da1001's dead tank update

[da1001]

Well, teeny...I now know what you meant about the 35mm prime costing as much as the tank! When I was pricing a f/1.4 lens, I thought I was looking at the 35mm but I must have been on the 50mm page where they show for $349 new. The 35mm f/1.4 is $1350 new.

 

I guess my next questions is: Since I am obviously not going to drop $1350 on a new lens atm, should I go with a 50mm f/1.4 @ $350 or just get a 35mm f/1.8 @ $200 and save myself a crap ton of money?

 

Or is there another Nikon lens out there that I have not thought of yet? Anybody have thoughts on this? Obviously I want to use it for things other than just tank shots so I am open to suggestions. Thanks all!

[da1001]

I am either going to get a 35mm f/1.8 prime and save some bling, or maybe shell out a bit more and go with the 18-140mm Nikon f/3.5-5.6. Torn between the two. I enjoy going to the airport and plane spotting, which is why I am considering the zoom. But a prime would be nice too. I will think on it some more. Feel free to add your input if you want.

[teenyreef]

I'd post these questions in the photography forum! I suspect any of these will be very nice, but I don't have any experience with them. I'd love to have a prime lens, myself, but I haven't invested the time or the money yet

[reefernanoman]

On the third week my airstone seems to be working perfectly. It is lower than normal but pull those big puffs of nasty bubbles and shoots them to the top. I am not pulling any gunk out of the water right now because the bubbles seem too fine if that makes sense?

 

Anywho, I redid my pics because I felt bad and I kept the 3 I liked the best so here they are!

 

This one has a decent shot of LT 2.0 in it, my best pic of him so far so I tossed it in even though my fstop was way off and the back half of the tank was out of focus.

 

Here is the back of the tank in focus after I noticed the aperture f*** up I had made lol, notice the birdsnest all retracted? After I ran the ATO tubing I went ahead and scraped algae off all the sides of the tank for my upcoming photo shoot but the superglue that had been holding it onto the frag has always been loose and my water movement of the algae scraper actually knocked it loose! I reef puttied it back in place on the frag taking care not to cover up any of its polyps, but it sure wasn't happy with the ordeal. However, you CAN see how much the little turd has grown though. When I bought it 3 weeks ago, it was just a little Y shaped birdy, now as you can see its all about the branching effect. The biggest one is probably getting close to being a centimeter long!

 

And here is my favorite shot. It shows some of the equipment and my Kessil going full steam ahead and gives a size perspective to the whole thing. See my orange Ric front and center on my algaefied sandbed? He was originally on that empty frag on the right of the large rock lol. He decided to go exploring I guess and I have been too lazy to superglue him back yet. He seems to love it on the sand so I leave him be. You can notice the Acan on the left and how much it has receded. It hasn't died, but it's almost totally gone.

 

Anything in particular you all want to see? I am up for taking requests now that I have nothing to do for the rest of the day but relax and stare at my tank.

Looking good! I love that Kessil shimmer.

[jeremycee]

looks good! gotat get some nassarius snails in there to stir up that sand bed a bit!

[da1001]

I'd post these questions in the photography forum! I suspect any of these will be very nice, but I don't have any experience with them. I'd love to have a prime lens, myself, but I haven't invested the time or the money yet

Good idea teeny, I will give it a shot.

 

looks good! gotat get some nassarius snails in there to stir up that sand bed a bit!

I know, right? My LFS doesn't carry them so I have been waiting for the weather to warm up a bit as well as more money in my pocket before I place a small order to have some shipped.

 

I apologize that I have not been posting much lately, work has really been hard the last few weeks but I am taking an occasional shot with the DSLR as opportunity presents itself so the plan is to make a mini-photo dump of random images something this weekend.

 

Thanks for the compliment, en28so! I think I have it dialed in about right in terms of height above my tank. Everything seems to be doing really good right now in terms of corals and LT 2.0 is still alive and slowly growing so I cant complain. Even the sand bed and glass is relatively algae free at the moment which is nice because work is not allowing me the amount of time I would like to more properly maintain it throughout the week. I usually have to wait for my weekend water change to get everything in top shape again.

