gena Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 Yeah the commute is a bit rough, but housing prices around here make it worthwhile. I have rent control from 6 years ago, so if I move now my rent would more than double which is just crazy. Luckily my car is low mileage and reliable and paid off! So its nice to run up the miles on my older car. Well its only a few days away now! I am so psyched! This is going to be soooo much fun! Reef Hobbyist Magazine will be there, so that's a good place to grab my magazine! Sounds like you've got it made with the car and the apartment. I too wouldn't change a thing . Only 3 days LOL. We decided to let my son take the day off on Friday and we would get there at a decent time. However.....he has 3 exams and a big packet due on Friday so he can't miss . We'll just have to leave ASAP after he gets home and hopefully traffic will cooperate. I found out the last bus leaves at 7pm. If we miss it, we'll just drive there ourselves or Uber it . And your tank is stunning as always . 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted September 7, 2016 Author Share Posted September 7, 2016 Looks real nice...as always Thank you! It's not always nice though...it can look like a mess when I neglect it You may have a crowd around you when you go up to a booth and ask for your magazine!!! You'll have to hop on over & see my tank, I have Randi's kole tang and now I have a starry blenny. The fun part was trying to find him as when the tank went into the evening hrs and darkened I couldn't find him when he was right in front. The other funny part was the tang nipping on his stars, like he was something to eat. Found out the whole tank loves Rod's Herbivore mix but he shot across the tank to grab some. I love my starry. Any of the leathers that grow like trees, I know they get big, I see you have one on the substrate, are most of yours situated on bottom and halfway up? I want to consider where I put them. I have not glued any down. Haha! I don't know about crowds, but should be fun I definitely need to spend some time getting caught up on everyone's threads. Soon... The big nepthea is actually attached to a flat piece of rock that is laying on the bottom. I have softies and leathers at all heights in my tank from bottom to top and they all seem to do well. Gorgeous! I love the tomini and your big leathersThank you! The tomini is really doing great. She's filled in nicely and fits in well with this tank. I just love that the leathers are so easy and add some nice movement and pops of color Sounds like you've got it made with the car and the apartment. I too wouldn't change a thing Only 3 days We decided to let my son take the day off on Friday and we would get there at a decent time. However.....he has 3 exams and a big packet due on Friday so he can't miss . We'll just have to leave ASAP after he gets home and hopefully traffic will cooperate. I found out the last bus leaves at 7pm. If we miss it, we'll just drive there ourselves or Uber it And your tank is stunning as always . Glad you like the latest photo, Gena! Figured I needed to prove the tank was still alive over here even with me neglecting it Bummer about your son having such a busy Friday at school! I'll keep my fingers crossed that the traffic isn't too bad for you guys. My hope is to be driving by your place at about 11:30 am. That should put me through all of the LA, Orange County, San Diego mess well before rush hour. At least uber and lyft are easy, so you should be able to get to the reception without an issue. I'll be looking forward to seeing you when you get there! I'm so excited but man do I have a lot to get done at work and around the house before I can leave! The plan is to do absolutely no work from Friday through Sunday though 2 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 Bummer about your son having such a busy Friday at school! I'll keep my fingers crossed that the traffic isn't too bad for you guys. My hope is to be driving by your place at about 11:30 am. That should put me through all of the LA, Orange County, San Diego mess well before rush hour. At least uber and lyft are easy, so you should be able to get to the reception without an issue. I'll be looking forward to seeing you when you get there! I'm so excited but man do I have a lot to get done at work and around the house before I can leave! The plan is to do absolutely no work from Friday through Sunday though It's not a biggie . He's disappointed because he wanted to take Friday off . Hopefully the weekend will be nice and relaxing for you, to make up for all the busy work before you get to leave! 1 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 Your tank looks as beautiful as ever. Have fun this weekend at MACNA! 