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msscha's 24 gallon office cube


msscha

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In the mood for pictures

 

Nothing much to say -- just thought I'd get some new pics posted. I will wait a couple of weeks until the salinity issue evens out before adding more shrimp. I didn't care for crabs in the tank, but I really liked the shrimp! The Trimma has been picking off the rocks today -- kind of cool to watch; glad that it is adjusting to tank well. Had to glue blastos down -- again. This is the trouble with slopes -- I think I need to invest in putty. Also, turns out the mollusks on the side are still alive! When I stuck my hand in, they moved; first time in weeks I'd seen it. I have a bit of thready, red macro just starting to grown again -- yeah! The red emerald and turbo had eaten that to nothing. Something is eating the seaweed, though! It lasts a couple of days, I come in, and it's gone with no residue visible in the tank. Could be snails, could be urchin, I'd guess it is both :).

 

Toadstool -- lower flow has it standing upright again which I really like

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Duncans swaying in the breeze

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Red Macro on Mollusk

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Tank Scene

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Urchin -- can't believe how freakin' spiny that thing looks :o !

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Cerith -- shy, difficult to get pic of with body visible

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Acan from front and side

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Feather Duster in Mouth of Clam -- ha ha!! Looks like it's sticking its tongue out

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Tubipora -- all fat and extended -- only time I'd seen it do this

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Rain

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Trimma

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Astrea in the Garden

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PITA Day

 

Did my normal water change today, and got ready to install the new loc lines to split the water flow only I GOT THE WRONG SIZE :rant: -- I never measured or questioned the LFS assumption that it was 1/2 inch b/c their 14bc is 1/2 inch. Mine is 3/4. Not happy about this, but this is nobody's fault but my own, no matter how much I want to b*tch at someone!! Also moved the chem-pure elite to chamber one, took out some bioballs to rinse and basically just made a cloudy mess of the tank. The bioballs had hardly anything on them, so clearly weren't requiring care. Then, in another fit of unthinking stupidity, when I took out the mag float, I attached the two sides so I wouldn't lose track of the halves -- you see the dumbf@ckery of this, right? Now, the outside portion is wet with salt water, a fact I was immediately aware of when I used it to clean the glass. I moved the hairy mushroom to a new spot, and had to fish (ha ha) the krazy glue out of the garbage after remembering that I'd thrown it out yesterday. Managed to squeeze enough out to attach the frag, after removing the plug. We'll see. Of course, while doing this, I use my left hand (isn't everyone training their brains to avoid dementia by insisting on ambidextrous behavior?) to pick the frag out of the water and very nearly throw the thing against the wall when Bozette goes after the diamond in the wedding ring -- scared the crap out of me omgomgomg! The stupid fish then circles my right hand like a freaking shark :ninja: looking for that sparkly thing that she JUST MUST kill -- she clearly needs to star in a Quentin Tarantino movie. And the trimma has decided it wants to spend the day hanging out in the dark under the cave instead of in front where I can see it.

 

I want a beer.

 

Blasto Mountain

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My favorite hitchhiker

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This ricordea is only this pretty blue when it is all closed up and ticked off. It spent the night on its face, right up again the stem of the duncan and has been withdrawn and spitting since.

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Top Shot

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Pretty pictures!!!! I especially like blasto mountain!!!!

 

How are you attaching the loc line? That's my biggest dilemma right now on doing the same modification.

Thank you! I am just switching out the "nozzle/head" that is connected to the outflow tube (sorry -- I have no idea what the actual vocabulary is!) with a y-shaped splitter piece, two pieces of 6" loc line (may not need the whole length on both sides), and a second head. The pics are below. I can't get the "head" disconnected. They were incredibly difficult to put together, and my arthritis is flaring (how sad is that!), so I can't get it back off. LFS was cool, though -- said they'd give a bit of trade credit b/c they don't have any 1/2" in.

 

locline.bmp

nozzle.bmp

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Oh cool...thanks for the detailed explanation and pictures! I never realized this but my outflow nozzle has a ball attachment as well. I never tried to separate it though...hmmm....may have to experiment with that on Sunday (my w/c day).

 

Hopefully I can figure out how to detach it easily without breaking it :lol:

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Oh cool...thanks for the detailed explanation and pictures! I never realized this but my outflow nozzle has a ball attachment as well. I never tried to separate it though...hmmm....may have to experiment with that on Sunday (my w/c day).

 

Hopefully I can figure out how to detach it easily without breaking it :lol:

What I do is grip the main section from the top, holding onto the wall. The wall can get ripped out if too much force is used!

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What I do is grip the main section from the top, holding onto the wall. The wall can get ripped out if too much force is used!

Turns out I was wrong about the size -- the 1/2 inch is correct. I just need to either push harder or take water flow pipe thingy out of the tank, shove hard to get the loc line piece on, then re-attach. The owner of the LFS actually volunteered to come to my office and do it for me! Very sweet :closedeyes:

 

haha. i'm putting this in my siggie :wub:

Lol! The trio is no longer around, tho...

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Turns out I was wrong about the size -- the 1/2 inch is correct. I just need to either push harder or take water flow pipe thingy out of the tank, shove hard to get the loc line piece on, then re-attach. The owner of the LFS actually volunteered to come to my office and do it for me! Very sweet :closedeyes:

That was nice of the owner :happy:

 

I can't wait to see how this mod works on your tank!

