Youz guyz are crazay.......









Looks the same as the last one, honestly, but I'll see about taking another one.

I dun care if it looks da same...I still likey

nano-paul...why u holdin' out ?

I never get bored with photos by those (like you, Lalani) who are so good with photography! We're getting a new camera soon....I hope I can take pictures half as good as you

I know it's more than just a camera...it takes skill, and you have it! thanks for the new photos. Keep them coming!

Thanks! What camera are you getting??

FTS (right-click and 'view image' for larger size)




Ooooh, and the PD polyp is starting to open up fully!

Still haven't had a chance to play with the scape... or rather, I haven't taken the time to do it yet.

Nice shots!

At some point we are going to get this: Canon EOS REBEL T1i 18-55mm IS My husband is the photographer in the family. He has a non-digital Canon camera...but he wants a nice digital one. He's going to have to show me how to take decent photos of my reefs

Oh sure, everybody gets a better camera than mine.

Congrats

Thanks! I don't remember what kind of camera you have...but it takes (you take) amazing shots!

Canon Digital Rebel XT. It does what I need it to do.

sweet pics. the tank is looking awesome!!

That's probably the most important point people seem to skip over when they talk about their gear. Sure, it may be sweet-ass, but if it doesn't serve the purpose you got it for what's the point? Part of why I've not bothered upgrading from the 20D yet - it does literally everything I want it to at least reasonably well.

Thanks!


Exactly!

Oh, I haven't forgotten about you.

I'd hope not! That usually happens AFTER congress

Youz gots some nice schtuff lani! There's a frag swap next weekend so I get to blow all my money on nice frags to load my tank up with, not doing what i did at the last oen though, which was ooh, that's nice I'm gonna buy that then i get home and after a few months i'm like why'd i waste money on that? I need to make a,list of stuff I want and only buy that but it ain't happening. I deffinatly need to get soem caps after mine all died cept the red oen which is on it's way out, danr low bioload and vodka dosing. causeing corals to lose all their color.

Geez, try a little brevity next time.


Thanks, Nick! Sorry about the troubles.

I don't do anything in short form. ANYTHING.

Even my reef building is unnecessarily long-winded! And indecisive. Really badly. You had much experience with growth potential with T5HO vs. Metal Halide stuff, ma'am?

I SAID BREVITY DAMNIT
Ah, I'm the wrong person to ask about lighting differentials, sorries. I just wing the whole operation!

Awwwww, I know. I jus' love messin' with you!



Well goshdarnit! Screw it, I'm gonna run my thing entirely on solar power. Why? Because I'm a freaking trendsetter, that's why!

Thanky, Richie.


lol, I see that. I'll respond when I get a chance.



YCG decided to go carpet surfing some time late last night or early this morning......... Found his semi-crunchy body on the floor this morning. RIP, Frank.

Purdy.

Guess we don't have to worry 'bout nibbling them sps polyps anymore....

sowwy about Frank lanlan.

Thanks, guys.. and yeah, Richie.. won't have to worry about a nipper now.
Thinking about what schooling fish to add now...

Oh, salifert test kits came in today and I just now tested the water. dKH of 6.4 and calcium is 450...... that's not bad, right?

Hmmm, if your alkalinity test kit is the same as mine (Salifert Profitest) then they're calibrated to +/- 0.3dKH... I'd say you're probably still kinda low (even if your levels are almost identical to NSW) for SPS, I'd try bump it up to about 9 for the sake of safety.


Sorry about the YCG too you could get a few Magnificent Firefish which should band together if you want an interesting group...

Yum!

6.4 dKH is too low, you really need something greater than 8.0 dKH.

My tank likes the range 9-10.0 dKH and it starts to looks crappy if it dips into the low 8's or into the 11's.

Agreed. I keep mine in the 9-10 dkH also.

Bah......... how do I raise it? Or are you guys going to give me the ol 'Search, noob'... *sigh*

LOL! Search noob!

