fishfreak0114 Posted July 29, 2017 Author Share Posted July 29, 2017 Just now, Lula_Mae said: Enjoy! I got to see Lindsey Stirling last year and it was amazing! Thanks! Time to see if I know the words to every song! There's really nothing better than seeing artists live. 2 Quote Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Hi fishfreak. How did you create the multi picture signature? 1 Quote Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 On 7/27/2017 at 10:32 PM, fishfreak0114 said: After dosing, alk was only 8. I'm leaving for Vancouver tomorrow morning, and I won't be back until Monday. My mom will be taking care of it in the meantime, and dosing. I really don't want to leave the tank in its current state, but I must. Joe molted today, and gave me quite a scare. I thought he died. P7272354 by orb1915, on Flickr I took this pic of Wayne before he went in. Earlier I could hear Garth clicking away. P7262328 by orb1915, on Flickr I saw the big stomatella yesterday P7262329 by orb1915, on Flickr The feather caulerpa is growing P7272332 by orb1915, on Flickr I'm not sure what happened to this plate, the others look fine P7272333 by orb1915, on Flickr Here you can see the whitish tips that I think are growth P7272336 by orb1915, on Flickr P7272343 by orb1915, on Flickr You might remember that I thought the alpha and omega zoas were goners, but since then a few have opened up P7272337 by orb1915, on Flickr I really like this leather, it stands out P7272339 by orb1915, on Flickr Meet Bert! P7272345 by orb1915, on Flickr And Ernie! P7272347 by orb1915, on Flickr I love Bert & Ernie and I like that Leather too!! I have a smaller frag of the same Leather and I hope it grows up to be as pretty as yours. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 30, 2017 Author Share Posted July 30, 2017 4 hours ago, Pjanssen said: Hi fishfreak. How did you create the multi picture signature? I used ipiccy.com's collage maker. It worked pretty well with a little trial and error 2 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 30, 2017 Author Share Posted July 30, 2017 21 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said: I love Bert & Ernie and I like that Leather too!! I have a smaller frag of the same Leather and I hope it grows up to be as pretty as yours. Thanks Weetie It seems to be a pretty slow grower for me, how has it been for you? I lucked out and got it for like $5 when I visited this one store that I don't go to very often. Clearly the employee didn't know the actual prices (the store generally has them on the high side). 1 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 2 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said: Thanks Weetie It seems to be a pretty slow grower for me, how has it been for you? I lucked out and got it for like $5 when I visited this one store that I don't go to very often. Clearly the employee didn't know the actual prices (the store generally has them on the high side). I paid like $30 for my green sinularia from ebay (but was not much more $$ than a tiny nub locally)...was so bummed when the filter ate it! But I found a few pieces in the filter fuge so I have three tiny leather frags plus the big one now lol. 2 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 30, 2017 Author Share Posted July 30, 2017 4 hours ago, Lula_Mae said: I paid like $30 for my green sinularia from ebay (but was not much more $$ than a tiny nub locally)...was so bummed when the filter ate it! But I found a few pieces in the filter fuge so I have three tiny leather frags plus the big one now lol. Nice! Are they attached to anything? I hate that part of fragging, I always rubber band too tight and end up with little bits floating around. Quote Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 7 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said: Thanks Weetie It seems to be a pretty slow grower for me, how has it been for you? I lucked out and got it for like $5 when I visited this one store that I don't go to very often. Clearly the employee didn't know the actual prices (the store generally has them on the high side). Mine has been slow-ish, but it's also been through plenty of tank changes, so it's probably too early to say. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 31, 2017 Author Share Posted July 31, 2017 19 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said: Mine has been slow-ish, but it's also been through plenty of tank changes, so it's probably too early to say. Well I'm curious to see how it grows for you in the long run. At the rate mine's growing, it'll be years before it gets big. Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 1, 2017 Author Share Posted August 1, 2017 I got home around 5 today. Looked in the tank and burst into tears. My blastos are all retracted. 