Opy's BC29 Upgrade!

[deepdvnarq]

well for now. im in the same boat as you. just off and on. it was working when i hd only 1 led, but now that i have the entire fixture up and running, no more ramping. i think i have a grounding from the screws somewhere. i will change all the screwa to nylon sometime this week. anyways. i had the channel set to Advanced light. there is also a dim a and a dim b and i set those t advanced light as well. i had them all set to

mode=auto

function=advanced lighting

ramp 30

intesity=99

i had to set everything back to just light for now.

[opy01]

Thanks. I dont have my 120V power for the driver set to advanced since I only wanted it on or off. I will try that when I get home. I also have mine on 90 minutes but since yours stopped working I dont think setting it to 30 will help.

 

The way I tested mine was I set the intensity to 10% then 25% then 50% then 75% and it got brighter each time. That would tell you if you are grounding somewhere or if the ALC is just not working right.

[opy01]

Time for my end of the week update bump lol.

 

My trumpet coral has seemed to stop eating mysis now that I am using the Roti Feast. They are always puffed up and looking good so I assume they are happy. They are splitting way slower than I thought they would but I think that has something to do with the high flow in my tank. In theory all the hard coral should grow thicker but slower in high flow to make their bones stronger. The brain coral also looks happier with the Roti Feast but he still eats the heck out of the mysis. All my sps are doing great and the monti cap is really taking off. Updated pics this weekend hopefully.

 

One problem I have is with my zoas. They are slow growers in my home tank for some reason. At my office I am getting new polyps all the time but at home they are just slow. Of course my nitrates at home are always around 20 and they are 0 at work. I do put ALOT if Phyto Feast in my work tank since I am only there 3-4 days a week though so maybe it gets more food at work than at home. I am just worried about nitrates at home since they are already around 20. I also noticed that my green palys hate my LEDs. They are about midway up at home and they are getting bleached and moving downwards. I will probably bring them to work next week along with a couple of zoa frags. There are 3 zoas at home right now that I want to frag and bring up to work.

 

I am running out of room on the floor of my work tank so after Christmas I will be getting a 5.5G with a nice light for a small frag tank. I would love to plumb it in with my 10G at work but it will be challenging without drilling it. I may buy 2 and drill them both, one for zoas and palys and the other for SPS. Time to do some research into lighting for 5.5G now.

 

I IDed another hitchhiker in my home tank. I have a vermetid growing on my frag plug with the monti cap on it. I may have another one around my slimer too but I am not sure yet. Those things are so small I could only ID it though my macro lense on my camera. It was cool to watch though lol. I am not sure if I want to kill it or not since the slime string it lets out can harm the other coral. Maybe I will seclude it in a corner or something. I also think I have spirorbis all over the glass growing with my coraline. I was looking at one with my macro lense and it looked kind of like a feather duster. It was odd. At the same time as discovering those two things I also found a new little clam up by a monti cap. I is very small and kind of cute. I had 2 clams hitch hike in on a rock of zoas and one has relocated all the way up into my GSP. In fact the only time I can see it is when the GSP are all closed up lol. I wonder if he likes it there or if he just went exploring and got trapped by the GSP growing on him. I saw a baby limpet also but the next day it was gone. Maybe it found a better place then the front glass.

 

So now my hitchhiker collection consists of (Most IDs are thanks to Helfrichs Chick's ID thread)

 

Good:

 

amphipods

brachiopod (at work)

bristle worms

brittle stars

clams

copepods

feather dusters

isopods

limpets

peanut worm (maybe)

spirorbis

stomatella

vermetid

 

Bad:

 

aptasia (still hanging on )

flatworms (on the front glass of my work tank, unknown if they are good or bad since there only a few small ones)

mantis shrimp (rip )

red bugs (gone I hope )

 

I think I am going to start my own thread in the ID section with pics and names of everything in my tank. I may do that next week when I get some new pics.

 

I hope eveyrone enjoyed the update. Now back to work lol.

[BlueAbyss]

I just discovered some new hitchhikers last night also. Haven't gotten IDs on either yet, but one looks to be some type of stony coral. Glad to hear your 'slugs' turned out to be Stomatellas, I have at least 3 and all of them are around 1" long and FAST! They seem to be breeding also, though I haven't seen any babies yet. I also saw a really tiny turban-shelled snail but couldn't get a good look at him because he's so tiny.

[opy01]

Yea its the tiny ones that get you because you see them once then they are gone. I have only seen the stomatella once. It is large too so theres no telling where it hides. Then again I saw a pretty large bristle worm the other day and did realize I had one that big. At least my brittle star at home decided to take up residence in the front of my large rock so i can see him reaching out for food.

[BlueAbyss]

Yeah sometimes I don't see the Stomatellas for a while, but since there are at least 3 in my tank (and they like to clean near the water and sand lines) I generally catch a glimpse of at least one a day. Pretty cool little snails, I must say.

