ColorMeBlue Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 Ouch. They really need to fix that packaging Yeah, they do. I'm getting a bit peeved, as I placed this order in January and while they've been responsive, you have to keep at them and they don't follow through well. Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted March 15, 2011 Author Share Posted March 15, 2011 Sucks. Yeah, it does. I emailed them on Friday, still no response, called yesterday and left a voicemail, still nothing either way. I'm really rather disappointed in them, despite their pretty tanks. Link to comment
jbfrompa Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Cadlights is sucking bad on the shipping. That is 2 for 2 broken tanks. Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 Heard from Cadlights, got a new shipping #, so the third tank try should be here on Monday. Eddie said he wanted the broken tank back, which is no problem since I hadn't bothered taking it out of the box, but I'm hoping the delivery guy is the pickup guy as Eddie didn't answer that question. I emailed again to ask. Let's hope third time's the charm! Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 So, the *third* tank showed up yesterday. And it *rattled* It also looked like someone in Fed Ex opened, saw the contents, taped it back up again. They had the nerve to not ring the doorbell, dump it on the step so we actually couldn't open the door without having to *push* the package to get the door open and left. It was so obviously broken without even opening the box, I haven't opened the box for fear of getting small glass shards everywhere. I sent an email to Eddie and my spouse (who had been home at the time and expecting the delivery) opened up a complaint with FedEx. It almost feels like they're trying to outdo themselves each time in 'how much worse can we deliver it this time'. Link to comment
mikellini Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 What kind of door do you have that opens outward? Unless it's a screen door... And BAHAHAHA... Sorry but it's so sad I had to laugh. I mean, you can't honestly want them to send another tank, can you? Just cancel the order already! They should pay you for all the time you've wasted! Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 What kind of door do you have that opens outward? Unless it's a screen door... And BAHAHAHA... Sorry but it's so sad I had to laugh. I mean, you can't honestly want them to send another tank, can you? Just cancel the order already! They should pay you for all the time you've wasted! Yup. Screen door. And yeah, I'm past frustrated. Thinking of giving up until I can drive the hours to a store and back, providing I can find one. : P Link to comment
mikellini Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 You could get them to ship it freight. That might be better... Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 You could get them to ship it freight. That might be better... Just got an email from them saying they're sending out the fourth tank (no tracking # though...) and that they filed a complaint with Fed Ex as well. If this doesn't arrive in one piece, Fed Ex will have a lot to answer for, methinks... Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 Got the fourth tank from Cadlights. It was in one piece! Amazing. The box looked worse for wear, despite the additional packaging Cadlights had put on it. I swear, it looks like FedEx does its best to break things. I had my worries abou the contents, but yay, one piece. I let Eddie know and told him I *still* have the two broken ones that were supposed to be picked up. He expressed surprise. I figure if I don't hear from anyone soon, I'm chucking the broken glass, as two boxes of broken fishtanks take up quite a bit of room. Glad this part of the saga is over. Never, ever ordering a fishtank by mail again. Next time, if I have to drive hours to a store to find one, I'll drive hours to a fish store and back again. Certainly take up less of my time than this has. Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted May 25, 2011 Author Share Posted May 25, 2011 Well, no news on the fishtank front, other than things finally got sorted with Cadlights. We threw out the broken fishtanks (yay, floorspace again!) and got an intact fishtank at last. Unfortunately, all the delays messed with my timing, as work then moved me to a different location, which means no access to stores, a *much* longer commute and things are all in a flux for a while. So while I have a tank, I can't put anything *in* it for months. I don't trust anything mailed to the house, given the fun I had with UPS and FedEx and the fishtanks. I guess I just keep on reading until the day I can actually *do*. Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted July 21, 2011 Author Share Posted July 21, 2011 Well, progress at looooong last. Had to overcome a bunch of obstacles, but -- fixed the water softener, got a pump for the Spectrapure system, found a local FS since my original plans got sidelined due to work relocating me away from my original potential sources. So I came up with a different plan from my original, but so it goes. So --- after mixing up salt water for over a day, I put dead rock I got from the LFS, and some aragonite sand into the tank and then added the water. So far so good. No leaks, no life but the pump works. Am a bit concerned that the water temp's at 81 at the moment and that's with no lights and no heater. If I can figure out the refractometer and get the salt right, I hope to get a cup of live sand from my brother's tank this weekend to get things slowly started. Then maybe in a few weeks if all goes well, I'll order some live rock (and maybe more live sand) from somewhere in the gulf and do the long cycle in the tank itself. I know that means a lot of water changes, but I think it might be interesting to do. So, the problem with the refractometer: I got it from StevieT's, along with the calibration fluid. I put the fluid and tried to read it and it was 1.026 as expected. So I rinsed it off with the RODI water, dried it off, waited a few minutes and then took a few drops of my mixed salt water ( which was 9 gallons of RODI with a brick of Tropic Marin thrown in and mixed for a day, so I couldn't measure how much salt, I just eyeballed it) waited a minute and took a reading. It looked almost exactly the same. I find it unlikely in the extreme the reading would be the same, given how I mixed the water. I figured it'd be off and then I'd tweak to get it right. So what might I be doing wrong? Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 Got some live sand from brother's fishtank, along with some fern Caulerpa and put it all in my tank. Seems the sand had a brittle starfish in it, at least one copepod, some amphipods and one itty bitty brown worm that raced across the glass before disappearing. Not sure if any of them will survive, as I didn't take time to acclimate the sand as I didn't think we got anything higher order in it, and I'm not sure what they'd live on, given how barren the tank is at the moment. Ah well. Salinity seems to be 1.026-7, I'd like it a wee bit lower so evaporation doesn't drive it up, especially as I'm running a desk fan at the tank to keep temps down. It had been 84-85 but I got it down to 80.4 with the fan plus the temps going down a bit yesterday. But with the lights I for the caulerpa on I know it's going to be a problem for a bit if the temps keep spiking. If things continue stable, I hope to order some live rock in a couple of weeks and then do the daily water changes. Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 Yay! Things are finally going forward! I ordered my live rock and sand from Sea Life Inc, and boy am I happy with the order. It shipped overnight, the rock is *beautiful*, with feather dusters, yellow sponges (which I hope survive. *worried*), one very spiny shy crab the sand came with hermit crabs, about 3 or 4. Also got a good sized starfish, some worms and lots to look at. And some algae that I don't know, but maybe someone can help ID it. Yay!!!! And here's a closeup of the pretty sponges... And the FTS... Link to comment
stuie25 Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 glad your tank arrived in one peice , i was going to order the same tank to canada, but ended up buying a 12g instead and shipping it to the border and driving across to get it. i really wish i could have gotten the bigger tank but oh well, yours looks like its coming along great. i had an issue with the brackets that hold the light up breaking on mine. Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 glad your tank arrived in one peice , i was going to order the same tank to canada, but ended up buying a 12g instead and shipping it to the border and driving across to get it. i really wish i could have gotten the bigger tank but oh well, yours looks like its coming along great. i had an issue with the brackets that hold the light up breaking on mine. Thanks! It took a few tries to get a good tank, but I can say Eddie was willing to work with me and ensure I got something that was intact. It was the months of back and forth and annoyance at the delivery service, UPS and FedEx both that was the worst. I'm glad it's all behind me and I've got live rock! Good luck with yours!! Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 Well, seeing a bit of cyano on the bit where there was definite low flow, so I blew at it with some salt water (by pouring the water into the tank right over it) and changed the second pump's direction so water would get flowing back there. Also seeing hair agae, looks like it may become a problem soon. The yellow sponges don't seem to be doing well, at least the two smaller colonies don't seem to be, and I'm wondering what I can do to help them. They're such a bright cheerful yellow, I'd really like to get them to thrive. On the plus side, the calcerous algae that came on the rock is growing too. I see new buds on it all over the place, which I take as a good sign, as I had wanted to have some interesting algae in this tank. The API test kits aren't registering any noticeable ammonia or nitrites or nitrates. I suspect the latter is because of all the sudden algae growth and I'm really bemused about the former. I've seen at best, as far as I can tell, because the colors are hard to read, that the ammonia at the highest was about .50 ppm, which given the fact that I've dead crab and dead worms in the tank make me wonder if the kit's working right. I did have a cup or two of live sand from my brother's tank in my tank about 2.5 weeks before I got the live rock and I'm wondering if some of the bacteria settled in to help soften the new arrivals or if my kit's screwy. Nothing seems to be terribly unhappy except for the sponges, but it's not been a week yet. Hopefully I can upload some pics tonight. Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted August 19, 2011 Author Share Posted August 19, 2011 Came home last night and found a big snail in the front of the tank -- or the remains of one, since the two blue-legged hermits seemed to be having a happy feast, along with a few happy pods. It was a black shell I hadn't noticed, so I wonder where it'd been hiding and why/how it died but I guess I'll never know. I was hoping to take a picture this morning, but the shell was gone. Ah the mysteries of the sea. Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted August 22, 2011 Author Share Posted August 22, 2011 Was away from home for one day and when I got back I find a pile of sand in one back corner of my tank. Seems I've got a little excavator in there. I'm suspecting a pistol shrimp, as I had what I thought was a molt floating around the tank last week, so I guess it really was. If so, cool. I'll try to take a picture, even if a pile of sand isn't that exciting. I've at least 3 blue legged hermit crabs, it seems, the smallest I've named Zippy since he's always running around the tank unlike the more sedate other two I've seen. The other two hitchiking crabs have gotten a bit less shy and I've actually seen them peek out of their rock holes. The one I think is a gorilla crab I've named George and he's still a bit shy, even with a bait of shrimp offered to him. The other is a teeny red one and he's willing to come out for a picture. Not sure what he is, though. Unfortunately, my camera's not the best for it, as you can see: Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted August 24, 2011 Author Share Posted August 24, 2011 Well, Monday night I decided to give a few drops of oyster feast near the anemone hitchhiker and a