THE OFFICIAL ASK ALBERT THIEL THREAD

[albertthiel]

My pair of Orchid Dottybacks in my Fluval Edge 46L taken just an hour ago on my phone hence not the best quality.

 

Looking real good Les ... and yes phones don't take the best pics but this one is just fine I think for the purpose of showing them

+++

 

Albert

[Paul.b]

Yesterday I bought a new car and I am touching up a little scratch on the one I am returning and I am waiting for the putty to dry. So I am "forced" to sit here and look at my tank for a little while. Of course while I am watching my tank, they are watching me, especially those beady little hermit crab eyes.

I am not sure how many hermit crabs there are in there and I couldn't even hazard a guess, snails either as I throw in local mud snails a few times a year.

My silly bio pellet reactor has been empty of pellets for quite a few months but I am keeping the housing functioning just for the coolness factor. There is an army of brittle stars in the thing and I don't know how they get through the pump to get in there without becoming brittle star mush, but there are dozens of them in there. I want to make it into a tiny tube worm "hotel". I want to install a screen in it to make it easier for the little buggers to multiply. My "algae" trough is already filled with them and I think they are an extremely under used biological filter that we can use to our advantage but I am not quite sure what, if anything they will filter. I realize the loads of them in there must be eating something but I would rather the algae trough grow algae and the tube worms can have a condo of their own. There is a small problem. The reactor I built for the pellets does not come apart and only has a 1/2" hole at the top for a threaded pipe. I will have to roll up a screen, slide it in and it will open in the inside. Some tube worms are growing in there now but I think the ones in the trough are sucking up most of any extra food. After I get the screen installed inside, I will break off a bunch of tube worms from the trough and stick them in the reactor. If nothing else, it will look cool and we all know, it is much better to look good than to feel good.

 

[Paul.b]

Today my wife and I picked to start our fall cleaning. I do the finished basement where my reef is. I wash all the walls, baseboards, floors. Remove anything on the walls and clean that. take everything out of the closets and clean them, remove ceiling light diffusers and clean those etc. Anyway I was cleaning the rim of my tank and my heart dropped. On the bottom edge of the paneling where the tank is, I saw my prized pipefish. OH NO. Not Betsy. Part of a mated pair that took me so long to find and finally buy. How could this happen? Not the bluestripe pipefish that I am so proud of. Not the little girl that greets me every morning as I squirt in new born brine shrimp and she gives me that little smile. Not her!

So I gently picked up her stiff body and caressed it.

I looked close to see the expression on her face, to see if she died in pain or just passed away from a broken heart.

As I stared at her little face I thought. Wait a minute, that isn't a face. That isn't even a pipefish. It's a blue piece of wire insulation. I looked up at the tank and there she was.

Betsy was laughing at me like a hyena. If she had knees she would be slapping them. Now I know why I need reading glasses.

 

[albertthiel]

Today my wife and I picked to start our fall cleaning. I do the finished basement where my reef is. I wash all the walls, baseboards, floors. Remove anything on the walls and clean that. take everything out of the closets and clean them, remove ceiling light diffusers and clean those etc. Anyway I was cleaning the rim of my tank and my heart dropped. On the bottom edge of the paneling where the tank is, I saw my prized pipefish. OH NO. Not Betsy. Part of a mated pair that took me so long to find and finally buy. How could this happen? Not the bluestripe pipefish that I am so proud of. Not the little girl that greets me every morning as I squirt in new born brine shrimp and she gives me that little smile. Not her!

So I gently picked up her stiff body and caressed it.

I looked close to see the expression on her face, to see if she died in pain or just passed away from a broken heart.

As I stared at her little face I thought. Wait a minute, that isn't a face. That isn't even a pipefish. It's a blue piece of wire insulation. I looked up at the tank and there she was.

Betsy was laughing at me like a hyena. If she had knees she would be slapping them. Now I know why I need reading glasses.

 

 

That IS funny Paul but I am glad that the fishie is OK ... and yes it is probably having a good laugh indeed

 

Albert

[Paul.b]

Next week I plan on collecting some water as I have no idea when I changed it last so I am sure it is due. I have some fake seawater here but I have not put in any real water since last year and I really need to do that. I did add thousands of amphipods and quite a bit of mud but before it gets really cold, I want to get some real water. There is a Coast Guard Station not to far and it is the perfect place to collect because it is on the Atlantic and they have a pier. I can just lower a bucket into the water and get all I want without having to go out into the water myself. I go out in my boat a few times a year but my boat is in the Sound and the ocean water is just so much cleared with far less organics.

