Hinecken Posted August 15, 2008 Author Share Posted August 15, 2008 My bad guys, I haven't really been able to update this in the last few months. We had a pretty significant death in the family and things got turned upside down for a while. Things are much better now though thankfully. When I get some time I'll give this thread a proper update, A LOT has changed... In fact, me and Lady H moved so I had to take it apart and set the whole thing back up again in our new home. Stay tuned for a lengthy update in the near future. Here's a teaser of some new high-tech equipment I just installed tonight in case you missed it in the general discussion section. Link to comment
Needreefunds Posted August 15, 2008 Share Posted August 15, 2008 My bad guys, I haven't really been able to update this in the last few months. We had a pretty significant death in the family and things got turned upside down for a while. Things are much better now though thankfully. When I get some time I'll give this thread a proper update, A LOT has changed... In fact, me and Lady H moved so I had to take it apart and set the whole thing back up again in our new home. Stay tuned for a lengthy update in the near future. Here's a teaser of some new high-tech equipment I just installed tonight in case you missed it in the general discussion section. First, very sorry to hear about your loss. Good to hear things are getting a bit better for you though. Wow, sweet DIY to your stand. Great idea having top offs at the ready when needed. Also really gives the tank a (re) fresh (ing) look. I always thought Heinies went well with seafood. Looking forward to some updated pics. Hang in there Hinecken. --Richie Link to comment
Hinecken Posted August 16, 2008 Author Share Posted August 16, 2008 UPDATE for Friday, 8-15-08 An update was long overdue on this thread and thankfully I now have time to do it. I'm going to spare everyone the details but my life has done a 180 since the death of my soon to be (sept. 6th) step-father-in-law. Since then, I quit my job and began working from home making more money with little stress, Lady H and I are out of the townhome and into a beautiful house, we are opening a cafe and construction should start this week, and we'll be getting married on September 6th. It's been a crazy few months. Now for the bad news... besides our loss, I came home after being gone for 4 days to find my calcium reactor literally pouring into my tank. I was adjusting the drip rate and had to immediately leave the house when we got the phonecall. When I finally came home, my Kh was 20ish and I had many quickly bleaching corals. Thankfully it wasn't all of them. I did lose the green acropora, yellow acropora, orange digitata, and crap brown montipora. The blue millepora was very badly burnt as was the pink cap, but are now coming back nicely. The rest were angry but 100% alive, including the clam to my surprise. Water changes after water change was done until safe levels were reached, and the tank had to go on auto-pilot for a month while we took care of family affairs. I had a friend fill the top-off and that was that. Since the move, I have placed the acan, blasto, green zoas, and the original orange zoas into our adopted 72gal bowfront, and they look fantastic. It's been up and running for 4 years now, and I've been taking care of it for the last 3 or so. Now that we live in the house it just makes things easier and now I'm able to basically purchase any coral I want thanks to the different setups. This 65 will be the SPS/Clam dominant and the 72 with it's less intense lighting will be the LPS/Softie aquarium. Funny how things work out. On with the show... New equipment set-up, all wires nice and tidy, and not too bad of an eyesore. (also allows for super easy maintenance.) Fuge with new surface skimmer. I threw out a garbage bag full of chaeto when we moved. This ball has tripled in size since I put it there 3 weeks ago. New orange ricordia Florida New XL crocea next to the original Green stylophora pistillata, this picture does it no justice Purple acropora millepora (just got him today!) Yellow acropora cerealis (I think, anyone else have a guess?) Side shot, this thing is a beast, I love it. AND....... The FTS, with refined aquascape! 8-15-08 Still looking empty, but getting there. Mike Link to comment
Nick's Reef Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 The tanks looking better than ever! I also love the new diy! Link to comment
Chrissy Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 I love that scape! Beautiful tank Link to comment
SeeDemTails Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Green stylophora pistillata, this picture does it no justice Awesome looking stuff, the clams look great! Aquascape is awesome too! I have to tell you though, I am 100% sure that the coral above is ORA Green Birdsnest. No doubt though, pics dont do it justice. Fay is coming, you got your generator ready? We started ours and filled it up today to make sure it was running good! Link to comment
