evolved's 190g Reef: Wrasse Retreat (Updated 2/6, Pg 33)

Do you have a pic or any other info on this? My tank is in a basement and I struggle with keeping the pH above 8.0. I think excess CO2 is likely the culprit.

 

You tank is looking great. There is a CA(Cyphastrea Anonymous) meeting this week if you like to attend. Love the wrasse shots too.

 

Interesting; seems feasible.

No picture of my setup I'm afraid, but I essentially took the inspiration from a thread which came about on the club's forum here: Co2 Scrubber - Reef Central Online Community

TLF sells the media to do this (Two Little Fishies CDX Carbon Dioxide Adsorption System), but you'll find in the above thread there's much more cost effective ways to do this. There's some good info in the product description however.

;D Thank you much sir.

 

Well, as reef tanks go, I experienced some woes here for the last couple months. More about that here: http://www.3reef.com/forums/coral/coral-woes-i-need-help-looking-better-4-1-a-145685.html

However, I'm happy to report things are very much on the upswing now. Although, I still don't know what the source of my troubles was/were, but I'm very suspect of GFO and/or the filter socks. I've been running without both now for two weeks and some things which haven't grown for months are doing their thing again; photo evidence of that later.

Photos from 4/7/13.

FTS:


Right side:


Left side:


Some new additions as of late.

The new center piece; an acanthophyllia I stole in a Reef Pets eBay listing, paying about 1/4 or less of the typical retail price on something like this. Also some new chalices and the Hallucination Favia (AquaSD):


These have abundant lately, but grabbed this one locally and I really like it. Diploastrea (has crazy long sweepers at night FYI):


Malibu favia; yes, the yellow is really that bright:


Freebe blasto on my latest AquaSD order (Thank Will & Co.!); merletti's to the right were freebes on a different order:


Pink/blue acan in the background (new, local), sunset fungia in front (old):


New rainbow acan (AquaSD):


New rainbow chalice, AquaSD:


Just a couple new AquaSD fungias, and a freebe chalice. Reef Pets acans on the left:


New lobo, AquaSD:


A couple new acros, also AquaSD:


Chalice, won in the same Reef Pets auction mentioned earlier:


I've had this one a few months now, but I don't think I've shown a picture of it yet. Huge red fungia, Aqua SD:



A few up and comings I haven't shown many photos of-

Purplelicious cyphastrea:


Leptastrea, via Jason Fox:


The infamous Pink Lemonade; either via Jason Fox or Dan Rigle, not sure who's colony was the mother:


ORA Belina:



Old colonies -

ORA Scripps milli, and a pink milli it might overtake if I don't keep it trimmed back:


Right side nifty reflection shots:




The rainbow stylo is growing again:


Anyone recognize this macro? I'm clueless, and nothing has eaten it yet (hermits, urchins, or the abalone). Wondering if it might be some sort of plating sponge:



Here's one of the examples I mentioned earlier; this cyphatrea receded on the edge months ago (you can see the skeleton on the left and right) and has had poor polyp extension for a some time now. But look! Polyps and a new growth ring all around, just in 2 weeks time now:



And now some sad things, examples of the damage that was done by whatever was wrong-

The bird of paradise; note where the edge of the light cuts it down the middle. The inside is a bit pale (too much light), but it's the outside that was most affected by the "whatever". Thoughts?


Half the tips on this colony are not pleased:


Mediocre photo, but this acro looks the worst out of them all. I was going to just toss it, but it still has polyps in places and I couldn't bring myself to do it. I was planning to put one of the new acros on the rack in it's place, but that didn't happen. They went in other spots last night.


The giant purple stag will be alright, with a little time:


Here's what happened with many of the tips on it. Polyps are showing on all the branches again (they were retracted for 10-12 days):


This milli was also affected; the tips have obvious damage but then it started peeling in it's shade regions. Polyp extension is better on it from what it was, but still not great for a milli:


I should have listened to this coral more 2 months ago. It was one of the first ones to get upset, and I assumed it was just a lack of flow. Tyree Chili Pepper (monti). You can see it still has polyps (which still have most of their orange), but the tissue between them is mostly gone or very brown. It'll come back:



Rainbow monti also lots most of it's color, but is improving now:


Lastly, here's what several of my acans did to me, and this one is still doing it. Polyps retracted, slowly receding. :/ It's day-to-day with this guy now; it goes from looking better to looking worse. Not sure how it'll turn out yet.



Mr. Eightline was feeling good, and I almost got a good photo of him doing it:




One more, and one I'm thankful didn't care "something" was in the water. I've had this guy several years, and I still love it (echinata):

 

So a lot of those are much more under exposed than what they appeared yesterday; sorry about that.

In other news, I did find my skimmer impeller was pretty darn swollen on Good Friday, which explains the restart issue I was having. Replaced that last week, but I did notice a noteworthy change.

Amperage draw decreased .3-.4 amps. Note where the 30 day history steps down on April 3rd (ignore the low points; that's me shutting things off for maintenance):


I won't be sorry to see that inefficiency (and heat) go away.

 

Great shots Hunter. I am thinking you might have had the "to clean water" problem that I am experiencing. My Rainbow Monti, and Chili Pepper look identical to yours and what you described. I have upped feedings and am skimming drier than previously, in hopes to leave some of the PO4 alone. You removing the GFO and the sock(s) might have left enough of trace PO4 to make your SPS happy again. Keep up the good work!

 

That's just lovely!

 

Thanks Andy. And that's mostly my thinking (or hoping?) too. I'm sure I'll starting running GFO again in a few weeks, but it'll be half of the 3/4 of a cup I was using before. Not so sure I'll be using socks again; gut feeling on that is they were all/most of the problem. Which is a shame since I loved how clean they kept the sump and eliminated any sense of micro bubbles in the DT.


Oh, and there's a tiny frag of Space Invaders Pectinia in here now too, but I didn't get a photo I liked. Still laughing at my own self for what I paid for a piece the size of a dime. :

 

Thanks much Renee. I've been trying to see the forest through the trees here; nice to have someone point them out for you.

 

I took off my GFO months ago, but started running a filter sock again, first time on this system, this week. I am trying to slow the water turbulence before the skimmer so it stays consistent. Two of my acros have lost a bit of color...my thinking is 0.00 PO4. Time will tell.