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The reef is just over a month old, and it is going through the normal stuff like annoying algae on the sandbed. Some cyano has been cropping up here and there, mostly in the refugium but also on some spots of sand in the 60g and in the frag tank. I've been debating treating it with RedCyano Rx since that involves a big water change thereafter, but I may just go for it to nip this in the bud. The cyano appearing isn't a big surprise since the tank had a two-night-in-a-row spawning event from the ...

Back in Nov 17th I posted about some issues I had with my Balling dosing pump+hose. Well... those were not the last of my issues.

On Dec 1st, I was greeted with this "beautiful" view as I opened the cabinet where ATO and Balling reside:

Not good huh?

Initial inspection, turning the pump on and observing, revealed the silicone hose had burst open, with a hole pointing towards the cabinet wall.

Why? ...

Back in Jan 6th I posted a blog about how Aiptasias had apparently been eradicated from my tank, since I hadn't had peppermint shrimp for 2 months and no Aiptasias were found neither in my sump nor in my DT.

Well, up until Oct 9th, when I added peppermint shrimp to the tank again no Aiptasias had appeared in the DT nor in the sump.

But, on Nov 24th I spotted this in my sump:

Yep, Aiptasia. So, either that one was hiding ...

The newer version of the Marineland 400g came with a lowered water line than previously. The black plastic trim didn't hide it this time, and my preference is to keep that invisible. A few months ago, in anticipation of this situation, I ordered some flat black vinyl strips to apply to the tank once it was setup and running.

I didn't want to ruin the vinyl during the process of adding sand, rock and livestock, but now that everything is in the tank, it was high time to get it done. ...

It's ice cold outside, so I figured I'd take pictures of things that were warmer today. I pulled out the tripod and the nicer lens for these images.

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