Alright guys, here is a little update on the tank.
As you know, my shipment I ordered was short 25lbs of rock. I can see missing the 4 little screws that I ordered, but 25lbs of dry reef rock? Wow lmao. Thankfully, bulk reef supply made it right in less than 3 minutes when I called them. So I now know their CS is great. The rock is now on it's way. Thankfully, I don't "need" it, I just want it to make the tank look better. It will take about 6 months of cure time, but it will look better lol.
I also ordered 200 gallons worth of salt for the tank. The salt is known as "Reef Crystals" and has a higher amount of trace elements in the mix to help feed the corals what they need. It's mainly for hard corals that need a lot of food and a lot of calcium. Well, this salt is now here. It was at the post office and it's now at my house. So this weekend I'm more than likely going to do another 45 gallon water change to try and get the nitrates down. From what I have seen, it was the nitrates that killed my snails. And the only way to get rid of that is with water changes. And as you know, I have not done a water change on this tank in well over 6 months. And yes, it will cause the algae bloom as well.
And for those of you that don't know, fish create waste, and you are going to over feed your tank at times. All of that will start to decay and turn into Ammonia. That is where a nitrifying bacteria kicks in and breaks the ammonia down into nitrite, then finally into nitrate. And a water change will dilute the nitrate. Also for those that don't know, Ammonia and Nitrite is highly toxic to fish, but they can withstand quite a bit of Nitrate.
so speaking of water changes, I ordered new filters as well. I'm sure you guys saw the pictures of the Ro/Di system that I use. Well, the Di resin was completely depleted and the sediment filter was pretty much gone. Well, with the new water well at my house, I have quite a bit of red dirt in my water. Not toxic, and doesn't change the taste of the water, but it does a DAMN good job of clogging filters. When I put the system in, I was running about 65lbs of pressure going into the membrane, but after only a couple weeks, the first carbon filter (stage 2), was completely clogged. So that is why I had to order new filters.
I took this one step further because of the sediment in my water. I ordered another 10" canister and fittings so that I could put yet another sediment filter in the system. Now, the water comes into the house, then into a 5 micron sediment filter. From there it goes into my booster pump that I have set at about 77psi. From there, it will go into another sediment filter, but this time, it's a 1 micron filter to trap even more particles. Once it leaves there, it will go into a 5 micron carbon block, then into a .6 micron carbon block (I think I got these numbers wrong in an earlier post) then finally into the RO membrane to make great drinking water. I also have another canister with Di resin that will take the water from the 6 TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) (which is very low) to 0 TDS. If you have an aquarium, and you wonder why you can't keep anything, start using Ro/Di water and you will be able to keep just about anything. There is so much crap in water that can kill fish, coral and plants (for freshwater) that the $250 for the kit is a cheap investment.
So I can now make some great water, and I did just that when I moved the tank, but with the old filters. It took two days to make 45 gallons, but it was done. Now, it will take about 8 hours to make the same 45 gallons with clean filters.
so after all of that rambling, here is the actual update. Everything in the tank is doing GREAT. The Montipora is perked up and loving the tank. The Colt, even though still small, is opened all the way up and happy. The star polyps are fully open and just waving in current and spreading like crazy. Then there is the zooanthids which are also spreading like crazy!
The fish are loving the clean water, and they are going to like it even more after the next water change. The water is crystal clear and the tank is looking great!
I also ordered 6 more filter socks which I will be putting onto the sump soon once I'm done polishing the water with the felt socks that are on there now. The new ones are mesh but the same micron size, but the mesh will trap more crap that's in the water.
Can't wait to get this tank back to what it was and start adding more coral to it.
