Blenwood's Reef - Jan. 2020 Monthly Update & FTS

[Justind823]

Lovin' what you've done with the place 

 

This is a great perspective

On 12/29/2020 at 12:02 PM, Cannedfish said:

 

 

 

 

 

[Tired]

The White Zombies seem like one of those zoas that are pretty enough, just not worth the hype price. I want to get some once the hype is over and the price chills out some, or if I can get a good deal on them from someone with spares. Have they at least grown well?

 

Tank is gorgeous, as usual. Love the top-down. 

[Cannedfish]

Welp it’s that time of the month again. That’s right, the time you finally admit defeat and take a shower. Also… monthly update time.

 

The last month for the tank has been a bit of rollercoaster ride. Not a fun and most safe rollercoaster at a large, well-funded, and likely OSHA inspected theme park, but more along the lines of a sketchy traveling carnival “rollercoaster” where you’re pretty sure the tilt-o-wheel is being held together with budget brand duct tape and cheap cigarettes… basically all the wrong types of terror. Anyways, the problems started around Christmas where I decided after “a few” glasses of mulled wine that I would install the new Kamoer Dosing pump. While the install went alright, dialing in the new doser has been a nightmare. I’m not sure whether it’s because the old dosing pump had drifted in its dosing amount or whether the new doser is having difficulty dosing small qualities, or it’s something else entirely (see… incompetence), either way I have been have difficulty stabilizing my alkalinity. More specifically, the last couple weeks my alk has dropped to around 4.8 dhk. Over that period, I have doubled the amount I dose daily, from 9ml of Tropic Marin All-For-Reefs to over 22ml. And while I have slowly got the tank back up to about 6.0dkh, what’s strange is that the coral etc. hasn’t seemed to suffer any ill effects, PE and color has been great throughout this period. Another perplexing development is that despite cutting back my water changes to once a week and increasing my daily feeding amount to over a cube of frozen a day, my nutrients have been super low (po4 around 0.03). I don’t know if the sheer amount of carbon dosing from the AFR is causing the tank to process nutrients at an incredible rate or what, but strange things are afoot.

 

Additionally, despite being a scoundrel for most of the year, I did receive some tank goodies from jolly ol’ Papa Noel. Specifically, a new Aqamai KPS pump and a Laowa macro lens (which I have mentioned in previous posts). While the KPS has been wildly unreliable for me (this is my third one) the size and form factor of the pump (especially the degree in which you can angle the head) still make it my favorite. I’d be willing to give the Nero 3 a try if someone can 3d print me a magnetic corner bracket for it. But until then I guess I just keep buying more KPS.

 

Anyways, progression photo time!

 

January 2021:

 

December 2020

 

November 2020

October 2020

[TatorTaco]

Tank looks great!  Man, I'm so jealous of that trachy.  I want it soooo bad. 

[tmc1313]

Tank is still looking great! The alkalinity thing is funny. I've had mine drop to the high 5's a couple of times and have never seen any ill effects from the corals either, but on the other end of the spectrum with alk spikes it's never been good, not horrible, but things were just off a bit from usual. I love the white banded possum wrasse. I've been searching for one for two months now with no luck. Not sure if they're a seasonal thing or not, but I keep coming up empty when trying to find one. 

[mitten_reef]

 

I recall you once gave my light fixture a nickname "Death Star"......  so, what shall we call your little contraption here?  🤔

[pokerdobe]

15 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

 

I recall you once gave my light fixture a nickname "Death Star"......  so, what shall we call your little contraption here?  🤔

If we're sticking to a SW theme, clearly Starkiller base.