing the journey, successes, failures, and faults of this tank. I will discuss the initial goals this tank was set up for and what I would like to accomplish going forward.

Big Update

The powdered sugar fish that decorated my birthday (July 18th) cake made by my sister.

Wow, this update has been long overdue! If you have been following my Twitter Updates (follow me if you have an account {my user name is henryreef} or read updates on this site or my twitter home page: http://www.twitter.com/henryreef) I have been trying to get a post out but have been delayed on numerous occasions. Here are 2 screenshots to help you out:

The Twitter Feed on my site (outlined in red)

My Twitter Homepage


The tank has been looking great the past several days! I am very happy with the way everything is growing and the general aura of the tank. The only major update is that the tang got into a fight with one of the Damsels and tore up its fin, I am giving it some extra TLC and making sure to feed it often. It should make a full and speedy recovery. Here are some various tank shots:



I performed a 27 gallon (about 50% water change) and the tank looked even better. That is all for now, but I will be releasing some big new posts coming out soon. Here are some of the topics:

• A New Domain Name
• The possible big upgrade
• Camera Upgrade
• Reef Central News
• Water Changes

Some Tank Shots....

I am once again leaving for this forth of July weekend and I am racing to get this post out and beat the traffic up! I will try to get something out later this weekend but I don't know. The BTAs and everything looks great upon departure. Here are some pictures of the BTAs and the Tank befroe I leave. I am also behind on my water quality graphs so I will get those out asap. I can hopefuly update at least once via email from a mobile phone, but that means no pictures.

More posts and updaes coming soon!

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

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.

Weekend update

I did a big 50%+ water change as it has been really overdue. My BTA was retracted I tested nitrates and they were 10+. I looked back on my logs and it has been over a month since a water change so i decided to do a big one. A day later the tank looked great. I have not had time to test parameters yet, but I will probably test later today and post them later today or (most likely) tomorrow. I have not been able to take a fts (full-tank-shot) in awhile so i did one today :). It is labeled in my logs as January FTS, but It actually is taken in feb. It is kinda blurry so enjoy:
I also decided to label the corals in my middle section. Check it out