[da1001]

 

_{The old birdsnest is growing like a weed. The rest of the pics I promised to give you all this weekend look like trash unfortunately. -.- I will keep trying once the lights come on in the tank and see what else I can give you. But for now its off to get a haircut and some lunch. Cheers!}

[da1001]

Here as some more shots I salvaged, all top down from right before I did a water change. I think I accidentally deleted the good pic of LT 2.0 and the torch, but I managed to get semi-ok shots of the rest, especially for being hand held shots. And here we go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you liked them. I'll do better at keeping the pics flowing, I hope.

[da1001]

I've been fighting some aptasia again, found 4 on my rocks so I went and killed them with the Joe's Juice again. 2 of them were in the middle of my Sunny D's but other than pushing them sideways and out of the way they are totally fine. now I have more room for polyp's to grow in. I got about 20 on there now. Everything else is going fine too. Getting good growth out of everything, slight algae issues still but not too much to worry about right now, I just try to keep up with the glass scraping etc which also helps take out some of the flatworms too when they get stuck tot he pad and die outside of the tank where they cant poison anything.

 

Really busy at work pulling double duty while coworkers are on vacation so not much time to post pics or anything but I am taking some interesting ones and I will upload them in a week or so when my coworker comes back and I have free time again. LT 2.0 is fine but not growing very fast, idk. Might have grown to max tank size already or something? If anything else happens I will give another update.

[da1001]

It seems I have a baby snail in my tank. I don't know where it came from or even if its a good one or a bad one, but I will try to get a decent pic of it sometime so you all can check it out.

[Mike Savage]

Collonista maybe? If so then they are good.

[da1001]

Collonista maybe? If so then they are good.

 

I checked them out but it doesn't seem to be that unless its still a juvenile. It is maybe all of 1.5mm in size right now and the shell seems whitish opaque?

[Mike Savage]

It could be a Collonista then. They reproduce readily in aquariums and grow to maybe 3-4mm.

[da1001]

I will try for a pic and you can let me know.

 

On another note, the copepods seem to have disappeared to god knows where, but I checked my tank last night with a flashlight and saw a crap-ton of amphipods crawling around everywhere doing their thing, that's awesome.

[da1001]

 

 

I lost a snail last week, I think it fell off my rockwork and landed upside down while I was at work. Before I could get home and rescue it the hermits got it.

 

The birdsnest isn't doing too hot the last few days, it seems like its bleaching but I cant tell why. Water seems fine, I don't think the parameters are what's doing it and I have plenty of nutrients with my 30% weekly water change so I don't know what's happening. Hoping to ride it out and wait for it to heal.

 

The 2 Zoa rocks I have are slowly spreading out onto the rockwork I places them on which looks weird because it almost seems like they are dying off, not being as close as they once were and leaving open spots on their frags but when I count them, they are all still there.

 

The monti moved all its polyps to the backside of the coral, so it looks dead but really isn't, its super vibrant on the back....weird. I think I had my light positioned just right but the coral is telling me something else.

 

The candy cane coral is possibly shrinking. I think I knocked it too close to the sand when I cleaned it last week so I need to prop it up again this week when I do my water change so it gets sunlight and turns happy again.

 

The Ric hasn't grown at all, but it seems happy on the sandbed where I placed it and hasn't lost any color so I just continue to leave it alone for now. Maybe I will get some superglue soon and stick it back on its frag but we shall see.

 

Basically, other than the tank being dirty and the birdsnest acting weird, everything in the tank seems ok for now. I will be giving everything a good scrubbing when I get back from the airport in a few hours. I hope everyone is having a great extended weekend and God bless our troops.

 

P.S. Forgot to mention I found 3 more tiny Aptasia, they will be getting the treatment via Joe's Juice when I clean the tank as well.

[teenyreef]

Poor snail. I got rid of my big hermit because he kept killing snails, moving into their shells, and then moving back out. Bastard.

 

At a guess, what you're describing sounds a lot like what I see in my pico when I've fallen behind on water changes, or the sand bed needs a good cleaning.

[da1001]

Poor snail. I got rid of my big hermit because he kept killing snails, moving into their shells, and then moving back out. Bastard.

 

At a guess, what you're describing sounds a lot like what I see in my pico when I've fallen behind on water changes, or the sand bed needs a good cleaning.

