Mr. Fosi's drilled 20H

[Weetabix7]

Just out of curiousity, what kind of corals are your "dream corals" that you would really like to get someday, if there were no budgetary constraints?

[Mr. Fosi]

All photosynthetic-based.

 

- Tentacled LPS like frogs, hammers, etc.

- Other LPS like brains, acans, and blastos; not so much candy-cane types.

- Softies like kenya tree, xenia, colts and some leathers (like the toad that I have).

- Polyps like palys, buttons and zoas.

- Plate-forming and/or encrusting moti caps.

- Maybe and anemone some day.

- Sponges and macros (not corals, I know).

 

I'm not a big fan of SPS and not just because they are more demanding. They can look nice as big colonies but they aren't what grab my attention. Ditto for clams.

 

I want to have a dynamic tank where things are moving back and forth. I'd like it to be colorful but even if it doesn't have all the acid-trip popping I'll still like it.

[bonsai reefer]

Foss stop by the store this w/e we have some things to discuss.

[Mr. Fosi]

YGPM

[Atari]

If you had it to do over would you still go with the SCWD and your setup there? or something else?

[Mr. Fosi]

If I had to do it again (and I still didn't have the money for an OM Squirt) I do this in a heartbeat.

 

The SCWD has performed without fail these last 8 months. I'd like to have a bit more flow (and I have the pump to do it; Mag 9.5) but I don't want to pay more for electricity that I already am.

 

For an inexpensive system, it has performed up to or beyond expectations. Aside from upgrading to a more expensive water diverter and a larger pump, there is nothing I would do differently.

[Atari]

what kind of water diverter?

[Mr. Fosi]

Right now, it's a SCWD but if I had the cash to burn, it'd be an OM Squirt.

[Atari]

oh I thought you were talking about the output instead of having just some PVC ends you would have flow accelerators or somthing.

[Mr. Fosi]

So I got an order today from the CUC master: John Malony. Here is a closeup of one of the ~50 nerite snails he sent along. He also sent some nassarius but we all know what they look like.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a shot of one of the two mithrax crabs in the package.

 

 

 

 

And here he is going after a patch of my hated bubble algae! He found this not even 40 min after being added to the tank. Then I saw him eating a patch of those colonial hydroids! Rock on crab!

 

 

 

 

Here's that little forlorn zoa frag... It's starting to color up a bit.

 

 

 

 

My ric rock. I chiseled these guys off one of the rocks in the lab tank. They didn't look happy and I wanted them at home so here they are.

 

 

 

 

Orange monti! I love monti. I hope this frag does better than the last one I tried.

 

 

 

 

John also sent me some shore shrimp but they are hard to get pics of. They are in my sump for now until they grow a bit... I would hate to have the clown gobble them up.

 

[GiantBen]

That crab is sweet.

[Mr. Fosi]

The the 20W halogen fuge light pooped out on me last night.

 

The timer clicked on and no light came on. I checked the lamp and it didn't look burned out. Even so, I figured it must be the lamp so I went to Lowes and found a pack of three replacement lamps. Of course, they weren't the original type, they were xenon but I got them b/c that's all they had.

 

Brought them home, plugged one in and... no light. :angry: Long-story-short, I pulled the fixture apart, and did a little ohm testing and determined that the fixture is now junk. So it lasted 7 months of use, burning through two lamps in that time.

 

So now, I need to get a new fixture. Since I already have the three xenon lamps, I may just pick up another hockey puck. Not sure... I need to go back to Lowes and see what they have.

[mkregs]

Sweet tank Fosi. I love that orange monti and can see why you suggested I get one. I'm going to head to a couple shops this week and go looking.

 

What kind of filtration are you running on your Son's tank? The bioload must be huge!

[Mr. Fosi]

Hey there mk, thanks for stopping by.

 

I really like monti cap and I was able to get my hand on a fingernail-sized bit last year but my lights weren't beefy enough and it croaked. This piece is somewhat bigger and I have a much better light (150W MH vs. 130W PC). If you can find a red one, that'd be bomber. I was almost able to trade with a guy for a frag of red, but I don't think it will go through.

 

I went back out and picked up another hockey puck fixture. I'll see if I can't do more to keep salt out of it this time.

 

So... I alsdo bought a $1 five-pack of superglue at wallyworld because I had a mission... To kill some vermetids! I glued about 20 of the biggest of these suckers closed and I did it while the rock was in the water. I'll have to watch and make sure they can't burrow out of the side.

 

 

 

 

I also took some new pics of livestock.

 

I mounted the zoa frag on another piece rock because I was tired of sinking it in the sand only to have a snail or crab knock it over. Superglue gel to the rescue!

 

 

 

 

The other ric rock. This is the one that used to have the Sargassum on it but I popped the sprouts off because they were shading the rics and prying them up off the rock. There is another two on the other side of the rock. I can't wait for them to get bigger! Like rics almost as much as I like monti, hammer and zoas!

 

 

 

 

Here are the sargassum sprouts. I used a jewelers driver to pry them off the rock and they popped off along with a bit of rock, which made it really easy to glue them to this tonga rubble.

