I finally got a chance to borrow the club's par meter to tune my lights. Based on all of the algae growing on my rocks, I would have thought that my lights would be too bright, but they were actually too dim. My ultimate goal is to grow primarily SPS corals, so I've decided to run my lights for 9 hours per day at 45% power. This should give me 200-300 par in most of the tank. Interestingly, because of the way the lights converge and reflect off the glass, there is a hot spot on the sand bed in the front center of my tank, right on top of my gorgonian coral. Perhaps that explains why the gorgonian coral experienced growth while my other corals stalled.

My tank lacks movement. Sea Beast hides in her anemone and the pajamas barely move during the day.

I was original planning on getting a wrasse and a damsel, but then I was talked into getting a midas blenny. And I am so happy I was! This little guy rocks!

Meet Lenny the Blenny and Reneé Wrasse, though I can't take naming credit for these two.

It's been a while since I added any new fish. A few months ago, I tried adding another fish, but the aggression was so intense that I ultimately chose to return the new fish. However, after reading some forum posts and talking to Kenny from High Tide, I decided to get three identical pajama cardinals. This time, the aggression was spread out and the cardinal fish were able to acclimate.

The two largest pajamas have paired up, leaving the smaller one on his own. So, I think Romeo, Juliet, and Lone Ranger are fitting names.

I'm experiencing some uglies, especially on the sand bed. Meet Kermit, the only fish that does any work.

I was originally going to get a cherub angel, but then I saw this majestic African flame-back angel. Meet inhabitant No. 2, Cheddar!

The tank has been running for about a week and a half, so it's time to move Sea Beast and her anemone. After a five-and-a-half-hour drive from Santa Barbara, Sea Beast finally gets to enjoy her new, larger tank.

Moving and setting up the tank was a full day of work, but it went relatively smoothly. Unlike Santa Barbara, there is no need to use RO water, as the SFPUC annual water quality report shows that SF water is nearly perfect as is.

With everything already built and tested, as well as a couple weeks of overlap before my lease expires, I plan to set up the new tank and then move Sea Beast and her anemone after the tank has been running for awhile.

Imagine you had the ability to take a small cube of water out of the ocean; you could observe the cube as if a small block of ocean were inside, but the surface of the cube would be invisible. How would the waves pass through it? When we watch ocean waves at a distance, we see large curves, but if we zoom in to the scale a small fish tank, the arcs of the waves appear flat. If we observed the small cube of water from earlier, we would see the water level rise and fall every 10 seconds or so as a wave passes through.

My design seeks to imitate this natural phenomenon by cyclically pumping the water from the sump into the main display and then letting the water drain back into the sump. However, due to the constraints of pumps and pipes, my wave will only be about 1-inch high and require a longer periodicity of around 20 seconds. 

A float sensor repeatedly triggers the pump to turn on for 8 seconds whenever it detects water. That's it! Simple! No overflow. No special valves.

I decided to make the leap and buy this 40-gallon tank from craigslist. I like the proportions, as well as the lack of vertical brace. And the tank, along with the stand plus some other goodies, was only $50. 

The first step is to drill a single hole for a bulk head. My design only requires one hole, because water will pump into and drain out of the tank through the same pipe. 

After letting the tank sit outside overnight, the bulk head is dry and the glass stands strong. Victory!

In a few months, I will relocate from Santa Barbara to San Francisco. This leaves me with a simple choice: Move my current 15-gallon tank or build a new system from scratch.  The obvious answer for any tank addict like me is to build a new tank. Besides, my clarki clown has outgrown her cube, so I need to upgrade anyway.

I have two goals for this new build: 

1. It must have a sump to hide filtration.

2. It cannot have an overflow, because they are ugly and loud.

Normally, these two goals would conflict, but I have a plan: I'm going to build a bespoke Arudino-powered pump controller that will regulate the flow between the sump and the main display tank, eliminating the need for an overflow.