Myka's 90 gallon build & 3 province move (Pics Feb 6)

[Myka]

Thanks for the comments! The tank has been running here for 2 1/2 years now, and I'm finally at a point where I'm fairly happy with it! When I move it into the new tank and glue all the corals down again then I should be quite happy!

Leah, that is actually a Melanarus Wrasse! He is very blue. He was a she until about 3 weeks ago he started changing into male, and turned this lovely blue color. I will try to get a close up pic of him. His fins are almost as blue as a Mandarin's fins.

[fishoholic]

Your efforts seem to have payed off, your tank is looking good

[muck]

Glad to see the tank is looking up for you Mindy. From the FTS you would never know you were having issues recently.

[Myka]

Muck, you have no idea how close it was to crashing. It was trying real hard for about 3 days. It bounced back though, and the colors are better than they have ever been on the SPS, the LPS are taking a bit longer to perk up.

Thanks Laurie, it was stressful for a few days that's for sure. That's what I get for staring at it in annoyance instead of doing waterchanges.

Leah, he's a close up of the Melanurus:

[Leah]

Beautiful fish Mindy! Can't believe you could get such a good shot of him.

[Myka]

Soooo...I refilled my alkalinity doser yesterday around noon, and plugged it into the wall instead of the timer to refill the dosing tubes (I let i run dry...oops). I set a timer for 10 minutes so I wouldn't forget. I remember to timer going off, but apparently I didn't go unplug the doser! WTF?!!! Anyway, this morning I walk by the tank and I usually glance at the doser vessels in habit to check if one needs refilling and the alkalinity is HALF EMPTY! I left it on for 20 hours! I tested calcium at 430 ppm and alkalinity at 17 dKH. I have no idea why calcium is so high as the high alkalinity should have yanked the calcium down...maybe the high alkalinity is preventing the inhabitants from utilizing calcium and alkalinity. Anyway...I added a bunch of calcium hopefully bumping it up to 500 ppm which will help draw the alkalinity down a bit and also help to balance it a bit better. Of course I ran out of one of the liquids for the calcium kit (it didn't feel that empty rrrg!). I just did a waterchange yesterday so I didn't have new water mixed up yet, but I have it mixing now. Everyone looks happy, so I won't bother doing a waterchange unless someone shows stress. They are tough. I hope...

Some other changes in the tank...added a 200 micron filter sock to this tank. I bought a doser and some Kalk to start adding Kalk, but had a brain fart and ordered a slow doser instead of a fast doser, so that project is on hold. Kalk should help a bit while the rocks are still leeching nutrients. I bought everything to modify the sump for a Chaeto filter as well. Back to basics!

The "Melanurus Wrasse" is actually a Grey Head Wrasse! He is almost done changing into a male now...He has changed a bit since the last pic. I was looking at him a couple weeks ago thinking, "He just doesn't quite look like a Melanurus, and he's getting sooo big!" So I did some searching around and found out he is a Grey Head which I'm not familiar with! Thankfully the Grey Head is essentially the same personality as a Melanurus, but I can expect him to get another 1 1/2" on the Melanurus! The female Melanurus and female Grey Head look very similar and I guess he was mislabeled right from the wholesaler because I special ordered him. I didn't notice the difference...actually I didn't know there was a similar looking wrasse in existence! So...long story short...he has turned into one big @$$ wrasse!

[Delphinus]

Ouch, good luck with the Alk thing.

Interesting about the wrasse. Man they look pretty similar. At least the size difference is only 1.5" and not something more profound!