Mark's 40B and 46 bow

[Felicia]

Wow! That tank looks stunning after the clean up. Its weird that the clowns only come out for feeding. Normally clowns are out and about and not very shy.

[markalot]

Wow! That tank looks stunning after the clean up. Its weird that the clowns only come out for feeding. Normally clowns are out and about and not very shy.

 

Thanks!

 

They constantly hang out up by the filter at the upper left, so you have to be sitting in front of the tank to see them. My female did this and has now corrupted her mate to do the same. I expect eggs on the filter pipe at some point.

 

 

Thanks Dawn.

 

Some picture love for the 46. First, I took a full hour to carefully scrape the glass. Since I scratched the glass last time I was careful to only scrape horizontally which meant I had to move some rocks around and ... well ... one key rock fell and cracked a lot of my monti caps so I went ahead and re-scaped to move the large broken pieces of cap to the very back.

 

Naturally the anemone got pissed and started to walk so I waited until he found a spot he liked then finished.

 

The tank looks damn good when cleaned ... really good. The wifes favorite tank. Hopefully "the flipper" will help me keep the bowfront clean.

 

So, pictures.

 

 

 

I almost got the entire side cleaned before I got fed up and quit.

 

 

Tried for some fish pics. Took a hundred, these were the best, and not that great.

 

 

I only see the clowns when they think it's feeding time. I've had the female for about 2 years now, the male for about 6 months.

 

 

Page quoting.

[markalot]

Post office says my Flipper cleaners have been delivered.

 

It's sad I'm this excited over a glass cleaner.

[gena]

Post office says my Flipper cleaners have been delivered.

 

It's sad I'm this excited over a glass cleaner.

It's cool, but not that cool . I've yet to actually "flip" it in the tank...seems too risky. Speaking of...I need to go flipper my tank LOL.

[markalot]

Video of the 46, just cause. Look at the pulsing Xenia ... and there, and over there, and back there, and a little over there ......

 

[markalot]

The anemone is still on the move. Seems to like this new rock up on top.

 

 

 

Made the mistake of visiting the nearby LFS. They have a new coral supplier which is cheaper and provides a lot more variety.

 

A blue/green pagoda was added to the 46 (you can see it above, to the right of the alien eye chalice).

 

2 new acro frags for the 40.

 

The generic purple with green polyps

 

... and then this caught my eye. Browned out but a reddish brown rather than dull brown, with greenish blue tips.

 

 

Also picked up a leptastrea and small shroom rock (turbo shell actually) for the 20.

[RollaJase]

Nice frags Mark, that first one looks a lot like one of the pieces I have. The polyps get a really intense green under actinics.

[markalot]

I forgot to mention.

 

The flipper is awesome, and it works on the bowfront. I left a spot to test and it scraped it right off.

 

Anemone is in the same spot this morning so maybe he's settled.

 

 

Nice frags Mark, that first one looks a lot like one of the pieces I have. The polyps get a really intense green under actinics.

 

 

 

Thanks. I've had horrible luck with the bright green polyp acros, so hopefully this one will do ok.

[metrokat]

How large is the flipper?

[markalot]

About twice the size of the large mag float, but not as thick on the inside. Easy to hide on the side of the tank, since it's black, but not small.

 

How large is the flipper?

[markalot]

More pics.

 

This was sold to me as a fuzzy purple acro. The colors have been really improving since I put the razor over this tank. This is probably the best and most intense colors I've ever had in an acro. I expect it will up and die soon.

 

I took all these shots after slowly turning the lights back up to 65% so the night crew was out. I have a few Collonista snails.

 

 

This one is coloring up as well, though it doesn't really show up in the photo. Purple base with turquoise tips.

 

 

This next acro was a fuzzy dark when i got it, now it's lightening up and I see some purple on it.

 

 

This next one has been a turd so far. Most likely to show AEFW damage, which I keep looking for but not finding, fortunately. Will it ever color up?

 

 

One of my new corals, just a few days in the tank now. I have high hopes for this because I can see various shades of colors on some of the tips.

 

 

Apple Berry Montipora capitata from Reef Gardener. This one is loving the new LED's.

 

[gena]

 

The generic purple with green polyps

This is like the 3rd time in 24 hours that I've seen someone post a photo of this gorgeous colored SPS!!!! I love it!!! It's generic? It looks like it'd be really expensive . Did you find it at your LFS? I would even buy a frag of that and I'm not a huge SPS fan.

[markalot]

This is like the 3rd time in 24 hours that I've seen someone post a photo of this gorgeous colored SPS!!!! I love it!!! It's generic? It looks like it'd be really expensive . Did you find it at your LFS? I would even buy a frag of that and I'm not a huge SPS fan.

 

It was just a random frag at the LFS. There seems to be a lot of acros that will be generally purple or dark brown with bright green polyps.

[Arkayology]

I forgot to mention.

 

The flipper is awesome, and it works on the bowfront. I left a spot to test and it scraped it right off.

 

Anemone is in the same spot this morning so maybe he's settled.

