Okay, so it’s been a while since I posted last. I’ve been crazy busy with work and other things lately so I haven’t had a chance to deal much with the tank.
Well today was the day.. After futzing with the Internet up on Cougar mountain I headed to the store. Devon was nice enough to clean the tank out while I was at the store. We tossed the live rock I had and all the sand. She cleaned the glass and it looks spotless now.
At the store I picked up 10 pounds of uncured Fiji live rock, 20 pounds of live sand and some activated charcoal.
At home we washed off all the pumps, thermometers, filters, etc and put them back in their spot. I poured in the new sand and then filled the tank most of the way. After adding some salt and mixing that around we dropped in the live rock, then filled the water the rest of the way. I adjusted the salt again and let it roll.
So here it is, still cloudy. One of the two lights is off because the ballast failed. I’ll have to get that replaced. The bulbs are both new. The tank originally came with a 24W 10K bulb and a 24W Actinic. I replaced the 10K with another one, and the Actinic with a 24W 50/50. The 50/50 is half a 10K bulb, and the other half is Actinic. That puts the 10K at 36W total in the tank with just a little blue tint.
Oh yeah, I kept the Nassarius snails that lived through the power outage. There were 6 of the little buggers still alive after draining the tank and letting it sit for like a week. And that’s after 8 days of no power, 40 degree water temps, and no food. I couldn’t kill these dudes if I tried. You can see one of them among the empty shells here. He’s the smallest one in the picture.
