Tonight while the return pump was off, I was enjoying the tank. The two Tunze Streams continued to move 6000 gph, but it just doesn't look like it at all... nice and calm, the water crystal clear and serene. All the fish were out and about, waiting for their 9pm dinner, and it was just gorgeous.
I've been growing phytoplankton for about two years. The first 6 months were a breeze, splitting the cultures to grow more about once a week.
I took some water tests today to see what is going on with the water chemistry. Results page
The 55g has 0 nitrates! Pretty hard to believe considering that I feed it more than in the past. I guess my DSB is working perfectly as well as the macro algae growing in the refugium. I need to switch out the light over my 29g's refugium to improve the growth in there too.
Both tanks are continuing to do well without B-Ionic, but my every-other-day dosing of the two Seachem pH/Calcium buffers seems pretty haphazard. Both tanks have high Alkalinity now (14 and 15dKH) and high Calcium (460 and 470ppm), but the livestock seems fine.
The main BTA seems to be moving closer to itself, instead of trying to tear itself in half yet again. In the next few days I'll see what it finally decided upon.
I have been out of ESV's B-Ionic for a full seven days now. It is on backorder and I'll have to wait two more weeks! ARGH! For now I've been dosing with Seachem's pH buffer and Calcium, but it is not a stable system and I worry my tanks might suffer during the wait.
I tested out the new salt Oceanic is producing now. They'd mailed me a trial sample to make 5 gallons. Adding the entire amount to exactly 5 gallons of water, I let it mix for an hour. It was clear within 5 minutes, and dissolved completely. For 30 more minutes I aerated it by raising the hose the pump was connected to, to pound the surface of the water. These were the results.
I wrote my experience with Goni0poras today in the (rec.aquaria.marine.reefs or r.a.m.r) newsgroup. I might as well include it in the journal since it hasn't really been delved into here:
Chemi Clean works! I've always avoided using chemicals to remove problems, but the cyano bacteria simply would not go away entirely. I'd lost a couple of frags to this algae, and done all the normal things to avoid fueling it any more. I cleaned the skimmer regularly, used a turkey baster to blow off the stuff anywhere I saw it, and even siphoned out what I could see on the DSB and rockwork.
