violinist Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 As god of this 20 gallon universe, I give everyone a chance. Should my energetic little nem killer decide to start eating my favia, vengeance is mine. Link to comment
latteslave Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 hahahahaha - you should call him Adam! Link to comment
violinist Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 Just fed the corals for the first time. Need to get a longer pair of tweezers so I don't have to reach into the tank, or go the baster route, but it was pretty cool. Waited till lights out and brought the room lights up just a bit. The candy cane tentacles were out within minutes. Shortly after that the favia tentacles popped. Chopped up some silverside into tiny pieces, almost mush, and tweezed some in to each polyp on the candy canes and gave a bit to the tentacles on the favia. Thought I'd try the torch as well since it hadn't pulled itself in yet. Sure enough, as soon as a bit of fish hit the tentacles, it wrapped around and pulled it under. Gave some to each head. Pretty cool and a first for me. Of course the hermits swarmed up trying to steal some of the fish off the favia, but they got tossed a few inches away and seemed to get the hint. Link to comment
violinist Posted December 27, 2009 Author Share Posted December 27, 2009 Unplugged my skimmer since I was going to be out of town a couple of days and didn't want to deal with a possible overflow (or rig something up to prevent it). Didn't think about the fact that my heater is in the skimmer's return chamber, so while it kept about 5 cubic inches of water nice and toasty, the rest of the tank was 72 degrees when I got home. Nothing died or appears harmed thank god. What a dumb move nontheless. Link to comment
violinist Posted December 27, 2009 Author Share Posted December 27, 2009 One other interesting thing, one of my hitchhiker crabs sealed off his cave with some rubble. Assume he's about to molt. Link to comment
cruzH20polo Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 im not into naming fish either feeding corals is really satisfying ... keep a good variety of foods, and dont overfeed, then you'll get enjoy the most satisfying thing ... watching em grow We're all bound to have some homer moves that leave you giving yourself a face-palm going DOH and he probably will molt, arthropods are supper vulnerable after they molt the ato's really are a life saver on trips, and it makes life easier, that sucks about the float switch being ugly Link to comment
violinist Posted December 28, 2009 Author Share Posted December 28, 2009 My torch took what I can only assume to be a poop last night lol. I took video and will post later. Freaked me out. Link to comment
violinist Posted December 29, 2009 Author Share Posted December 29, 2009 Here's a short video of my Torch taking a dump. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxhq51N0eEs I can't believe the music got stripped by YouTube for copyright violation. A 1 minute clip of a 20+ year old song by a band that hasn't put an album out in forever. #### the music industry. Anyway, the coral did this for about 15 minutes and stopped right before lights out. It was pretty crazy to see. It got fed a couple pieces of silverside last week. Link to comment
violinist Posted December 30, 2009 Author Share Posted December 30, 2009 Cool, my sundial fixture is in. Running up to aquacave to pick it up! Link to comment
violinist Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 Pics after dinner, but got the light fixture installed. The guys @ AquaCave once again get 5 stars for customer service. Helped me get a nice combo of bulbs to replace the stocks (saved for temp replacements), and even threw in a free xenia frag just for fun. Ahh the sweet stink of xenia... So the 150w MH is off the tank and the 30" Sundial 4x24w T5 is up and running. Bulb layout (Geissmans) is 2x Actinic+, 1x Midday, and 1x Pure Actinic. Radical change from the 14000k MH - the pure actinic really, really brings out the glowwwww. Link to comment
nemmy Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 Please get pictures! I picked up two Actinic + Geissman bulbs the other day. (although one of them is bad!) The midday is like 6500k isnt it? Been thinking of getting some others. Right now i just have 2 current 10k, 3 current actinic, and the one geissman actinic + (until i return the bad one) Be sure to take a picture of the bulbs lit up themselves and them over the tank. Let me know how you like each bulb. Link to comment
violinist Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 Will shoot some pics after dinner. The midday is 6000k. Link to comment
violinist Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 Pics! FTS with midday, two actinics+ and the pure actinic FTS with just one actinic+ and the pure actinic (sorry, overexposed it so appears much brighter than reality) From left to right - actinic+, pure actinic, midday, actinic+ + and pure + and midday Link to comment
nemmy Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 Thanks for those. Does the pure actinic have a pinkish tint to it in real life? I really like how the purple comes out in your first shot, but you dont notice in the second. Is that coming from the midday you think or the pure actinic? Link to comment
violinist Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 Colors are a bit washed in that shot because it's overexposed (notice the completely white'd out sand in the center of the tank...). I don't notice any pink to it, it has a really dark, spooky purple look. I'll put some more shots up shortly, want to get some of the corals glowing. Link to comment
nemmy Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 Colors are a bit washed in that shot because it's overexposed (notice the completely white'd out sand in the center of the tank...). I don't notice any pink to it, it has a really dark, spooky purple look. I'll put some more shots up shortly, want to get some of the corals glowing. Ok cool, maybe i will exchange the bad actinic + i bought for a pure actinic and see how it looks. Link to comment
violinist Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 I take it back, it does have a bit of a pinkish tint in the tank when just that bulb and the other actinic is on. Tried to get some pics, but I'll have to dick around with lightroom to get the images to match real life and that's more than I'm up for right now. The colors are hyper saturated and everything is really fluorescent under that pure. Looks great! Link to comment
imcosmokramer Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 violinist, if you want to show bulb colors, you can turn off flow, then photograph the reflection of the bulb in the water. it's easier to get a better exposure that way. Link to comment
violinist Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a shot tomorrow. My ass is firmly planted on the couch for now... Link to comment
imcosmokramer Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a shot tomorrow. My ass is firmly planted on the couch for now... LOL. good work, just do it next year. Link to comment
Meech Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 Been creeping this thread since it started.... This tank is amazing. Link to comment
sakura51707 Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 awesome looking tank! love your screen-name. by any chance does it pertain to your occupation, if you don't mind me asking Link to comment
violinist Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 I wish, but no it's just a hobby. Started about 25 years too late sadly. The tank is coming along, glad you like it. I have begun to despise the scape on the left side to be honest. Would like to do some sort of tiered arrangement, almost quasi-bonsai looking, but not sure how much monkeying around I can do with LR (drilling and gluing in rods and such) before the rock goes sour and would throw the tank into a cycle. Link to comment
violinist Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 So hit a LFS to expand the CUC a little bit. Picked up 3 cerith's and 3 more small crabs. Brings the counts to about 12 snails and 7 crabs. Good times. Looks like the brown algae is on the wane anyway. Took my wife with because this particular shop has a pretty impressive selection of fish. Bless her heart, but maybe not the best move on my part. Got lots of questions which made me smile like "these tanks are the same size as yours, look how many fish are in each tank!" and "look he has 4 big fish in this tank like yours, why do you keep saying no to everything". Gotta love it. So she broke me down and my plan of not adding anymore fish for a good long while is out the window. I told her damsel are the goldfish of the SW world, but now I have two damsels acclimating upstairs... Link to comment
latteslave Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 what kind of damsels? BTW - The left side of the tank is VERY UNIQUE. one of my favorite scapes. Link to comment
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