Spent all the day yesterday changing over from the T-Handle type ball valves to the spigot type. A job well done takes so much time! I changed 15 gallons of water while I was at it, and it drastically dropped my levels of Ca, Mag, and Alk. 400, 1200 and 9.1 respectively. I added enough solution to bring them up, and I'll check again in a few hours. I'm going to shoot for 500, 1400, and 12 for the foreseeable future.

I'm not 100% satisfied with how my tank is looking these...

For the first time I've taken a razor blade to my glass. I'm being careful to avoid scratches. Thing was, almost immediately after cleaning the back glass with a scrubbie, all sorts of tiny stuff finds its way right back onto it.

I could see a few hundred or maybe a thousand spirorbid worms, back there, and kinda wanted to leave them, but after scraping with a blade, I could feel lots of stuff on the glass that I couldn't see.

Have you ever noticed that tiny scratches...

Well, tonight I ordered two Blue Life SPS 14K 150W HQI halide bulbs from Tangster along with some phosphate removal media and carbon.

He raves about these lights, and my nice fixture has 10K bulbs now, which are ready for replacement. I look forward to this 30-60 foot-down color temperature.

When I first joined this forum, I recall reading a few posts to which Tangster replied and couldn't help thinking, "Wow! This guy needs some instruction in how to talk to people."...

Well the mushroom rock I purchased is opening slowly, but about 5 of the 15 or so polyps have fallen off the rock. No problem says I. You see, I have this zip top gallon bag of once-LR rubble in my den. I grab an appropriate piece and get to gluing.

Ten minutes later and a few drops of super glue gel, and I have a brand new fist-sized piece of rock with 5 shrooms on it.

That was yesterday. Today, 4 have fallen off. Oh yeah, I really shouldn't admit that in my mindless...

So here we go. I'm to start a journal with the addition dates of tank inhabitants.

Yesterday the 16th of August, 2008 I purchased a mushroom-covered rock and a hammer coral. The hammer is a single bone skeleton, emerging much like a tulip on a stem. At the end of the stem where it widens, approximately a third is dead, but the living portion almost covers this up. It has nice color, the tentacles have good form. I fed it some cyclops, which I bought with the two corals.
...