reefernanoman Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 I promised Cindy a picture of the lava flow mushroom. I'm waiting for it to start growing a little more. It's one of those corals that looks really pretty in macro shots, but looks like an indistinct blob from more than a foot away Lava Flow Mushroom by TeenyReef, on Flickr While I had the camera out, I got some nice top down shots of a bunch of the zoas. These are some radioactive dragon eyes from the LFS. They are unusually big The zoas to the right, and the zoas on the bottom left, are un-named zoas from the same LFS. I think I got a really good deal on them, they were priced like generic zoas but they look like fancy designers. The one at the bottom middle is a Raptor's Rainbow from Legendary Corals. For some reason, the pink ring around the middle doesn't show up from this angle. Finally, the ones at the bottom right are Aquafresh Vice zoas, mostly closed up when I took the picture. Zoas by TeenyReef, on Flickr There's two more zoas in this shot. Bottom right are unnamed freebies from Zia (deal of the century!!! ). Bottom left are another set from a new LFS near me - but I can't remember what they're called More Zoas by TeenyReef, on Flickr Awesome live stock and pictures as always teeny! 4 Quote Link to comment
Sk8n Reefer Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 That green evil favite is SWEEEET! 2 Quote Link to comment
ReefWeeds Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Niiiiiiicccceee!!! Everything looks awesome. 1 Quote Link to comment
cindyp Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 john, thanks for the lava shroom foto! i do like it!! and my first purchase from LC, i swear the mushroom i ordered looked so big and beautiful and then i got it and it was the size of my pinky nail. haha! i was so disappointed. but that one has grown very well, i'd say it's at least 4-5x bigger now. my super saiyans i was negelecting for some time. they haven't grown at all, but they are actually looking quite healthy and happy. i stuck them in my naked worm tub! 3 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 Just wanted to let you guys know I'm still here - my wife had back surgery late last week. She's doing well but things have been a little busy. I promise to catch up soon! 7 Quote Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Oh my gosh! Hoping for a smooth recovery for her. I can't imagine how trying to sleep must feel. 1 Quote Link to comment
GavinW Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Dude your tanks are stellar!! hoping my fusion ten comes out being as great as yours. Letting mine grow out for the moment. just picked up a sweet purple and red brain coral, few heads of trumpet, two heads of hammer, and a nice horn coral sps for the top of the tank. 1 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Just wanted to let you guys know I'm still here - my wife had back surgery late last week. She's doing well but things have been a little busy. I promise to catch up soon! Just so you know I hit the "like" button because I am happy that your wife is doing well. NOT because your wife had back surgery or because you have been too busy to post. I always hate using the "like" button when there is bad news but I like folks to know I read their posts. PS. I hope she and you are back into your normal routine in no time! 3 Quote Link to comment
peaglesrx Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 hey, loving your tank. i just got mine setup with the nanobox. i have my nanobox clipped to the back. however, the light pendant doesn't seem to extend over to the center of the display tank. does yours? also, what settings do you have for your nanobox? 1 Quote Link to comment
Sk8n Reefer Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 Hope your wife is doing well! 1 Quote Link to comment
TigerLily Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Just saw the news… I hope your wife's recovery is going smoothly! 1 Quote Link to comment
cindyp Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 sending good thoughts for you wifey, john. 1 Quote Link to comment
DocReef Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Wow, I went 24 hours without getting on NR and my thread blows up! Now I have a little taste of what Kat deals with every day I'll catch up tomorrow night, hopefully, but I feel privileged to have triggered such a great conversation! Just to clarify a few things, though, strictly from the perspective of this tank: my comments about lighting are really about the colors of the acans and the rics. While I have a couple little acro frags in this tank, my focus for them is just to make sure they survive and don't lose too much color. I've satisfied myself that if the whites get too high, my rainbow acans change from rainbow to plain red. When I turned the whites back down, they turned rainbow again. Right now, I'm fairly happy with the colors on both the acans and rics. Also, just for the record, last time I checked (about a week ago), nitrates were around 3 or 4. I run the skimmer constantly and use carbon/gfo, and do about a two to three gallon water change every week. Since the actual capacity of this tank is probably about 8 gallons, that works about to about a 25-40% water change. I also dose Microbacter, Acropower, and Aqua Vitro Fuel once a week. I think all this together helps keep nitrates low even with all the fish, but who knows if it will work in the long term. I'll be monitoring how things go and make adjustments as needed I can say that the colors of the corals are great as long as I have the lights set "right", and I only have algae on the glass, in need of scraping about every third of fourth day. I think I have the same results from my acans by running my blues higher and my whites lower. One of my acans actually looked nicer than when I bought it by using these settings. Wishing your wife a speedy recovery. 1 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Thinking of you and your wife and hoping all is well! 1 Quote Link to comment
