cowabunga-reefer Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 Well had a bit of setback the other day. I was all excited because I got a shipment of light bulbs and other tank goodies and tried to go outside on my own and bring it in. One of my crutches got stuck in the door and I fell onto my foot I just had surgery on. So...possibly ruined my surgery and back stuck on the couch drugged up. I got up for a bit yesterday to find my tank in rough shape. Glass covered in algae and my birds nest completely white ?. So long to my first sps coral ever.? Link to comment
J-Ranko Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Ouch. I hope your foot is OK. This hobby is full of set backs, though foot-injury is unusual. Is the birdnest actually dead or just bleached? You could potentially still save it if it only expelled its zooxanthellae algae. If you can figure out what caused it to bleach (parameter swing?) and take care of that, it can survive and recover. Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 2 hours ago, J-Ranko said: Ouch. I hope your foot is OK. This hobby is full of set backs, though foot-injury is unusual. Is the birdnest actually dead or just bleached? You could potentially still save it if it only expelled its zooxanthellae algae. If you can figure out what caused it to bleach (parameter swing?) and take care of that, it can survive and recover. Thanks yeah I'm doing a bit better. Not a reefing related injury haha ? I have had some that were bleached out pretty bad bounce back. I've bought some that were brown for really cheap and had them come around, so I'm being optimistic and keeping it in the tank. Problem with being injured is I can't do anything about water changes. So just gotta hang on and keep my fingers crossed Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted April 11, 2017 Author Share Posted April 11, 2017 Update and product review. Last week I decided I wanted to re-scape a portion of aquarium. So, since I'm on crutches and still can't drive I decided to order from Marine Depot. I chose this reef safe epoxy putty called Vertex V-Colla Viola Aquarium Epoxy 4oz. I have to start out by saying this is the absolute worst aquarium product I've purchased to date. I had figured I would test the epoxy out on little things first, like placing a paly frag, hammer colony, and duncan colony on a bigger rock together. Pulled all the pieces out of the tank and went to work cutting more than large enough pieces of epoxy for the purpose, folding it over itself over and over into a will mixed putty and applying to each piece. None of it seamed to be sticking so I also used extra pieces of putty to sort of wrap around the perimeter of each piece. As I gently picked up my rock with each piece now in place, every single one fell off and fell to the floor! The hammer colony broke into three and duncan had the base piece crack off. I was furious!! Even a week later this epoxy never hardened. It is still chalky and dusty. Here is a picture of the mess. I basically just threw everything back into the tank and balanced pieces of the hammer on top of the rock. A few days later things were starting to finally look a little better two more heads on the hammer have actually died since this picture The duncan is slowly bouncing back Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted April 11, 2017 Author Share Posted April 11, 2017 A few days after this happened I got a ride down to my local fish store. If you're in Pittsburgh it's called AquaWorld. These guys are great! They gave me a free cup full of these plastic pellets that melt into a putty like substance to aquascape with. They said they were able to build their large rock structure (a big arch) in around 5 minutes and pick the entire thing up by the top rock and place it into the tank. And all this being done with live rock. It looks like this: I also picked up a new frag that I was super excited about. Looks like maybe a California Tort?? Sorry its a bad iphone picture, but in person the tips are very blue Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted April 11, 2017 Author Share Posted April 11, 2017 Today I tried out the polymorph plastic pellets. Basically, you heat up a cup of water for 2min in the microwave and pour some of the pellets in. The will turn translucent when they are soft. Then stick something in to scoop the pellets out. They all will sort of stick together so its really easy. The material is still pretty hot but its tolerable enough to mix in your fingers until you get a nice smooth material that is a uniform color and free of bubbles. It hardens somewhat quickly, but that's fine because if you didn't get it just right the first time just take it off and put it back in the hot water and you can try it all over again. I have to say, this stuff is AMAZING!!! It holds better than any material I have ever used before, looks great, and is super easy to work with. It also can be used over and over and over again for as long as you like. If you buy the exact stuff I used it is super expensive, but a quick Google search and I found that this stuff is mostly all the same just rebranded. I finally was able to sculpt something that looks kinda cool to me, but also created a large platform at the higher light area of the tank for more sps coral placement. These rocks are all fairly heavy and the way they are placed they did not want to balance at all on their own. It is solid though was put together with this material. Again, sorry for the crappy iPhone pic Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted April 22, 2017 Author Share Posted April 22, 2017 Well had another bit of a setback. I can't do water changes myself so my dad drives out from 40min away to help. He was in a rush so I didn't get the water temps exactly right. This caused my monti cap, monti digita and new tort frag to get some STN. I decided I'd remove the corals, cut off the infected areas and coral dip. I followed the instructions to the letter and it turned out pretty horrible. Here are a couple pics of the results. The monti looks a little worse now, the torte is as good as gone and couple small branches of the digits look completely fine. I am really hoping the monti cap bounces back since I've been growing it for so long. Link to comment