4 of the plates are losing tissue, my red lobo is receding badly, 2/3 duncans are closed. It's the blastos that really got me. I considered asking a local reefer to hold onto them until my tank stabilizes, but I don't think more changes are going to improve matters. Plus a "local reefer" might be 45+ minutes away. It turns out my Mg test kit and supplement aren't scheduled to arrive until next week. WTH? I've ordered from this place before with very fast shipping, and I paid extra for faster shipping (which clearly isn't the case). I'm not going to wait next week however, I've just put up an ad to see if anyone has a test kit I can borrow. If there's no replies by tomorrow, my mom said we could drive to Kamloops or Kelowna tomorrow and buy a kit/supplement. It sucks to buy two of something (especially when local is more expensive) and I haven't looked at my bank account in a while because I spent more than I'd intended in Vancouver. She said she'd buy them though, so I can pay her back at a later date At this point I'll do just about anything to fix the issue, it's heart breaking watching a bunch of the animals that I've tried so hard to take good care of suffer and wither away I had lots of fun in Vancouver, at the concert, the Festival of Lights fireworks, and just walking around . I'll try to get a few pictures up, and maybe a short video of Ed Sheeran (all my video sucks because I was half-dancing, but his voice is great) and the fireworks. Because yes, I filmed it all, concert and fireworks. I'm weird that way. Unfortunately my camera died during the encore "Shape of You", so I switched to my phone which then ran out of room. Funny how that just had to happen during my favorite song 1 Quote Link to comment
Madcat Posted August 1, 2017 Share Posted August 1, 2017 21 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said: I got home around 5 today. Looked in the tank and burst into tears. My blastos are all retracted. 4 of the plates are losing tissue, my red lobo is receding badly, 2/3 duncans are closed. It's the blastos that really got me. I considered asking a local reefer to hold onto them until my tank stabilizes, but I don't think more changes are going to improve matters. Plus a "local reefer" might be 45+ minutes away. It turns out my Mg test kit and supplement aren't scheduled to arrive until next week. WTH? I've ordered from this place before with very fast shipping, and I paid extra for faster shipping (which clearly isn't the case). I'm not going to wait next week however, I've just put up an ad to see if anyone has a test kit I can borrow. If there's no replies by tomorrow, my mom said we could drive to Kamloops or Kelowna tomorrow and buy a kit/supplement. It sucks to buy two of something (especially when local is more expensive) and I haven't looked at my bank account in a while because I spent more than I'd intended in Vancouver. She said she'd buy them though, so I can pay her back at a later date At this point I'll do just about anything to fix the issue, it's heart breaking watching a bunch of the animals that I've tried so hard to take good care of suffer and wither away I had lots of fun in Vancouver, at the concert, the Festival of Lights fireworks, and just walking around . I'll try to get a few pictures up, and maybe a short video of Ed Sheeran (all my video sucks because I was half-dancing, but his voice is great) and the fireworks. Because yes, I filmed it all, concert and fireworks. I'm weird that way. Unfortunately my camera died during the encore "Shape of You", so I switched to my phone which then ran out of room. Funny how that just had to happen during my favorite song I'm so sorry. I hope everything pulls through. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 1, 2017 Author Share Posted August 1, 2017 18 minutes ago, Madcat said: I'm so sorry. I hope everything pulls through. Thanks. There are definitely going to be some casualties, I'm just hoping that none are my beloved blastos. Although if I can get this all sorted out soon there's hope for everything still there I think. In the meantime, I'm going to focus on feeding everything that will still accept food. I'm not sure if that will make any difference, but it can't hurt. 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted August 1, 2017 Share Posted August 1, 2017 I'm so sorry to hear things aren't going well! I wouldn't worry about the Mg test and supplement - low magnesium is very unlikely to cause the kind of extensive problems you're seeing. Maybe just do a large water change? If you do a 25% change, wait a day or two, and then another 25%, it could help reset conditions in the tank. I don't claim to understand what is going on with the alk dosing situation, but if it was me, I'd probably discontinue all dosing and just do lots of water changes and see what happens. It's possible that whatever is causing your alk to go out of whack is also causing the problems you're seeing, but it's also possible that there's some kind of imbalance in the tank just due to the heavy dosing. Things have gone bad in my tanks more times than I can count, but usually when I think about what I've recently changed, and either undo it or stop doing it, it often helps, even when it doesn't make sense at the time. 2 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 1, 2017 Author Share Posted August 1, 2017 13 hours ago, teenyreef said: I'm so sorry to hear things aren't going well! I wouldn't worry about the Mg test and supplement - low magnesium is very unlikely to cause the kind of extensive problems you're seeing. Maybe just do a large water change? If you do a 25% change, wait a day or two, and then another 25%, it could help reset conditions in the tank. I don't claim to understand what is going on with the alk dosing situation, but if it was me, I'd probably discontinue all dosing and just do lots of water changes and see what happens. It's possible that whatever is causing your alk to go out of whack is also causing the problems you're seeing, but it's also possible that there's some kind of imbalance in the tank just due to the heavy dosing. Things have gone bad in my tanks more times than I can count, but usually when I think about what I've recently changed, and either undo it or stop doing it, it often helps, even when it doesn't make sense at the time. Ok, I'll stop dosing. It makes sense that that would help because the dosing is making alk swing more, and if it just keeps dropping it will bottom out at 5ish and stay relatively stable there. It does seem like things got really bad when I started dosing. Most things didn't care that alk was 5 before, at least as far as I saw. Large water changes are generally a good idea, but with RSCP, it'll cause an alk spike if I do one that big. Should I do it anyway? Or should I go buy some Reef Crystals or something with less extreme parameters? Or would using a new salt cause more problems? I'm just so frustrated, I hate not knowing what needs fixing. I might still overnight a Mg test kit and supplement because at this point I'll try anything. If I could just get alk to stabilize I think things would be alright. I think I'll change out my carbon today. