Welcome back P. Hepatus

It seems as if P. hepatus is now happy and feels safe. For the first time she is swimming around with the other fish. Cool!

I have been running the RO unit since two days ago trying to make enough RO water for a 60l water change. This is taking forever!

I bought some Nori from Woolies and attached it with the SeaVeggies clamp. After about 10 minutes the Purple Tang started nipping at it - and now every now and again it eats some. The Yellow Tang does not look as much interested, however it did eat a couple of pieces that came off.

Like I said - LFS is bad for me

I woke up only to discover my one small percula is gone... No body, no trace... I guess the boxer shrimp got hungry ☹

I went to Sterlig Aquarium in Ontdekkers Road in Roodepoort and purchased:

  • Purple Tang
  • Yellow Tang
  • Purple Firefish
Full Article

dKH rising

It seems the alkalinity is slowly rising. It is now at 6.0 and the calcium is dropping - at 515.

I hate myself and a LFS

Went to Exotic, and what did I do? I purchased some fish... Since the Ammonia/Nitrite levels were doing fine I assumed it would be fine to add some small fish. So I bought:

  • 2 x small Percula Clownfish
  • 1 x small Paracanthurus hepatus (Pacific Blue Tang)
  • 1 x Pink Leather Coral
  • 4 x Turbo Snails
  • 4 x Red Legged Hermit Crabs
  • 2 x Peppermint Shrimps
  • 1 x Brown Brittle Star

When I got back home I saw an explosion of brown algae on the front side of the tank - on the live rock and on the substrate. I guess the white light, daylight, high phosphate levels and dKH buffer additions fueled them.

Full Article

Grrrr look at my Calcium!

Since Alkalinity, Calcium and pH all need to be balanced, I bought a Calcium test kit. The Calcium seems to be at 545mg/l! That is very high. Since my Alkalinity is only 7.0 dKH, I decided to make use of Kent Marine’s Pro Buffer dKH. I started adding 35ml to the water daily. I also stopped adding kalkwasser. The idea is that since kalkwasser is a balanced supplement, I first need to get the proportion of Calcium and Alkalinity right then I’ll resume adding kalkwasser. I think the different salt I used as well as the RO water to fix SG messed up the balance.