Tank Entry

I'm not going to show you the actual actinic picture because it will be dark, blue and essentially not of much interest. But somehow I need to document how this one montipora's transition from healthy to sick and back to health is a wonder to observe.

Here's the coral in the bottom left corner of a picture taken in August.

Here it is tonight.

The main area of the coral is ...

I've been working to nurse the reef back to full health and each day I see a little more progress. I'd imagine by Day 365, all will be on track once more. That setback two months ago (if you don't count the leak in 2012) really put the brakes on how the corals were faring.

So here are some of the latest pictures taken this week. The mandarin has been out quite a bit.

Look at the size ...

I've been performing 50g water changes every 4-5 days on the system, and observing the corals for indications of improvement. There are still a number of corals that need to regain their former glory, but overall things look pretty good.

The calcium reactor needs new media badly and it should arrive any day. I've been supplementing alkalinity with baked baking soda.

This acan in the Anemone Cube has been a boring brown color with only some orange around the front leading ...

I ran across a comment by one person who stated that even when my tank has issues, it still looks nicer than their reef. I completely understood what he meant, in that we are never really happy with our tanks because we see the problems and annoyances. When I stand in front of my tank I do see some pretty corals, but I also see those that aren't doing well. If it is just a couple, it's much easier to overlook. When it's system-wide, something must be done.

I tend to tackle stuff ...

While a number of corals look okay, there are some that were hit really hard. One was a little SPS that never really did anything in the nine months it was in the tank, but decided to take a nosedive during the bacterial overdose. I watched it and a few others turn white, and just left it alone. When checking on this particular acropora (A. milleopora) I noticed that some life did survive even though about 70% perished.

Wit the image on ...