Cell Block H

[Hunky Dory]

Well Santa arrived a little early for the tank this year and brought along some neat gear to help make our trips away less of a worry.

Smart ATO by AutoAqua to replace the old Tunze osmolator which is Kaput. Geeze it's nice not having to manually top up again,
really easy to set up and has the tiniest little (dc) pump I've ever seen.





Eheim auto fish feeder, I can program up to 4 feedings per day with varying amounts if necessary.



and an awesome, clamp on, overly heavy duty acrylic feeding ring/tube to help prevent
any NLS pellets going over the weir before they're consumed.

[Hunky Dory]

Feb already and here's some recent pics...

[Narcosis]

Nice tank Hunky Dory

That Powder Blue looks like a stunner!

Nice to see a tank with some different fish in it, i.e. the Asfur, Harlequin Tusk and Clown trigger.

[Hunky Dory]

Thanks Narc.
The PB's fattened and coloured up nicely since I put him in, plenty of attitude to!

Here's a little vid:
[youtube]0pjC327ycXQ[/youtube]

[kodez]

Where did you get the feeding ring/tube?

[Hunky Dory]

It was from Guppy's.

[Hunky Dory]

Just a couple more snaps to add to the journal...

Clown Trigger -growing rapidly


The Heni, really nice, does a great job as a cleaner fish but don't put one in your prized LPS tank!


Recently I purchased a new reactor for biopellets , an Aquamaxx XL and except for the small thumb screws it's much better than my Reef Octopus one and a lot cheaper to. I wanted to run more media with a much higher flow as it is also the skimmer feed and the SRO 110 couldn't handle it. The Aquamaxx is really easy to top up, the SRO was a P.I.A, it also spins the media around the chamber rather than a tumble so no clumping or pellets being forced up to get stuck in the strainer. -And it has a nice solid plastic strainer, not a flimsy mesh thing that becomes distorted over time. The SRO is now the dedicated GFO reactor and I have 500ml of Rowaphos in it atm, it works very well married up with an eheim 1000 turned down a little. The biopellets have been excellent for my very heavily stocked and fed tank, always having undetectable N03 and <0.1 P04 using Salifert kits.

The Aquamaxx XL, great value for money, performs well and easy to replenish

[Hunky Dory]

Ok this morning I noticed a small, horseshoe shaped chunk missing from the Olive Tang's flank so regrettably the Clown Trigger is now up for sale. I have placed an add in the classifieds if any one's interested

[Hunky Dory]

The CT is now sold and is going to live in a 8x3ft tank so I'm wrapped about that. It was getting bored in my QT and started trying to peel the silicon from the inside seams. I would still like to maintain my Trigger fetish though and I think I'll start looking around for a fat little Picasso, loads of character, relatively peaceful and slow growing. It should also be tough enough to survive the initiation ritual from the Tangs.

[Hunky Dory]

March update pics


Asfur, really camera shy and difficult to photograph.


The Toxic green Hammer's done well, even growing a new head.


-Infact so well I got some more, marbled pink and green


FTS, the Maze coral's taken a beating from the Asfur and is on the way out so I wont be getting any more of those..


My nice pink Heliofungia seemed to not be well all of a sudden and got promptly devoured by the Heni but he hasn't touched the green one




The tank's due for a water change, it's been over a month and I did some testing today, the results came out pretty good:
N03 undetectable -Salifert
P04 undetectable -Salifert
Mg 1350 -Salifert
Kh 8.1 -Red Sea

I've had 500ml of Rowaphos fluidized in the Reef Octopus reactor for a few weeks now and it has really put a dent in the P04
level but the stuff is so damn expensive. I've got some Aquamedic fe to try out when the Rowa seems exhausted. It's less than half the cost.
I'm giving Brightwell's Neo Marine salt a bash as I can get it for a good price and my source for Reef Crystals seems to have dried up ATM.
I mixed a 200l batch yesterday, it dissolved quickly and is now crystal clear with no precipitation.