Christy's 180 build

[christyf5]

Another update as I've decided to start ultralith and today is the day. Looking at the tank, the nutrient load is just far too high, rampant algae, majanos, vermetid snails etc have got to go or at least get toned down some. My previous use of ultralith eliminated brown wafer algae and well, most algaes except for coralline and caulerpa. It also seemed to eliminate vermetid snails. I can't remember if I had aiptasia or majanos at the time but hopefully it slows their growth too.

Looking at some of the corals, they've really lost a lot of color due to the excess nutrient load. Its nothing that can't be fixed via waterchanges and due diligence with feeding but its the algae that bugs me the most, that and the majanos which I think I counted about 50 more pop up while I was gone. So much for the killing spree.

This is a crap photo but you can sort of see the corals have diminished in color some from last month:

July 30


June 11


Ugh those are terrible photos and you can't really see much of anything. My "indicator coral" which tells me how happy the tank is and how happy I am with the tank is the big pink Pocillipora damicornis on the left hand side. Here is a closer shot:



Its spent most of its life being the funny shade of browny pink it is today and I've spent most of its life trying to make it the lovely pink it was on June 11th. I'm determined to get it back there.

Some comparison photos of coral coloration:

June 11th


July 30



June 11


July 30


And just some shots of various pests I want gone from the tank for later comparison:

Wafer algae:


Halimeda:


Majanos: