Opy's BC29 Upgrade!

[opy01]

ok I am convinced! I dont want the @$$ end of an angry bristle worm after me the next time I put my hand in there . What happens when it gets too large though? Or is this one of those "it won't outgrow its environmetn" things?

[peewee1467]

if i stick my hands in my tank they will always retract quickly into their hole. good luck getting it!

[1337TANKHAX]

I've seen some MAD huge bristleworms. But the biggest I've seen in my tanks was around five inches. They won't hurt you though. They tickle when they wriggle around in your hands though.

 

The tank looks awesome by the way. I love the colors in your sps.

[opy01]

Last night Spice, my 6+ year old guinea pig, died . He had a long life but not an uneventful one. Him and his brother, Sugar and Spice (not named by us), started out in an elementary school. Thats not the most stress free enviroment I can think of for a small animal but they lived... not without being traumatized though. When the school year was out the school kicked them out so Tony, a guy I used to work for, ended up with them since it was his wifes class that had them. I dont know how long they had them but they had 3 kids 2 cats and a dog so I know those poor guinea pigs went through alot. Tony eventualy got tired of them and was going to let them go in a field where they surely would have gotten picked off by something bigger or starved to death or even been run over. When I heard this I took them in and gave them a home. Every morning and evening they would screem that they were starving just so we would give them their snacks. They always had food in their food dish but they loved carrots so much they would squeel so loud they could wake you up on the opposite side of the house just to get one. We kept bags of those baby carrots in the fridge at all times for them (and the rabbit). They lived with me for 3 years before Sugar passed away. I wolk up one day and he was sluggish and wouldnt come out of his hide to eat his carrot so i knew he was going to live much longer. When I got home that afternoon he has passed. That left Spice, the chicken pig, alone. He seemed to become less shy as time went by and when we let him out to run around he would follow me. On cage cleaning day when I was done he would run to his cage and start begging because he knew he got a carrot once he was back in. We tried to give him the best home possible with bottled water most of the time and the best food from Petsmart. He was so spoiled he even had the bedding for "sensitive skin" (recycled paper bedding)since it was even softer than the normal stuff lol. This morning he was laying there not moving at all so I knew he was gone. I would like to think that we did our best to make him happy and gave him a good home. I will miss waking up to his squeeling... wait, no I wont. I will however miss him being there.

 

Thanks Sugar and Spice for making us happy while you were with us.

[pismo_reefer]

 

 

 

 

sorry, man.

 

get a chinchella now!

[opy01]

I've seen some MAD huge bristleworms. But the biggest I've seen in my tanks was around five inches. They won't hurt you though. They tickle when they wriggle around in your hands though.

 

The tank looks awesome by the way. I love the colors in your sps.

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

sorry, man.

 

get a chinchella now!

No way! lol We still have a 3+ year old gerbel, 1 rabbit, 1 red eared slider, 2 leopard geckos, a cat and my nano reef. It costs me alot of money on pet sitters to go on vacation lol. The rabit and guinea pigs were rescue animals.

[ap123]

[Militant Jurist]

 

Indeed. Sorry to hear about it. It's always rough when an animal you've had for a while passes.

[opy01]

Thanks guys. My wife and I have a soft spot for small animals. We have had so many and they make us so happy. Sadly though no matter how many you have you never get used to losing them in th end. It just makes us happy that we gave him a great place to live where he could run around the kitchen every now and then and scare the crap out of our cat . Of course that cat is scared of our gerbil too lmao.

 

Well the planning of my next tank is in progress. It will be a 5.5G frag tank that will be drilled and plumbed into my 10G at work. I am going to put it on a shelf above the tank and have it drain into the HOB fuge and pump back in from the tank. The hard decission will be the lighting. The tank is only 16" so finding a good light for it will be hard. I am thinking of the 12" dual Sattelite 36W. Any sugestions or input is more than welcome.

[nanoreefnate]

Thanks guys. My wife and I have a soft spot for small animals. We have had so many and they make us so happy. Sadly though no matter how many you have you never get used to losing them in th end. It just makes us happy that we gave him a great place to live where he could run around the kitchen every now and then and scare the crap out of our cat . Of course that cat is scared of our gerbil too lmao.

