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Reeftank Log 07/99

Sunday, September 26, 1999

Wow, it's been a while since I've written. I feel bad about the gap in time, but in August and September, my time's been tied up with the move of the company I work for. Probably the greatest success over the past two months has been the Pulsing Xenia. The Xenia has split multiple times and now occupies a wide area. For one week, some of the colonies didn't look too good. The polyps of the affected colonies were closed up and didn't pulse. I performed a 5-gallon water change and added 1 tablespoon of iodine to the tank and 1 tablespoon of iodine to the NURCE. A few days later, all the Xenia polyps were opened up and pulsing healthily.

Both the small green and large green button polyps I've moved from the 20-gallon to the 50-gallon tank are doing great. I've been particularly impressed by the large green button polyps which have regained much of their green coloring. They've also started splitting and spreading again. In the 20-gallon tank they had lost much of their green color and were disintegrating.

All the mushrooms in the 50-gallon tank have done well except for the beautiful green ones I purchased the store in Hayward. One mushroom survives. I hope it eventually thrives and grows.

The stony coral fragment I purchased is dead. I'm not sure why it died. I'm so sad. I'll have to try a new story coral again in the next few months.

The cleaning shrimp and the peppermint shrimp have been doing great. All the shrimp are voracious feeders and are continually growing. A few times when I've put my hand in the tank, a cleaning shrimp or a peppermint shrimp will swim toward my hand and start picking at it. It's pretty amazing when this behavior happens. I try to slowly wave my hand in order to simulate a fish's motion when a shrimp starts to clean my hand.

I'm making weekly additions of 15 ml (1 tablespoon) each of Iodine and Strontium to the 50-gallon tank. I also add the same amount to the NURCE every time I have to refill it. 15 ml of CombiSan is also added weekly to the 50-gallon tank. In adding C-Balance, I add 45 ml each of A and B at a time. There appears to be no adverse effects.

Caulerpa racemosa was growing very well in the 29-gallon refugium, but then it suddenly lost all its color. I extracted I before it fully disintegrated. On the other hand, the red macroalgae has been doing great. It grows quickly and is very easy to extract.

Both the anemone and Goniopora in the 29-gallon refugium have lost all their color. I wonder if it's due to the light since the photosynthetic animals in the 50-gallon tank which share the same water conditions are doing fine.

The bottom three inches of the sandbed in the 29-gallon refugium is turning dark. This is probably due to some anaerobic reactions in the bottom layers. It doesn't look like any hydrogen sulfide bubbles are being produced, but I'll have to keep a watch on the conditions in the sandbed.

Tested nitrate level in tank and it was undetectable.

Noticed a multitude of glass sponges in the sump. Apparently, they love the lack of light. Also noticed a few baby snails. One was crawling inside the skimmer!

Fish seem to like bloodworms.

Purchased acrylic boxes from Tap Plastics as supports for the PowerCompact lights.

I removed the spraybar from the sump return outlet on the 50-gallon tank. Moved return all the way to the right in order to minimize spray.

Trying to perform water change every two to three weeks.

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reefkeeper@reeftank.com