post overhaul
 

Well, due to the tank going down hill I had to overhaul it before it was too late.

I was experiencing extreme hair algae and detritus, probably do to the overwhelming bio load the tank was under. and my corals were starting to die. I had a regal tang, bi-color angel, gold striped maroon clown, YWG with pistol shrimp, 4 green chromis, a dragon goby, a red cheek anthias and recently a lawnmower blennie. For cleaners I only had like 6 hermits, 3 snails and a cleaner shrimp. that was most likely because of my bully pistol shrimp.

So this past week I tore it down, took out all of the corals, LR and fish. Scrubbed the live rock of all hair algae and took a few fish to the LFS. The only fish I kept were the tang, angel, clown, YWG and the lawn mower blennie. In trade for the fish the LFS gave me a whole lot of hermits and snails. Now with no pistol shrimp preying on my cleaners, I imagine that they'll stick around for a while longer than before. I think by the end of the overhaul I had changed out about 50% of the water.

So some of my SPS are a bit faded because of the ordeal, but I think they will bounce back. My LPS on the other hand will take a bit longer.

Before: You can see hair algae, and the water looks green.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...t/IMGP1843.jpg

After: The rock scaping leaves a bit more to be desired than before IMO, but its only for a few months until I get the 110 set up.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...l/IMGP1976.jpg

The tank looks great! I hope scrubbing off the GHA works for you!

How the heck do you get your caps to plate like that? Mine form "cups" and then whorl out from there but they don't plate very flat :confused: Is it a flow thing?

Oh and the tank looks great by the way. Makes me want to do an "all cap" tank :biggrin:

The caps are gorgeous!!! I hope mine does that.......looks good!

That tank is stunning. I relay like the Monti cap(green) on the top right hand corner so eye popping.

reply
 

Thanks everyone, I hope the GHA stays away too.

As for the caps; they have all been fragged and broken and abused, thats why they looks the way they do. Every fracture will form a new "pedal" so to speak. It will also help to have them grow up the side of rocks or even the tank wall.

I have always tried to keep them up high and in high flow for maximum color.

update
 

I've been reding that PO4- can restrict calcium uptake in corals. So I went out and bought some phosban media, and put it into a bag in the sump. we'll see if it also helps indirectly with keeping my water cleaner, as well as my growth.

GHA has come back a bit, but my new lawnmower blennie seems to be keeping it trimmed back. Oh ya, I've also upgraded my skimmer from my old SS-125 to an ASM-G3. What a difference that made alone!