vlangel Posted April 22, 2017 Share Posted April 22, 2017 O wow grim reefer, you have had lousy luck lately! How is the foot recovering? I never heard of those pellets but they sound pretty slick. I am sorry about the corals STNing. I hope they bounce back. I always shop at Elmer's and I like Wet Pets and Reef Gallery too. I have never been to Aqua World. I went to the art institute so I used airbrush techniques of cutting stencils to do the mural on my tank. I guess all that $ I spent was good for something. Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted April 22, 2017 Author Share Posted April 22, 2017 Hey! Yeah these pellets are seriously the bees ? knees!!!! I will use them on every scape from here on out! Your mural is incredible! I'm into art as well so I can appreciate your hard work i have been to Elmer's many times. I was really really really wanting to go to the PMASI event there today! I missed out though ? I had a software release that ran through the day and night till around 6am today so I ended up sleeping all day pretty much. i have not been to wet pets ever but i guy I work with always talks about it so I need to go some time. Aquaworld is really great though and it is just down the road from where I live now. They have a great selection of corals and frags that range from $5 to the crazy expensive. Talking to the guys that work there I found out the Pittsburgh aquarium actually buys a huge bulk of their stuff from their store. I've been trying to find out about volunteer work at the Pittsburgh zoo aquarium but they don't seem to respond to anything. They do a really cool coral project where they propagate then replant in the ocean! In Southern California I worked a lot with marine mammal rescue and rehab and I really miss taking part in things like that. So hopefully the zoo responds soon! Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted April 27, 2017 Author Share Posted April 27, 2017 Happy second birthday to my reef! Link to comment
slowngreen Posted April 27, 2017 Share Posted April 27, 2017 Loving the plate! Congrats on 2 years. Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted April 28, 2017 Author Share Posted April 28, 2017 Here is the current setup. Handmade stand, handmade jenky looking hood lol, with photo of my old surf spot down the street from my old home. Nothing beats watching my reef and mindsurfing the beautiful left heading wave ?. Hood with T5s soon to be replaced with led units. Getting tired of changing bulbs all the time Link to comment
vlangel Posted April 28, 2017 Share Posted April 28, 2017 On 4/22/2017 at 7:01 PM, The-Grim-Reefer said: Hey! Yeah these pellets are seriously the bees ? knees!!!! I will use them on every scape from here on out! Your mural is incredible! I'm into art as well so I can appreciate your hard work i have been to Elmer's many times. I was really really really wanting to go to the PMASI event there today! I missed out though ? I had a software release that ran through the day and night till around 6am today so I ended up sleeping all day pretty much. i have not been to wet pets ever but i guy I work with always talks about it so I need to go some time. Aquaworld is really great though and it is just down the road from where I live now. They have a great selection of corals and frags that range from $5 to the crazy expensive. Talking to the guys that work there I found out the Pittsburgh aquarium actually buys a huge bulk of their stuff from their store. I've been trying to find out about volunteer work at the Pittsburgh zoo aquarium but they don't seem to respond to anything. They do a really cool coral project where they propagate then replant in the ocean! In Southern California I worked a lot with marine mammal rescue and rehab and I really miss taking part in things like that. So hopefully the zoo responds soon! Hey congrats on the 2 yr anniversary. I will definitely have to try out Aqua World some time. Yes, I knew that the Pgh Zoo aquarium worked with coral gamates or whatever they are called. I would not mind volunteering to work with them as well, with a particular interest in their seahorses. BTW, your tank is looking real nice. Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted April 29, 2017 Author Share Posted April 29, 2017 Thanks Dawn Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 Just a couple more things I've added lately RO/DI unit. Started dosing daily with BRS two part and weekly magnesium. Ive noticed some small changes already since dosing a few days. Mushrooms are bigger and looking healthier, Duncan is nice and spread out and tentacles extended fully out. Link to comment
DCUEVAS74 Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 Great job on the 2yrs! Congrats! Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted May 3, 2017 Author Share Posted May 3, 2017 6 hours ago, DCUEVAS74 said: Great job on the 2yrs! Congrats! Thanks! Wasn't sure I'd make it when I started Link to comment
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