The 400g reef has been up for 30 days. Water quality looks excellent. The fish are happy in their new home, swimming out in the open the way I hoped they would, contrary to their previous home filled with corals. I added over 20 new frags to the tank, including a couple of pieces I picked up at Next Wave last week.

The blog section for this site is no longer editable, once Blogger changed their format. Thus, Melev's Reef is going to have to get an overhaul to allow for blog entries once again. The shop section needs a better cart added, and the site overall needs some major updates, including a new section dedicated to my new reef tank and all of its associated gear.

For now, the easiest way to find all of my blog entries on Reef Addicts is to follow this link: http://www.reefaddicts.com/blog.php/2-melev If you become a member of ReefAddicts, you can subscribe via email notification to all my blog entries and never miss an update. To the right of any blog entry, the option to Subscribe to this blog is a simple click.

Here's a recent picture of the new tank:

Seven days ago, I discovered my carpet was wet where you enter my home. Immediately I checked the angled tank and the plumbing in the closet. Everything was dry. Feeling the carpet as I backed up, I discovered that it was wet all the way back to my reef tank. I opened the left wooden column of the woodwork only to see soaked wood and my tank dripping from the upper left corner. I thought I'd try to save it. Here's the information about that process: The 280g reef is leaking

Last Sunday was the 4th of July, and a few friends came over to help transfer all of the livestock out of the tank before the seam let go. We worked late into the night, and were able to save everything. 100g troughs were set up and plumbed into the sump to provide all the filtration. The live rock was put in a separate barrel with a skimmer to avoid any cycling issues.

In the meantime, a new tank is in the planning stages: My next tank...

I'm going to miss my beautiful reef which was at its peak, but without a trustworthy aquarium, I had no choice but to pull it apart. I'll be sharing pictures of that process and the temporary set up soon. If you'd like to donate to the reef fund, a friend of mine felt you should have that option. I'm happy if you buy something from my reef shop for your tank.

Much to my delight, I'm happy to say that my new website got some serious love. You can read all about it here:

That didn't take long! Welcome to the new site.

The matching podcast went up today, which is available on iTunes.

Reef Addicts Central Podcast

Time for that huge upgrade.

Is it time to change your RO/DI filters? I date my system each time they are changed out, to help me keep track. They should be changed every six months, so I'm actually a month late in doing so. Whoops. However, the TDS reads zero, so there's no reason to worry, right?

Wrong.



After turning off the water source and opening the valve after the system to bleed off the pressure within, I removed the prefilter set (sediment & two carbon cartridges). After removing the middle carbon, which is the first in line after the sediment, smell it. If it seems strongly of chlorine, it has done its job in protecting the membrane. It'll smell like a properly maintained swimming pool, basically. Changing these filters out like clockwork will extend the life of the membrane, since chlorine eats away at it.

If your area's water has chloramines, one of the best defenses is 20" of carbon and 20 minutes of contact time. To achieve that, you need two 10" carbon filters and a 75gpd membrane. That works out timing-wise. If your first carbon is spent, the second one won't last much longer. Another reason to change these out regularly. You can purchase a chloramine test kit and measure the water after the filters prior to the membrane to determine the carbon lifespan, or err on the side of caution and change them out more frequently if you wish.

Looking at these two carbons, note how the right one is yellowing. That's to be expected - it was, after all, the one that reeked of chlorine.



Here's the prefilter set, which I sell in my Reef Shop.



The new filters were installed, and the water turned back on to flush out the system of air and the first burst of water for a few minutes. Because of the way my system is set up, the DI resin doesn't get wasted. I make drinking water from a Tee fitting prior to the DI section.

If your spouse has a label maker, use it. If you don't have a spouse, buy one. LOL



The label maker lets you date when bulbs need changing, media has been replaced, or filters installed. You can mark gear under your tank or in your fish room for when you need to leave your reef to a tank sitter during a vacation away from home.

Label the RO/DI system with the new date, and you're done.



The DI will be changed when the TDS begins to rise, probably around 5ppm. For now, it continues to read zero, so there's no reason to waste it/replace it.

Labels: filters, ro/di, rodi

Fort Worth has been buried under a lovely blanket of snow. Probably about 6 to 8" worth over the past 48 hours, but enough to cause chaos to our city because we are simply not used to getting more than 1" of snow each year. With all the beauty of it around us, power has gone out to 33,000 yesterday and as of today, 206,000! Myself included.

So I wanted to share my experience so far, which I compiled on Reef Addicts as an article. Check it out:

A generator isn't just an option - it's a must to protect your reef

I'm happy to report that my reef has done well so far, but I'm ready for the power to come on so my home isn't so darn cold!

Labels: generator

Shameless plug for my new site Reef Addicts. :)

Reef Addicts has a contest and you can win a Reefkeeper Elite Net controller with all the associated components.



If you've not checked out my new site yet, here's the link: http://www.reefaddicts.com


Also, the first podcast of the new site is up, click the artwork below to learn more:

Reef Addicts is a brand new community-based site. For the past eight months, it has been a dream of mine, something I wanted to develop in the proper way to provide good usable content to hobbyists around the world. Different from Melev's Reef, this new site welcomes your interaction and values your input.

With this new site comes a new podcast that releases on the 10th of each month. If you've been following on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, you've gotten a few hints of what it's about, and for those of you that have not, here's the link to the site:

http://www.reefaddicts.com

The logo is visible from the front page of this site.


This site isn't going anywhere, have no fear. I will still be available, as will my Reef Shop. In 2010, expect to see more products added. Additionally, you'll find me over on Reef Addicts, as well as Facebook, Twitter and the official YouTube channel. Yes, you can subscribe to all of them and always stay in touch with the latest updates from your friends everywhere.

Also, I just got an email stating that melevsreef was nominated as "Recommended Reading" for and by the users of TheReefTank.com, so that link is now visible as well, replacing the chalkboard you saw previously.







What a great way to start off the new decade!!

A few new corals have been purchased over the past couple of months, and images will be posted soon. November was a very busy month for me as DFWMAS had a number of events take place... my job as membership coordinator keeps me on my toes... and of course preparing for the club functions to help them run smoothly. I even had the opportunity to visit a couple of clubs, and will be heading to Houston next weekend for their Dec 12th meeting to talk about Reef Photography.

And unfortunately for the past few months I've had some major back pain that stopped me from doing a lot of online stuff, like answering your questions. My focus was only to do what I absolutely had to, while seeing a chiropractor three times a week to hopefully get myself back to normal. After five weeks of various treatments, I am feeling better and returning to my normal routine. Those of you that felt ignored - I apologize. My health comes first, so that I can be here in the future. :)

Speaking of the future, a new website is surfacing very soon. Here's the link:



Become a fan & tell your addict friends so that more information can be released before the official start date.

From September 25 - 27, 2009, over 1,100 hobbyists from across the nation and abroad flew in to enjoy this year's Marine Aquarium Conference of North America. And in record time, all the pictures have been edited and uploaded to my site.

If you weren't able to attend this year, this is what you missed: MACNA XXI

This is what I came home with.

Labels: macna