Nano Sapiens 12g - Ye Olde Mixed Reef

[Polarcollision]

7 hours ago, Nano sapiens said:

 

Yeah, still chugging along.  The whole Photobucket fiasco just made me want to start a new thread where I can strictly use NR's media hosting instead.  Is it your three year old 24g that's starting to have some issues? 

 

IME, it's not the sand itself that's the issue, but what resides in it.  If old sand itself were an issue, then my mostly 18+ year old sand bed should be causing a mess...which it isn't.  The first thing I'd look at is the sand bed maintenance routine.  Typically, when the tank is doing well, I vacuum 1/2 the sand bed with my weekly WC.  If I start to see additional algae/cyano growth, then I'll use a filter sock over the return pump and stir up any additional detritus prone areas (such as the back the back chambers) with the WC.  I also blast the LR with a turkey baster before the WC and vacuum under one of my five base rocks every 2 months or so to remove the gunk.

 

Might sound like a bit of a pain, but in these small systems it's necessary IMO if one wants to have a long running and visually appealing system.  Determining where the detritus builds up in the system and having a regular schedule to deal with it should help a lot in the long run.

 

As far as the colonial hydroids go, I have these since day one.  But they are now relatively scarce.  However, when I was feeding small fare like BBS and Copepods...yikes, I had a lot!  I currently feed flakes in the morning and larger frozen foods (LRF, Rod's, Mysid).  Just enough for the fish to get full and I target feed the LPS/Yumas 2-3x/wk.  

 

Hope that helps

Yes! That's helpful. Thank you. And yes, the 3 yo nuvo 24. I've always been lost by how to actually vaccuum the sand with a filter sock. My sand isn't the rougher style like what you have, but is sugar-fine sand. It gets sucked up with the detritus rather than falling back down. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. There's a ton of detritus within the sand bed now that it's littered with spaghetti worms. Plus, detritus sticks to the hydroids, so the rocks look like they're covered in poopy hair. The coral love it--they're all vividly colored, but I'm getting tired of throwing emerald crabs at the algae.

 

maybe I will just replace the sand over the next few months. Would you think acros would survive Milky water for a week or so?

[Nano sapiens]

10 hours ago, Polarcollision said:

Yes! That's helpful. Thank you. And yes, the 3 yo nuvo 24. I've always been lost by how to actually vaccuum the sand with a filter sock. My sand isn't the rougher style like what you have, but is sugar-fine sand. It gets sucked up with the detritus rather than falling back down. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. There's a ton of detritus within the sand bed now that it's littered with spaghetti worms. Plus, detritus sticks to the hydroids, so the rocks look like they're covered in poopy hair. The coral love it--they're all vividly colored, but I'm getting tired of throwing emerald crabs at the algae.

 

maybe I will just replace the sand over the next few months. Would you think acros would survive Milky water for a week or so?

I use a typical mini-vacuum to which I spliced in a plastic valve from the hardware store:

 

 

With this setup you can have fine control of the suction.  My sand is a mixed grade, so some of it is sugar fine, but I typically have very little deposited in the receiving container once I'm done.

 

As for the filter sock, I just rubber band it to my return nozzle and leave the return pump on for 1/2 hour or so after the WC.  Then I just clean it very thoroughly under the tap, squeeze it dry and store it.

 

Replacing the sand bed is another option and doing it in stages would be best.  Acropora are known for not reacting so well to suspended sediment that settles on them.  I'd think it best to make sure the replacement sand is as clean as possible.  The old technique of carefully stirring the new sand in a large bowl with a garden hose providing a gentle continuous flow can work well to clear the milkiness if one is careful.

[Polarcollision]

I'll add a valve to see if it helps at all. Crossing fingers! Thanks again for sharing your tricks and tips!

[Nano sapiens]

7 hours ago, Polarcollision said:

I'll add a valve to see if it helps at all. Crossing fingers! Thanks again for sharing your tricks and tips!

 

YW.  Good luck!

[teenyreef]

I didn't realize you had started a new thread! I totally understand why you had to do it though, after the PB debacle. 

Those goby thugs crack me up! 

[Christopher Marks]

@Nano sapiens I am working to recover the lost photobucket photos in your original aquarium journal. It is a challenging task as each post and photo needs to be edited one by one, but I'm hoping to preserve at least most of the early posts that show how it got started. With some luck I'll find a way to automate this endeavor and restore them all, but for now I'll keep whittling away.  

[Nano sapiens]

22 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

@Nano sapiens I am working to recover the lost photobucket photos in your original aquarium journal. It is a challenging task as each post and photo needs to be edited one by one, but I'm hoping to preserve at least most of the early posts that show how it got started. With some luck I'll find a way to automate this endeavor and restore them all, but for now I'll keep whittling away.  

Awesome, Chris, I appreciate the effort!  Are all the thread's 'lost' photos cached/backed up somewhere in the NR system?  Let me know when you've gone as far as you can.  I have a good number of the originals stored, so I'd just have to have enough space allocated on your server in order to upload the missing images.

 

I suppose if most of the photos can be restored that we can then merge the content from this new thread with the old and then be back-on-track with just one continuous thread again

[Christopher Marks]

Just now, Nano sapiens said:

Awesome!  Are all the thread's 'lost' photos cached/backed up somewhere in the NR system?

Yup, that's the hope. I've found a way to change a PB URL to get it to embed again, at which point it will pass through our local image cache system and be saved indefinitely (*in theory) on our side. Technically they still link to the original image, but our system is keeping a local copy available. This is dramatically increasing our image storage needs, to say the least  , but I believe it is essential to preserve this information.

