About 10 days ago, I got the Seneye Monitor to work with pH and Nh3. Current readings:
I am satisfied with the Fluval 2.0 light for now, not really focusing on reefs or corals for now, though the par looks good with this light (50 - 150).
Not sure why the pH keeps dropping, I kept having to apply Seachem's Marine Buffer (500g) which is quite effective in raising the pH, I think not much side effect either, i.e. Alkalinity, etc. Since this product contains calcium, magnesium, strontium and many more. So far, Aquaridise has the best deal $16.99 for 500g. Though, $13.99 at TheFishRoom.Net with free shipping on all orders over $79, so I'll have to get like a live coral from them or something.
As for the reefs, only 2 anemones left: Green (tip) long tentacle & purple corkscrew long tentacle. I noticed that the ultra mini carpet has disappeared today (melted or eaten by crabs?), thought it was surviving. But the temperature was probably too high (81+ degrees), still waiting for my cooler to arrive. The leather finger's gone. Green Pipe Organ's basically gone. Free frags are either gone or bleached dead looking, I kind of give up hope on them, nothing I know to do anyway.
There are 3 feather dusters. I don't know if I already had the 3rd one all along or they reproduced the third one in my tank. One independent, the other two next to each other. But the "roots" are 3 with one of them appear to be extending with new growth.
One emerald crab seems to grow rather large pinchers.
In 3 more days, my tank would have cycled about a full month, which is what conventionally considered as a stable reef tank. That's when I consider snails that cleans up possible algae on the glass, rocks, etc. And maybe slowly considering corals again, which I started too early in the game.
Waiting for the refugium kit (already got the ACKE LED Full Spectrum light) & plants to arrive also.
Current water test states:
- Hanna Checker Alkalinity: 300+ (too high)
- Ammonia Alert Monitor looks zero (yellowish) to me.
- Strip Test: Nitrate quite high at around 40 (waiting for my reef plants to arrive to eat up all these), Nitrite rather low (0-0.5), Alkalinity over 300, pH around 8.
So the challenges are:
- maintain a good high pH (8.3) - hard to do this without raising the Alkalinity too high.
- maintain a good low temperature in summer (<78F) - should be resolved when cooler arrives.