kimberbee Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Hope your wife's recovery is going well!! 1 Quote Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 Hope your wife is doing well! 2 questions - do you like the Ghost skimmer? What do you keep your carbon/floss in, an intank basket or what? 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted May 9, 2015 Author Share Posted May 9, 2015 Thanks for all the well wishes, everyone! My wife is doing better, and now that she can drive again and do a few things around the house, I'll be catching up on sleep and tank maintenance Oh, and NR, too! The tank has done pretty well during this period of benign neglect. I've mostly kept up on water changes, but about a week and a half ago, something bad happened right after one water change. I don't know if there was a problem with the water I mixed up or what, but the next day all the corals were distressed. My radioactive green dragon eye zoas melted away in about two days after the water change, and the turquoise stag acro was completely bleached out the next morning. I did another water change with a new mix of water the next day, and everything looked better right away. I really do think that it was either the water I mixed up, or something in the air at the house, because there were problems in the 4g tank too (I changed the water in that tank the same night as the 10g). I did a big water change, and did the first thorough cleaning in the tank in about a month. Everything looks like it's much happier now. I haven't lost any other corals or fish, so hopefully things are moving in the right direction again Hope your wife is doing well! 2 questions - do you like the Ghost skimmer? What do you keep your carbon/floss in, an intank basket or what? I like the Ghost skimmer, now. It was a royal pain to get it broken in and set right, but now it runs smoothly and quietly, pulls a nice skimmate. But it really did take about two months and a bunch of research to figure out how to get it going in the first place. I keep the media in an inTank basket. The carbon and GFO goes in a little bag in the top chamber, with a little bit of floss on top. I've pulled the shelf out between the second and third chamber so that I can grow more chaeto in that section. I honestly don't know if the little bit of chaeto I have growing helps the tank at all, really, but it makes me feel good to know it's in there It grows slowly in this tank, which makes sense to me because I don't have algae growth to begin with, and nitrates are usually down around 3 or 4. 3 Quote Link to comment
Sk8n Reefer Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Glad your wife is getting back to normal ?. Ya it really sounds like a bad batch of water. Is the Stag gone or is it still holding on? Glad things are improving! 1 Quote Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 I like the Ghost skimmer, now. It was a royal pain to get it broken in and set right, but now it runs smoothly and quietly, pulls a nice skimmate. But it really did take about two months and a bunch of research to figure out how to get it going in the first place. do you remember exactly what you did? I keep seeing mxed things. Vinegar bath, long break in, short break in, micro bubbles, loud, quiet, etc. 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Glad your wife is getting better, I missed the update. Backs are so poorly designed! 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted May 10, 2015 Author Share Posted May 10, 2015 Glad your wife is getting back to normal . Ya it really sounds like a bad batch of water. Is the Stag gone or is it still holding on? Glad things are improving! Thanks! Yeah, I think it really was something about the water, although I've got a pretty fixed and easily repeatable mixing process, and I always check the salinity of the mix. No idea what might have happened. I'm pretty sure the stag is gone. It's all bone white now. I threw it in the frag tank just to see what happens in a week or two, but I don't have any real hope for it. It's a shame because it had a beautiful color and was really starting to come back after initially getting bleached from too much light. Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted May 10, 2015 Author Share Posted May 10, 2015 do you remember exactly what you did? I keep seeing mxed things. Vinegar bath, long break in, short break in, micro bubbles, loud, quiet, etc. It was an unimitgated pain in the pattooty. But I think if I had a new one I would be able to break it in much faster now that I know what to do. Here's what I did - one or all of these steps seemed to do the trick: - Vinegar bath (did it twice over a month). During the first month, I didn't get much skimmate and I had lots of microbubbles. - A day or two after the second vinegar bath, I opened the air venturi all the way, with the cup as high as possible. This immediately eliminated the microbubbles and it started skimming nicely the next day. I read about this setting online. This setting was pretty loud and the skimmate wasn't super dark. - Somebody else posted instructions they got from IM. Basically, it was to adjust top of the white part of the skimmer so it was 1 1/2" above the water, turn the air venturi down until there are no more bubbles, then open it 1/4 to 1/2 turn after the point where bubbles start to form. Lower the cup as low as it can go. let it run for a day and then raise the cup as needed for the quality of skimmate you need. Glad your wife is getting better, I missed the update. Backs are so poorly designed! Thanks, Mark, I agree! Every time my back gets sore now (which happens pretty often at my age!) I get a little freaked out, wondering if it's something permanent 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted May 10, 2015 Author Share Posted May 10, 2015 While I was busy taking care of my wife, I got a new cell phone (Galaxy S6). The camera on it is much better than the old S4 I used to have. I took a quick picture of Midnight (the black clown goby) hanging out on the acans, just to see how it would do. The white balance in this picture is untouched. It's a little purple, but quite acceptable. Midnight in the Acans by TeenyReef, on Flickr 8 Quote Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Looks great to me.. She's a cutie! 1 Quote Link to comment
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