I will only collect 20 gallons because it gets heavier every year. If I get ambitious again before the winter really gets here, I will get some more. Any day on the water is a good day, no matter what I am doing.

And besides, there is always a good chance to spot a Supermodel near the sea.

[albertthiel]

Next week I plan on collecting some water as I have no idea when I changed it last so I am sure it is due. I have some fake seawater here but I have not put in any real water since last year and I really need to do that. I did add thousands of amphipods and quite a bit of mud but before it gets really cold, I want to get some real water. There is a Coast Guard Station not to far and it is the perfect place to collect because it is on the Atlantic and they have a pier. I can just lower a bucket into the water and get all I want without having to go out into the water myself. I go out in my boat a few times a year but my boat is in the Sound and the ocean water is just so much cleared with far less organics.

I will only collect 20 gallons because it gets heavier every year. If I get ambitious again before the winter really gets here, I will get some more. Any day on the water is a good day, no matter what I am doing.

And besides, there is always a good chance to spot a Supermodel near the sea.

 

Sounds like a plan Paul and yes I guess it is time to add some NSW again if you have not done so for a long time and as you say who knows you may indeed run into a supermodel when collecting

 

Albert

[hey]

So what is your take on this, I picked up this scoly at my lfs because it was cheap (for a scoly) and had a color I had never seen before. I get home and notice 3 very large orange vermetids on the skeleton and upon looking into it my invert book may be petaloconchus spp. or caribbean worm snail.

 

The book mentioned they are rare-ish in aquariums and don't reproduce as frequently as their smaller cousins. So I look into scolymia's in the caribbean and find scolymia cubensis which a few pictures show a similar purple in googles search. Could this be what this coral is?

[albertthiel]

So what is your take on this, I picked up this scoly at my lfs because it was cheap (for a scoly) and had a color I had never seen before. I get home and notice 3 very large orange vermetids on the skeleton and upon looking into it my invert book may be petaloconchus spp. or caribbean worm snail.

 

The book mentioned they are rare-ish in aquariums and don't reproduce as frequently as their smaller cousins. So I look into scolymia's in the caribbean and find scolymia cubensis which a few pictures show a similar purple in googles search. Could this be what this coral is?

 

Plug up the holes where the Vermetids are with some epoxy and that will take care of that .... and the coral could be an S cubensis but it looks a lot like S. lacera to me (look at the ridges that run outward from the middle) .... you may have to wait till it grows some more to determine for sure what it is ... either of the two fits for now IMO

 

Albert

[hey]

Plug up the holes where the Vermetids are with some epoxy and that will take care of that .... and the coral could be an S cubensis but it looks a lot like S. lacera to me (look at the ridges that run outward from the middle) .... you may have to wait till it grows some more to determine for sure what it is ... either of the two fits for now IMO

 

Albert

 

I don't think the vermetid bother the coral much, and I have plenty of the smaller variety already in my reef. I actually like the diversity of having them in the tank lol. I don't keep sps so until I have some problems I think they are going to stay.

 

Would a picture of the skeleton help to identify it? I noticed the skeleton has spikes instead of ridges.

[albertthiel]

I don't think the vermetid bother the coral much, and I have plenty of the smaller variety already in my reef. I actually like the diversity of having them in the tank lol. I don't keep sps so until I have some problems I think they are going to stay.

 

Would a picture of the skeleton help to identify it? I noticed the skeleton has spikes instead of ridges.

 

Well I guess if they are not bothering you then just leave them be ...

 

And yes a picture would help but not sure that that will allow for a definitive ID ... right now what I am going by is the ridges on the actual Polyp itself .... you may want to check images on Google and see if you can come to the same conclusion as I did.

 

Regardless .. it seems to be one of the two.

 

Albert

[hey]

Well I guess if they are not bothering you then just leave them be ...

 

And yes a picture would help but not sure that that will allow for a definitive ID ... right now what I am going by is the ridges on the actual Polyp itself .... you may want to check images on Google and see if you can come to the same conclusion as I did.

 

Regardless .. it seems to be one of the two.

 

Albert

best i could do without turning my tank lights on but i adjusted the clarity for extra definition on the skeleton.

[albertthiel]

best i could do without turning my tank lights on but i adjusted the clarity for extra definition on the skeleton.

 

Based on what I know both have those ridges of the septa so what I was referring to are the ridges on the top of the Polyp itself. Still not sure which one of the two it is.