Hinecken Posted August 16, 2008 Author Share Posted August 16, 2008 Awesome looking stuff, the clams look great! Aquascape is awesome too! I have to tell you though, I am 100% sure that the coral above is ORA Green Birdsnest. No doubt though, pics dont do it justice. Fay is coming, you got your generator ready? We started ours and filled it up today to make sure it was running good! Thanks for the kind words. That coral didn't come from ORA, although I do know the sell one just like it. I saw yours in your tank thread the other day and meant to post, but didn't have time. I'm almost positive it is not a birds nest. If ORA is calling them that, I'm pretty sure they are wrong. If you look at the structure of the branches you will see that it is a stylophora. I used several references to ID it: "The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium, vol. 2" by Fossa & Nilsen, as well as "Aquarium Corals" by Borneman. Unless this colony is so young that the branches haven't become pointed, then I'm almost positive it's a stylophora pistillata. Either way, it's a gorgeous piece and I'm sure yours looks fantastic in person as well. I'm ready for Ms. Fay. In fact, I'm running out now to change the oil in my spare generator just so I have a backup if the main gen. fails. Good luck to you, I hope we don't need them! Link to comment
Nick's Reef Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 I hope I won't need my generator too! But I do hope that Fay comes as I won't have to go to the 1st day of highschool!!! Link to comment
SeeDemTails Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Unless this colony is so young that the branches haven't become pointed, then I'm almost positive it's a stylophora pistillata. When they are stressed they loose the pointy tips......Mine has quite pointy tips now that it is packing on growth. Trust me, I have seen green stylo and have a pink stylo right next to it. I will take a new pic of mine. Link to comment
Hinecken Posted August 16, 2008 Author Share Posted August 16, 2008 I hope I won't need my generator too! But I do hope that Fay comes as I won't have to go to the 1st day of highschool!!! You should be looking forward to the first day of highschool. Highschool was a great time. I really hope Fay doesn't come anywhere near here, my generators are ready to go, I have 80 gallons of R/O, propane for the BBQ, batteries, flashlights, and a few cases of beer. We're ready to rumble, but I'd rather not use any of it... cept maybe the beer. Link to comment
dtfleming Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Looks, great sucks about the Kh getting that high. I have the same issue now on my frag tank. pH probe was outta whach and tank was overdosed. Trying to straight it out now. Link to comment
Hinecken Posted August 18, 2008 Author Share Posted August 18, 2008 Looks, great sucks about the Kh getting that high. I have the same issue now on my frag tank. pH probe was outta whach and tank was overdosed. Trying to straight it out now. If it's a small tank (30gal or less) then just bite the bullet and do a 100% WC. The only reason I didn't is because my system has a total of 83gal of water and I could only mix 40 at a time. Good luck buddy, I'm pulling for ya. OK.. Finally had a chance to take some macros tonight. It's one of my absolute favorite things to do and I haven't done it in like 4 months! 8-17-08 Crocea.. this clam is so gorgeous, I wish I could take a top-down shot for everyone to see it's true colors. All that blue from the top-down is really an electric teal color. Ricordia Florida Green Stylo-birds-o-nest-phora... (SDT, it's not that I don't trust your knowledge, it's that the growth pattern as of yet does not match a birds nest, and I had a pink stylo once that followed a very similar pattern with almost identical polyp structure. I'm happy either way though, this piece is awesome.) Purple Mille... great polyp extension after less than 48hours. Orange Zoa Frag. This is a frag that came from the original orange colony I started the tank with. That colony is now in our 72bowfront and multiplying just as rapidly. In a month or two I'm going to move it into our 29gal to seed that tank. Talk about getting your money's worth! Baby Acro Forest. I know these next two photographs are nothing special, but I want them in this thread for growth reference. My end goal is to have all of these overgrowing to the point that they start battling for space and light. Baby steps though.... baby steps. Color rendition in these shots is absolutely garbage. I hate my camera. Side View Link to comment
SeeDemTails Posted August 18, 2008 Share Posted August 18, 2008 LOL no matter what it looks awesome. I got some pics of mine i just took now that it is rapidly growing, when I upload them you gotta check it out! Hit that mille with some strong flow and the polyps will just ooze out of it they will be extending so far. Looks good for 48 hours! Speaking of 48 hours, I hope your ready for the next 36! We got the plywood ready just in case, we live on beachside which is actually an island! Link to comment
Hinecken Posted August 18, 2008 Author Share Posted August 18, 2008 LOL no matter what it looks awesome. I got some pics of mine i just took now that it is rapidly growing, when I upload them you gotta check it out! Hit that mille with some strong flow and the polyps will just ooze out of it they will be extending so far. Looks good for 48 hours! Speaking of 48 hours, I hope your ready for the next 36! We got the plywood ready just in case, we live on beachside which is actually an island! That mille shouldn't have any flow issues, there's almost 3,200gph pumping through my main display. That's about 60x turnover since there is only 53 gallons of water in the tank. We're ready to go this h-cane season, thankfully this house has impact glass so it'll be the first year we don't have to lug around the plywood. Got 2 genarators gassed and ready. One for the house, and one for the tanks. I wish u and your hubby the best of luck, I hope u don't need those boards. Link to comment
