2014

 During 2013 the Turf Algae grew thicker and thicker. I was doing weekly water changes and it would grow back just as thick before the next one. I lost a few corals and others grew well. The original Royal Gramma died and was replaced and I added a Skunk Cleaner shrimp. On a vacation to Florida I picked up some Mangrove propagules and put them in the tank and then began to lose interest yet again in this tank.

In spring of 2014 my interest returned and I decided it was time to try some new approaches. I pulled every rock out of the tank and doused them in hydrogen peroxide and then scrubbed them as clean as I could after letting them sit and sizzle a while. Unfortunately this scrubbing required a massive water change while I was out of ESV salt and I was forced to use Reef Crystals since it is available from nearby stores. The major change took out both cleaner shrimp within two days and nearly killed my last bit of Xenia.

I also constructed an LED fixture using 10 CREE XT-E Royal Blues and 4 XP-G R5 Cool Whites on a 700mA driver. I was pretty sure the metal halide was producing an algae loving spectrum and figured LEDs should all but eliminate that problem. The next problem I saw was locked in phosphates. I hooked up a Two Little Fishies PhosBan Reactor 150 to a MaxiJet 600 and run 6 tablespoons of RowaPhos through it. I had to put a small hole in the tubing before the ball valve to relieve some of the head pressure since restricting the pump caused terrible noise. I did some nearly total water changes with ESV and do 80% weekly water changes until I see some major improvement.

                                                                             June 14, 2014
I know it doesn't look that great, but if I took pictures a month before it would look very impressive by comparison. I also moved the two Prism Favia frags from the back of the 12g to color up that had turned nearly white from a year of very little light. I also added some bright red Discosoma Mushrooms to add some color. Another change I'm making is dosing 1 mL of Reef Plus per day and feeding freshly hatched Brine Shrimp once a week.

                                                                          July 9, 2014
I put a temporary frag rack on the back for the Stunner Chalice and Prism Favia frags that I had let turn white from lack of light. They seem to be coloring back up pretty quickly. I also took a few frags of the only Zoa I have left from my Zoa collecting days, Safecrackers with lineage back to the original colony. I don't see them around anymore, especially not the original ones, so I figured I better make some frags for back ups and trades. The algae hasn't regrown and seems to be finally losing it's hold on this tank thanks to the GFO, ESV salt, RODI water, and LED lighting. Fingers crossed it keeps improving and maybe the rock will someday grow coralline algae on it.