 

You may have to wait until one can see the top of the Polyp in more detail and where the ridges are very pronounced or not, in the former case it would be S lacera and in the latter case S cubensis

 

FWIW

 

Albert

[atoll]

I was in the Isle of Man last week for a few days hence why I have not been around much. The IOM is a magical place just 85 miles offshore from Liverpool. We had a fabulous time and the weather was very kind to us.

Now It's my eldest sons wedding today and about time too. Neil is getting married to his partner for some years kath.. Best wishes to them both on this monuments day for them and both families. Hope all goes to plan.

[albertthiel]

I was in the Isle of Man last week for a few days hence why I have not been around much. The IOM is a magical place just 85 miles offshore from Liverpool. We had a fabulous time and the weather was very kind to us.

Now It's my eldest sons wedding today and about time too. Neil is getting married to his partner for some years kath.. Best wishes to them both on this monuments day for them and both families. Hope all goes to plan.

 

Glad you had a good time Les and welcome back ...

 

And congratulations to your elder son for his wedding .... and I am sure all will go well !

 

Albert

[Paul.b]

It started out as a great day. Last night we went out to dinner on the boat with friends and today I was going to start bringing stuff home from the boat and get ready for winter.

I go past my reef tank and notice that it is very quiet. I don't hear the pumps but the lights are on. The GFI is tripped for the pumps. No big deal I go to put on the GFI (or GFCI as you guys call them) and it doesn't go on. Alright, I will fix that later and I plug the pump into another outlet. One pump still doesn't work so I remove it figuring that is what tripped the GFI and I go to install another powerhead. These are Korilia's with that magnet that you put on the outside of the glass. The magnet falls behind the tank and the tank is built into a closet under a staircase. Of course the thing falls to the most in accessable part of the closet, all the way under the stairs in Never Never land. I don't want to pull everything out of the closet so I get on my hands and knees and start crawling under the tank between old 8 MM projectors and forgotten wedding slides. I see the magnet and reach for it. While I am reaching, I also find some old forgotten fish mummies that could be from the Nixon administration. I stretch for the magnet and WHOOOOSH. Niagara Falls starts pouring onto my back. Where is it coming from? I thought I broke the tank. OMG it is pouring all over me like those wierdios fall all over Lady GaGa. I am instantly soaked but I am still on my belly in this closet stuck between my wedding movies and 200 LP records from the 60s. Probably a bunch of Four Seasons, Elvis and Spiral Staircase records. Now as that is not enough, I am getting shocked. The water is pouring over my wiring and then on me. I pull myself back as fast as I could, which isn't very fast and I see the source of the water. The 3/4" valve that I have on the bottom of my home made 5' skimmer broke off clean. I must have hit it with my back as I was inch worming into the closet. I open that valve to do water changes. I stick my finger into the hole and stop the water. But the pumps are still pumping water into the skimmer, I am getting shocked as my socks are soaked and my wife is out. OMG now what am I going to do? I pull out the plugs on the pumps so no more water goes into the skimmer but there is still 5 gallons of water in the skimmer and maybe 7 gallons on me. I hear these splashing sounds as now the tank is about 3" low (I don't have a sump) I lay on the floor in the flood and with my toes I am just able to reach a bucket that I removed to get into the closet. I slide it over to the skimmer and let out the remaining water. Now, for the moment no water is leaking so I go and change my clothes and get some towels. I unplug the rest of the wires so I stopped getting shocked. Not everything in that closet is on a GFI. I want the water flowing into the skimmer because it feeds my algae trough that is filled with tiny tube worms and it took years for that to happen. I can just about hear them screaming. I look for a valve in my parts places (I can build a space shuttle with the stuff I have laying around. A small space shuttle but a space shuttle none the less.

But no valve the right size. Al I have that will fit in the hole is a barb fitting. So I remove the part of the broken valve and put in the barb fitting. Then I get a hose and put it on the barb fitting hoping that the hose is long enough to reach the top of the skimmer and I will be able to temporarilly turn on the skimmer water. The hose isn't long enough so I search around and find another hose that fits tightly into it. I put it all together and turn on the pump. Great, i could hear the sigh of relief from the tube worms and brittle stars as they took their first few breaths. Then disaster struck again. The two hoses I put together came apart. Water shooting everywhere, I grab the hose and again stick my finger in it. I have a small flashlight on the tank edge and it fits snugly into the hose. Fixed again. But now the water in the tank is about 4" down. I don't have any water mixed and the powerhead that is working is splashing water on the walls as it is almost out of the water. I pull the plug and say a Novena to Saint Peter that my wife doesn't come back home.