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted September 19, 2016 Author Share Posted September 19, 2016 Whew! Its been a whirlwind couple of weeks! Sorry for not posting sooner, but I got back from MACNA late last Sunday and then was busy at work all week. Then yesterday I was in wine country all day, so today is the first chance I've gotten to do some much need tank maintenance and get on NR. So anyways.... Its time for the MACNA recap!!! I'm going to do this bullet point style so it doesn't turn into a giant novel of information 1) I got to catch up with so many friends and acquaintances in the aquarium hobby, which was soooo much fun. I got to hang out with my lady reefer besties, Gena and Christina (yoshii) I hadn't seen either one of them in quite a while, so it was so much fun to get to catch up and hang out all weekend. I also got to catch up with some of the reefers from my local aquarium club, the Bay Area Reefers. And speaking of people from the Bay Area, I got to chat and catch up with Rich Ross and Matt Wandell and I attended both of their amazing talks at MACNA. 2) I got to meet a ton of people in person finally as well! It was so great to put faces to the people that I've been talking to online for years. I got to meet Christopher Marks and his lovely wife. They are such sweet and wonderful people and tons of fun to hang out with! Christopher was awesome and brought all of us Nano-Reefers some awesome NR shirts to wear at MACNA. I wore mine to the conference on Sunday and showed my NR support! I also got to meet Merthynia, Sancho, Charnelhouse, MetroKat, StevieT and his wife, Nighthawk, and NYfishies. (I'm probably forgetting someone! I met so many people!) I also got to meet Robert from MarineDepot after tons of emailing back and forth when he was putting together the feature video for my tank. The Marine Depot guys were great and had an awesome booth! Gena really scored a deal grabbing one of the IM concept tanks they had on display! I also got to meet Christine and Gary from the Reefthreads podcast in person, which was so fun since I'd chatted with them through Skype when I'd been on the podcast a couple months back. 3) The conference in general was a ton of fun. Lots of vendors and display tanks to look at. The reception Friday night at the pier was a lot of fun with different food trucks, free drinks, and we even got to see a fireworks show that they were putting on for fleet week. The banquet was also a ton of fun and we managed to fill up two big tables with NR and Bay Area people. Then we had a really fun NR after party out by the pool after the banquet. It was a jam packed weekend! 4) I got to podcast again! Gary and Christine were podcasting from a booth at MACNA all 3 days of the conference, so they invited me to podcast with them on Saturday, which was so fun! It was even a video podcast this time, which was different than usual! Check it out! I come in at ~28:41. 5) The Reef Hobbyist Magazine booth was like a whole booth devoted to my tank because they just had piles and piles of the magazine with my tank on the cover. It was fun to see my tank all over MACNA If you want to check out the electronic version of the magazine, its available for free here. 6) I wasn't shopping for too many things since my tank is super full, but I did manage to find a couple things to buy. I got a really nice big yellow frilly sponge and purple blade gorgonian from Pacific East Aquaculture. I also got a nice long polyp toadstool (the twin to the one Gena got) from the Ecotech display tank/Aquatica Corals. I also purchased a really cool print of a blue ribbon eel from one of the artists that had a booth. Ok, that's enough for now...picture time! Right after I arrived in San Diego. The beautiful view from my hotel balcony. IMG_6295 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr IMG_6311 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr IMG_6318 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr Me at the Reef Hobbyist Magazine booth! IMG_6301 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr StevieT even wanted me to sign his copy IMG_6309 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr Podcasting with Gary and Christine! IMG_6335 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr With my NR bestie, Gena! IMG_6338 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr Reefer ladies at the banquet! I'm in the middle, Christina (yoshii) is to my left, and Gena is to my right. IMG_6340 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr The table I was at for the banquet, filled with NR and Bay Area friends The famous Christopher Marks and his lovely wife are even in this photo! IMG_6345 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr Christina and I got to meet Sanjay Joshi at the reception! IMG_6336 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr My Nano-Reef T-shirt. Thank you, Christopher Marks! IMG_6389 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr The art print I purchased. IMG_6390 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr Pacific East Aquaculture had a gorgeous tank full of seahorses, photosynthetic gorgonians, and sponges. I bought one of the nice yellow filly sponges, which have done well for me, but I've only even been able to get tiny ones. IMG_6300 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr IMG_6299 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr I found some predators as well, but didn't have space to take any home There's a radiata lionfish, a volitan lionfish, a rhinopias, and a scorpionfish in this tank. IMG_6307 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr Volitan lionfish IMG_6319 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr Tessalata eel IMG_6330 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr Lily missed me while I was gone and was extra cuddly for the next few days IMG_6359 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr IMG_6362 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr 13 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 Looks like you had a fabulous time!!! I really hope I can go one year. That ribbon eel print is gorgeous. Lily pictures always make me smile, she's so cute! 