The LAST big upgrade

[michika]

Thank you!

This mornings view from the couch.



Had to bump the auto feeder up again last week. It keeps the peace and let's me realize my dream of colourful swimming sausages.

I need to add some more sand to my display soon. I'll start with 2 or 3 more bags but I think I'll need 4 when all is said and done.

I think I'm going to bite the bullet on a new calcium reactor too. This manual dosing stuff is a huge PITA as my tank goes through stocking surges and growth spurts. Frankly I'm tired of constantly recalculating my dosing and fiddling with this or that. I'll still dose to fine tune parameters but I need a reactor to set a higher baseline so I don't have to waste so much time and find ways to add more liquids then is needed. I need more stability in my tank's life.

[kien]

that's an impressive panorama..

colourful swimming sausages !!

[michika]

Thar, she blows.



So much cyano, still. Oh well it's probably only about a quarter of what it was in late July.

I bought the materials to enclose the canopy yesterday to get that done. I've settled on LEDs and T5s as my lighting system so I can finally build. I hope it will also afford some cost savings now that the heat from the tank will be fully contained in the fish room.



My little emperor is so big now!





I want to put black backing on my tank I think. Now I just need to find some.

[The Grizz]

Doesn't cyano suck to deal with in large tanks!!

For the back I used black limo tint from Canadian Tire on the 300 and it worked great.

[michika]

I have nothing to say on the subject of cyano that will not earn me an insta ban at this point in time. I practice a lot of deep slow breathing when it comes to my tank lately.

My clam really seems to be enjoying the PAR38 bulb I keep over my refugium. It's shunned the MH I had specifically set up for it so much so that I shut it down.



I'll have to make a trip to Canadian Tire and see what's around. Thanks for the tip.





I think I need a second autofeeder, one for each end of the tank. My fish who prefer the side opposing the feeder aren't getting their fair share and when people come to hand feed all you get is a swarm, see above.

Guess the good news is that I can probably offset it's cost with the sale of al the MH equipment I have. Ooh I'm practically salivating at all the extra space I'll have in the fishroom.

And for the record a fish room is the greatest thing I've ever done. Everything is in one room, it stays in one room, and, my favourite, it stays organized and findable.

[michika]

And the power is out. Been out since just after 5am today. No leaks, no messes and I think everything is accounting for. Now to just wait it out.

[mseepman]

One of my favorite tanks to distract me during my work day. Cyano is tough though...I recently had a bout that i'm still fighting off. Hope the power is back soon for you. My whole home generator was the best insurance i've ever bought. It was cheap in comparison to what I spent on tank build.

[michika]

The generator came out but never got turned on. My 1st backup system, battery power heads for oxygenation, worked well, and my second back up, the generator, wasn't really needed. After ~9 hours with no power the tank only dropped 2 degrees. I "covered" the top to keep the heat in for about 4 of those hours.

Everything seems to be business as usual in the tank.

I do need to upgrade my generator though as it's only sized to run the tank; pumps and heaters particularly. Some lights now too since I'm mostly LED now as well. The next step up would be a whole home system.

[mseepman]

Take a look at KMS tools for the Whole home system. They have a store in Calgary and they were the cheapest price I ever found.

[michika]

Ugh. I am so tired of cyano. I just got rid of it early this year, only for it to return late July after a vacation away. It is getting better; I clean the glass less often, I blow off the corals and rocks less frequently. But, I am still tired of its maroon colour and how hard it is to tell apart from some types of coraline.

Today I scraped the glass, I miss when I only did this every 10 days rather than every 3. I blew everything off today with my good old trusty turkey baster too; stringy pieces of cyano everywhere. There was a break for drinks and a pep talk on why I don't quite need to bust out the Red Slime remover yet. The kalkwasser reactor got refilled, and the parameters tested. Now its back to the old reefkeeping standards; time and patience. I just want to stock my tank with SPS.