nevermore1701 Posted July 1, 2011 Author Share Posted July 1, 2011 More of my sad photographic efforts: The Trumpet looking very happy: Since he's always photobombing, I figured he deserved a pic of his own: One of my favorite Zoas: Still-recovering Acan. Zoa rock: The wayward mushroom: Link to comment
gena Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 Looking GREAT! I really like the magician looking palys! I'll take some of those, k thanks Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted July 1, 2011 Author Share Posted July 1, 2011 Looking GREAT! I really like the magician looking palys! I'll take some of those, k thanks Thanks, I'm really happy with the rate everything's growing. The Zoas all had 3-4 heads each a month ago, and that has at least doubled or tripled in the last month. The mushroom has already gotten a hair bigger since I pulled him out of the shade last week, and the Trumpet's polyps are about double the size they were when I got him. Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted August 6, 2011 Author Share Posted August 6, 2011 Well, it's been a long, long month. I'm going back to school for my Paramedic cert, and have been busting my ass at work to get some bills paid off before I go. 60-70 hour weeks, plus painting the living room, kitchen, and dining room left me with absolutely no time or energy for tank maintenance. Long story short, the only things I've done for my tank in the last five weeks is top it off with distilled water a couple of times and drop a few pellets in a few times a week. Lost the peppermint shrimp (I'm guessing the salinity fluctuated a bit much for him ). The Zoas, 'shroom, and Acan are all fine, but the Trumpet is kinda pissy. Worst is the GHA is back in force, and the Cyano is starting to re-appear too. Going to do a full water change, quarantine the Trumpet and Acan, and dip/dose H2O2 until the algae is back under control, keeping up with the water changes this time. Fun stuff. Link to comment
gena Posted August 7, 2011 Share Posted August 7, 2011 Sorry to hear about your algae woes. Looking forward to hearing that things are back on track. Did you notice anymore growth with having excess nutrients? I went on vacation for 3 weeks and notice some growth. I'm disappointed that I haven't gotten more growth out of my mushrooms though. Being away from the tank made it easy for me to experiment with no water changes. I can't be around my tank and NOT do a weekly water change. So this was an excellent opportunity for me. Unfortunately I didn't see anything that would persuade me to go more than a week without a change. Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted August 9, 2011 Author Share Posted August 9, 2011 Sorry to hear about your algae woes. Looking forward to hearing that things are back on track. Did you notice anymore growth with having excess nutrients? I went on vacation for 3 weeks and notice some growth. I'm disappointed that I haven't gotten more growth out of my mushrooms though. Being away from the tank made it easy for me to experiment with no water changes. I can't be around my tank and NOT do a weekly water change. So this was an excellent opportunity for me. Unfortunately I didn't see anything that would persuade me to go more than a week without a change. The Zoas grew several new polyps each, but I credit the passing of time more than anything. The algae isn't nearly as bad as it was before my first H2O2 treatments, but the nutrient rich water and lack of chaeto combined to give me a moderate outbreak. Definitely going to stay on top of my weekly 4g water changes from now on! Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted August 24, 2011 Author Share Posted August 24, 2011 The Zoas grew several new polyps each, but I credit the passing of time more than anything. The algae isn't nearly as bad as it was before my first H2O2 treatments, but the nutrient rich water and lack of chaeto combined to give me a moderate outbreak. Definitely going to stay on top of my weekly 4g water changes from now on! Got a package from inTank yesterday. New PC bulbs, new packets of Purigen and Chemi-Pure, and a TLF nano-mag. The combination of new hardware, chemical filtration, and consistent water changes seems to have just about beaten the algae back into submission. The cyano is gone, and the GHA is almost history too. Going to try to get some more chaeto soon. Wish I had gotten the nano-mag a year ago, that little thing is amazing! No more scraping coralline off the glass a razor! Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 Well, it's been a while. Keeping up with the tank during EMT school isn't exactly a priority, so thing's haven't gone exactly to plan. The clown pair didn't survive my being gone Thanksgiving week, unfortunately. The water tested fine, the YWG and zoas were fine, so I don't know what the deal was there. On the plus side, the cyano hasn't made a reappearance, and the GHA, while not completely gone, has stayed at very manageable levels, even with my somewhat inconsistent care. My CuC has dwindled down to one hermit and a couple of snails, so I have a new batch coming from Reefcleaners, along with another ball of chaeto to replace the original batch that I accidentally nuked during my battle with cyano and GHA. Today I picked up an adorable little black clown and a nice firefish to bring a little more life back into the tank, and so far they seem to be doing well. I'll be getting some more mushrooms to augment my zoa population, then hopefully I'll be able to upgrade my lights to accommodate some more interesting corals. I also expressed my displeasure with my LFS' almost $3/gal for RO/DI water to the owner, who I know fairly well both professionally and socially. He offered me pre-mixed 1.023 saltwater made from their RO/DI for $1/gal in appreciation for all the business I've done with him (mostly reptile related) over the past 5 years. I'll give it a try (after testing it thoroughly, of course), and if it works out well it will end up costing about half as much as buying distilled water from Wal-Mart and mixing it myself. That will likely lead to me increasing my water changes from 4gal/week to 4gal/2x weekly. Hopefully doubled water changes, new CuC and chaeto will clear up the remaining GHA once and for all. A few quick shots of the fish, sadly the zoas were still pissed after I blew the rocks off with the turkey baster earlier. Can see the last bit of GHA in the background. Link to comment