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted September 19, 2016 Author Share Posted September 19, 2016 Looks like you had a fabulous time!!! I really hope I can go one year. That ribbon eel print is gorgeous. Lily pictures always make me smile, she's so cute! I had a great time! I definitely recommend going if you can. Its going to be in New Orleans, which should be fun. I'm thinking about possibly planning a trip for that one Yeah I love the ribbon eel print. I'm excited to get it framed and find a nice place to hang it. And Lily is such a sweetie. She's always extra lovey when I've been gone for a couple days! A couple other quick updates while I'm at it... 1) I need to catch up on everyone's threads and will try to do that soon! 2) I've been working on the tank today, so everything is angry right now, but hopefully in the next couple days I can get some photos up for you guys. 3) Right before I left for MACNA, my entire blue channel on my Maxspect Razor light fixture went out. Luckily I was able to talk to one of the Maxspect guys through email and then in person at MACNA, and I just got the replacement LED pucks in the mail yesterday. I got them installed tonight and the tank is now as good as new. A few corals lost some color due to the week and a half with half the light intensity and no blue spectrum, but otherwise everything seems ok. IMG_6387 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr 4) I went to wine country with some of my girl friends yesterday, which was so much fun! Beautiful weather and tons of delicious wine! IMG_6376 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr 5 Quote Link to comment
Justind823 Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 Jealous of the MACNA fun! I wish I could have made it this year...next time hopefully! Where'd you go wine tasting? 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted September 19, 2016 Author Share Posted September 19, 2016 Jealous of the MACNA fun! I wish I could have made it this year...next time hopefully! Where'd you go wine tasting? A New Orleans trip would be fun! I'm considering going next year. I went wine tasting up in Healdsburg. We started the day with brunch at a Peurto Rican restuarant in San Rafael and then drove up to Healdsburg. I'm a member at a winery called DaVero and we went to their members only pickup party, which involved tasting all the wine that they were sending out in the member shipments and lots of yummy food. Then we went to two other nearby wineries and some antique shops. Then we ended the day with dinner at a yummy Indian restaurant. 1 Quote Link to comment
Justind823 Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 A New Orleans trip would be fun! I'm considering going next year. I went wine tasting up in Healdsburg. We started the day with brunch at a Peurto Rican restuarant in San Rafael and then drove up to Healdsburg. I'm a member at a winery called DaVero and we went to their members only pickup party, which involved tasting all the wine that they were sending out in the member shipments and lots of yummy food. Then we went to two other nearby wineries and some antique shops. Then we ended the day with dinner at a yummy Indian restaurant. Nice! Sounds like a good time. We've never been to DaVero... need to check them out! We're members at Stephen & Walker in Healdsburg but we never really get up there except to pick up the wine. 1 Quote Link to comment
ezcompany Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 nice tank! why does the left most clam look so pale and white? 1 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 Love the pics! Wish I would have gotten there before you guys met up with Sanjay and Rich Ross, etc. I think I walked in on the end of your conversation with them and didn't want to butt in . Those guys seem sooo cool. nice tank! why does the left most clam look so pale and white? Squammy used to be mine, so I feel I can comment on this . It has lighter streaks on it which is probably what you are seeing. Just reflection from the lights . 1 Quote Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Looks like a blast. The print you bought is so cool. One day I'll hit MACNA somewhere!!! 1 Quote Link to comment
