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Welcome back to Mile High Reefers! Itās tank maintenance day in the fish room, and we are tackling a massive mix of technical reef updates, nutrient management, and a crazy biological experiment.
š§« The 5-Month Freshwater Bubble Algae Experiment Back in January, I took down a 32-gallon tank and threw the nasty, detritus-loaded live rock into a bucket of straight fresh water. Now that the Colorado winter has finally broken and it's May, we are taking the rocks outside to blast them down with the hose. The results are absolutely nutsāthe bubble algae (Valonia) is STILL structurally intact and rigid after 5 months of zero saltwater. We look at the survival of these pests and my plan to sun-dry and deep-cycle this rock before it ever touches another system.
š§Ŗ 210-Gallon Reef: Alkalinity Wins & The Algae War We have a massive win on the 210-gallon mixed reefāmy hand-dosing and kalkwasser regimen successfully pulled the alkalinity up from a dangerously low 5.1 all the way to a stable 8.7. The corals are popping and showing incredible brightness, including the Atlantis pink tip and a massive toadstool leather coral that completely recovered from a Hydnophora sting.
The downside? The algae is loving the clean water just as much as the corals. I'm currently hunting for a Longspine Urchin to beef up the cleanup crew, but local availability is tough. To help manage the nutrients in the meantime, Iām changing out the carbon and GFO media using my custom single-chamber mixing method to prevent GFO clumping.
š Tank Updates: The Brain Tank & Palytoxin Recovery The Brain Tank: Currently hitting the "ugly stage" with a heavy heterotrophic bacteria bloom. Iām aggressively scraping it off to force the nutrients back into the dry rock framework.
The 24-Gallon Nano: A few months post-palytoxin crash, this tank is springing right back to life with zero maintenance drama.
The Nem Tank: The anemones are looking great after a fresh water change, but knocking back the algae has uncovered a hidden wave of Aiptasia that we'll have to fight next.
Reef keeping is all about patience, hard work, and dealing with the constraints of time and money. We're fixing the problems we can and letting time handle the rest.
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