[Nano sapiens]

15 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Yup, that's the hope. I've found a way to change a PB URL to get it to embed again, at which point it will pass through our local image cache system and be saved indefinitely (*in theory) on our side. Technically they still link to the original image, but our system is keeping a local copy available. This is dramatically increasing our image storage needs, to say the least  , but I believe it is essential to preserve this information.

I can see storage space needs increasing exponentially  

 

One way to help this would be to have the system reject any images that aren't compressed down to a maximum set pixel size...or, if pixel doesn't work, max KB.  Makes a huge size difference if the image is 'Original Size', or something like what I use in MS Office Picture Manager, 'Document Small' (800 x 600)

[Christopher Marks]

Oh yes, they will be optimized for storage, the biggest ones anyways  

 

I got through the first 30 pages and was able to restore all broken pb images, must have been over two hundred fixed so far. It's tough going image by image, but it's good to bring a great topic back to life! I'll try to get more posts fixed as time permits.

[WV Reefer]

On 8/28/2017 at 2:25 AM, Polarcollision said:

poopy hair

[Nano sapiens]

7 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Oh yes, they will be optimized for storage, the biggest ones anyways  

 

I got through the first 30 pages and was able to restore all broken pb images, must have been over two hundred fixed so far. It's tough going image by image, but it's good to bring a great topic back to life! I'll try to get more posts fixed as time permits.

 

Great!  Earlier this afternoon I was going through the first 20 or so pages and I could see all the restored pics.

 

Good thing I don't have 750+ pages worth like some folks

[Felicia]

2 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Oh yes, they will be optimized for storage, the biggest ones anyways  

 

I got through the first 30 pages and was able to restore all broken pb images, must have been over two hundred fixed so far. It's tough going image by image, but it's good to bring a great topic back to life! I'll try to get more posts fixed as time permits.

I'm tempted to go back and fix all my old threads' photos because I have every single photo I've posted stored on external hard drives.  That would be such an endeavor to do it image by image though!  Kudos to you for going image by image to fix such an amazing thread!  Your commitment to maintaining the years worth of content and knowledge on this site is commendable!  This is why I love NR!

[Lula_Mae]

Violet says thank you @Christopher Marks for all your hard work to preserve the years of knowledge on this site!

[gena]

Thank you @Christopher Marks for your hard work with the photo restoring!!!!!

 

@Nano sapiens anymore pictures of your blenny?????  I see him in one on the first page...so cute!

[Nano sapiens]

5 hours ago, gena said:

 

@Nano sapiens anymore pictures of your blenny?????  I see him in one on the first page...so cute!

Little guy porker just won't sit still today (blurry):

He/she is sooo fat!

 

[gena]

3 minutes ago, Nano sapiens said:

Little guy porker just won't sit still today (blurry):

 

 

He/she is sooo fat!

hahaha...I saw in other photo that it was a little porker.  Thanks for the picture!  Did you find yours locally or purchase online?

[Nano sapiens]

1 minute ago, gena said:

hahaha...I saw in other photo that it was a little porker.  Thanks for the picture!  Did you find yours locally or purchase online?

Live Aquaria.

[gena]

Just now, Nano sapiens said:

Live Aquaria.

Okie dokie....I'll remember that.  They really are a great source for fish.

[Nano sapiens]

37 minutes ago, gena said:

Okie dokie....I'll remember that.  They really are a great source for fish.

I'd like to buy from a local LFS, but the closest one that actually has some nano fish is an hour away (well, two or even more when there's traffic...which is most of the time).  On top of that, they don't take tel calls anymore and have ignore my last few emails..  For me, LA/DD is the best choice and most critters have arrived alive and healthy.

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, Nano sapiens said:

I'd like to buy from a local LFS, but the closest one that actually has some nano fish is an hour away (well, two or even more when there's traffic...which is most of the time).  On top of that, they don't take tel calls anymore and have ignore my last few emails..  For me, LA/DD is the best choice and most critters have arrived alive and healthy.

I have basically the same situation, an hour from any saltwater LFS and nano/pic stock is hard to come by. So, I order online for stuff I want lol. I found the blenny in the pic on the first page, hope I can get mine resembling that! 

[Nano sapiens]

GBGs...little devils going at it in the early morning:

 

 

The Yellow Lined Goby thinks they need a referree...

[gena]

On 8/30/2017 at 5:53 PM, Lula_Mae said:

I have basically the same situation, an hour from any saltwater LFS and nano/pic stock is hard to come by. So, I order online for stuff I want lol. I found the blenny in the pic on the first page, hope I can get mine resembling that! 

was it diver's den or regular live aquaria?

4 minutes ago, Nano sapiens said:

GBGs...little devils in the morning (no tank lights):

 

 

The Yellow Lined Goby thinks they need a referree...

hahaha too funny.  They look so ridiculous when they do that posing like that.

[Nano sapiens]

1 minute ago, gena said:

was it diver's den or regular live aquaria?

hahaha too funny.  They look so ridiculous when they do that posing like that.

I think it was LA.

 

What's funny is that they can 'strike a pose' like this and then hold it for up to a minute.  Then they reposition...and do it again...and again...until they finally come to blows.

[gena]

27 minutes ago, Nano sapiens said:

I think it was LA.

 

What's funny is that they can 'strike a pose' like this and then hold it for up to a minute.  Then they reposition...and do it again...and again...until they finally come to blows.

I prefer Live Aquaria to Divers Den.  Because LA ships out of California and the fish are just as good as DD. 

 

Yeah, they are freaky little fish when they do that.  They look possessed.  I don't like it .