2008

Despite switching to new dry rock, the Caulerpa managed to find it's way back and quickly covered up the new rock just like it did the old. I didn't take any pictures of the tank until April that year.

April 14, 2008

May 24, 2008

June 7, 2008

Scored a couple Tyree Watermelon Chalices, back when they were one of the only LE chalices.

August 4, 2008

Started having to fight constantly to keep the alkalinity up. I never knew how fast SPS could absorb it out of the water when actively growing. The LPS responded by mild bleaching.

In mid September 2008 Hurricane Ike hit Texas and I went with a crew to work on clean up and rent drying equipment. I was gone for a month and while driving down hit high winds on the highway. I received a call later that day from the person watching the tanks saying the power had gone out and was told they'd call back when it came back on. It was almost two weeks later when power was finally restored and I was sent these pictures of the tank to show the devastation

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 The coral I was most worried about, True Armageddons, gone after two years of healthy growth

Nuclear Greens and Purple Deaths did better than I expected

Most LPS died back to the skeleton, but eventually recovered after months of TLC

Both Watermelon Chalices died early on during the power outage

All SPS were just skeletons when the power came back on

The Duncanopsammia did the best through this tragedy and showed hardly any stress

October 11, 2008

When I got home I cleaned all the death out of the tank, did a few water changes, and moved the now very bleached large Acan lord colony back from the frag tank. It was the only survivor from that tank and I never set that tank back up.

October 18, 2008

Got some new frags from a local frag swap including a couple Prism Favias and a War Coral. I also decided to go back to lighting the tank with the 70w SunPod since I wasn't keeping SPS anymore.

November 10, 2008

I just moved into my new house and the tank moved without any incidents. I added an Ocellaris Clownfish and a Yellowtail Damsel to add a bit of color to the tank.

December 12, 2008

Corals were starting to color back up slowly and algae was thriving from using tap water since the new house doesn't have an RO/DI unit. I also quit using the Hydor Koralia as it was just too much movement for the tank now that it was LPS dominated.