few drops of phytofeast for the worms. I'm probably over-worrying about them, but I'm also worried about my sponges, some of which really melted away, some are either being replaced by clear sponges or changing or both. I really want to save them and I know they need flow and food. Just how much of any of the food and what my tank can provide 'as is' I don't know. I came home last night to find the white 'dead' rock under the anemone had taken on color, mostly a bright sulfery yellow (Though I don't think it's sulfer, just something growing), with a bit of other colors here and there and my halimeda seems to have grown its itty bitty bud to an entire large coin. Wow. Had no idea they'd grow that fast. Also seeing a lot of little wavy greyish white things on the rock, which may be a nuisance algae or something akin to it, maybe? Also seeing *tons* of itty bitty flea-sized critters in the tank, along with the slightly larger ones I've seen As I expected, the nitrates were not zero, because it wasn't *quite* as light yellow as on the card, but it wasn't the darker yellow/orangish on the next color up which is 5ppm. So I'm guessing it was somewhere between the two. Ammonia and nitrites still were at zero, according to the tests. I did a small water change, cleaned out the skimmer. Was in a hurry today so I forgot to clean it out this morning. It just seems to create white foam though, so I assume that's just excess protein in the water. Also seeing something growing on the glass that looks almost coraline ish. Not where I'd want to *have* it so I need to clear that away sooner than later. Seeing lots of clear longish (okay, long in context) tubes from the rocks. I suspect something in the sponge family, maybe? Wanted to take pictures but didn't get a chance. Will try tonight, since I'm amazed at how quickly things are changing and I want to document it, visually. The anemone seems happy as far as I can tell, tucking in at times, but coming out again. The feather dusters fan around and there's some other stuff that's really hard to see that intrigues me. Something in the middle of one rock *looks* like teeny tiny colonies of black feathery things, but it's really hard to tell with the water distortion and limited light. Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted August 25, 2011 Author Share Posted August 25, 2011 And now I've pictures to show off the pretty rock and stuff. I put them in Picassa, so hopefully I can figure out how to get the link working right... https://picasaweb.google.com/11730916052590...gCJzpycjV-pyoBg Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted August 26, 2011 Author Share Posted August 26, 2011 Woo, discovered last night that what I thought was an old clam shell embedded in the rock was actually a live clam. I noticed that inside the shell there was some movement, as if it were siphoning for food or whatever. Nifty! Hope I can keep it alive. Does anyone have any advice on this? Lots of pods all over, but also tons of those vermetid snails, all over my back wall is festooned with itty bitty ones. Not sure if I should scrape them off or what, because there are so many. Noticed my itty hermit crab was sporting a snail shell with a perfect little hole drilled into it. I'm wondering if that's the source of the pile of snail shells in the back of the tank, a predatory snail. The little red crab likes to sit under the anemone. It looked like he was wearing an anemone hat last night as he fed off whatever was on the rock in the anemone's cave. The nem doesn't seem to mind at all. Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted September 12, 2011 Author Share Posted September 12, 2011 One of the crabs came out of hiding yesterday. Almost didn't spot him as he blends in so well with the rock, but I snapped a picture. Also successfully fed my anemone mysis, yay. It was rather neat, watching him shove it into his mouth. Wasn't sure if I should feed him a second piece since he had opened up again pretty quickly and his little tentacles were all twitchy as if wanting to catch more. Should I have tried to feed him again? Or is waiting a good thing? Here's a pic of the little crab: Link to comment
ColorMeBlue Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 Well, the tank is coming along, despite a 24+ hour power outage and cold weather on Halloween weekend. I was really worried as the tank water temp went down to the low 60's and I had no way to heat it. I did take a gallon jug of salt water and put it next to my woodstove in the hopes of warming it if things got desperate. I would periodically use a tupperware container to scoop up water and I'd pour it down back into the tank from a bit of height in the hopes to help circulation a little. Overall, it seems to have worked. I changed out a bit of water after the power was back and things warmed up and then again a day later. Yesterday I went to the local fish store to buy some fresh frozen mysis as I was suspicious of the stuff that had been in my freezer during the power outage. I had wanted to buy myself a fish or a coral as I felt the tank's been stable enough for a while. The LFS was sad. I was perusing the tanks and there were loads of dead animals, like the tank of dead emeralds and only one still alive, the fish with sunken tummies, I almost was tempted to buy the poor thing but I refrained. What's worse is that despite several tanks of dead fish and critters, they seemed unaware that this was the case. Their corals looked fine but they were all too big for what I was looking for, and my tank does not have *that* much space being a little 22g. As I asked if that was all they had and pointed out their die off, I found they had a frag room upstairs. Turns out it was a different 'store' and the corals there were just right and lovely. I ended up with a lovely acan, a duncan and a zoa and since I paid cash, he threw in an extra zoa. The duncans were already opening this morning, which I took as a good sign, the acan seems okay but it's hard to tell, and the zoas were closed up. Not surprising about the latter. My red mithrax, Buster, had been pestering them something fierce. I suspect whatever was growing around them was *really* tasty to him. Hopefully he'll leave them alone and they'll recover. Link to comment
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