--chris-- Posted February 4, 2013 Author Share Posted February 4, 2013 Looking better, however why are those tiny shallow tanks using such thick glass? even 1/4" is overkill for such shallowness. The tanks getting there...im on the fence about adding sand. I think it looks better with nice base of white sand, but i keep siphoning out all this detrius that would otherwise be piling up in the sand bed. Not exaggerating, i remove about 1/4 cup of detrius a week during a 2-3 gallon water change. Thats the stuff you see blowing around in most of the pics. I let it settle for an hour with all the pumps off before i do a WC. Even then, i still have some left. But if i do add sand, i would beef up the cleaner crew and add some sand sifting critters to work through it. Thoughts anyone? And the little tanks? They were cut from broken 90's i got for free. I agree its very much overkill, but it looks nice and the price was right. edit: While cleaning up my pile of fish related stuff, i found a box of razor blades i bought 2 months ago to clean the back glass on my tank. I just realized since ive been carbon dosing i havent touch my back glass....and when i thought about it, i went two weeks without scraping the front/side glass as well. Feels good have nutrients under control finally! double edit: Please disregard ornaments (sponge bob and Sandy). My wife picked them out as a joke, but then our 9 month old seen them and well...they are permanent. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 Still waiting on my camera gear :/ Tracking says it should be here tomorrow, but we are also supposed to get 12+" of snow tonight...so that might not happen. In the mean time, the last of my cell phone macro shots (thanks god!) The pissed off Sonny D's (they just started opening up late last night) And i added sand last night! I rinsed it in a 5 gallon bucket. I used about 30 gallons of 0 TDS water and wow, it made a hell of a difference. The last time i added sand i didnt rinse it, and i had shit floating around and the tank was cloudy for a week. Everything got covered in dust. This time around, it was cleared up by the next morning. I was worried i would have to cut flow back with the sand, but even with the MP10 on 100% the sand didnt move at all. I just stumbled across the Reef Angel controller...i know very little about it, but its got me interested. Ill be spending some time reading up on it. http://www.reefangel.com/ Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 8, 2013 Author Share Posted February 8, 2013 I have my new camera! I dont know what im doing with it, but its all here at last. First new pic. Cropped of course. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 This took me literally about an hour for this one shot...i have a lot of learning to do! But, the good news this is the most accurate color rendition of the lighting i have got so far. Coral colors are spot on and the blue tinge is spot on. Im finally happy with a FTS. edit: Well almost happy. I still have some hot spots that are washed out, and id like to get everything clearer. But its a start... Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 For the first time in about 2 years, my tank is growing stony corals. Its the smallest miles stone, with 3 very tiny growth nubs...but its not dieing! Ive been in the reef hobby since '06. In that time, ive only had one tank that grew sps and even then it didnt grow quickly. Im still not growing them quickly, but like i said...first time in a long time they are growing. Link to comment
specore Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 What sand are you using that doesn't blow with the MP-10 on 100%? Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 Its this stuff here, slightly larger than carib-sea special grade but nothing like crushed coral or "Gravel" as they describe it. http://www.naturesocean.com/category1/ReefSand/aragonite-gravel-4.html Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 15, 2013 Author Share Posted February 15, 2013 I thought since i see some small growth i might as well test the water. alk: 10.2 cal: 370 Alk is up a full point from where i have been for 5 months...the only big change is adding the sand. Can it really bump it up that much? I noted below i did a waterchange, but a waterchange has never moved my alk up more then 0.2 if at all. Cal up from last time a tiny bit. I did do a small water change of about 4 gallons last week when i added the sand. So i guess im still not using much of either of those... Link to comment
got2envy Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 You are turning into a zoa nut tank looks great!! Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 15, 2013 Author Share Posted February 15, 2013 Thank you! Its a work in progress. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 I picked up a 16 of these guys. I asked for "those snails that bury themselves in the sand and come out when you feed"...because i still cant think of what they are called, can someone help me ID them? They were more money than the other ones i was expecting (the other ones ive bought are about 1/3 this size, and with grey shells) @ $30 for the 16 of them. They are about 1/2" long, mostly black and move quickly (for a snail). I also ordered Julians Thing (i love telling people that)....to feed LPS/zoas/palys. I work about 20 minutes from cherry corals. I spoke with the owner briefly and he said he has no problem with local pick ups...so ill be keeping my eyes on CC.com for some wicked acans. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 20, 2013 Author Share Posted February 20, 2013 I transferred some money into paypal a week ago to buy some things (ATO, lights, corals). Its been in there about 2 days now. I wake up this morning i have a slew of emails from paypal, from new bank account, withdrawal notices to fraudulent activity notices, frozen account blah blah blah. Some goofy bastard in Europe (just guessing by the time it occurred) logged into my paypal account and tried to empty it. Luckily paypals fraud detection is pretty good and it caught it, then reversed it, then froze my account. But now i have to try and figure out which computer is infected with the BS that allowed them to steal my login credentials. Probably home PC....gotta dump it again. Anyways, thought i would share the story. Its a good reason why you should never let money sit your paypal account. Transfer it as soon as you can. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 20, 2013 Author Share Posted February 20, 2013 Guess who placed an order with CherryCorals.com...... https://www.cherrycorals.com/product.php?productid=10927&cat=15&page=1 https://www.cherrycorals.com/product.php?productid=10949&cat=15&page=1 https://www.cherrycorals.com/product.php?productid=10942&cat=15&page=1 https://www.cherrycorals.com/product.php?productid=10955&cat=15&page=1 https://www.cherrycorals.com/product.php?productid=10960&cat=15&page=1 https://www.cherrycorals.com/product.php?productid=11044&cat=15&page=1 Might be the only benefit to living in this area, he is local! No shipping costs! edit: Couldnt help my self...had to add this on... Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 24, 2013 Author Share Posted February 24, 2013 the tank seems to be hitting a rough patch. my skimmers needle wheel got funked up with some sludge wenesday, i noticed it seemed to be a little light on bubble production that night but couldnt tear it apart to fix it till after work day. thursday i noticed 4 of my pally frags e closed up. today they are still closed up and i noticed my bryans baby breath favia is losing tissue like crazy. one of three montipora frags is stn'ing, but everything else is looking good. im thinking the vodka and mb7 with a the skimmer not running at 100% did something, but i dont know im just guessing. i did a 20% waterchange today. fingers crossed its fixed because im picking up those acan frags tomorrow....i when this shit happens! Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 24, 2013 Author Share Posted February 24, 2013 Im working photos of the tank in its pissed off state...till then, happy baby photo. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 24, 2013 Author Share Posted February 24, 2013 As you can see, most of the Zs and Ps are pissed off and closed. But some are not...no idea whats going to happen with them. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 28, 2013 Author Share Posted February 28, 2013 Update on the zoas/palys. Some of them opened up again, and look slightly different (colors more vibrant, weird...). My woodstocks, gobstoppers, king midas, and a cool AOG look alike are still closed. Tomorrow will be one week of them being closed. Im tossing around the idea of stopping the vodka and MB7 since my skimmer is getting gummed up with bacterial mulm every 5-7 days. The alternative is carbon, GFO and 20-25% weekly waterchanges. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted March 5, 2013 Author Share Posted March 5, 2013 I picked up some free tanks today Ill be tearing these down and rebuilding them. Flippin for some more reefer money. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted March 5, 2013 Author Share Posted March 5, 2013 One is done For sale in a week or so if anyone local is interested... Link to comment
--chris-- Posted March 6, 2013 Author Share Posted March 6, 2013 Update on the vodka/MB7. I have not dosed either of them in 4 days. Colors are already starting to come back in the digitata. I also noticed the woodstock paly that had been closed for 10 days is starting to open back up and the same for a few other polyps. Colors overall are getting better. The real trick will be balancing color/algae growth as i have noticed some of the algae on the new frags is starting to darken a bit. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted March 7, 2013 Author Share Posted March 7, 2013 I traded some red cap, gold zoas and orange digi for a big 'ol rock with xenia and cabbage leather on it. This will be going into my dads tank when its setup, but i do hope the xenia spreads onto something in my tank before that happens. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted March 9, 2013 Author Share Posted March 9, 2013 6 weeks of growth from the woodstock paly! It was 1 full polyp + 1 partial baby, now im counting 1 full and 6 babys that are almost open! Amazing growth from something like this...hope it keeps up. Link to comment
--chris-- Posted March 12, 2013 Author Share Posted March 12, 2013 I picked up two berghia nudibranchs...hopefully the kick some ass. Link to comment
wimby Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Nice little collection you have there. Link to comment
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