Ok, now that's out of the way: you can use baking soda.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

I bought my dosing stuff from BulkReefSupply b/c it was relatively inexpensive and I didn't feel like running down the Calcium and Magnesium flakes.

By "dosing stuff" I mean I bought only the powders. I didn't bother with the gallon jugs and measuring cups.

I split the powders up when I received them (using a balance) into 1L packets so I didn't have to have 3x1g jugs in my living room.

Haha, thanks, Isaac.
Looks like I've got some reading to do...!

Sorry to hear about the YCG

nice pix Lani...SPS is complicated lol

Thanks, chika.
And ya... but I've been thinking about maybe getting a clam too, so I do need to sort out these param issues. Plus, I haven't checked the alk in my other tanks, but I'm sure that (combined with dirty RO/DI water) is the culprit for my recent anemone losses.
I may just try adding baking soda for now, and keep an eye on the calcium instead of doing the entire 2-part thing.... Don't tell Fosi.

You don't have to track the Ca.

If you are low on Ca, your SPS/LPS will just stop growing. If it gets too high (especially if your Mg is also low), it precipitates. Both of these are fixable and won't kill your corals.

If you have low alk, they die and if you have high alk they die. Therefore, alk is the most important parameter of the Ca-Mg-Alk complex.

Also, since high-pH probably isn't an issue in your tanks, you might want to think about making your own washing soda as it talks about in the article. All you have to do is bake your baking soda for a few hours and you have a supplement that will bump the pH up rather than down.

Same with my tank....I can almost tell by the corals look and the color of the coralline whether my Alk is too high or too low.




Although you can probably get away with monitoring both Alk and Ca and not dosing 2-part, it's really not all that hard to get into a 2-part dosing scheme once you figure out how much your tank consumes in a given time period. When I moved from my BC29 to the 20H, in order to figure out the difference in consumption, I just tested daily for a week to figure out what and how much was being consumed. Now I just drop in 4mL of Ca and Alk and dose 5mL of Mg twice and week and I'm done. It's really pretty easy once you figure out how much is being utilized by the coral and tank.

Now I just test once or twice a week to make sure I'm keeping up.

Ok, I did a little extra testing. We know that the tank water is: dKH 6.4 and calcium is 450.

I tested new saltwater (instant ocean saltmix) that's been mixing for almost two days and it has tested: dKH 12 and calcium 350.

Is it safe to assume that if I simply perform several large water changes with the new sw, the levels should balance out?

I keep my alk between 7-8dkh, why? I use nsw and it needs to be a bit lower to dose vodka or a carbon source.

Take a nap, jerk.

You wanna run that by me again?
Do I need to send you back to your home planet, small alien?



Agreed, Alk is the param that I REALLY keep an eye on.
As others have said, I aim for the 9-10 dKh range.

One other observation from today......... my female mandarin seems to be trying to court her reflection in the corner of the tank. She keeps swimming up and down, rubbing against the glass..... Should I get her a boytoy?

yes, get her a man.

Or just leave it alone. The alk should come back down on it's own; probably won't take more than 48 hours.

Looks like you need to get a handle on your dosing. Are you using the reef chem calculator? So long as you accurately report the volume of your system, it can help you hone in on the dose you need to get where you want.

Meh, I dunno Kim, sounds like she wants a girl- toy

lesbeyan fish ftw! I think she needs a male to play with, two females would kill eachother.

I fall asleep for a day and then wake up and there's lesbian fish. wat. Did I fall into some kind of twilight zone while I was asleep or what?


Also... does this mean that all female types are now raging homos?

Dagnabit, Isaac, you just want me to starting messing with my tank.
I'll see what I can do..



She's still doing it too... Took a break for a little while, but is at it again.


lol, you don't have to worry about that!
Welcome back to the waking world.

You first. Then fish.

Working on it.

But I do worry! Atop my primary list of concerns is if I've awoken each morning to a world where all women are what would be described as "benders"!


And thank you, dear. Welcome back to... idkno, um, being supercool et al?