Now for today proper - it was DISASTROUS. I bought a huge box of lab-grade salt and changed 25% of my tank's water last night (damn these big tanks ... my fingers are red and sore, and my back's about to give way), and decided to do another 25% water change this morning to combat the cyanobacteria. So I turned off both return pumps, one of which supplies the chiller. Later on, after the water change, I switched everything on again, and alas! The return 2 (cum chiller pump) started making odd churning noises and refused to work. So I took it out, disemboweled it, washed it, soaked it .. everything! Still didn't work. Ended up going out and forking out $75 for a (yummy!) 5000L/hr pump! Hopefully my tank's going to get incredible flow.

Soon after I bought the pump, I received a PM from a reef club member about selling me his pump at $25! Grrr ... if only the PM came sooner. And then my mom called. Mass hysteria. Screaming in the background. Water flooding the house.

I must have loosened the piping from return 1 (the working one) while meddling with return 2, and 2500L/hr splashing onto the living room floor is really no joke.

And later on, I found that the new pump I bought to replace return 2 had a really odd plug that's not our typical 3-pin formation. So at 9pm, I risked a quick drive to the hardware store, obvious it was closed. Drove to HarbourFront, and I missed the DIY store by 10 mins!! Arghh ... now my tank will have to go without its chiller for the whole of tomorrow. Then I'll wire up return2, and hopefully (crossing fingers and toes and anything else) it will work. Totally overspent this month. $70 on salt, $75 on the pump.

HarbourFront was amazing ... the extent to which it has changed since a couple of months ago! Shall post a pic soon.