RollaJase Posted September 21, 2016 Share Posted September 21, 2016 Looks like you had a fantastic time! I'd love to go to a MACNA one year. 2 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted September 22, 2016 Author Share Posted September 22, 2016 Nice! Sounds like a good time. We've never been to DaVero... need to check them out! We're members at Stephen & Walker in Healdsburg but we never really get up there except to pick up the wine. I've never been to Stephen and Walker. There are just too many good wineries around here! Hard to try them all nice tank! why does the left most clam look so pale and white? Thank you! I think you much be looking back at a few of the older photos. If you're referring to the derasa that used to be on the left, it bleached out like that suddenly and then finally died a month or so ago. I never was able to sort out exactly what happened since there was no signs of pests and any light or water quality issues would have affected the other two clams, which didn't happen. I believe there was a heat spike this summer (I don't have AC) and the derasa may have been more sensitive to that than the two squamosas. I read a few articles that day temperature spikes are a common cause of clam bleaching. Love the pics! Wish I would have gotten there before you guys met up with Sanjay and Rich Ross, etc. I think I walked in on the end of your conversation with them and didn't want to butt in . Those guys seem sooo cool. Squammy used to be mine, so I feel I can comment on this . It has lighter streaks on it which is probably what you are seeing. Just reflection from the lights . Thanks, Gena! I hadn't met Sanjay before but Rich Ross is involved in my local club, so I've actually been to his house to see his tank in person It was fun to meet Sanjay finally though! Sorry you showed up after we introduced ourselves I wasn't sure if they were referring to the big squamosa or the derasa from older photos. The big squamosa definitely has lighter patches that are just part of its patterning. It's really got a very pretty pattern and colors 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted September 22, 2016 Author Share Posted September 22, 2016 Looks like a blast. The print you bought is so cool. One day I'll hit MACNA somewhere!!!It was a ton of fun! I'm already looking into whether I can maybe swing going to next year's in New Orleans. That's closer to you! And yeah I'm excited to get that art print framed and hung up. The artist has a Facebook for her work called PrismaCanvas. It's all colored pencil that she layers to get it so vibrant and detailed. She's got tons of beautiful canvases and prints.Looks like you had a fantastic time! I'd love to go to a MACNA one year.It was so much fun! Hopefully you can plan a trip to the states around a MACNA! 1 Quote Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 Oh wow! New Orleans. I've never been there! 1 Quote Link to comment
RollaJase Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 It was so much fun! Hopefully you can plan a trip to the states around a MACNA! I might have to do that! My partner is falling more and more in love with the hobby so I may be able to use it as an excuse for another holiday . Oh wow! New Orleans. I've never been there! Definitely worth the trip! I only spent 3 days there but it was one of the most memorable places I visited in the states. 1 Quote Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 I might have to do that! My partner is falling more and more in love with the hobby so I may be able to use it as an excuse for another holiday . Definitely worth the trip! I only spent 3 days there but it was one of the most memorable places I visited in the states. I checked Google Maps, in a touch under 9 hrs I could be there. 2 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 I've never been to Stephen and Walker. There are just too many good wineries around here! Hard to try them all Thank you! I think you much be looking back at a few of the older photos. If you're referring to the derasa that used to be on the left, it bleached out like that suddenly and then finally died a month or so ago. I never was able to sort out exactly what happened since there was no signs of pests and any light or water quality issues would have affected the other two clams, which didn't happen. I believe there was a heat spike this summer (I don't have AC) and the derasa may have been more sensitive to that than the two squamosas. I read a few articles that day temperature spikes are a common cause of clam bleaching. Thanks, Gena! I hadn't met Sanjay before but Rich Ross is involved in my local club, so I've actually been to his house to see his tank in person It was fun to meet Sanjay finally though! Sorry you showed up after we introduced ourselves I wasn't sure if they were referring to the big squamosa or the derasa from older photos. The big squamosa definitely has lighter patches that are just part of its patterning. It's really got a very pretty pattern and colors Oh cool! Rich Ross seems like an awesome guy....a funny guy . 