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 1, 2017 Author Share Posted August 1, 2017 Well quick update. Things look less pissed today (blastos and green Duncan specifically) but lots are still struggling. I think the dosing is doing more harm than good, because clearly my calcium is precipitating out or something. It's at 370, and since my tank started it has been stable between 425 and 445. Alk is at 7.1 now. Water changes are definitely in order to bring things back to where they should be, but I'm still not sure if I should pick up reef crystals or not. And in happy news, my mom phoned Canada Post, and their estimate of arrival next week was very off. The Mg test kit and supplement should arrive tomorrow or the next day I'm looking forward to being able to test it from now on, even if that isn't the current problem. 1 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 I'm not sure about your question regarding the Reef Crystals but maybe you could pick up a box of something like Instant Ocean to avoid the alk spike? I dunno enough about this stuff...Maybe also try doing Lugol's dips on the stuff that's unhappy, maybe it will help them hang on for now. So sorry, I hope things look up soon. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 2, 2017 Author Share Posted August 2, 2017 55 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said: I'm not sure about your question regarding the Reef Crystals but maybe you could pick up a box of something like Instant Ocean to avoid the alk spike? I dunno enough about this stuff...Maybe also try doing Lugol's dips on the stuff that's unhappy, maybe it will help them hang on for now. So sorry, I hope things look up soon. Thanks Lula, I hope it gets better soon too. I'm surprised I'm not feeling more discouraged, maybe I'm finally accepting that there's going to be big ups and big downs in this hobby. I mean, I'm still thinking about a second tank. Not that I can afford one right now, but maybe Christmas. I think for now I'm going to do small water changes with RSCP to avoid large spikes, and on Friday I'll be in Kamloops and I can pick up some IO or IO reef crystals (need to check their params) for a couple larger changes. I'm hoping the Mg test kit will help explain what's going on. Unfortunately I'm away this weekend and I won't be back until Tuesday. A friend is feeding and topping up the tank for me. I'm a little worried about being away, but everything made it through this weekend away, so I doubt the coming one will be much different. Both lobos are in the worst shape, but I hesitate to do an iodine dip because I'm pretty sure it's not bacterial. I just don't want to touch them or stress them further. Maybe as a last resort, it didn't help the candy cane. Vancouver pics coming soon! 2 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 2, 2017 Author Share Posted August 2, 2017 The sunset before the fireworks was beautiful. This was at English Bay. P7290020 by orb1915, on Flickr P7290025 by orb1915, on Flickr I was trying to take a photo of some colored lights, but at first I didn't notice that my camera was still set to firework mode. Which resulted in the picture below. Kinda neat I thought.The 2nd down is what they actually were. P7290052 by orb1915, on Flickr P7290051 by orb1915, on Flickr On Sunday we visited Granville island. I got sucked in at the tourist shops and bought a little fish ornament, and two snow globes. We also went to a neat rock store where of course I went crazy grabbing everything in sight I love rocks. I don't even remember the names of most of what I bought now, but that's alright. The market was really cool, lots of fresh seafood and fruits and vegetables that I've never seen in person before. My step sister got pooped on by a pigeon, just like last time P7290074 by orb1915, on Flickr While waiting for the little boat to take us back, I stuck my camera in the water. I got some funny looks. P7300094 by orb1915, on Flickr P7300100 by orb1915, on Flickr Pics from the short boat ride back P7300110 by orb1915, on Flickr P7300112 by orb1915, on Flickr Here's a video from the concert. It's kinda long I had a lot of footage (every song!). Excuse the shakiness, I mostly just record for the audio. The firework finale is at in the last minute or two 3 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 Wow, great pics - it looks like a really fun trip! I think the Reef Crystals will be fine if you do a 20% or less water change. 