It took seven years but I finally got my frag of Turbinaria heronensis. A friend of mine bought a colony from a wholesaler in 2007. I've watched it grow and thrive under his care. He split the colony twice over the years but never fragged it for sale, until now. He cut a few small frags this week and saved one for me. Thank you Reef Chief!
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August 17, 2014 21:57
I am pleased with where we're at right now. All the water parameters are within the ranges I set except alkalinity. I think it's a little high because of changing the salt mix. The only thing that has been a struggle are phosphates. I dosed Blue Life's PhosphateRx to get them down after last week's recorded test and now they've been undetectable for six straight days. I really like the way things are going.
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August 12, 2014 21:46
It's been more than two weeks since EcoTech made some changes to my lighting schedule and I'm beginning to see noticeable results. All the acros are coloring up nicely and the rainbow monti has green polyps in the center again. The people at EcoTech really know what they're doing.
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August 11, 2014 15:12
I switched to Instant Ocean Reef Crystals and did a 20 gallon water change this morning. I decided to start mixing my own water since I always have to adjust the salinity of water when I get it from any of the LFSs in our area.
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August 3, 2014 20:42
The neon gobies are back to their normal routine. It looks like their first attempt at being parents was not successful. Once they figure it out though I'm sure they'll lay on a regular basis. I'm really not surprised since it took our old maroon clowns several attempts before they got it right. I guess we'll see.
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August 2, 2014 20:12
I did another 15 gallon water change today and added new carbon to help remove whatever PraziPro may be left in the system. I haven't seen any evidence of flukes and the neon gobies are looking and doing great. I hope this takes care of the problem for a while. I will be setting up a quarantine tank soon to help avoid introducing them again.
I changed out the Xport-PO4 after the phosphates crept back up to 0.08 ppm. I was a little disappointed that it only lasted a few weeks. I replaced it with the same amount and the water got really cloudy. There was no clouding the first time but I think it was because I gradually added more cubes until I got the levels I wanted. Hopefully the cloudiness will go away overnight.
Our neon gobies spawned this morning! The eggs are inside one of the intact Jefferson's scallops. The male has been guarding them all day while the female goes about business as usual eating and playing with the clowns. I really love having an aquarium!
I did a 15 gallon water change today and added carbon to clean the water before doing a second dose of PraziPro to make sure there are no flukes left in the system. So far there does not appear to be any lingering effects from the first dose so I'm pretty sure a second one will be okay. I was worried about not being able to run the skimmer but the nitrates and phosphates have remained stable. The water is still a little cloudy but I'm guessing it's probably a bacteria bloom, which others have mentioned when using PraziPro. Hopefully the water will clear back up when all this is over.
I contacted EcoTech for some help with getting the proper height for a Radion with wide angle lenses and tweaking the lighting schedule. First, they had me lower the light to 12 inches above the surface. Then, they made some adjustments to my schedule by decreasing the intensity to 75 percent, adding a couple points, increasing the white, and decreasing the green and red. I am going to run it for a couple weeks to see how the corals react and call them back if needed.