My £5 SPS Frags

Now selling frags for local pickup or delivery.

currently have;
*Purple Seriatopora hystrix
*Red Monti plating 
*Green purple rim encrusting/plating monti 
*Pocillipora Damicornis
*Green Seriatopora guttatus (birds nest)
*Porites

Happy new year... Ahem, belated

Well we are already half way though February and I've not posted since 2011! Smacked wrist for me. Since last post I have set up a calcium reactor which has resulted in very stable conditions. Calcium holding at 420 and dkh at 12, although magnesium still needs buffering occasionally. I've added a few new corals and some of the frags are maturing into nice colonies. I have also started dosing NOPOX from redsea, it's fantastic at controlling nitrates although not so good for phosphates once the nitrates have been mopped up. Fragging has ramped up and I've sold over £100 worth of £5 frags this year which helps pay the electric bill. Enough waffle, here are some pics......

DIY Fish and Coral Food

I must start by stating this is not my idea and has been written about many times in several good books. However, I thought I’d bring it to life with a few pictures and a UK spin on things.
I started out by visiting my local fish mongers and set about chosing some of the basic ingredients. The beauty of this recipe is you can make with what ever fish meat is available at the time or whatever your tank requires. This basic recipe is about 2 ounces of white fish, 2 ounces of frozen peeled king prawn (uncooked), 2 ounces of mussels in their shell and some nori sheets plus some algae pellets if you have them. Total cost is around £2.87 for this small batch.

Start by shelling the mussels and scraping all the goo into a bowl. Next remove the skin from the white fish and cut into small cubes, then add to bowl. Chop the prawns into small peices and tear up some nori sheets. You can add gelatine if you desire, it helps bind the ingredients together but if freezing, not really necessary. You will need to add some RO water, around 2 ounces, to make the mixture slightly wet.

Next you will need to use a hand blender and wizz up the ingredients until you have a smooth paste. You can also add some vitamins and coral nutrients should you wish.

Now you can either freeze the mixture in a ball/slab and use a cheese grater as required or use some eggcrate (see below) to make individual portions.

A few hours in the freezer and you have your very own reef food. This recipe should make around 100 cubes, not bad for a couple of quid!

October update but no trick or treat

Things have been going very well since I finally got rid of the cyano. *There is something very satisfying about overcoming a major problem, my dilemma is now where to put all the corals.
Anyway, here's a latest FTS prior to shopping.

I popped in to see Nev today and came away with a few Frags - when don't you?

Blue polyp encrusting monti

Purple plating

Purple/vimto

Blasto

All pics taken with iPhone 4 (not the new one)

PAR

Well the new radium bulbs are now 100 hours old and time for test using the photo meter.

Current par values under radiums

Left top 255
Left bottom 125
Middle top 450
Middle bottom 200
Right top 375
Right bottom 160

Slight improvement shown in all areas besides top left over the previous BLV bulbs which were around 10 months old.

Cyano beaten

I mentioned in my last post that cyano was taking over with no obvious reason as to why?
I tried some products but they had no impact and as a last resort I dosed the tank with
Red slime remover RX by blue life http://www.bluelifeusa.com/Blue-Vet-Rx

I can't recommend this product highly enough for cyano removal! Within 48 hours I had a sparkling tank again and the ORP levels have soared to over 350 - unprecedented in last 6 months!

Dreaded Cyano

Well I was feeling fairly smug about beating the hair algea problem and the reef gods punished me with a lovely cyano outbreak. I'm not entirely sure what is causing this hut clearly the must be some disolved organics (doc) fueling the cyano. First step was to examine the skimmer ( a deltec) for further clues. I recalled that I was getting less skimmate of late and on further inspection it became obvious that it was encrusted with calcium deposits and the pump was not producing enough bubbles. A good soak amd clean with some acetic acid and within 4 hours it was good as new!
The next step was to introduce some more bacteria to combat the cyano - I have opted for Dr Timms waste away & refresh. 7 days into treatment there have been no signs of improvement.