Salinity levels are unstable.

I'm not sure why but the Salinity levels of the tank keep rising way above what they should be. Today, the salinity was at 1.035; well above what it should be. No idea what it is doing this. I may stop the Nano daily micro dosing for a few days, maybe it is causing the influx. Wouldn't know why though as I've been using using for for over a year now. Very strange indeed.

Hopefully things settle out soon or I may lose the entire tank :(

Tank isn't doing too hot...

The tank isn't doing too well. The algae bloom is still going strong and the Corals have been closed all week. Performing the water change today I checked the salinity of the tank water as always and discovered it was sitting at 1.030. Not good. I also haven't seen the Pom Pom crab for awhile and trying to coax her out with food didn't bring her out. She may have expired during the salinity spike :(

Also, the circulation pump kind of just stop circulating water. I was thinking this could have been an issue for a little while now but just though I was just overthinking things. I bought a new one when I replaced the Purigen filter and noticed that the old one was indeed not circulating water properly. This also probably attributed to the algae bloom as well as the last SPS to die. Dammit.

I'll be performing some water tests today to see how things are looking before the weekend hits.

Hoping things begin to turn around soon.

Tank is upset

I'm not quite sure what is going on but the tank has been upset for a little over a week now. The corals don't open all the way and one of them pretty much went half white/dead overnight :( I think dosing the Carbonate Hardness buffer a couple weeks ago is what did it; I think my tank likes a slightly lower CH. Couple of water changes since then haven't really rectified the situation. Hopefully things get back to normal soon.

:(

Also, a slight worry of a Federal Furlough coming up in December which would prevent me from entering the building as long as the furlough is in place. That could bet a month+ which would not be good.

But here's to a good outcome!

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Pom Pom Crab is getting big!

I may have overfed the tank a bit on Friday; the corals have pretty much been shut all day and a lot of algae seems to have sprung up over night. Whoops.

But on a happier note: the Pom Pom Crab has gotten big and her Anemone's are big and healthy as well. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the camera to focus very well so this is the best photo I could get of her.

Pom Pom Crab is big and healthy

Until next time,

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

10/27/2016 Update

The AlgaeFix has really done a number on the Algae in the system. The tank has definitely started to clear up. I did a full water parameter test last Friday and things are looking well. The Carbonate Hardness was a little low but was still in an acceptable range. As always, Magnesium is being used up so I dosed a little Friday and Monday.

I'm really impressed with the Plate Coral lately. It's fully open and beautiful. It's tentacles have gotten longer and I love watching them sway in the current. Unfortunately, my phone camera isn't the greatest so these photos are the best I could provide.

Plate Coral fully open

Another shot showing the tentacle extension

And with that, I think this will be it for today's post. I'll definitely be holding myself to posting frequent updates on the tank. I'll be doing a post, at most, every 10 days.

Until next time,

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Current day post

Hey all! So I'm gonna try and get back on track with frequent updates. Maybe daily or weekly updates but I don't want to promise anything quite yet :P

As you can see from the below photo, the Green Hammer Coral has grown even more since last time. Both it's heads have fully split and there are now 4 full grown heads. Today, I discovered each stalk has 2 additional buds coming off of the stock. It's hard to see in this photo but click here and I've circled them. This is quite exciting!

Hammer coral has 4 new buds!

This photo is right after I finished target feeding the coral so they are a bit closed up but you can see that each of the heads have finished splitting. You can also see a bit of the algae issue I've been dealing with the past few months. It's not nearly as bad as it used to be but still a little ways to go.

Candy Cane Coral heads have completed splitting

This one came as quite a surprise to me today. I never noticed any significant grown or changes from this Blasto. I can see it's grown a little bit when looking at older photos but nothing really stuck out. However, today after feeding I noticed a new bud coming off of the coral! I'm glad to see that the Blasto's are also growing and reproducing as well.You can also see a big of the algae problem in this photo as well.

Blasto has a new bud!

I'll have to get a whole tank photo soon so I can have a photo comparison because the tank is officially 1 year old as of a couple weeks ago!

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Extremely long overdue post.

Wow, my last post was from 5 months ago. That is not ok...

A lot has happened in that time and I was able to grab a couple pictures so I'll try to summarize as best as I can to get us all up to current time.

I had thought the Pom Pom Crab had perished but she suddenly appeared a couple weeks ago when I was feeding the tank. This was great news.

The Peppermint Shrimp had passed sometime I went on vacation a few months ago. I may have to get another here soon as the Aiptasia has slowed started to come back.

The Spiny Star Astrea has also passed :( I'm not sure what caused the passing of the snail as the others are all doing just fine. However, I did not catch it's passing for awhile which caused a large algae bloom. I ended up getting some Algaefix and have been dosing as directed for 2 weeks now and it is clearing up the system slowly. I'll be getting another Spiny Star Astrea at some point to help combat the algae issue; he was a lawn mower when it came to that stuff. I'll also be checking the water parameters this week to be sure the algae isn't making the water tests give off false readings.

Anyway, without further ado, here are some of the missed photos from the past.

05/25/16: Blastos with thier tentacles extended

5/26/16 Candy Cane Coral feeding and tentacles extended

5/26/16 War Favia with tentacles extended

5/27/2016 Green Hammer is growing quickly!

7/19/16 Candy Cane Coral heads are beginning to split!

~ Keep on Swimming! ~