Then I mix some ASW and throw it in the tank. I didn't test the salinity or mix it very well but from experience I know it was close and the hermit crabs could mix it up if they want. The fish will get over it. Now all seems to be well, I run to the hardware store and buy a valve. I replace the valve and notice that half my LEDs are out.

OMG again. Now what? I have been meaning to re build that home made LED fixture but I wasn't planning to do it in the middle of Noah's flood. So I remove the 5' LED fixture and test it. Salt creep shorted 8 lights out. But I am fairly smart and I have some LEDs. I solder in new LEDs and while I am at it I re wired the thing into a plug so I can now un plug the fixture from the drivers and remove it on two pieces. It was impossable for me to rmove this fixture myself as it is very long and is connected to a box of remote drivers. Now everything seems to be working except I still can't get that GFI on. My automatic DIY leak detector that shuts off the pumps in case of a skimmer overflow is soaked from the flood and I can't dry it. I will have to build another one but it is no big deal. Just something else to do in the midst of a flood when I could be working on my boat.

Now I can't find one bananafish or the very pregnant mandarin and figure they may be those dusty fish I found under the tank but they can be replaced and i didn't soak the carpet to much as the last time this happened I installed a barrier in the closet to keep the water from traveling out of the closet. The animals don't seem to care that they had to mix their own water and almost everything is back to normal. To fix my DIY leak detector and get that GFCI back on I will have to wait for everything to dry as I have to take the outlet apart and build a new leak detector.

My Ozonizer croaked yesterday and I have it completely pulled apart on my workbench but the reaction chamber is rotted out and I am not sure if I can build another one. I have parts from two units but only one reaction chamber.

I can't wait to lay on my new Sleep Number bed tonight to see if it explodes.

:wavehand:

 

 

 

[Lynaea]

OMG! What a fun day you had.

 

I'm glad you only got shocked a little bit, your stories are always so entertaining.

[Paul.b]

When I was getting shocked I thought that if I died there, under my fish tank, I hoped my wife loved me enough to have my ashes scattered over a bunch of Supermodels.

[albertthiel]

Wow that was quite a day indeed Paul but I am glad you found a way to fix it all or know how to fix what still needs to be and as you say good thing the water did not spread all over the carpet ... and good thing the wife was not home when it all happened

 

Gee surprised you did not find any Supermodels under that tank I thought you had some hidden there

 

Albert

[Paul.b]

I rebuilt that LED fixture almost as good as new. I had to change 8 LEDs that were either dim or out completely.

Today I collected 15 gallons of NSW and after it warms up I will dump that in. I like to diatom filter it when it looks a little cloudy like this looks because it has a lot of particles and bacteria in it but I don't have any diatom powder so I just filtered it through a coffee filter which is no where near as good, but the fish will get over it. I think my bluestripes will spawn soon.

 

[albertthiel]

I rebuilt that LED fixture almost as good as new. I had to change 8 LEDs that were either dim or out completely.

Today I collected 15 gallons of NSW and after it warms up I will dump that in. I like to diatom filter it when it looks a little cloudy like this looks because it has a lot of particles and bacteria in it but I don't have any diatom powder so I just filtered it through a coffee filter which is no where near as good, but the fish will get over it. I think my bluestripes will spawn soon.

 

 

Good to read your Light is fixed and that it did not take a complete rebuild ...

 

And wow those fish look good Paul ..

 

I am sure the water will be OK especially since you have been using it for so long and have never really run into any issue using it.

 

Looking good ...

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

Tiny Water Bears are just about indestructible :

 

http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2010/10/water-bear.html

 

Albert

[Paul.b]

Choosing my clean up crew and the cove I collected them in
http://s258.photobucket.com/user/urchsearch/media/IMG_0537_zpsb9cb46ee.jpg.html'>

http://s258.photobucket.com/user/urchsearch/media/IMG_0524_zps0789208d.jpg.html'>

[albertthiel]

Choosing my clean up crew and the cove I collected them in

 

I think Paul that the one you are holding is a big tooooo large even for your aquarium

 

Nice catch though

 

Albert

[hey]

Tiny Water Bears are just about indestructible :

 

http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2010/10/water-bear.html

 

Albert

 

They make roaches look like amateurs after reading that. Can survive multiple seconds at 1 degree above absolute zero is what shocked me for a water critter... well that or 10 years out of water.

[albertthiel]

They make roaches look like amateurs after reading that. Can survive multiple seconds at 1 degree above absolute zero is what shocked me for a water critter... well that or 10 years out of water.

 

Yes they sure do ... they are just about indestructible based on what the article says but as I pointed out stomach acid and our own immune system seems to be the only things that actually kills them. Scary ..

 

Albert