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted September 25, 2016 Author Share Posted September 25, 2016 Oh wow! New Orleans. I've never been there! I haven't been since I was in highschool. Could definitely be a fun trip! I might have to do that! My partner is falling more and more in love with the hobby so I may be able to use it as an excuse for another holiday . Definitely worth the trip! I only spent 3 days there but it was one of the most memorable places I visited in the states. That's awesome that your partner is getting more into the hobby! New Orleans is a very interesting place. I wouldn't want to live there, but its a fun place to visit and the food and music are definitely amazing I checked Google Maps, in a touch under 9 hrs I could be there. That's about what my drive to MACNA was this year! Totally doable! Oh cool! Rich Ross seems like an awesome guy....a funny guy . He's a great guy. And yep, he's hilarious. He's had so many different diverse careers and has some very interesting combination of hobbies. 2 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted September 25, 2016 Author Share Posted September 25, 2016 Okie dokie...so been putting off posting because I've been busy, but I'm long overdue for an actual detailed post about the tank. This is going to be a novel, so I ask for your forgiveness in advance. If you guys can make it through my update without falling asleep, I promise I'll post photos this evening. The tank is all clean and photo worthy, so once it gets dark and there's no glare on the glass, I'll take photos and video. Been way too long since the tank got some attention! Anyways...here goes... 1) Let's get the bad news out of the way first. I've had a few little hiccups with the tank lately. The first being that the derasa clam that bleached, finally passed away after hanging on for months. I'd had that clam for going on 2.5 years when it died, so that was a huge bummer. I still never have sorted out what made it bleach like that since the other two clams have been perfectly healthy and happy. There has been no evidence of pests and water quality issues or lighting would have also affected the other two clams, so those are all ruled out. The only explanation I even came up with was that there was a temperature spike due to a hot couple of days and maybe the derasa was more sensitive to that then the squamosas. I'll never know for sure, but RIP derasa. To look on the bright side, the clams were all getting so big that there really wasn't enough space for 3 of them. Now there's enough space for the two squamosas, at least for now...both are growing pretty rapidly... 2) Bad news # 2 - I'm having issues with the green slimer again. I had discovered acro eating flatworms on it a few months back and done a Revive dip, which royally pissed off the slimer, but seemed to take care of the flatworms. The slimer had been doing really well and had gotten its color back and was growing well again. Then the last couple weeks its taken a turn for the worse. A bunch of the tips died and it has a few dead spots around the base. Seems like the flatworms are back in force. Last night, I clipped off all of the dead tips and put the slimer in another Revive dip. It looks a bit sad in terms of color and having all its tips missing, but otherwise it seems to be hanging in there today, so I think it will recover again. Its got good PE and hasn't lost all color. I think I'm just going to need to do maintenance Revive dips every couple weeks to prevent the flatworms from coming back. 3) Ok, and finally, the really awful/sad news. Draco (the dwarf zebra lionfish) has passed away. He was my favorite lionfish and the biggest ham/character in the tank, so I took his loss really hard and haven't wanted to talk about it. He was a gorgeous fish and was one of the two lionfish in my photo on the cover of Reef Hobbyist Magazine. It was awful because he was going great. He was the most active of the lionfish and always the most greedy about food. Then suddenly one day he just up and stopped eating. He went from being a pig to refusing to eat anything. I tried everything...I offered him my usual blend and PE mysis, then all the other frozen food I had including krill, which is like crack for fish. I even went and got live ghost shrimp for him again, but he wouldn't show any interest in anything at all. He started getting lethargic, but otherwise, there was no outward sign of disease and its not like I'd introduced any new fish which could have brought in a new pest. None of his tank mates were picking on him or anything either. I did a bunch of research and reading online and unfortunately found a bunch of info about dwarf zebras being delicate. A lot of people have kept them and they'll thrive for quite some time and then suddenly stop eating and waste away with no explanation. It seems like they're difficult to keep long term, but its not understood why. It was really sad to watch him waste away and I kept thinking he was in his last days, but this ended up dragging out for about the last two months. Finally, sometime earlier this week, he passed away. I will really miss him and its even hard to talk about this. So crazy that I can get this attached to a fish, but I think he may have been my favorite fish of all the fish I've ever had. You'll be missed Draco. 