eitallent Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Gah. I finally had all the parts to hard pipe my RODI into the new house, and had test fired it up, when I noticed a leak between the cutoff valve and the following union. I turned the water back off, and gave it a couple quarter turns with the wrenches, and...SNAP. Ten minutes before Lowes closes for the night. Ugh! Wish you better luck today. Plumbing is SUCH a PITA ... Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share Posted April 5, 2013 All better now, and 5 gallons made.15 more by tomorrow to move the tank, yay. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share Posted April 5, 2013 Not much, really. I think the bryopsis is in the way. Just finished moving the tank from Renton, WA to Bothell, WA. It's about 23 miles and took just under 5 hours for everything from the moment I turned off the Apex until we were loading the extra buckets back into the car, we even took a break for lunch during the drive.. Big props to Eric from Oceans By Design for helping out. Sure, money changed hands, but it was worth it for all of the experience, expertise and extra hands. This is the same shop that is custom building my new tank. So, the Dracula Goby was NOT seen during the move. It is either long dead and gone or hid under the sand despite removing nearly all of the rocks. The pistol was out and about during the shuffle, so I'm guessing it's the former, and I am NOT dropping $130 for a THIRD high-cost goby. Link to comment
eddiecorrea Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 Are you starting fresh with the new tank? All new rock and sand and such? With your Bryo issue I'd get all new everything. Dry rock from reefcleaners is how I went. Love it. Best stuff out there. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted April 27, 2013 Author Share Posted April 27, 2013 Yup. All new sand and rock. It's going to be a slow build. Also, while not gone, my bryopsis seems to have stabilized since the move, and a lot less of it than at the maximum. There's a little on the back wall and the sand, a big clump on the clam and another clump being dragged around on the urchin. There's hardly any on the actual rocks. I'm not going to pretend that I understand why. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted May 11, 2013 Author Share Posted May 11, 2013 So... Once a week, I have been cleaning the algae off of the clamshell as gently as possible. (Most of the rocks are now bare and there's been hardly any bryopsis growth except the back wall, a little in the sand and the continual growth on the clamshell.) today, I went to do another removal, and the clamshell is completely empty. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted May 15, 2013 Author Share Posted May 15, 2013 OBD sent me a picture of my new tank, post water test: Dimensions are 36" x 24 x 20", so about 65 gallons, it's drilled for a sump, but I'll be pretending it's an AIO until I can afford the custom sump. I took the BC slow, and this one's going to go even slower. Before anything, I'll have to design the stand for this. Link to comment
eddiecorrea Posted May 15, 2013 Share Posted May 15, 2013 Looks good. I've decided to build my own tank again. Moving into our house end of June. Gonna be 40" w x 18d x 12 tall. Should be an easy build. Drilled and I'll build a sump for it as well. I like how they have like a $400 tank on a $5 roller from Harbor Freight. I've owned 3 of those and all 3 broke under less than 100lbs. haha Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted May 15, 2013 Author Share Posted May 15, 2013 The plan is to go peninsula along this rail between the kitchen and family room, with the bottom edge of a cover even with the ceiling of the family room. http://s179.photobucket.com/user/rollermonkey/media/P1000657_zps19aafa28.jpg.html'> Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted June 1, 2013 Author Share Posted June 1, 2013 I love what the blue tuxedo urchin does for my tank. What algae it doesn't eat, ends up on it's back as easily removed decoration. The only bryopsis long enough to be identifiable now is on its back. I don't get it, the biggest change is I haven't done a water change since the move and somehow that seems to have been super effective. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 It seems that I missed my tank's "birthday". Well, probably for the best, as I'm sure cake would have spiked the parameters. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 Worms. It took over a YEAR, but I finally have some kind of worms. They were small, maybe 1mm thick, less than an inch long, nearly colorless, and climbing on the glass, and looked like they had lots of legs... The back (?) third portion was almost completely clear... Looking through Chuck's Addiction, it could have been one of a few things, most of which should be OK. I hope. Also, the Brittle Star has clearly been losing repeated battles with the pistol. I never see it stomp around any more, and it's legs are never full length any more. I should have gave up on it when we had it out of the tank for the move... Link to comment