gena Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 That is an awesome fish selection!!!!! They look great. I want to see a FTS with all those zoas open. You have so many!!!!!!! Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 That is an awesome fish selection!!!!! They look great. I want to see a FTS with all those zoas open. You have so many!!!!!!! I'll try to get a shot of all of them open. Only problem is, the ones that spread the most are all sh*t brown I did drunk order a few neon blue zoa frags last night, will try to get some color in there! Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 A few examples of how having a nice camera doesn't mean much if you don't know how to use it: Link to comment
gena Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Those aren't poop brown...they have great color!!!!! I'm with you on having a nice camera but not knowing how to use it. I really need to take a course or something. Your pictures turned out great though. Every now and then I manage some half decent shots Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Those aren't poop brown...they have great color!!!!! I'm with you on having a nice camera but not knowing how to use it. I really need to take a course or something. Your pictures turned out great though. Every now and then I manage some half decent shots Thanks, I hear ya about taking a photography class! Those six pictures were culled from the 122 I took Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Firefish croaked during the night :tears: Don't know what was wrong, the water tests fine and the B/W Clown and YWG are both perfectly happy. Will re-test in a few hours and get a replacement. Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Firefish croaked during the night :tears: Don't know what was wrong, the water tests fine and the B/W Clown and YWG are both perfectly happy. Will re-test in a few hours and get a replacement. Got back with my replacement firefish, doing well so far, but then again so did the last one at first. Fingers crossed. I also got two little bits of rock, one with 4 blue mushrooms and one with ~25 greenish mushrooms. They're small, but I think worth the $30 I paid. We'll see how they do. Pics when they acclimate and open up. Link to comment
gena Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Got back with my replacement firefish, doing well so far, but then again so did the last one at first. Fingers crossed. I also got two little bits of rock, one with 4 blue mushrooms and one with ~25 greenish mushrooms. They're small, but I think worth the $30 I paid. We'll see how they do. Pics when they acclimate and open up. Sorry about FF #1. Here's for this one to do well!!!!! Did the LFS give you any sort of credit? I think they can be pretty delicate. Looking forward to seeing your new mushrooms I got my rics and will be posting photos on my thread soon! Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Sorry about FF #1. Here's for this one to do well!!!!! Did the LFS give you any sort of credit? I think they can be pretty delicate. Looking forward to seeing your new mushrooms I got my rics and will be posting photos on my thread soon! Full exchange on the FF and a free gallon of saltwater, which I still need to test before I commit to using. I have a few tiny rics on the way with my blue zoa frag and nano stars from sealifeinc. Link to comment
gena Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Full exchange on the FF and a free gallon of saltwater, which I still need to test before I commit to using. I have a few tiny rics on the way with my blue zoa frag and nano stars from sealifeinc. That's a great LFS! What salt do they use? Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 That's a great LFS! What salt do they use? Completely forgot to ask. He said they mix it to 1.023, and if all my tests come up good I'll be happy to not be mixing water anymore, and it'll be a bit cheaper to boot. Link to comment
gena Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Hah....this just reminded me I have 4 gallons of RO water sitting in my car that I need to lug in and start mixing with salt Link to comment
Deckoz2302 Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 .....Me too lol its the third week.... guess i better startr mixin too Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 Out of curiosity, how much does it run you guys to mix up your own water? Buying distilled from Wal-Mart and the medium bags of IO or Coralife was coming to almost $2 a gallon, plus the time to mix, aerate, etc. Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 I need to get a new sig pic, as 2 of the 3 pictured critters are no longer with me, and the YWG is about 4x bigger now! Link to comment
Deckoz2302 Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 88c /gallon of water. 26c/gallon for i/o salt. Liter of Reef code A & B, Magnesium & Stronium - will last for 9 months at the rate im going to keep specs at 440ppm calc, 9dkh, 1500mag and 8ppm stronium. so relatively cheap. because I dose to maintain elements. I use more top off water then anything. Thinking about buying a rodi soon Link to comment
nevermore1701 Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 I never, ever have to top off. With once weekly water changes, I lose less than 1/8" from my water level. I don't know why, it's weird. Link to comment
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