Changed GFO (1 cup), blew rocks, stirred sand bed a bit, and pulled some algae which has been trying to grow. All corals look good except for the Orange Hammer which is still mostly retracted from being bumped when the Teal Acro was introduced and the Teal Acro which never colored up when it was placed. Getting good polyp extension from the Teal Acro. The rest of the Acro frags are growing or encrusting with great polyp extension and color. The Red Planet Acro lost its green underlying color but suspect because the T5s are too bright for it.

Replaced the Micro Jet 320 with an Eheim Compact 300 (80 gph) for theKalk Drip Chamber to keep the detris suspended and stir the Kalk chamber.

Using Zeo Sponge Power and Amino Acids concentrated (1 drop/day) to see what they can do to help on color and growth. Been dosing these for about two weeks. Not sure if it because of these but seeing good growth and encrusting than I was seeing before.

I am not too impressed with Vodka dosing as not seeing much from it which may be due to the deep sand bed from what I am reading. I should be dosing a maximum of 1 ml/day for my tank but I am up to 5 ml/day trying to find maintenance dosage. Not going to increase more than that and looking at discontinuing it. The nitrates are staying at 17.6 ppm with little impact on phosphate levels.

Interesting when realize A/C for house is broken and not much you can do when tank temp creeping up past 81.8 with fan on 24/7 as outside temp up to 84 already. Once AC guy repairs unit on house, going to buy AC for tank. Ironic I was looking at them today thinking I should get one just in case. Going to buy Arctic Chiller 1/10 based on research I have already done over last several months.

Determined my Vodka dose to be 2 ml/day as both Nitrates and Phosphates are now undetectable. Used the following protocol to determine level for my tank:

Vodka Dosing at Reefkeeping.com

I noticed I had some tiny white dots appearing on my back area of my reef tank a couple days ago and thought it was some sand blowing up. Noticed tonight a lot more and some are bigger (~3 mm). Looking closer, I realized they are spiral shaped and a lot of them.

Doing a quick search, I found they are Spirorbid Worms (Spirorbis sp.). This worm builds a calcerous tube and filter feeds. These are tiny, coiled tube worms that can form on live rock and the tank glass. They are very small, usually only a few millimeters in diameter. These are harmless filter feeders, and are most often found in new tanks with high nutrients. They usually disappear, or decline in numbers, once tanks mature, and water conditions improve.

The Plan

Really nothing I can do besides scrape them off what ever they attach themselves to in the tank, reduce nutrients, and be patient for tank to mature.

Observations and Information

• 01/05/2009 — Identified pest as Spirorbid Worms and began scraping process
• 04/19/2009 — Observed population is declining

Conclusion

Based on information I have read, reduction of nutrients, scraping, and patience is only you can do to reduce their population. This is what I have observed.

DISCLAIMER: Your results may very as each system is very different from another. For my tank parameters and environment, this was my observations and conclusion. This was not a controlled experiment so there is a potential for a very large margin of error.

References

Levenson , Marc. “Spirorbid Worms.” Melev’s Reef. hhttp://www.melevsreef.com/id/spirorbid_worms.html. Accessed 01 Jan 2009.

Masterson, J. “Spirorbis spp.” Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce. 01 Oct 2008. Smithsonian Marine Station. http://www.sms.si.edu/IRLSpec/Spirorbis_spp.htm. Accessed 05 Jan 2009.

Started setting this blog up today and moving everything I had blogged in another location.  Working on the formatting, pictures, and structure of the blog. Please ignore anything crazy as I may just be testing something.

Right now my tank information is at:  
Reefland.com Aquarium Log

I would never have started this blog if they would have fixed the comment section as anyone not logged into their system could not view my past entries.  That just did not work for me and I want to control some of this.

Installed LiterMeter 3 and Tunze Turbelle nanostream 6025.

Ordered one this week and should receive Tuesday. Started using Kalk water as top off.

Well that was quick. This heater sucks as it already stopped working after seven days. Had to put in back up heater after tank dropped to 72 degrees. Great example to have redundancies built into your set up. Not sure where to place a back up heater as nano setup has little room for this. Looking at the ViaAqua VA100W Titanium Heater.

Seriously considering adding the SpectraPure LiterMeter 3 with top off module as I travel a lot and do not want to depend on wife for this. If it was not on back order at all vendors, I would have ordered one today. Leads me to believe some type of upgrade coming to be out of stock everywhere or some type of issue.

Also looking at Reefkeeper Elite or AquaController 3. Leaning toward the ReefKeeper Elite but really want the internet features now.

Made some upgrades to the aquarium this month:

• Started using a Finnex HMD-100 Titanium Digital Control Heater.
• Installed two Media Reactors (TLF Phosban Reactor 150) which will be running PhosBan media and the other charcoal media.
  Kent Marine AquaDose
• Finally found a Calcium test kit which I can actually tell the color change as I have a difficult time with both Aquarium Pharmaceuticals and Salifert Test Kits. The Hagen Calcium Test Kit for Fresh & Saltwater did the trick for me.
• TLF NanoMag Magnetic Glass Cleaning Device – Works great

Added some fish, clean up crew, and a couple corals. Breaking the rules.