RKE updated (regrettably)

I updated the firmware on all the RKE devices over the weekend and things were working well for several hours. I decided to feed the fish and use the RKE's standby mode, then the head unit "crashed". I re-programmed the head unit's firmware again, and it seemed to work even when I tried the standby mode. I thought that might have been the only hiccup during this updating process.

Unfortunately, this is what I came home to today at 7:30 PM:

Another, seemingly random, crash.

By the looks of it, it looks as if my main pump, protein skimmer, heaters and auto top-off devices had been powered off since 3:22 PM. LED lights and Vortech circulation pumps were kept separately on a good old-fashioned power strip.

The livestock looks healthy....so far.

Time to log on to Digital Aquatic's forum. Ugh.

Top-down shots

I was doing some maintenance on the lighting hood. It looked like BBQ ashes were collecting in the LED cooling fans and heat sink fins, so I had to blow them out with a can of air.

Anyhow, since the top was off, I turned off the pumps and tried to take some top-down pictures of the corals. It's difficult without an acrylic box to minimize surface water interference. I had to crop out the flask and camera's reflection.

Red Planet (oooh, ya, my favorite SPS)

Meteor Shower Cyphastrea.
The polyps aren't as wide open as I see on others' pictures.

There's a whole mess of these yellow zoanthids. There might be a little zoa pox going on, but I wouldn't mind if there was something to control their growth.

Clam

This Tridacna maxima clam is the latest addition to the tank along with a Halichoeres melanurus Wrasse that seems to be decimating the flatworm (red rusties and brownies!) population in my tank. Finally, a bioweapon that delivers results! Oh, and speaking of results, the new Tiger Conch I got from Pet Kingdom started to vacuum up the blue-green algae from the sand bed. I was surprised.
I got the clam at AquaSD for a resonable price (unlike the $400 for an equally-sized clam that this guy sells his for in NYC).

Still Growing

The Red Planet, and a few other SPS corals, is growing nicely in my LED-lighted tank. I've run out of B-ionic and starting making my own two-part buffering system. It seems to work well, although the alkalinity still goes down to 7 dKH when I'm trying to keep it at 8 over the week. I just don't feel like testing every day. At the most, I'll correct the balance on the weekends.

Florida ricordeas in the refugium

The Florida ricordeas are recovering from being covered up in green hair algae while in the refugium. After plucking off the algae a few times, the growth seems to have stopped on its own accord.

Hair Algae

I thought I had gotten rid of my hair algae problems by increasing the magnesium content of my reef tank. But, it continues to grow in patches here and there. I think it might be related to alkalinity swings and perhaps the temperature. Since the Scripps Pier spigot has been closed off, I've had to consider ordering synthetic salt water. I'll be making the switch soon, so who knows what problems await me further down the road? I'll be sure to measure magnesium, alkalinity, calcium and salinity of the new mix. I wonder if the corals will like the change?

Here's some hair algae. I bought some Aqua Medic Aquarium Tweezers, but the siphon attachment didn't have enough power to suck up the dislodged hair algae. So, in this case, the product didn't "suck enough", so it just sucked. I had to resort back to the good old fashioned thumb and forefinger method of plunking out the hair.

Et, voila! Oh, look, there's some Florida Ricordea growing on that rock!

Here's a cup of fresh water in which I put the hair algae after plucking it off the rocks. What a great way to export nitrogenous waste! Sigh....my fingers are waterlogged after spending hours in there. And, I didn't get it all.

Leather corals and Montipora

The red Montipora sp. coral has grown to a nice size. I placed two different colored leather corals near its base to create a color complement. The tank is still "re-cycling" and re-adjusting since I repositioned a lot of the live rock a few weeks ago. I've had to siphon out bluegreen algae (BGA) here and there during the water changes. Over time, I've noticed that the BGA's growth has slowed down. But, now, there's an increase in green hair algae. I'll manage that by manually removing it over time and the tank should be back to being well-balanced in a few more weeks.

Oh, and since the introduction of a dozen peppermint shrimp, I noticed that all my Aiptasia have been eradicated. It took a few weeks before the shrimp actually managed to wipe out all of the pests.