they would all keep a reef tank.

nerds is nerds

I think anyone who wouldn't is just downright crazy.

NEW STUFF!!! Pictures to come (although one of the items will 20L as a QT tank).

Photos might take a while, since everything is PO'ed at the moment, and not very easy to capture in pictures. So, I'll break the suspense and just list off what I got today:

Purple Rhodactis w/ plating coraline algae
Zoas
Peppermint Shrimp

and...









A red clown goby.

Well, tomorrow will be the move day for several things. The tri-color colony, the duncan colony, purple cap and MP10 will all be moved to the 29g. The red clown goby will stay in the 20L for a week or two, to make sure it doesn't have any parasites or infections. Pictures will follow.


Oh, and for those who have followed the cryptic sub-thread.... I'm meeting some of her "associates" tonight, though nothing is "official" between us yet. Should be interesting.

i'm not seeing the pics...

Change of plans, unfortunately for the pictures. The vet is coming over tonight, and my brother decided to stop over and take me out for lunch, so I'm working in overdrive to get everything done I needed to before she gets here. That meant no trip to Lowes to get the putty, so I can't mount anything in the 29g. The trip to Lowes will be tomorrow morning, so the coral move will happen then. After that, there will be lots of photos taken and posted!

I think a picture of the vet is order too!

Ooooh, sounds pretty cool!
I've never heard of a Red Clown Goby before, looking forward to seeing that one!



Yip.

*wolf whistle*

I'll have to see what I can do. I don't even have a picture yet, but my b-day is coming up, and that always involves the taking of pictures.



Neither had I! I was very pleased to find one at the LFS. He's still in the 20L, but I haven't seen him lately. There's a ton of room to hide in that tank, so I'm sure I'll find him when I start the conversion process today.





Well, we're getting even more snow here today. Looks like another 6 to 9 inches in the next 24 hours. Yipee.

I'm going to dig my car out after lunch and finally make that trip to Lowes for the putty.

You should invite the vet over again tonight

What happened to the road trip to meet her friends.

Oh and nice tank

I had thought about that last night, but we're both a bit behind in our studying, and the bar exam is next week for me. So, we talked about having a "study date" later in the week.



Well, the main friend we were supposed to go decided to leave for the weekend, so that ended that. However, one of her other friends was in town for a b-day, so we ended up going out with her and her vet school friends saturday night. It was a pretty good time, and I've been told I've gained the approval of her friends.



Thanks! I've managed to siphon quite a bit of sand out of the 20L, but it took a lot more water than I thought it would. I'm making up another batch to try to finish the job tomorrow. I decided against the trip to Lowes, after seeing how bad the roads were. I watched a bit of slip and slide on the road, and decided that I really don't need someone running into my car right now. If it gets better, I'll go tonight; if not, that too can move to tomorrow.

So now, I get to enjoy the wonderful worlds of corporate law, criminal law, and criminal procedure. Yay!

Oh, and DH: If I remember right, you were thinking about an MP10, but were worried about the noise. I just moved mine down to the 29 (in my living room) and I can't hear it over the plumbing and skimmer noises.


I also forgot to mention that I did spot the red clown goby while I was working on the 20L. I spotted him swimming around the rockwork, but I couldn't get him into a position where I could get a clear picture. I figured he was spooked enough as it was, so I wasn't going to make it worse. After tomorrow's siphoning and rock removal, it should be a bit easier to get a pic.

Are you moving the sand from one tank to the other? If so just use a cup or the like to scoop it out. Works much easier.


Oh yes study for the bar and then have her over after the test for a nice dinner and a movie. Maybe more snow will be in the forecast

Nah, I'm just getting rid of it, because the sand had become a nutrient trap, I think. Since the 29g has plenty of sand, and the 20 is becoming a frag tank, I had no need for the sand. Although, I think I might save some water next time by doing that, since I've already removed the vast majority of sand. Then, I'll just siphon out the little bits that remain. Or, I'll leave it and just siphon it out progressively at each subsequent WC. Hm... I like that idea.




The timing is actually going to be quite nice. The bar ends next Thursday, and my birthday the Saturday after the bar. Should be a fun / drunk weekend.

That's what I keep telling myself every day....

Ok, so here are some really bad pictures of my cool new stuff.







A bigfoot quality picture of the RCG:




And, the obligatory snow picture:

I almost forgot, but I finally placed the order today for all of the plants. It was the last day for the $25 off, so I'm glad I remembered. I also tossed in an order for some Sage seeds, because I just love how they smell like lemons! I'm also going to dig up some ferns from my family's wooded acres, and my parents have a connection where they live to some really nice trees that I might plant this spring as well. Now that I'm out of law school, I'm really looking forward to spending more time outside working on my landscape, mini-vineyard, and the raspberries. I'm also building a stone patio this spring. I managed to get all of the stone for free! It probably weighs in at about 1.5 to 2 tons worth of stone, so it was quite the find!

Wow, two pieces of bad news in one day...

First, the actinic lights went out in my TEK fixture. I did kind of bump it recently, so I'm hoping that it's just a loose wire. Also, the switches for each ballast have a light in the switch, and both are currently glowing. Now sure if that means anything or now, but I'm going to tear it apart tomorrow to find out. At least the important lights (aquablue special and the Fiji) are still operational.

Second, my blue digi (the one that originally had the crabs) is continuing to act up.



What's going on with this? Should I frag off the unaffected portions?

I've posted this in the lighting thread, but thought I'd also post this here:

A few days ago, after the fixture was jarred, the actinic ballast stopped working. I opened it up today, made sure each connection was firm, and then I put all of the bulbs back. Then, the actinics fired right up, and the daylights refused to fire. Then, the daylights started to flicker a bit, as I was playing with them. So, I removed all bulbs again, re-firmed the connections, and daylights worked, and actinics were out. After a bit more playing, I also noticed that turning on the actinic switch would cause a bit of a flicker in the daylights, when they were both working at the same time.

