Rocks are coming ALIVE!
Water parameters are very important when it comes to marine aquariums. The most basic of which are salinity, pH, dKH and i've explained them in previous posts. After the basics are met comes more complex parameters such as magnesium, calcium, iodine, strontium levels. Calcium is particularly important when it comes to corals and coraline algae growth. Just over the past couple of days i dosed calcium supplements into the water and with a keen eye, the changes are pretty much noticeable. Pinkish/Reddish coraline patches have started appearing on what was bare rocks previously. If I'm able to keep this level of Calcium in the water, I beleive that in a week's time I should have observable coraline algae growth.
Its been a traumatic week for the aquarium. Algae growth was really strong and despite the introduction of chemical media, the growth was still signifcant. That led me to deduce that something's dying inside and leaching ammonia. My deduction turned out to be right. The bleached coral i thought was recovering actually started to die without me knowing. It was only when i fished it up and sniffed that stench did i realise it's health took a turn for the worse. Without that dying coral, conditions have improved. Just 2 days ago, i came back and found the floor flooded and the tank drained off 2inches of water. I was frantic checking for leaks everywhere but couldn't find any. Finally isolated the leak to an overflowing skimmer. I modified the skimmer and somehow my modication clogged up the return flow of water back into the tank and it flooded my room. Mopped up the mess and topped up sea water. When things like these happen where you lose water and top up water, all the effort in dosing of additives for the past couple of days to stablize the water will be gone to waste and started all over again. Finally I'm glad i'm back on track.
Sailfin Tang's displaying wierd symptoms of whitespots. The whitespots goes away in the morning but when evening comes and my lights go on, the white spots will start to return. I'm wondering if the lights are stressing this poor fish. Nonetheless its still as greedy. It has already wiped by tank clean of green algae. Now i'm waiting for another Tang to come scrub the tank of brown diatom 'algae'. Cleaner shrimp's set up a cleaning station and Sailfin Tang's visited it quite a couple of times. Somehow cleaner shrimp has retracted away each time. I wonder why.
Its been a traumatic week for the aquarium. Algae growth was really strong and despite the introduction of chemical media, the growth was still signifcant. That led me to deduce that something's dying inside and leaching ammonia. My deduction turned out to be right. The bleached coral i thought was recovering actually started to die without me knowing. It was only when i fished it up and sniffed that stench did i realise it's health took a turn for the worse. Without that dying coral, conditions have improved. Just 2 days ago, i came back and found the floor flooded and the tank drained off 2inches of water. I was frantic checking for leaks everywhere but couldn't find any. Finally isolated the leak to an overflowing skimmer. I modified the skimmer and somehow my modication clogged up the return flow of water back into the tank and it flooded my room. Mopped up the mess and topped up sea water. When things like these happen where you lose water and top up water, all the effort in dosing of additives for the past couple of days to stablize the water will be gone to waste and started all over again. Finally I'm glad i'm back on track.
Sailfin Tang's displaying wierd symptoms of whitespots. The whitespots goes away in the morning but when evening comes and my lights go on, the white spots will start to return. I'm wondering if the lights are stressing this poor fish. Nonetheless its still as greedy. It has already wiped by tank clean of green algae. Now i'm waiting for another Tang to come scrub the tank of brown diatom 'algae'. Cleaner shrimp's set up a cleaning station and Sailfin Tang's visited it quite a couple of times. Somehow cleaner shrimp has retracted away each time. I wonder why.
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