Happy Trumpet, finally.

The stupid Goby.

I like the green one.

The still-recovering Acan.

Zoa rock. 

With reclusive 'shroom.

Well the Cyano is gone and the GHA is down to a few little patches that are getting smaller by the day.  About half my Coralline is bleached out, but it'll come back soon enough.  The corals in general look fine, and while the Acan isn't completely recovered, it's getting there.  I also got the mushroom out into the open, so hopefully it'll stay this time!  It had actually attached to a big empty hermit crab shell and not a rock, so I just dropped the shell into a little hole in one of the front rocks, where it seems fairly happy.

Random pics:

The Algae Wars

Ever since I added the Trumpet and Acan frags I've started getting outbreaks of Cyano and Green Hair Algae.  After lots of reading, I decided to give hydrogen peroxide dosing a try.

First I added 2.5ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide directly into the tank.  It pissed off all the corals like I couldn't believe!  The Zoas closed up tight, the Trumpet shrunk down to nothing, and the Acan slimed like crazy.  I wasn't too thrilled with that, but after about 12 hours the Zoas and Acan were back to normal, and the Trumpet was starting to re-inflate.  I could see the algae looking a little unhappy.

I figured since I was due for a water change today, I'd try dipping the rocks while I was at it.  I took 3 gallons out of the tank and kept it in a bucket.  I put 2 cups of the water into a large bowl, and added 2 cups of hydrogen peroxide.  I'd dip each rock for 2-3 minutes, and then put them into the bucket of old tank water.  When they were all dipped I re-filled the tank with fresh saltwater and put the rocks back in.

I was completely unable to replicate my 'scape, and am very unimpressed with the way it looks now.  I foresee many adjustments in the next day or two.  In the meantime, the tank is really cloudy, the corals are again extremely unhappy, and the whole thing just generally looks like crap.  I can only hope in a few days everything will be getting back to normal, and the algae will be in full retreat.

What a pain.

Cautiously Optimistic

Ok, I finally have a flow setup that I think will keep everything (Zoas, Trumpet, sand, filter, and me) happy.  I flattened out the return nozzle and aimed the Koralia directly at it.  That seems to create a pretty circular flow that keeps water moving pretty vigorously around the outside and through the filter, while keeping the middle fairly calm (but not dead).  All four of the Trumpet's heads look good, if not great, so I think I'll feed them some mysis and see how they look in the morning.

Blowing the Trumpet

Not sure what to do about the dang Trumpet coral.  It apparently really doesn't like the flow that the Koralia 240 puts out.  Whichever head was facing the direction the flow was coming from would shrivel and darken.  Rotating the coral would cause the affected head to puff back up, and whichever new head was facing that direction would start showing the same symptoms.

I tried turning the Koralia off for two days, and boy did that Trumpet look happy! Heads puffed up to almost double their previous size, color was great, everything.

Only problem with turning the 240 off (besides drastically decreased flow through the system) was that the flow from the return pump excavated a hand-sized hole in the sand, front and center, all the way down to the bottom of the tank.

Tonight I pushed the sand back into position and turned the Koralia back on.  All four of the Trumpet's heads immediately darkened and shrunk back to the skeleton.  Ugh.  I've tried moving it to a few different spots to see if I could find a more sheltered spot, but no joy.

240 off:

On:

FTS.

Full tank shot and a Zoa rock.

Zoa Frags

Not even going to attempt to be clever, just putting up some pics.