About every 4th time that I refill my RO/DI holding vat (20 gallons) I open the flush valve to purge the RO membrane. This helps to extend the life of the membrane.

Typically you would leave the valve open for about 5 minutes, close the valve and make the RO/DI water. I got side tracked. This morning I went to get water and the holding vat was still empty yet the booster pump was running... then I remembered. The valve was still open.

Going to get a big water bill next month. *sigh*

Finally the replacement recirculation pump for the EuroReef RC500 pump arrived. The pump is a Ehiem SPE4. Drained the skimmer (about 8 gallons of water) gave it a good cleaning. Took apart the remaining SP4x pump and let it soak in vinegar overnight.

The new pump is sooo quiet. The old one sounded like a popcorn machine when the needle wheel chopped up the air bubbles.

It's been about a year since I posted a picture of this fish. I love this little guy. Great color, swims funny, always out and about.

Figures after my recent positive ORP posting that yesterday I found it at 288 which is a sign of a problem and shows one of the assets of monitoring ORP. A rapid sudden drop is the cue to take a close look.

I took a look around yesterday and found my Gold Tear Drop clam dead in its shell and removed it. Today the ORP reading is back to 310.

The tank ORP has settled in the 300 to 325 range which is decent considering that the skimmer has been running at 1/2 its performance waiting for the replacement circulation pump from EuroReef for more than a week.

I expect the ORP to keep creeping upwards as conditions improve.

This is one of the slowest growing Acropora coral I have. This growth is no higher than 3 inches is several years worth of growth without being fragmented. It primarily grow in an encrusting mat which eventually sprouts branches.

The urchins are making a big impact on keep the rocks clean, lots of new coralline growth again in the sections cleaned by the urchins. The rocks were not bad, but new coralline growth had slowed significantly. The urchins eat what they can find opening new settlement places.

EuroReef finally provided a tracking number for the replacement skimmer pump. The e-mail said it would ship in 72 hours, took a week at least it is on the way.

This is another one of the pellet foods I feed as a treat once and a while. I'll included a bit of it in the automatic pellet feeder when I go on vacation.



Picture of what the food crumbles look like.

Another example of an Acropora showing an excellent recovery and new growth.