In my last post, I mentioned that it was time to replace the RO/DI parts in my Kent Marine 60gpd HI-S unit.  I ordered the replacement parts direct from Spectrapure which consisted of a 90 gallon per day RO membrane, a high capacity color changing DI cartridge, a sediment prefilter, a carbon block prefilter and a new 90gpd flow restrictor.

Needless to say, I am very impressed at the performance.  The flow is much faster and the amount of waste water is at least 50% less than before.  Another extra plus is, I would have spent over $170 on the same Kent Marine parts so I ended up saving $50.

The water coming out of the of the new setup is showing 000 on my TDS meter with all the parts installed and even before I installed the new DI filter, my TDS was at 003.

Overall I am very happy with this purchase and plan on using Spectrapure RO/DI parts again when I have to replace them.

I have been having a recent battle with cyano and then I realized that I haven’t replace my membrane or DI cartridge in many years.  I cannot recall if it was 2008 or 2010 but either way, it have been too long.

When I tested the water coming out of my Kent Marine Hi-S unit about two months ago, my TDS meter was showing 003 ppm and just the other day, it is showing 054 ppm.  Even though it is not too high, I have a feeling that it might be contributing to my cyano problem.

There is good news and bad news but mostly good.  When looking for replacement parts I found that the prices for the Kent Marine membrane and filters went up a lot since the last time I bought them.  The good part is, I stumbled upon the Spectrapure website and found better replacement parts for almost half the price.  The other good news is, I am upgrading my membrane from a 60gpd unit to a 90gpd unit by replacing the flow restrictor for $5.00.

My parts should be here next Wednesday and after I have them running for a while, I will tell you how they are working out.

I am now having space issues, as in not enough space, in my aquarium with my soft corals and today I rearranged my largest soft corals to the right side and put everything else on in the middle and to the left.  I am not sure if I like the new layout but it seems that the corals are enjoying the new location and being closer to the lights.

I also moved more Tunze power heads to the left side of the tank to get some more floor on the back of the glass to hopefully make the cyano leave.  I didn’t have time to attack the aiptasia and it might be a while before I get to it.

I did the normal water change and skimmer cleaning like past weeks and spent some extra time with the turkey baster.  I am still dealing with the a little cyano.

Nothing much to report this week.  I did a quick water change and cleaned the skimmer today and because it was 11:30 pm, I didn’t have time to feed the aiptasia their last meal but hopefully, I will have more time next week.

Also, all the aiptasia that blasted with Joe’s Juice is back.  They look a little smaller but they are still there.

Water change Wednesday….

I think I am going to call Wednesday “water change Wednesday” from now on. Although I have changed water on other days, it seems that Wednesday is the day but I digress…..

I did the normal 5 gallon water change and cleaned the skimmer, which is starting to pull less and less out each week. I know the skimmer is clean and the water level is the same but between the water changes and keeping it clean, I am guessing there is less to skim. I might go a for a wetter skimmate but even now, it has gone from dark brown to light brown over the last month.

Be a turkey….

I did notice that using the turkey baster on the live rock last keep the cyanobacteria at bay for almost 7 days. There was a light coating of cyano on the top, middle rock near the back but not as much as the week before when I didn’t use the turkey baster.

I know that many of you are wondering if Joe’s Juice did any better this week. The answer is yes and no. Out of the 25 aiptasia that I fed last week, there are maybe 12 left and of those 12 they are much smaller. It seems that Joe’s Juice needs to be fed to the aiptasia at least twice or maybe three times. I will have a picture up today or over the next few days to show the progress. I did feed a larger amount the second time than the first so that could also be a reason why more of the aiptasia seem to be gone.

I plan on trying kalkwasser paste and or the lemon juice concoction but I am a little leary of the lemon juice.

New hammer coral and let there be light….

I also added a new hammer coral frag from AQUAPROS that looks really good.

I switched out one of my ATI Blue+ T5 tubes for an ATI Actinic with hopes that the hammer could have a little more fluorescence, which at first glance it seems to have worked.

Another 5 gallon water change, cleaned skimmer and overflow teeth.  I also used the turkey baster to stir up the crud on the live rock and also to deal with some cyano.

I tried Joe’s Juice again on the same rock as before.   As you can see below, most of them except for the three at the bottom are in the rock but I will not know if it worked until tomorrow.  More to come…

Aptasia after the second application of Joe’s Juice

Here is a full tank picture of my 90 gallon taken on 2/9/2013.  I recently upgraded my bulbs from Aquatic Life T5’s to ATI T5’s.  The new bulbs look so much better to me.  More details t0 come about my bulb upgrade in the near future.

90 gallon full tank picture taken on 2/9/13.

I was hopeful that Joe’s Juice would have terminated these nasty little buggers but it looks like, after one try, Aptasia = 1 joes’ juice = 0.

Aiptasia after using Joe Juice. Bummer, I was hoping it would have worked.

I am going to try Joe’s Juice a second time to give it a chance to redeem itself.  There is one on the far bottom left that looks unhealthy now but it is still alive for now.

Today was water change day.  I have been doing weekly water changes for the last month.  Up until a few weeks ago, I did maybe 15 water changes since 2007.  Needless to say, I am seeing a huge growth spurt from my soft corals.  Luckily over those years of no water changes my fish and most of my corals stayed with me.

I have my water changes down to 10 – 15 minutes and another five minutes to clean the skimmer.  If I have to take the lights off the tank, it adds just a couple minutes but overall the whole process is under 30 minutes.  I plan on putting a new image up each week but it takes me longer to setup the camera than anything else.

For at least three years, maybe longer, I have been dealing with a nasty aiptasia outbreak.  I bought a bottle of Joe’s Juice in 2007 or 2008 and it sat on my shelf for that time.  After dusting off the box it came in, I shook it for a long time to get the settlement loose and I started my search and destroy mission.  After fighting with the little applicator, I fed at least 25 aiptasia what I hoped would be their last meal.  I placed the applicator in the mouth and squeezed a good shot into each one.  Most of them retreated deep into the live rock showing nothing but a white power burn. I will have to see how it worked over the next couple days but I am hopeful that they won’t come back.

I still have about 30 more to eradicate but if this works, the time will be worth it.

This skimmer wasn’t too dirty this week and now that I am cleaning it weekly, I do not have to clean the glass as often.