 

Well the planning of my next tank is in progress. It will be a 5.5G frag tank that will be drilled and plumbed into my 10G at work. I am going to put it on a shelf above the tank and have it drain into the HOB fuge and pump back in from the tank. The hard decission will be the lighting. The tank is only 16" so finding a good light for it will be hard. I am thinking of the 12" dual Sattelite 36W. Any sugestions or input is more than welcome.

Awhhh! Sorry for your loss

animals like those guys are cute

good luck with the frag tank!

and new pix of the 10g?

Best Wishes!

[deepdvnarq]

sorry for the loss bro. i have a soft spot for animals too

[opy01]

sorry for the loss bro. i have a soft spot for animals too

thanks bud.

 

New pics coming soon.

 

The tank at my office is a little embarassing at the moment. I only feed it Phyto Feast 3-4 times a week so i was giving it extra which triggered a horrible GHA, or whatever it is, growth. I have already cut back but the damage is done. I can't complain too much, it has kept my nitrates at 0 lol. I got alot of it out the last water change but it is still all over the tank. I also cut my light cycle but at least an hour so that may help too. It doesnt seem to bother anything right now since all my zoas and shrooms are still opening all the way and my frags seem to be happy. It's not like my tank is overrun by it but it is noticeable. Hopefully I can have it cleaned up in a couple of weeks. I will bring my camera to work torrow and take some anyways.

 

My home tank is still happy. The orange digi has one part shooting straight out the front that is growing like crazy! All three fish are loving it in there and they are eating like crazy! My poor crabs and nass snail dont get too much anymore with this new food. I do however have a strange new algae, or macro, growing on my overflow. It is an interesting algae and hit helps hide the overflow but I dont want it to go out of control. It is only growing in the most lit up parts and nowhere else in the tank so maybe the ceriths are taking care of that. Speaking of growing out of control, my GSP are now growing on the back glass. I will definately be cutting it back in the next month so if anyone want free GSP just let me know .

[deepdvnarq]

thanks bud.

 

New pics coming soon.

 

The tank at my office is a little embarassing at the moment. I only feed it Phyto Feast 3-4 times a week so i was giving it extra which triggered a horrible GHA, or whatever it is, growth. I have already cut back but the damage is done. I can't complain too much, it has kept my nitrates at 0 lol. I got alot of it out the last water change but it is still all over the tank. I also cut my light cycle but at least an hour so that may help too. It doesnt seem to bother anything right now since all my zoas and shrooms are still opening all the way and my frags seem to be happy. It's not like my tank is overrun by it but it is noticeable. Hopefully I can have it cleaned up in a couple of weeks. I will bring my camera to work torrow and take some anyways.

 

My home tank is still happy. The orange digi has one part shooting straight out the front that is growing like crazy! All three fish are loving it in there and they are eating like crazy! My poor crabs and nass snail dont get too much anymore with this new food. I do however have a strange new algae, or macro, growing on my overflow. It is an interesting algae and hit helps hide the overflow but I dont want it to go out of control. It is only growing in the most lit up parts and nowhere else in the tank so maybe the ceriths are taking care of that. Speaking of growing out of control, my GSP are now growing on the back glass. I will definately be cutting it back in the next month so if anyone want free GSP just let me know .

you can help get rid of it by raising your mag levels too. i had raised mine to almost 2000 and it was gone in 3 weeks. and i had a lot!

[opy01]

ok the next time I go to the LFS I will pic up some Mg for the office and see how that goes. Maybe I can get it cleared up before my vacation.

 

Speaking of which, I am headed to the eastern Caribean in about 3 weeks. So I will be snorkeling in the largest reef aquarium of them all lmao. What are the chances I could get some free coral and overnight it back to my office where my co-worker can put it in my tank? Today began his 3 week training for him to take care of my office and home tank and pets. I will have a powerhead ready for him to plug into the wall in case the sump pump gives out so at least they will get circulation. I will also have the frozen food devided up into a weekly pill container so all he has to do is thaw out that days mysis and feed the fish. I will have all 4 dosing bottles labled with instructions on each. It shouldnt be that hard for him. The tank at work is easier. Just amke sure the ATO is full and put 20 drops of Phyto Feast in daily and check to make sure the skimmer isnt full. Am I missing anything?

[MGXsport]

Which island are you going to in the Caribbean? I was down in St. Martin for a few weeks. I was in the water every day, until I stepped on one of the many black spiny urchins. That took a lot of tequila and the fiance with a pocket knife to get out haha!