1 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 12 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said: Thanks Lula, I hope it gets better soon too. I'm surprised I'm not feeling more discouraged, maybe I'm finally accepting that there's going to be big ups and big downs in this hobby. I mean, I'm still thinking about a second tank. Not that I can afford one right now, but maybe Christmas. I think for now I'm going to do small water changes with RSCP to avoid large spikes, and on Friday I'll be in Kamloops and I can pick up some IO or IO reef crystals (need to check their params) for a couple larger changes. I'm hoping the Mg test kit will help explain what's going on. Unfortunately I'm away this weekend and I won't be back until Tuesday. A friend is feeding and topping up the tank for me. I'm a little worried about being away, but everything made it through this weekend away, so I doubt the coming one will be much different. Both lobos are in the worst shape, but I hesitate to do an iodine dip because I'm pretty sure it's not bacterial. I just don't want to touch them or stress them further. Maybe as a last resort, it didn't help the candy cane. Vancouver pics coming soon! I used Lugol's on my acan and blasto that were super retracted after my move from up north and they are fat and fluffy today! I know it's not a cure-all but I think it can really help stressed corals. Still keeping my fingers crossed for your stuffs! 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 2, 2017 Author Share Posted August 2, 2017 14 hours ago, teenyreef said: Wow, great pics - it looks like a really fun trip! I think the Reef Crystals will be fine if you do a 20% or less water change. Thanks, it was lot of fun! I've been working on taking better composed photos when I go places. Ok, I'll pick a smack container up Friday then. In the meantime, I'll do daily water changes with RSCP, but very small ones. Not to reset, just to raise Ca and Alk a bit. 10 hours ago, Lula_Mae said: I used Lugol's on my acan and blasto that were super retracted after my move from up north and they are fat and fluffy today! I know it's not a cure-all but I think it can really help stressed corals. Still keeping my fingers crossed for your stuffs! I never realized it could be helpful that way. Today I'll dip both lobos, the radiant red blasto, the receding plates, and maybe the neon trumpet then I'm happy to say that the blastos are puffier today, even the radiant red which had some tissue recession on one side. The pink Duncan also opened a bit, and I suspect it would have opened more if Joe wasn't standing on it It has been closed up through this whole ordeal. @teenyreef, I'm pretty sure stopping dosing has helped a lot already! The first dose I missed was on Monday because I got back late, started freaking out about the tank and then I forgot. The next day things looked a tiny bit better, and I see the same trend today. And what the heck happened to NR overnight?! It took me a minute to realize why things didn't seem quite right. I guess it's a new update? I like it! 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 2, 2017 Author Share Posted August 2, 2017 I haven't seen Bert and Ernie since before the weekend. Guess who was staring up at me from the chaeto? Ernie. I'm guessing Bert made his way back there too. If I glue needlepoint mesh over the intake grates, will it affect the amount of water going back there? edit: I just checked alk and today it is at 6.8. Glad to see it dropping slower. I had planned to do a water change today, but it looks like my Mg stuff didn't arrive today. I want to test mg before I start with lots of water changes. I did get a new CORAL magazine though, so the trip to the mailbox was worth it! I'll be dipping things shortly. 1 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 2 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said: Thanks, it was lot of fun! I've been working on taking better composed photos when I go places. Ok, I'll pick a smack container up Friday then. In the meantime, I'll do daily water changes with RSCP, but very small ones. Not to reset, just to raise Ca and Alk a bit. I never realized it could be helpful that way. Today I'll dip both lobos, the radiant red blasto, the receding plates, and maybe the neon trumpet then I'm happy to say that the blastos are puffier today, even the radiant red which had some tissue recession on one side. The pink Duncan also opened a bit, and I suspect it would have opened more if Joe wasn't standing on it It has been closed up through this whole ordeal. @teenyreef, I'm pretty sure stopping dosing has helped a lot already! The first dose I missed was on Monday because I got back late, started freaking out a about the tank and then I forgot. The next day things looked a tiny bit better, and I seethe same trend today. And what the heck happened to NR overnight?! It took me a minute to realize why things didn't seem quite right. I guess it's a new update? I like it! Yep! I did it on Weetie's recommendation. It may not help, but I've seen it do enough that I regularly recommend it now. I dunno how it works, but knowing it can is enough for me lol. It might also help to do a day of lights out after the dips (I did a couple of days along with a dip each day and I think that rest time really helped as well). Just a day or two, though. And yeah, there was an upgrade this morning, I got up and both N-R and my favorite MMO were down for upgrades. I was like, "What am I supposed to do this morning!?" 1 Quote Link to comment
JoeMan02 Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 dude those zoas are SICK!!!! (not ill just awesome) Cool tank! 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 1 hour ago, JoeMan02 said: dude those zoas are SICK!!!! (not ill just awesome) Cool tank! Thanks! Quote Link to comment
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