4) In tank mystery news, Dracos death has got me stumped...not just about the cause, but on where his body went. He was alive and in the tank one day and then the next day he vanished. He's too big with his fins for him to be able to hide completely when I'm actively searching for him. I've been all through the tank looking for him and he's just gone. I assume he finally passed away and then its normal to sometimes not find a body because it gets eaten. However, Draco was a lionfish with big venomous spines. I assumed nothing could eat him easily. Also, even if he did get eaten, I'd think I'd find spines laying around the tank or bones since he was a pretty large fish. Nothing...not a trace... Either Falkor somehow managed to eat him or he was ingested by one of the BTA's. I am completely and utterly baffled... 5) Ok...whew! I've been dreading doing the bad news. That's out of the way now, so let's move onto the good news. Overall the tank is thriving and everything has been growing like crazy. Its just so full and things are running all into each other. I have some ongoing nutrient issues, especially since I've been busy and not keeping up with water changes as often as I should, and with the lionfish and Falkor growing, the bioload has increased. I've got nuisance algae as a result, but its still at a manageable level and I've been able to keep the water quality good enough that none of the fish or corals are effected. The corals are thriving and growing and overall the tank looks great! I'm really so in love with this tank now that its so mature Too bad I'm just running out of space! 6) In terms of the individual fish... Falkor (the eel) is doing wonderful and is the star of this tank. My mom is visiting her parents and yesterday she texted me asking for a photo of Falkor to show them. Not the tank overall, just a photo of Falkor He's everyone's favorite and I have friends who have seen my tanks for years and never had much interest that now come over and all just sit on the floor around the tank and watch Falkor. He loves when people are near the tank and he comes out and swims all around. He'll even follow your finger around the glass. He's just getting so big! He's probably at around 20" in length now. Luckily he's still very well behaved! The antennata has put on quite the growth spurt. She's really looking stunning and has filled in a bunch and is just getting noticeable larger. Mushu (the fu manchu) is pretty much full grown, but he's thriving. He's always eats and he's got nice color and is fat and happy. The clowns are doing wonderful in their BTA palace and they're both fat and healthy. I also am just loving the tomini tang and the melanarus wrasse. They were the perfect additions to the tank. They're both too big to be lionfish food, and they add a lot of color and movement. They're both super fat and healthy. The tomini has really gotten that stocky, healthy tang look, which makes me so happy. My minor algae issues work well since she has tons of mature rock to graze on. I rarely even need to give her algae sheets. The melanarus does a great job of eating pests and although he's big, he isn't the least bit aggressive. However, he won't take crap from the eel, so he's a perfect fish for this tank. He's even large enough that he's taken to eating some of the chunky food that I feed the lionfish. 7) I wanted to tell you all that I bought some of the brand new PE Pellets at MACNA and my fish are LOVING them. They were launched at MACNA and they weren't even in stores yet, but they sold off the first batch at the end of the show. They have three different sizes. I ended up getting the smallest for my tang and the clowns, since the largest size didn't seem quite big enough for the eel or lionfish. My fish love PE mysis and its my go-to frozen food, so I wanted to try out the PE pellets. I'm not normally a big fan of pellets, but they definitely can make life easier. The PE pellets are a hit with my fish though! The clowns, tang, and wrasse took to them immediately. The wrasse actually jumps out of the water to get them when they're floating on the surface. They seem like a great pellet food option! {Youtube] [/Youtube] 8) I went to the LFS yesterday to get some more snails. Falkor kills my snails (his one awful habit), so I have to keep replacing them. I need detritus and algae eaters in the tank, which is the one hard part about predators. They eat a lot of inverts, so it gets harder to keep a cleanup crew. I just replace my snails as needed. Anyways, I picked up 5 new big turbo snails yesterday and then also decided to buy an urchin. I already have one that's been thriving long term and there's plenty of algae to go around, so a second one should be ok. I couldn't resist because its one of those beautiful white and blue ones Like this: I'll post an actual picture of mine later, but it was too pretty to resist and my tank can always use more algae eaters. Speaking of urchins, my tuxedo urchin is currently wearing around a big stalk of pulsing xenia 9) I have decided to start vinegar dosing. It has the same effect as a biopellet