melev

This weekend, I received some blueprints of the new tank. It states on them that I can't share them without their express permission, so I'll ask. It looks like we are very close to getting the tank ordered, which is the first step of many.

The LR barrel has been running on auto pilot. It's just a bunch of rock, water, and a Mag pump. I had a second barrel of rock that was cycling due to the Leather's demise (I'm assuming it is dead by now, and haven't heard back yet). I've been waiting for the water to test 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite so I could combine that rock with the other rock and get the 33g trashcan out of my living room. Today was the day, at last. Slowly but surely, I'm able to streamline everything and get it ready for the new tank.

I'll probably do a shake and rinse of all the LR a few more times before they go in the new tank. In a couple more days, if the barrel of rock doesn't change readings (I don't like surprises), I'll plumb it into the troughs to add the rock for live filtration again.

I need to buy more salt, as the stuff I have on hand simply isn't trustworthy. I have several buckets of Kent's Sea Salt that lacks alkalinity (from the disaster years ago when they weren't mixed correctly at the plant), and two cases of Ocean Pure that is almost as bad (3 dKH!). I have two full buckets of Red Sea Pro Reef that turned hard as a rock, and I've been trying to get them traded in for the past two months for a couple of good buckets. Hopefully I can do so, but in the meantime I just need to buy more.