 

 

Thanks. I've had horrible luck with the bright green polyp acros, so hopefully this one will do ok.

I really like the flipper. I have been using mine for a couple years now. Much better than mag floats.

[vlangel]

Looks awesome. I can't help myself, I love bowfronts. I can see where they be a real pain if you have a lot of coraline algae. For some reason I only get coraline on my rock work, almost none on the glass. I'll take it. I need to update my thread, I tweaked my rock work a little and I am hoping to get a RBTA. My tank is doing well though.

[tibbsy07]

Tanks look great Mark!

[markalot]

Home from the First World Championships.

 

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc/ftcworldchampionship

 

Out team did not do to well, but we had a blast. We also ate at a restaurant in down town St Louis, the name escapes me, that had a mostly fish only tank with a few soft corals.

 

When I left Tuesday I had raised the KH in all tanks to 10, this evening everything looked pretty damn good, but the 40 has scary low alk.

 

40 - 6.0 KH

46 - 9.0 KH

20 - 8.0 KH

 

I raised the 40 up to 7 KH and will slowly get it back to 8, but man the colors look good.

[markalot]

Some disturbing lab notes from the ongoing AEFW crowd funded research.

 

1) Hatching time varies from 11-14 days, there is variation within an egg batch with some egg capsules opening a few days before the last capsules of the batch break open.

2) There is a lot of variation in the size of hatchlings; some hatchlings have larval lobes and swim in the water column, others are larger and have reabsorbed their lobes - they are mini adults and generally attach to the substrate.

3) Adults can start laying eggs at approximately 4mm in length, smaller adults lay smaller eggs batches with fewer embryos per egg capsule.

4) Hatchlings die within 24-48 hours in the absence of Acropora, large Adults take up to 14 days to starve.

 

This is just one round of observations so nothing is set in stone yet, but free swimming larva is not a good thing.

 

http://experiment.com/projects/the-life-cycle-of-a-coral-killer-the-acropora-eating-flatworm

[vlangel]

How did you get interested in FTC? I had to Google it cause I wasn't sure what it was.

[markalot]

How did you get interested in FTC? I had to Google it cause I wasn't sure what it was.

 

When my son was signing up for high school we happened to overhear someone talking about the robotics club so my wife signed my son up not knowing what it was. It took us 3 months to figure it all out. FIRST needs better advertising and community outreach and they are working on it.

 

FIRST FRC (original league, larger robots, significant $$$ needed to run a team)

FIRST FTC (smaller robots, aprox $3000 - $5000 startup costs to run a team with a number of grants available)

FIRST FLL (First Lego League - tiny consumer grade robots, grade school age)

 

For us, in the FTC, in September they will introduce a new game and we have 2 months to build a robot that will play the game. The kids learn engineering concepts, teamwork, marketing (for the fundraising), and organizational skills. It's really something to see how the kids get involved.

[vlangel]

When my son was signing up for high school we happened to overhear someone talking about the robotics club so my wife signed my son up not knowing what it was. It took us 3 months to figure it all out. FIRST needs better advertising and community outreach and they are working on it.

 

FIRST FRC (original league, larger robots, significant $$$ needed to run a team)

FIRST FTC (smaller robots, aprox $3000 - $5000 startup costs to run a team with a number of grants available)

FIRST FLL (First Lego League - tiny consumer grade robots, grade school age)

 

For us, in the FTC, in September they will introduce a new game and we have 2 months to build a robot that will play the game. The kids learn engineering concepts, teamwork, marketing (for the fundraising), and organizational skills. It's really something to see how the kids get involved.

Wow, it sounds like a well rounded learning experience for the students involved. +1 to you and your wife for getting your son involved in something really worthwhile and +10 for you going to his tournament and supporting him! Awesome. Sounds like it was a fun time for all.

[markalot]

New FTS of the 46, glass kept clean with the flipper. Color improved in this tank while I was on vacation and not touching it! Two new corals added, a green pagoda cup which has turned a very nice blue/green, and a brown/orange monti cap with green polyps (back, left side)

 

This tank is now lit with a AquaticLife Blue/White/Pink LED fixture and the new BuildMyLED 20K High Output 36" strip, with low wattage blue LED strips for accent.

 

The anemone really likes his new spot up on top. He might have grown just a tad.

 

 

Oh, and look at that damn German Blue digitata with blue/purple polyps. Maybe someday it will look as advertized.

[vlangel]

Ha ha, it colored up while you were away! My hubby says that my tank would do better if I'd just let it alone a bit. I told him I am an aquarist and we can't do that. We just aren't happy if we aren't tweaking the rock work, moving this coral to a new spot, dosing with who knows what or fiddling with some sort of thing connected to the tank. Its the beast inside us!

[markalot]

These blue pics aren't half bad ... but not half good either.

 

 

I'm still not sure what color this BTA is. Sold as a red, but in daylight it's reddish green with red tips, in actinic it's this.

 

[metrokat]

It's pretty, whatever color morph it is.