So, I carefully put the fixture back together, and I got all 4 bulbs back in operation. This involved twisting each bulb a few times. As I tipped it over to place it over the tank, the bulbs all go out. So, I re-twist each one, and back on they come. Next, I put the plastic cover back in, and out go the actinics. I fix them, and then out go the daylights. Finally, and very carefully, I got all four bulbs working over the tank.

The question is: WTF? Do I just have a lot of bad connections? Have the endcaps gone bad? Or is this a ballast problem that just happens to temporarily correct coincidentally with the twisting of the bulbs?

Since the lights work from time to time I would for now rule out a ballast problem and search for loose connections and\or pinched wires that may be getting wiggled in the twisting of the bulbs. It is hard to believe that all of the end-caps have gone bad at the same time. Also could be a loose ground wire. They usually attach to the reflector so I would look at that too. How intense was this "jarring" of the fixture?

what unit are you using again?

Hm, I'll have to check the ground wires. They are attached to the fixture, rather than the reflector, so I didn't come across them in my first go-round with it. It was nothing that hasn't happened before. My lighting is a bit jury-rigged, essentially just sitting on top of some wood, which itself is built over the rim of the tank. Because of a mod done by the previous owner, the one bank of endcaps is exposed to the water surface. To compensate, I put a piece of plexi under the fixture, with the weight of the fixture holding it in place. Anyways, what happened was that I was working on the tank, the plexi slipped, and the end result was that the plexi fell into the water, and the fixture was jarred, with the side catching on the wood, preventing it from contacting the water. The bulbs didn't seem out of the ordinary then (I didn't pay much attention though), but I certainly noticed the next morning that the actinics were out.



It's a TEK 4x24.

why are you swinging your fixture around at things causing it to jar?


anger mgmt. imo

I still can't believe you asked him about his "unit"!

he's yet to prove he has one

She likes it.



Trying to take away all of my fun, eh?




Tell me about it!



Hey now, it's too early in the day to be questioning my manhood. Thankfully, I've got someone who's soon to be an expert in anatomy as a witness.


Oh, and I think this makes for page 100!!

pg. 20 for me, lol

but congrats!

Ha!! He's gonna prove his manhood by going to the vet!!!

You are an animal MJ!

Is he going to the vet because he's hung like a....


never mind.

Thanks!

Dang, that must make for some VERY long pages!

Well, this is certainly one way of sticking it to the man

Suicide Manifesto of the Guy who flew into the building housing the IRS in Austin, TX

"We're as mad as hell, and we're not going to take this anymore."



Howard Beale

I'm just waiting for someone like what's-his-face on MSNBC to accuse him of being a Tea-Bagger, and evidence of the vast right-wing/racist conspiracy. Of course, the guy is made about a lack of health care reform, and quotes the communist creed, but still, I'm expecting Tea-Bag comments by the MSM by the end of the day.

It will probably come from somewhere if not MSNBC like maybe Wolf Blitzer.

Haha true. I'm surprised it hasn't shown up as a thread in the Lounge. HD must actually be busy with something.



Oh, and any ideas WTF is up with my blue digi? It's gotten worse since that picture. I'm thinking of fragging off the good parts.

uh oh! frag it!

That's been my reaction. The tissue death (I guess) started from the areas those f*@$!^& crabs ate. Looks like I'll need to get some plumbers putty and superglue tomorrow and get fraggin. I'm hoping that will prevent further death. Nothing else in the tank seems to be having problems, and whatever is wrong seems to be progressive.

i suppose you could always give it a good dip

Lugols?

Hey all. So did you get a chance to work on the light again? Any progress? Is the affected digitata under the lights in question? Do you think any of the problem is related to the light or lack thereof?

So from the picture it appears that the may be some bleaching going on down at the base of the large branches, is that the problem you are talking about? And the "bleaching" is progressing?
Where there should be polyps coming out is there still any color at those spots?

Sorry for all the questions just trying to get a lay of the land so to speak.

Yeah, the digi is in the 29g, with the light at issue. I haven't had a chance to work on it anymore (these are the last days before the bar, which is Tuesday), but the daylight bulbs have always been working (other than the short stint today). So the PAR loss from the Blue + bulbs shouldn't have had an impact.



It's more like tissue flaking off at the terminal edges. From what I've seen with other corals, when there is bleaching, there is still PE. With this, there is no PE from the affected areas. There is no color in those areas either, other than a tint of slime or some such. It has progressed to effect nearly the entire left half, with exceptions existing at tips.



It's no problem. Anything to aid in finding a solution or remedy.

Sound like STN then and you should do the frag gig IMO. Get the good parts away from the nastiness, and do a dip on them after fragging. Hope you can save some of it.

Oh yeah it is recommended that you frag at about 25mm (almost and inch) ahead of the affected portion.

I guess this teaches me to buy a colony from even a good LFS, rather than getting it from a local (or NR) reefer. Looks like fragging it on the agenda for tomorrow morning.

I haven't had too many problems with RTN from wild colonies of store coral except Millepora. I had tried three different time from two different store. It was not until I started to buy aqua-cultured from local reefers that I had success with them. The store ones always RTN'd.

Go figure huh?

Very weird indeed! Mine was supposedly an aqua-cultured colony too, but it doesn't much look like any digi I've ever seen. Maybe it was some odd ball wild SPS that was just labeled an aqua-cultured digi.

If the frags make it through, the good news is that I'll have some frags to share!

Oh, and there's post 2000!