ok, its been a over month since the last blog. I suppose you're all wondering how things are going? No? Just glad I shut up for 5 weeks perhaps?

Well, lets see... no more deaths and no further signs of illness. Thats a bonus. Dory is making a recovery after treatment with metronidazole for hexamita (causing HLLE) which seems the last of her ailments. Fingers crossed, and thats not far short of miraculous.

While I was waiting for the meds I rebuilt the sump baffles from glass. Word of advice, get the glass cut 2mm shorter than you need to allow for exansion and dodgey glaziers' measures. It all fits, water tight and works like a dream. The biggest problem was the drain down to the display tank as it was dragging in air bubbles. I fixed this eventually with a sealed standpipe and a hole drilled to an exact measurement to allow just enough water to flow down the pipe when there is 4cm of water pressure on it. No space for air to get in. This is balanced against the inlet flow from the pump. The joys of an overhead sump

Good news is its been tested and cross tested and the flow rate through the hole increases as the water builds up even by a few cm so it wont overflow (yes, I am touching that wood again). If I was to design the sump again I'd place two drains, one for emergency overflow.

I added a TMC V2-800 skimmer as planned. Had to buy it new though. That draws from the last chamber and delivers to the first adding another 2800lph of flow over the mudbed. Oh yes, I bought nearly £100 of mud too for the main section at the back. Mineral mud and some of the kent biosediment stuff too that was on special. Topped off with a little live sand. You can see in the picture I've used masking tape to mark the acceptable high and low water levels as an early alert should flow in one section change at any point.


I also replaced the main pump for an eheim of slightly higher power and placed it inside an eggcrate box so it could be well hidden under the rocks without getting blocked.


The UV has returned to the display tank with Dory. This pumps from the last section to the 3rd.

Yes that right, Dory is back in the display tank! The humbug damsels remain in quarantine for now.

Other additions are nightlights from ebay:

and you might be able to spot an "Encrusting Leather" Coral which was bought today.


Still to do... I still have more algae than I want, both cyno and hairy so a DIY phosphate reactor is on the cards and I'm playing with the direction of the powerheads. I want to remake the facia of the cabinet for easier access without unscrewing the doors, which should be straight forward enough.

Over the next 4 weeks I need to decide on the humbugs. Then they either go back into the tank or returned to the store.