60 gallon (previously 45) cube updated on 8/19/2010

[imisky]

i think if anyone ever gets any pests in there tank the first person they should talk to is Samson haha hes been through i think almost all the ones there is to get that we've seen so far. Keep up the good work!

[wisesam]

It's not fun dealing with those pests. I am battling pyramid snails now. They are such PITA. Already lost 1 clam to them and they are onto my other 2 now.
Last night I hand picked over 30 tiny little ones from one clam. Who knows how many more are there.
I am afraid I'll lose the other 2 clams. It's very discouraging.

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by wisesam

It's not fun dealing with those pests. I am battling pyramid snails now. They are such PITA. Already lost 1 clam to them and they are onto my other 2 now.
Last night I hand picked over 30 tiny little ones from one clam. Who knows how many more are there.
I am afraid I'll lose the other 2 clams. It's very discouraging.

some wrasses are known to eat these snails but i don't remember which ones...
6 line, maybe?

[wisesam]

Originally Posted by RuGlu6

some wrasses are known to eat these snails but i don't remember which ones...
6 line, maybe?

I've read that 6line does eat those snails. But I am afraid it would cause havoc to my other fish.

[wisesam]

I took a 3 week vacation back in Taiwan.
During the time, I got a friend coming by every couple days to check out the tank and feed the fish.
All went will until the 3 days before I came back. My return pump died. Probably couldn't start after a power outage.
My friend could not get the pump changed. But I figure it should be ok with my MP20 running in the display. I wasn't really worried.
The day I got back, the MP20 was also stopped because the water level of the display dropped causing the motor and powerhead out of alignment.
Not sure how long the tank has been running with any flow, but surprisingly my corals looked fine. I quickly got the MP20 working, but since the return pump is dead, I had to wait til the next day to get a new one.
The corals have grown substantially. I suppose because I didn't see them for 3 weeks, the difference really shows.
The colors of my corals actually got better because there were not vodka dosing during the 3 weeks.
Here are a few pics taken at 4/19

[wisesam]

It's been another 2 months.
So here are some updates.

I lost a couple deepwater colonies due to alkalinity problem. Also replaced some colonies with some other new ones.
Added quite a few fish to the tank because I want to improve my coral colors.

I've also started using biopellets. It's working fine, except that I am feeding a lot more as well. The algae is sucking up nutrients faster than the pellets. Got a lot of red turf algae, some hair algae on the back wall with some cyano as well.
Most of the corals are doing pretty well though. Here are some new pics:

[lastlight]

Wow you have great colors! Very busy little tank you have there. Is that thick blue one a. gemmifera?

[wisesam]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Wow you have great colors! Very busy little tank you have there. Is that thick blue one a. gemmifera?

Ya, I believe it is a.gemmifera. Someone identified it for me last time.

[lorenz0]

wow, the cube is looking amazing.

[Youngster Dan]

Great tank, you have good taste.