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Lol! The trio is no longer around, tho...

oh :mellow:

i still like it, i kinda(sorta :mellow: /really :huh: /it-was-almost-all-i-listened-to :P:D ) grew up on a steady diet on jobro, so i whenever i see references around i love it :lol:

Edited by ~LadyBug~
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Where have all the limpets gone?

 

I was reading the April 2011 Advanced Aquarist this morning -- the article was on disturbance as a means of species re-distribution (part of ecological theory). For some reason, it made me realize that I haven't seen a single live limpet in my tank for weeks. I had many hh limpets when I first got my tank...at least 2 good sized ones and half a dozen little ones. I wonder what happened?

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Thats the craziest live rock I've ever seen. Do they ship that stuff on the east coast?!

My LFS gets it locally -- from the Tampa area. Then, they bring it back here. This rock was purchased sight-unseen, freshly harvested, which meant "instant" reef but also way more biodiversity than I'd anticipated! This worked well for me b/c my tank is at the office, and tho I spent way too many hours of tax-payer $$ the first few months it was up, all in all, I really wanted something faster than when starting with cured live rock. But I love the colors -- the mix of coralline, sponges, and tunicates is fantastic. There's this awesome strip of bright orange sponge running the rim of one piece of rock that can only be seen from the side: I am hoping it spreads, b/c it seriously perks everything up!

 

Your photos are really good. That's nice so you can show off your good-lookin' tank :)

Tee hee hee -- I have a secret photo-taking weapon -- a magnifying glass! Seriously, I picked up a 4" magnifying glass off of Amazon for $5. It makes the macro setting on my cheap-ass, old, dropped-and-only-slightly broken Kodak point-and-shoot work much better. The magnifying glass also allows me to get all geeky when trying to see things in the tank :P

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Tee hee hee -- I have a secret photo-taking weapon -- a magnifying glass! Seriously, I picked up a 4" magnifying glass off of Amazon for $5. It makes the macro setting on my cheap-ass, old, dropped-and-only-slightly broken Kodak point-and-shoot work much better. The magnifying glass also allows me to get all geeky when trying to see things in the tank :P

I've been thinking about picking one up as well! I've heard of others using that same trick :happy:

 

I have an old magnifying glass. When I say old...I mean old! It has scratches on it and all. It's great for just looking but wouldn't be ideal for using with a camera.

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Mod FAIL.

 

Is there more to day? The Oceanic BC does not have standard size tubes. They are 1/2", but the shape is not like loc line, so I could not get the pieces on. I nearly destroyed the standard nozzle, and may have to order a new one. I tried rigging something from pieces the lfs gave me, but they didn't fit, and even when I stuck the discharge nozzle on with a shim of plastic, the flow through the tubes was so weak as to be non-existent. Right now, the flow seems reduced, too, although there is gentle waving. I hate proprietary pieces. I think I am going to go for a stronger pump, though. I'd like to see more action than I currently have (bad pun ;)), but not as much as the koralia. Oh well.

 

Then, I need to stop fiddling for a while. Just let everything be. I'm thinking of dosing once a week with a reef accelerator -- adds a bit of calcium, iodine, magnesium, strontium. Just a bit. And I bought a nano-reef book by Chris Brightwell yesterday -- woo hoo! Read a delightful article on hermit crabs that almost made me want to get one -- but no, I'd rather have shrimp.

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I'm thinking about dosing something for coral growth as well. So far I've just been using water changes. I need to break down and finally test periodically for calc and mag too.

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I bought some locline about 2 weeks ago and have been to annoyed with the flatworms in my tank to even try and install it. Can't remember what size i got, probably 1/2 inch, when i look at it it looks too small but maybe it will fit.

 

I know that i accidentally hit the outflow nozzle and knocked it off a while back and couldn't get it to stay back on. So i used water weld and stuck the stupid thing in place, means i can't rotate it like i could before but at least it's on there.

 

Nice photos btw. And i'm glad Bozette didn't kill the diamond.

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And i'm glad Bozette didn't kill the diamond.

Lol! I'm thinking of video-taping it :P

 

So, it appears I have whelks, which may explain where the limpets have gone. I'll start removing them, I guess. The one that's been hanging out in the zoa clump doesn't seem to be bothering anything, but they are predatorial, and I don't know that these are the okay type of whelks (the nassarius type).

 

Update: Well I'll be gosh-darned -- not five minutes after writing the above, I was watching the tank, trying to make a decision about the whelks when I watched the big whelk go after my turbo! Honestly, it located it with its snout, suddenly sped up, got onto the shell, and opened up its mouth-piece wide. The turbo squirmed a bit to the side, unlatching the mouth. At that point, I intervened and the snail is currently sitting in a small cup of water on my desk. I should have gotten it on camera, but I read in the Shimek article that whelks secrete a digestive enzyme immediately to begin the eating process, and I decided not to subject my turbo to that insult!

 

Also have some new kind of something, probably a macro of some kind. It has a white stem, sort of fuzzy looking, and a distinctly clover-like shaped blade. Maybe a saucer or paddle blade algae?

 

Whelk in Zoa

whelk.bmp

 

Big Whelk (well, relatively speaking)

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Blade Algae?

macro_or_animal2.bmp

Edited by msscha
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