reactor in terms of being a carbon source for bacteria and thereby lowering nitrates and phosphates. I like the biopellets, but I can't seem to get them to tumble properly. Over time they end up in a big clump and then they don't work properly. I even took the reactor off the return line and put in a high flow rate pump just for the reactor and I still can't get them tumbling properly. I'm not sure if its the reactor I'm using or what. Well they're not working very well because of the clumping and the big pump I put in is really making the sump cramped/cluttered, so I figured I'd try vinegar dosing. The hope is to phase out the biopellet reactor and also to automate the dosing on my 4-channel dosing pump once I have established the maintenance dose of vinegar. I'm starting with 1.3 mL of vinegar based on the chart in this article and will slowly increase from there. 10) MACNA got me all inspired and I am beginning to plan my upgrade...I have plenty of ideas and have been compiling a list of equipment/budget. This will be a very slow process (I'm taking my time and I'm busy), but it has started... that will need a whole other novel post in and of itself...so keep an eye out for that one in a bit. 6 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Thanks Felicia for the 'novel like' update. It was good hearing the latest with the tank except the bad news. I understand how you felt about posting Draco's passing because that is how I felt about posting the death notice of Adam. I wasn't sure I could bear to read folks' reactions. For me it turned out somewhat cathartic and actually helped me through the grief. Everyone was so sympathetic and caring about it. I will always miss Adam because he was special and I am sure that is how you will feel about Draco. That is a mystery about your clam that bleached and died. I guess it could have had an issue that you couldn't see and maybe the condition just progressed. We people get stuff and I am thinking our aquatic friends do too sometimes. Its good to hear that in general the tank and its inhabitants are thriving. So are you going bigger with this upgrade you are planning so Falkor can stay with you? 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted September 25, 2016 Author Share Posted September 25, 2016 Thanks Felicia for the 'novel like' update. It was good hearing the latest with the tank except the bad news. I understand how you felt about posting Draco's passing because that is how I felt about posting the death notice of Adam. I wasn't sure I could bear to read folks' reactions. For me it turned out somewhat cathartic and actually helped me through the grief. Everyone was so sympathetic and caring about it. I will always miss Adam because he was special and I am sure that is how you will feel about Draco. That is a mystery about your clam that bleached and died. I guess it could have had an issue that you couldn't see and maybe the condition just progressed. We people get stuff and I am thinking our aquatic friends do too sometimes. Its good to hear that in general the tank and its inhabitants are thriving. So are you going bigger with this upgrade you are planning so Falkor can stay with you? Thank you for the kind words about Draco. I saw your post about Adam when I checked in on my cell phone, but wanted to post a longer more adequate post then I could do quickly on my phone. I'm actually working my way through everyone's threads now and was about to write you a post. I was so upset to hear about Adam, and I completely understand because I had seahorses and it is so hard to watch them get sick and pass away. Its always hard to lose fish, but some of the larger fish with more personality just are so much worse to lose. I had such a hard time with the seahorses and losing Draco was awful. It is a bit cathartic to just post about it and get it off my chest so I can move on. I do wonder sometimes if fish and inverts get internal diseases that we can't see and treat, just like how humans get cancer or heart disease. Sometimes, fish and invert deaths are just a complete mystery. Yep! I'm dreaming of a big tank for my predators. I'm looking at a standard 125 gallon so that there will be plenty of space for Falkor and the lionfish. Plus then I can add a few more of my dream fish. I'll post more details soon. 3 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Aww I'm so sorry to hear about Draco My mom just asked me if I was ok because I just let out a huge, "oh noooooo!" Losing fish sucks. When I returned from my trip to Edmonton over the summer I found out that my favorite fish ever, Katniss the flame angel, had passed away for unknown reasons. It was definitely difficult. But kudos to you for not posting a long angry, dejected rant about the death like I tend to I agree that posting about it makes you feel better, hence my long angry dejected rants. It's good that all your other fish are doing good though I can't wait for some pics! I always show them to my mom and I'm like, "see how cool this tank is?!" And then I proceed to point out everything Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.