Snorkeler's Cube

I've been wanting to blog for a while now, but boy... is being a father of 3 like a hurricane, or what? Kids are great but they sure do drain a lot of energy from me & mrs.

I took these FTS pictures on May 15th to show how the reef looked as it approaches 5 years of age, with little changes in the overall setup. Little did I know that shortly after it I would have a "vodka party" in the tank, with a few casualties:

Right side:

...

Back in Nov 17th I posted about some issues I had with my Balling dosing pump+hose. Well... those were not the last of my issues.

On Dec 1st, I was greeted with this "beautiful" view as I opened the cabinet where ATO and Balling reside:

Not good huh?

Initial inspection, turning the pump on and observing, revealed the silicone hose had burst open, with a hole pointing towards the cabinet wall.

Why? ...

Back in Jan 6th I posted a blog about how Aiptasias had apparently been eradicated from my tank, since I hadn't had peppermint shrimp for 2 months and no Aiptasias were found neither in my sump nor in my DT.

Well, up until Oct 9th, when I added peppermint shrimp to the tank again no Aiptasias had appeared in the DT nor in the sump.

But, on Nov 24th I spotted this in my sump:

Yep, Aiptasia. So, either that one was hiding ...

Today I noticed a different form in the substrate, one I'd never seen before. The tank is 4 years old, so that was quite a surprise. I must have imported himwith the rocks and creatures I added on 9/Oct .

I recalled seeing something similar in shape in "What Invertebrates?: A Buyer's Guide for Marine Aquariums", which is a simple book but good enough for basic aquarists like me. The thing that looks like the picture is a Chiton, which the book says is safe. Looks like ...

This happened three weeks ago, but I thought it important to blog so others doing Balling out there might watch out for similar situations.

The thin hose that connects into my peristaltic doing pump's flexible tubing slipped out of it, the KH hose to be exact, and as a result KH liquid was squirted into the cabinet where it sits...

Actually, it happened twice. The first time I caught it some 8 to 10 hours after it slipped. Damage/mess was minimal. The second time, well, ...