 

 

 

 

The toad. It pulls it's tentacles in toward the end of the day so I wonder if the light is too intense.

 

 

 

 

The kenya I brought home from the lab tank. I can't get it to stay where I put it so I jammed it under these rocks. Hopefully in a few weeks, it will start to attach.

 

 

 

 

All the new livestock seems to be doing well. I saw one of the shrimp in the sump today and the emeralds usually spend the day out of the light.

[Mr. Fosi]

How many times can I post in my own thread in one day?

 

I had to put these pics up though.

 

One of the two "shore shrimp" that I got from John Maloney.

 

 

 

 

This is one of three mystery anemones that have popped up. I've posted in the ID forum to see if anyone knows what it is. I wish I could have gotten a better pic but it just ain't gonna happen.

 

[Weetabix7]

Cool Shore Shrimp!

You should give us more details on their behaviour and stuff.

I almost got some from John at one point.

[Mr. Fosi]

So far they have been fairly active during lights on picking at things on the rock here and there. I haven't seen them yet today but you know how that goes.

 

In other news: I did a little geeking today regarding my lighting.

 

I borrowed the light meter from the lab (Li-Cor, LI-250A) and the 2π sensor (Li-Cor, Quantum) to measure the down-welling irradiance of my Sunpod at different points in/out of the tank. Yes, I know that isn't the waterproof sensor. I did a little modification to make it waterproof to the depth of my tank for the short duration of the measurements.

 

For reference:

- at noon on a sunny day at the equator, the down-welling irradiance is around 1500 umol m^-2 s^-1.

- At noon on a very cloudy day here in SC, it can be as low as 50 umol m^-2 s^-1.

- Under the fluorescent lights you typically see used indoors it's up to 30 umol m^-2 s^-1.

 

Here are the most interesting numbers from my system:

Right at the glass UV shield: 3000 umol m^-2 s^-1

At the water surface (4.25" below glass): 1000 umol umol m^-2 s^-1

Just below water surface: 750 umol umol m^-2 s^-1

Bottom of the tank (14.25" below surface): 126 umol umol m^-2 s^-1

 

Here is a graph of the data along with a quantitative fit calculated by the PROFILE model that I've used for some of my research. The R² isn't bad but I generally see fits of 1.00 for the sediment oxygen data I usually use it on. I also successfully recognized the two different attenuation zones; above and in the water.

 

 

 

Fore more on the model I used for the fit, see the following reference:

 

Berg, P., Risgaard-Peterson, N., Rysgaard, S. (1999). "Interpretation of measured concentration profiles in sediment pore water." Limnology & Oceanography 43(7): 1500-1510.

 

You can see from the graph above that the light intensity drops off pretty quickly once you hit the water. The attenuation coefficient (including the air above the water) is 0.174 m^-1, 0.136 m^-1 without. According to a limnology link that I found, this value compares favorably with very clear freshwater. It also compares favorably with the coefs reported for a Honduras reef in:

 

Mishra DR, Narumalani S, Rundquist D, Lawson M (2005). Characterizing the vertical diffuse attenuation coefficient for downwelling irradiance in coastal waters: Implications for water penetration by high resolution satellite data. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing 60 (2005) 48–64

 

So the conclusion is that under a 150W Sunpod with a year-old 14K lamp, the corals in my tank are getting about as much PAR as they would if they were 14" or less below the water surface in a very clear equatorial water body.

 

I guess I don't need to feel bad about not changing my lamp on the regular 8 month schedule. :lol

 

EDIT: I almost forgot to add that the 20W halogen I use for the refugium puts off 1500 umol m^-2 s^-1 right at the glass, which is ~1.75" off the water which means it is probably on the order of 644 umol m^-2 s^-1 at the surface and maybe as much as 400 umol m^-2 s^-1 just below the surface. So, my chaeto is getting plenty of light too.

[Weetabix7]

You're such an awesome REEF NERD, Fosi!

[Mr. Fosi]

I wonder if the species of chaeto we pass around is Chaetomorpha crassa.

[Lalani]

You're such an awesome REEF NERD, Fosi!

 

 

I'm interested in those shore shrimp too!

[Mr. Fosi]

I haven't seen them since I first put them in the display. I wonder if they didn't do a great job of watching their backs.

 

I plan on doing some watching tonight to see if they are still around but they were very active when I first put them in so it seems as though they shouldn't be hard to spot if they are still in there.

[Atari]

I wonder if the species of chaeto we pass around is Chaetomorpha crassa.

and why is that?

[Mr. Fosi]

Because I (and everyone else) always says "chaeto" or Chaetomorpha spp. and I would like to know what species it really is. There are several species, some of which are not primarily free-floating.

 

If we knew which species we have, we might be able to find more specific info about it's productivity, nutrient assimilation capacity and such.

[Atari]

How do we find out then?

Edit: Is it posoble that there are more then 1species in the trade?

[Mr. Fosi]

The best way would be to find the appropriate key and key it out but that is hard and time consuming... Likely to take some microscope work.

 

The next best way would be to do some looking on the web and see what species we can come up with then run down the list and look for pics.