Overview

I've replaced the plank of wood in the front of the tank with a 1"x8" piece (up from a 1"x6" piece) in order to more completely cover things. I used the same black paint and clear-coat.

I've also modified the plumbing of the system. I now have the chiller return water straight to the display tank to increase turn-over. The display overflow can handle the extra volume fine but unforutnately the refugium overflow can't. Therefore, I've had to split the drain so that only half goes into the refugium and the other half directly into the sump.

I also went ahead and cleaned out the skimmer. There was quite a noticeable increase in performance after cleaning overnight in a bucket of vinegar. I similarly cleaned all the probes with vinegar and re-calibrated them.

Unfortunately most of the SPS corals in the tank have been doing poorly for the last couple of months. I believe that the relatively quick installation of more powerful lighting, a chiller, and a significant amount of new flow without any kind of acclimation may have been the cause.

I outright lost two SPS pieces, one is doing poorly still, but all of the monticaps have recovered.

I have modified the overflow drain from a simple Durso to a Herbie style drain. To accomodate this style, I needed both bulkhead holes in the overflow just for the drain. So now I have a seperate pipe for the return pump.

I've also re-arranged the wiring behind the tank. This new setup allows me to temporarily turn off the powerheads while feeding with the flip of one switch.

To muffle some of the noise and hide the equipment in the sump, I painted a 1"x6"x50" plank of pine wood to cover the area. It's attached with "industrial strength" velcro so that it can come on and off.

I sprayed on three coats of water-proof clear-coat to protect the wood against the humidity as well.

I cut out a new egg-crate lid after my second Redfin Fairy Wrasse jumped out. The left hole is now half the size it used to be. The right hole is still a little large but it is directly above the overflow and none of my fish are small enough to get in there.

I tested my alkalinity and found it to be 8 meq/L (quite high) although my pH was still only 7.80. After reading around, I decided to try increasing aeration of my system. To do this, I have started leaving my skimmer on full-time and have added a Tetra Whisper Air Pump 100 that comes on 10:30 PM and stays on until 10:30 AM. I'm using it at night only because it makes a whole lot of noise.

After 24 hours of use, my pH is back up to 8.03.

I noticed that the pH in the tank has dropped significantly to around 7.5 (as measured just before the lights come on) and 7.65 (as measured just before the lights go out). I think that discontinuing the calcium reactor temporarily has had some kind of adverse effect on it. I believe that this low pH is having some effect on my Brown Candelabrum Gorgonian.

I've started dosing some Kent Marine Pro DKH Superbuffer to maintain the pH and alkalinity until I get my calcium reactor back up.

I swapped out the old Coralife Dual Power Center timer for three new digital timers. These new units allow me to set more precise times and also come with a battery backup (so that the unit maintains it's settings in case of a power failure).

I also found some high-quality plastic wire labels to replace the sticky note paper I was using before.

I swapped out the Mag-5 return pump with this new Maxijet-3000 today. It's rated for a significantly higher 775 gallons-per-hour. At around 4' of head pressure, it should be pushing around 500 gallons-per-hour. This pump is much quieter than the Mag-5. Additionally, it has a built-in flow restrictor for controlling it's speed.

The swapping was relatively painless. Basically, all I had to do was attach a new union adapter to the end of the maxijet. After that I just unscrewed the old pump and screwed in the new pump.

I will be keeping the Mag-5 as a backup pump.

I noticed today that the foam pre-filter of my Mag-5 return pump was clogged up and that there was effectively no water circulation in the tank. I removed the foam pre-filter and am just using a plastic strainer now.

I thought something was wrong when I noticed that some of the corals were looking poorly. There has also been a huge burst in cyanobacteria growth in the display tank (but not in the display refugium). Hopefully things will recover now.

The overview for this tank is the same as for my previous tank.