 

I will be better on the sand bed maintenance. I haven't fallen behind on the water changes so the sand is all I can think of. Now, I do have some snails in there that are new, I think they might be young tongan nassarius snails? But that's only a guess because they have the same looking shell and the big proboscis thing but are still pretty small. All white right now, maybe half a centimeter long? I have the damndest time getting them to hold still for a macro to show everyone but I will continue trying my best. If it sounds like a nuisance snail, please let me know. I would rather get them out now than later when I have 10x as many haha.

 

The hermits didn't kill the snail until it had accidentally fallen off the rock work and landed upside down so I can forgive them for that, they were just "scavenging" instead of "killing" in my eyes. He seemed kinda listless anyway lately. He kept falling off other stuff too I just happened to be home and could flip him over again. Old age or maybe disease, I don't know. All the others seems fine.

 

I finally pulled the trigger and went and got an 18-140mm Nikon lens ordered, it should be arriving in the next few days.

 

I will pick up a 35mm prime at a later date, I need to replace my windshield ASAP because its cracking worse everyday from a snowstorm a few months back putting a nice little crack right in my driving view so that's where the money for it is going. I have applied for a more interesting/better paying position at work though. If I am lucky maybe I will get a 35mm f/1.4 soon?

[teenyreef]

Good luck getting the new job!

[HarryPotter]

Your insurance company does not cover the windshield?

 

I'm pretty sure that they are required to- when a tree fell on mine, called geico and had someone over repairing it the next day

[da1001]

Your insurance company does not cover the windshield?

 

I'm pretty sure that they are required to- when a tree fell on mine, called geico and had someone over repairing it the next day

 

My deductible on it is too high, its the same price as just buying a new one myself so to keep them from jacking up my rates by making a claim I am just going to replace it myself.

[teenyreef]

Sometimes insurance companies have no deductible on windshields, regardless of your regular deductible. It would be worth double checking if you haven't already.

[da1001]

Sometimes insurance companies have no deductible on windshields, regardless of your regular deductible. It would be worth double checking if you haven't already.

Damn, good idea. I will check it out! If that is true, I will probably go pick up a 35mm f/1.8 prime

[da1001]

Here is the torch still going strong. It seems to have been the least affected of anything in my tank the past few weeks when I wasn't able to keep it as spotless as I would have liked.

 

 

 

And a new FTS with the new lens. You can see how horrible the poor birdsnest looks, but it appears to be making a comeback although it has what looks like brown algae on it. I don't know what that is all about.

 

[BombBuster12]

 

 

 

Wow, your fusion looks amazing! I'm hoping mine will finally take off sometime soon... I was wondering how you like the Pico Skim 2.0, or if you recommend getting a IM Ghost skimmer. I'm still kinda hesitant about dropping the money on a skimmer, until I get this Dino thing figured out.

[da1001]

I like my Pico Skim now that I have figured out its little eccentricities. Just make sure you buy a powerful enough air pump to run it and tune it in as needed, don't skimp on that part or it wont even work. It is however a LOT easier to get skimming right compared to the IM Ghost Skimmer from what I have been hearing. I get a good 2 cups worth of nasty tea colored liquid out of mine in 3 weeks of running it. Better in my collection cup than in the tank!

 

 

I went ahead and moved my Ricordea from the sand back onto the rockwork because it finally grew back its little leg thingy. It suctioned down so hard to that rock and looked so happy being there just overnight that I decided he likes his new spot. He is flattening out and growing too, I will get some pics when I have time. Its pretty cool. He is about 3 inches closer to the light now and loves it.

 

Keeping that sand bed stirred up and everything seems happier, so I will continue to stir it nightly. Found a crab skeleton that one of them molted. Makes me wonder if it wasn't kicking out some nitrates due to rot or something? It was hidden in the back of the tank, there's no telling how long it was in there before I finally stirred it out of its hiding spot but I suctioned it out last night.

 

Have to go get more salt mix this weekend. 50 gallon bag lasted me a little over 3 months because I like to do 25-30% water changes weekly, plus what I used to fill it up. That's not bad! Lots of running around to do in town this weekend, I will pick up another bag then.