Carbon Dosing

Back to work today... I decided to conservatively begin carbon dosing, using distilled white vinegar as the organic carbon source, to reduce phosphates and improve the health of the sps corals.

The dose I started with is 0.8ml/25gal. x 18gal. = 0.6ml per day. I'm adding it at the same time as the usual alkalinity supplement to hopefully reduce pH swings.

Zoanthids

Here are some photos of our zoanthids.  All of them are from Florida.  Except for the yellow "paly's" that I collected last week, these were purchased from sealifeinc.net. 

Happy Fathers Day!

Spring Cleaning

I finally got tired of looking at the hair algae growing up from the bottom of the birdsnest coral at the top of the tank... so I pulled it off and cleaned it as best I could.  It is now resting on the sand bed, and hopefully the algae will rest in peace!

Of course, I had to replace it with something!  I picked up a good size gold and green Acropora frag from Chris' store, and while I was there noticed a great deal on a red, tabling Acropora frag, so...

Here they are photoadapting on the bottom of the aquarium.  Decent photos from Ryan of the corals in their final position coming soon!

The hermit crab seems very interested!

New Coral Update

Last weekend I picked up this branching torch coral (Euphyllia glabrescens) from Einstein Aquatics.  I attached it to a piece of coral rubble, and it seems pretty happy in the back of the tank.  (I'm sure that Ryan will be glad to know that I am putting the random rocks I drag home from vacation to good use!)

Hopefully Big Girl will decide to hang out here, instead of the pump outlet she is currently using as her home...

Finally, a good photo!

Ryan has been taking a photography class, and last week turned her skills on the aquarium.  She was a more talented photographer to begin with, and pretty soon it will be ridiculous.  She took this without a flash or anything.  Anyway, I was lucky enough to get a copy of this shot of the two Montipora capricornis corals.  Enjoy!

For comparison, here is an older photo from August 2009.  You can see they have grown pretty well since then.  I even broke a decent piece off of the orange colony since then!

I did a little tank maintenance last night, such as cleaning the circulation pumps and pulling out some of the hair algae (bryopsis) so here are some new (and hopefully improved) photos.  I also started dosing amino acids for the corals today, in lieu of feeding them as regularly.  The idea is that the amount of nutrients in the water will decrease while the health, color, etc. of the corals will improve.  This concept is the brainchild of Chris at Einstein Aquatics.  There should be noticeable changes in coral colors in a couple of months, so it will be interesting to look back at these photos then. 

Front:

Side.  Note that I brought the Hill acan up from downstairs.  It does not look very good.

The tuxedo urchin has started camouflaging itself with random objects from the bottom of the aquarium:

Updated Tank Shots

Here are some updated tank shots from today... 

There is a new member of the "clean-up crew"; it is a small tuxedo urchin.