 

Oh, and I've got at least one bristleworm over 2" long He's scary, sorta... I've named him Henry.

[opy01]

Oh, and I've got at least one bristleworm over 2" long He's scary, sorta... I've named him Henry.

 

I will name mine Hairy

[BlueAbyss]

LOL Hairy, that's awesome. I had a pineapple sponge not too long ago that I named Sponge Bob... he was 2" long until I accidently sucked him up while siphoning for my last water change. Came out the other end as a bunch of little Sponge Bob chunks.

[opy01]

I dont know if I should laugh or cry at that story . lol I love the name though. My first black clown I named Emo as opposed to Nemo lol. Ok I am getting out o here for the weekend. I am going to try to get some updated pics tomorrow. Wish me luck in finding time lol.

[BlueAbyss]

Good luck man, have a good weekend. Don't worry about Sponge Bob, he left behind many MANY brothers and sisters (EDIT: Siblings, I mean, since each is a hermaphrodite) to carry on the legacy

[imcosmokramer]

Crazy transformation!

 

Ok heres the update on my purple tri-color. I dipped it in iodine the second day I had it then in Revive Coral Cleaner about 2 weeks later then one more dip in Revive about 2 weeks after that.

 

September 5

 

September 20

 

October 8 (I think my white balance was a little off but it is actually almost that purple)

[Militant Jurist]

That is indeed some crazy growth! That's one of the reasons I love branching SPS so much.

[opy01]

I had some time this weekend to get some updated pics. Things are encrusting and spreading nicely. I saw my stomatella again last night so that makes twice I've seen it. I still dont know where it came from though lol.

 

Green slimer

 

at night

 

Both parts of my idaho grape monti cap (it broke into 3 pieces while trying to remove the frag plug)

 

You can see how well it is encrusting

 

Orange digi

 

Hydnophora

 

Zoas

 

 

One of my zoa polyps I will be selling when it starts growing well (I have about 5 different colonies started)

 

night fts (I need to get a better one because my clowns were all over and kept making blurry spots lol)

[opy01]

Some of my hitch hikers

 

 

 

 

 

[Militant Jurist]

That's some pretty cool growth on your green slimer! I don't know if I've ever seen one with such a random pattern.

 

Very nice photos as well. What kind of camera are you using?

[opy01]

That's some pretty cool growth on your green slimer! I don't know if I've ever seen one with such a random pattern.

 

Very nice photos as well. What kind of camera are you using?

 

Thanks MJ! I am using a Canon 40D with a 100mm macro lense with a 1.5x zoom attachment. I have been practicing for a while with different settings including mirror lock-up so the mirror slap does not cause the camera to shake. It doesnt make that much of a difference but with my crappy tri-pod every bit counts lol.

 

The green slimer came like that but has grown some since. I was expecting a single tall stalk but when I got it I was pleasently suprised. It is unusual so I like it even more .

[Militant Jurist]

I'm a fan of the unusual as well. I usually check out the $5 to $10 frag tank as my LFS each time I go in, just to see what odd little bits are in there!

[opy01]

Lucky! My LFS has a $39.99 frag tank. Good thing Formula462 told me about another LFS near me. I have only been there once but I need to go back.

[bradisfun]

pics of new sump/fuge

[opy01]

Ask and you shall receive! It is actually staying alot cleaner with hermits down there now. My Nitrites seem to be staying around 10 also. I trim my caulerpa back every week and clean out dying/clear parts. I also have a little bit of cheato in another chamber that is slowly growing over some live rubble. It also only took 4 weeks and an entire bottle of Tech M to get my Mg back up to 1380. Now my calcium is alot more stable and my coral look happier too.

 

[opy01]

Well I got up this morning and was getting ready for work when I went in and looked in my tank. I saw a huge bristle worm eating crap near the front of my tank. I only saw about 3-4 inches of it and the rest was in the rock. I didnt know this guy was so big. Now I have to remove it. Does anyone have sugestions? Can I just grab the 3-4 inches with my tongs and pull it out of the rock or would that rip it apart releasing toxins into my tank?

[ribbie]

Why do you have to remove it? I was under the impression that bristol worms are fine as long as they aren't causing damage.

[opy01]

It isnt currently causing damage but I read that as long as they are small they are ok but the larger ones can be troublesome. This one is getting pretty big. Maybe I can catch it and put it in my fuge.

[deepdvnarq]

i have tons of bristle worms in my tanks and love them. they keep it pretty tidy.

[Militant Jurist]

I have a lot of rather large ones in my 20L, and they don't seem to cause much harm. Plus, I think that they are like worms, in that if you don't manage to get all of it, whatever is left will regrow into a new worm. Then he'll just be angry.