eitallent Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Ugh! Worms. I do not like them much. Like you I hope they are friendlies. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted June 30, 2013 Author Share Posted June 30, 2013 No clue what they are, they're so damn tiny. I also seem to have some very small spaghetti worms now, too. Looks like I'm getting GHA now instead of bryopsis. Yay. Also, had a power loss tonight. Had two battery powered airstones in the tank right away, and power was back in an hour and nine minutes. Didn't even need to think about the generator or blankets as the temps were already elevated to 83 from the high outside temps the past two days. I can't imagine how hard it is to run a reef tank in Phoenix right now. 119F?!? Yikes. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted July 2, 2013 Author Share Posted July 2, 2013 After three days of no lights due to temps between 82-83F during the day, I dropped a 20oz coke bottle of frozen water in the tank. Got it down to about 81 and took the bottle back out. Hopefully I won't have to do that too many times this summer. Link to comment
eitallent Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Good idea. I will freeze a few small plastic bottles too. Just in case. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 Something to make me chuckle: My blue tuxedo urchin has decorated itself with hermit molts. Such weird animals. Link to comment
superspec Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Here is my opinion on your situation and it is only based on my experience with the BC over the past 3 years. Here it is... you're trying to hard. I don't do anything to my tank othr ten water changes. The only time my tank gets out of wack is when I let the water changes go for weeks at a time and then it only takes a few ten gallon changes to kill off the hair algea. This is stocked with 4 fish, 2 shrimp, 2 large bta, 3 colonies of zoa, Xenia and a ton of GSP. Again maybe just mine. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted July 8, 2013 Author Share Posted July 8, 2013 Yup. Just yours. My surprising solution was the opposite: I cut WAY back on water changes, and the bryopsis went away. Now, I've got some GHA instead, but that's certainly an improvement as more things will eat GHA than will eat bryopsis. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted August 2, 2013 Author Share Posted August 2, 2013 Something ate my chiton... no clue what it was, but my urchin was very close to it for quite a long time today... But I thought tuxedo urchins were herbivores... I also suspect that my brittle star is very near death. I spotted some small pieces of it's legs on the sand bed... and it's gone back under the rocks where it usually hides, so I still can't remove it without moving almost everything in the tank. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted August 4, 2013 Author Share Posted August 4, 2013 I removed what was left of Kong today. Poor thing was still alive, but three of his legs were less than 1/2" long and the other two were only an inch. For a brittle star that was once at least 10" across, it was a tough year, between the pistol always kicking his @$$ and the simple fact the tank wasn't really big enough for it. I had been under the impression I was buying a mini-brittle, so imagine my surprise when a monster arrived. I tried a couple times to give it away, but had no takers. In the end, I think he was dropping sections of leg in an attempt to keep the body alive, because I saw a couple small pieces over the past week or so, but today was the first time he was somewhere I could get to him. I ripped my mother purple shroom moving the rocks out of the way to get Kong out. It's had 8 babies already, and I'm sure it will recover, but it still sucks. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted August 28, 2013 Author Share Posted August 28, 2013 Yeah, I know, I know. I should be focusing on the new build, and not be spending money on the 'Cube, but I got two more maximinis from Reef Goddess: one blue, one red. Acclimation is done and both were open in the bag. I've got the lights and pumps off while they grab hold, for now. Hopefully they park somewhere I can get a picture after the lights come on tomorrow. Link to comment
reefernanoman Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 I love what the blue tuxedo urchin does for my tank. What algae it doesn't eat, ends up on it's back as easily removed decoration. The only bryopsis long enough to be identifiable now is on its back. I don't get it, the biggest change is I haven't done a water change since the move and somehow that seems to have been super effective. Yup , I got a Tuxedo Urchin for my GHA too and it has been doing a great job. Link to comment
Rollermonkey Posted October 1, 2013 Author Share Posted October 1, 2013 Mine must be lazy, because it isn't keeping up, despite my manual harvests.. Link to comment
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