gena Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Sorry, Ben Is that your cat? She's gorgeous!!!! Awesome gif too Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Yeah, she's my Bubbles. She's been really clingy lately, it's funny. She was the 'antisocial' cat that now is always wanting to be in my lap when I'm sitting down Link to comment
Chadf Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Yeah, she's my Bubbles. She's been really clingy lately, it's funny. She was the 'antisocial' cat that now is always wanting to be in my lap when I'm sitting down Senses your stress. Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Awe man. Sorry to hear about the status of your tank. Good luck with the reload. Awesome cat BTW! Link to comment
eitallent Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Bubbles is squeezable! I have a Bubbles but she is a Lab/Beagle/Heeler mix doggie with round black patterns on her back. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 Uhm. So I have a baby lettuce nudibranch (well, sea slug) in my tank. That means I'm doing something right.... right? Link to comment
Lalani Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 You named your cat Bubbles? I didn't know you were a chick. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 You named your cat Bubbles? I didn't know you were a chick. She was actually named that when we adopted her. Not sure why they named her bubbles, she's not that bubbly, unless you count how fat she is now Link to comment
Lalani Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Ah, alright. I'll let this one slide. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 Maybe they had predicted she was going to be a tub o lard (she was the runt, i think, and she had pneumonia or something before we got her, so was tiny). Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 20, 2013 Author Share Posted June 20, 2013 Terrible pictures of baby nudibranch. Also, dinoflagellates. Again. I'm overjoyed to see them. Link to comment
metrokat Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 cute slug. crappy dinos. are you dosing anything? what are you running on this now? gfo? carbon? scrubber? skimmer? what? Link to comment
eitallent Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Cute baby nudi. I love watching my nudis eat algae. They have cute little antennas on their heads. In the words of the father character in Calvin and Hobbes, those "slippin, rippin, dang, fang, rotten zarg, barg-a-ding dong; dinos!" Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 20, 2013 Author Share Posted June 20, 2013 cute slug. crappy dinos. are you dosing anything? what are you running on this now? gfo? carbon? scrubber? skimmer? what? Nothing right now. Stony corals are almost all gone, and no growth from the clam or remaining stonys, so no cal or alk, a bit of peroxide spot treated for some of the dinos, running carbon, GFO, and Purigen. Link to comment
markalot Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 There has to be a reason you grow dino's so well. HAS TO BE. Something is off somewhere. I'm an expert at stating the obvious, and I fill in for Captain Obvious when he takes vacations. But still .... Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 20, 2013 Author Share Posted June 20, 2013 Beats the hell out of me, though. :/ I want to use all new water (with my new DI system) when I start refilling the system, but I don't want to deliver the killing blow to the lone remaining clam. :/ Link to comment
Psychosis Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 I've given your tank some serious thought Ben. I can't remember exactly what happened when, but I'm going to hazard a guess and say we need to get you back to good fundamentals, starting with a couple of 40 gallon water changes and nixing any sand you may have left over. Turkey baste the shit out of every nook and cranny of the display during the two big water changes. Going forward, a 20 gallon water change every two to three days until the tank is where you want it to be. There is no contagion, mishap, or stocking issue that can't be corrected with enough fresh saltwater. No gimmicks, gadgets, or doses. You've got the lighting on lock, I really recommend taking my word on this one. Again, I'm not sure exactly what you're running otherwise, but it won't matter what your running if you hit the Dinos hard with mag and fresh water. I can't recall which brand if salt it is, but one of the cheaper ones mixes to 1400 out of the gate. Sorry, I'm posting from my phone. I don't mean to say you haven't considered wcs or done it, I'm just coaching. Link to comment
l2d4 Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Can't say I disagree with good ol' Psycho. I always see a shit ton of tinkering in this thread. I know that is your nature and it won't change much... but it will do good to go back to basics (in every way) for a while. Get the ship steady before trying to turn it around. Link to comment
metrokat Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Nothing right now. Stony corals are almost all gone, and no growth from the clam or remaining stonys, so no cal or alk, a bit of peroxide spot treated for some of the dinos, running carbon, GFO, and Purigen. Okay, fair enough. So what are your parameters? Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 I've given your tank some serious thought Ben. I can't remember exactly what happened when, but I'm going to hazard a guess and say we need to get you back to good fundamentals, starting with a couple of 40 gallon water changes and nixing any sand you may have left over. Turkey baste the shit out of every nook and cranny of the display during the two big water changes. Going forward, a 20 gallon water change every two to three days until the tank is where you want it to be. There is no contagion, mishap, or stocking issue that can't be corrected with enough fresh saltwater. No gimmicks, gadgets, or doses. You've got the lighting on lock, I really recommend taking my word on this one. Again, I'm not sure exactly what you're running otherwise, but it won't matter what your running if you hit the Dinos hard with mag and fresh water. I can't recall which brand if salt it is, but one of the cheaper ones mixes to 1400 out of the gate. Sorry, I'm posting from my phone. I don't mean to say you haven't considered wcs or done it, I'm just coaching. Total system volume in its current state is around 25 gallons or so, probably less than that, it has about 5" of water above the sandbed. Saturday will begin filling the system again, as the floor will be braced on Saturday morning (which is the reason the tank is essentially completely drained). Frankly, large water changes in what is remaining at this point may do more harm than good (I'm in that camp as it is), and I guarantee will kill the lone clam. If the issues are bacterial, no amount of water changes can fix it - it will always be present unless their food or energy source is removed. I've always run elevated mag levels. I use Instant Ocean, and I can't remember what it mixed to (I don't do water changes), but I would keep it in the 1350-1400 range all the time. Unfortunately, dinos are different than most other pests in that elevated magnesium levels do not affect them, neither does very high salinity, alk, etc. The only things that kill them are hydrogen peroxide and starvation, which is next to impossible, and why people with dino outbreaks almost always end up breaking down the tank to beat them once and for all. I'm not giving up that easily. I've got some more Dr. Tim's stuff on the way for when I start to fill the tank again. Can't wait to have a functioning sump, skimmer, and algae scrubber again! Can't say I disagree with good ol' Psycho. I always see a shit ton of tinkering in this thread. I know that is your nature and it won't change much... but it will do good to go back to basics (in every way) for a while. Get the ship steady before trying to turn it around. Working on it. Okay, fair enough. So what are your parameters? Cal stopped around 400, alk 160, mag 1350, no3 5, po4 .04, nothing too out of the ordinary. The bucket I've had some rock percolating in with some Dr. Tims appears to be ready. It still had some organics in the rock that I couldn't blast out with the water hose, and then accidentally got sealed up somehow and basically was putrid, but the water has finally cleared up and there is no measurable ammonia coming from it, so it looks like it may be ready to go. The water it's in is super high in DOC which the clam would love, I wish I could use it, but I don't think it's a good idea. I'm gonna move the 40B sump back into the old stand and start filling it with RO/DI. Then I'll put my return pump in the return chamber and pipe it to go to back to the first chamber and will start mixing salt with it, that'll be 40g of water done, only need another 40g or so and it will be all filled. Link to comment
markalot Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 I don't do water changes How's that working out? Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 How's that working out? It actually was working out pretty great until I started changing shit up. I think the best this tank has ever seen was when I had no skimmer, no water changes, and an algae scrubber. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.