[opy01]

Well we are going on a Disney Cruise to St Thomas, Tortola and Castaway Cay. I cant wait to try out my new Canon D10 underwater camera. No case to mess with anymore. It was a PITA to have to dry it all off then open the case and pull the SD630 out to change memory cards or batteries. Of course now I have 2 so no more passing mine to my wife. She has her own now .

 

Those urchins hurt like a *&^#@#!! When I was a kid we lived in Turkey along the Agean Sea. We would go out 3-4 times a summer to the beaches. Those things scared me to death especialy after my mom put her hand right down on one just under the surface while swimming. There was no removing them since they were hollow. All she could do is use meat tenderizer on her palm and wait for them to all disolve.

[MGXsport]

Sounds like a fun trip.

 

I went on a cruise to St. Thomas about 10 years ago. It is usually a lot less stressful doing it that way.

[opy01]

Quick update, no pics. Sorry, they are still in the camera.

 

Winter came early in my tank at home, it was snowing! Well at least when I got my Mg back up and I didnt check my CA levels it started snowing. My CA was a bit over 500. Now its back down to 480 and looks alot better lol. I am still dosing small amounts of Mg since it's around 1380 still. I was adding 4 tbl spoon per day as the instructions directed so now I am down to 1 tbl spoon per day and I will see where it is at after a week.

 

Saturday I had a chunk of macro that was growing around my overflow come off and clog my fish saver along with my overflow and overflowed my DT. I lost about a gallon or so and filled it back up. I think the SG dropped quite a bit and quite fast because alot of my macros started dying. I plucked them and now they look good again and my SG is back up to 1.025. What supprised me was that my nirates are at 0 again after a 3 galon water change on Sunday. I have cut back some on my feeding and my skimmer isnt haveing as much skim in it so maybe that what did it and the 4+G water change helped.

 

I found one more worm that I cannot find the ID on. I read a thread a while back about them but I cannot find it now. It made a tube in the sand that it comes out of and it is pretty long. It is a single long worm type thing and it grabs the food that floats to the bottom. Anyone have an idea?

[got2envy]

Woah! post pix of da worm

 

I am happy that you caught the overflow before any damage was done

[opy01]

Yea it could have been alot worse. If I hadnt gotten home when I did I could have lost a couple of more gallons. Of course once the 4 gallon ATO bucket is empty (it only puts out 3 gallons before the float shuts it off) I will only lose about 2 gallons from the sump and I would still have 5-6 gallons left pluss the tank would be mostly full.

 

I have to trane the guy that is taking care of my tank the "in case of emergency" plan. While I am on vacation if the sump breaks then put a power head in the DT and plug it in so they have circulation. If the main tank breaks then grab the spare out of the back and put coral and water and fish in there then pray. I am already expecting everything to be dead when I return so I will be super happy if everyting is fine lol. I need to make a frag tank soon so I can at least have small frags of stuff just in case.

 

I had pics of the worm but there is too much crap on the glass. I will have to clean it tonight and get another pic.

[Nanobuds]

cool tank bro!!

[opy01]

Thanks! Here are a few shots with just my RB LEDs.

 

 

 

 

This ric and my other are splitting now that I am target feeding them. I never knew they would eat whole mysis. One dropped on the ric and I went to pull it off and I noticed it was eating it so I now feed them every other day or so.

[pismo_reefer]

umm..... broken pics are broken.

[corallineadam]

sweet ric! your lights rock! i still need your help with that LED project one of these days soon

the second i move im setting up a few tanks!!!

[opy01]

umm..... broken pics are broken.

Sorry, refresh. I am hosting them from my house so if too many people are viewing them the bandwidth gets drained. Also I was logged into the house and that kills my bandwidth also but now I am logged off lol.

 

sweet ric! your lights rock! i still need your help with that LED project one of these days soon

the second i move im setting up a few tanks!!!

 

Thanks! I was wondering what I was going to trade for the frogspawn, labor! . If you get me the stuff I can build it in a couple of days and ship it back to you. I do want to improve the wiring going into the light so I may look into a plug with about 8-10 wires so one plug does it all. I did have a RB go out and the plug for my white LEDs sucks so I may take mine apart to fix that stuff and make room for that plug and test it.