Hinecken Posted August 20, 2008 Author Share Posted August 20, 2008 UPDATE 8-19-08 Today I received my favorite type of phone call. It was my buddy at the LFS calling to let me know he had a gorgeous Montipora Spumosa and an unbelievable blue-tipped acropora. I went right over and scooped them up. Let me know what you guys think. Montipora Spumosa another shot Blue-Tip Acropora another Check out this pretty sweet deal I got on a polyp frag. $5.99!!! I know it's pretty blurry, but it's tough to zoom in close enough to focus. Link to comment
JerseyChick Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Sorry to hear about your loss in the family. Your tank lools great, I love the new corals. Link to comment
badbread Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Love the aquascaping! That is so cool! Link to comment
SeeDemTails Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Awesome corals! I hate to do this to you again , but I am almost positive that is a Montipora Spongodes.....but who really knows, thats just what I have heard it called. I'm jealous, I only have a little frag and you got a bomb diggity colony! That acro looks really sweet too! If you plan on fraggin that thing I got so cool stuff to trade for it! Link to comment
Hinecken Posted August 20, 2008 Author Share Posted August 20, 2008 Awesome corals! I hate to do this to you again , but I am almost positive that is a Montipora Spongodes.....but who really knows, thats just what I have heard it called. I'm jealous, I only have a little frag and you got a bomb diggity colony! That acro looks really sweet too! If you plan on fraggin that thing I got so cool stuff to trade for it! Sorry, I'm sticking to my guns again on this one. I've read through everything in my Library (I've got a pretty good one) as well as searched the web and this site, and this is a spumosa. I understand that since you work at an LFS here in FL we are both looking at wholesale order lists from the same vendors. I stopped putting any stock in what wholesalers call their stuff a long long time ago. It's all about money to most of them, not accuracy. One time I saw what was being sold as "Glass Anemones" at DelMar.... THEY WERE APTASIA!!!! Just for some reference, have a look at TJ's spumosa on this link (it's pretty much identical) http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...57478&st=60 Here's Mr. A's spumosa, different color, same coralite structure. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...0545&st=180 Here's Kowalski's. Same color morph as mine. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...&hl=spumosa Link to comment
SeeDemTails Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Here is mine, which is ORA strand. Here is the pic from ORA. They are usually pretty good at identifying coral from what I have heard. You never know though. Check this out: Spongodes Spumosa It so hard to tell who is right about corals now a days. I am just addictied to talking about them! Link to comment
Hinecken Posted August 20, 2008 Author Share Posted August 20, 2008 I had done both of those searches on google images after I did my reading and long before I posted. The spongodes doesn't have the same polyp structure or shape that the spumosa has. Have you ever toured ORA's facility in Ft. Pierce? If you haven't, I recommend it, it's pretty cool. Link to comment
Hinecken Posted August 20, 2008 Author Share Posted August 20, 2008 Some pictures of my fish. The clown was free from my sister's boyfriend that was breaking down his tank, and the damsel I picked up because I dig blue and yellow damsels. What're you lookin at! Check out the clam mantle in the background. This picture is more for size reference of the crocea than anything else. Link to comment
j0hnny Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Some pictures of my fish. The clown was free from my sister's boyfriend that was breaking down his tank, and the damsel I picked up because I dig blue and yellow damsels. What're you lookin at! Check out the clam mantle in the background. This picture is more for size reference of the crocea than anything else. Looks like a giant clam about to chomp that damsel! Hey man, long time, how you been? Your system is looking good! Link to comment
NAL Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Puuurty fish!! That blue and yellow damsels looks tiny next to that clam. Link to comment
Hinecken Posted October 5, 2008 Author Share Posted October 5, 2008 Looks like a giant clam about to chomp that damsel! Hey man, long time, how you been? Your system is looking good! Puuurty fish!! That blue and yellow damsels looks tiny next to that clam. Thanks guys. I haven't been around in a while. Been a bit busy with getting married, honeymoon, crap economy etc. Unfortunately the only news I have is bad news. My beautiful montipora was completely devoured thanks to some Nudibranchs. We got back from our honeymoon to find a bunch of them chomping away at it. After several iodine dips and a ton of basting in a separate container, we lost the battle. It's the first time in years I've lost a coral due to a pest invasion. Sux. Link to comment
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