Tank Entry

I guess it comes down to how observant you are, but when you work around your reef day in and day out and suddenly see something new, it's a tiny momentous occasion. For me anyway.

During the late night hours when my tank is immersed in darkness, from time to time I'll explore the rockwork with a flashlight to see what's going on, where the fish sleep, and what's out on the prowl. I spotted a Stomatella snail in the 400g, a type of slug I've not seen in years. Since the reef has ...

As the reef turns 14 months old today, it's nice to be able to share good news overall. The reef is looking healthy and colorful, and the fish seem happy.

Last weekend I got a few new frags, but after dipping them and mounting them to frag plugs, three died within 36 hours. The others seem fine. Strange.

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From time to time, something tiny catches my eye. This guy less than a 1/4" was holding onto the side of a Hammerhead AlgaeFree cleaning magnet. It's a chiton, totally benign/reef-safe. You'll usually see many of these on the rockwork after lights out if you look closely enough.

Using a tripod, remote flash, remote trigger, delayed countdown, macro lens with extension tube... this was the best I could get. And it was quietly moving, hence ...

For years, I've been running Vortech pumps on my tanks. The driver for each pump has to be installed somewhere dry, safe from splashes, drips or worse. Velcro pads have held them to the woodwork, but they didn't stay there forever like one might hope. Over time, the glue on the back of the strip would let go from the surface of the wood, and I'd resort to using more velcro after struggling to remove the old sticky stuff the impeded a decent bond.

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It's been nearly 400 days since the 400g was restarted, and overall everything is vastly improved from where it was about 90 days ago. All the color has returned to the corals and new growth is readily apparent.

One nuisance I was observing was this strange brown patchy stuff on the substrate which looked worse than diatoms but not enough to be dinoflagellates. When I cleaned the area between the sandbed and the glass to get that nice clean white look, the next day it was instantly ...