In Amber Clad

[jedimasterben]

Great job! Love all the new fish What kind of snail is that last guy?

Thanks john! I believe it to be Strombus gibberulus

[teenyreef]

Thanks john! I believe it to be Strombus gibberulus

Thanks Ben - is that what we call a fighting conch?

[jedimasterben]

Thanks Ben - is that what we call a fighting conch?

I think some places do label as a 'Tonga' fighting conch, but mostly what's sold as a fighting conch is Strombus alatus from FL and the Caribbean.

[markalot]

Tank looks great, really cool and natural looking. Great fish pics as well.

[Mr. Microscope]

Love this little filefish! How big is it? What kind? Matted? It's so cool how they swim around.

[jedimasterben]

Tank looks great, really cool and natural looking. Great fish pics as well.

Thanks mark!

 

Love this little filefish! How big is it? What kind? Matted? It's so cool how they swim around.

It is Rudarius ercodes, the whitespotted pygmy filefish. This one is a bit less than 3/4" right now, won't get much bigger than twice that. How they sleep is even more awesome - they use their 'teeth' to latch onto a coral or rock and just hang on for dear life

 

 

Lots of work in the reef today. I removed the sand from the fuge - boy that was an endeavor. It also made the biggest cloud of poo ever. I figured since I was cleaning that part of the sump I'd get to the rest of it, there was a ton of poo that had compacted and had hair algae growing on it in the return chamber, got rid of all of that and put a Cobalt MJ900 in with it to keep things stirred up. Also my big pile of Seachem deNitrate that is in the skimmer chamber was absolutely slam full of detritus, so I may need to rethink that idea. I didn't want to get a 4" MarinePure block for two reasons, one because it is 4" and I couldn't set my skimmer on it, and two they can leach aluminum slowly, and in a tank full of leathers I don't want to give them any more reasons to be mad at me lol, but it may need to be something I just do.

 

I put in a teaspoon of calcium carbonate powder, the tank is still cloudy almost two hours later, the skimmer has a 1/2" thick layer of THICK sludge at the bottom of the cup, and it was perfectly clean before stirring stuff up.

 

My planted tank also got an order of plants today. For $35 someone seriously sent me at least 50 stems of all kinds of plants, mostly species of rotala. It's so many that I just started sticking them places, couldn't figure out where to put them all!!

 

[metrokat]

Dat Wabbit.

[teenyreef]

Thanks mark!

 

It is Rudarius ercodes, the whitespotted pygmy filefish. This one is a bit less than 3/4" right now, won't get much bigger than twice that. How they sleep is even more awesome - they use their 'teeth' to latch onto a coral or rock and just hang on for dear life

 

 

Lots of work in the reef today. I removed the sand from the fuge - boy that was an endeavor. It also made the biggest cloud of poo ever. I figured since I was cleaning that part of the sump I'd get to the rest of it, there was a ton of poo that had compacted and had hair algae growing on it in the return chamber, got rid of all of that and put a Cobalt MJ900 in with it to keep things stirred up. Also my big pile of Seachem deNitrate that is in the skimmer chamber was absolutely slam full of detritus, so I may need to rethink that idea. I didn't want to get a 4" MarinePure block for two reasons, one because it is 4" and I couldn't set my skimmer on it, and two they can leach aluminum slowly, and in a tank full of leathers I don't want to give them any more reasons to be mad at me lol, but it may need to be something I just do.

 

I put in a teaspoon of calcium carbonate powder, the tank is still cloudy almost two hours later, the skimmer has a 1/2" thick layer of THICK sludge at the bottom of the cup, and it was perfectly clean before stirring stuff up.

 

My planted tank also got an order of plants today. For $35 someone seriously sent me at least 50 stems of all kinds of plants, mostly species of rotala. It's so many that I just started sticking them places, couldn't figure out where to put them all!!

 

Love it! Instant Planted Tank

[teenyreef]

I'm so sorry, Benny

kate-upton by TeenyReef, on Flickr

http://www.si.com/swim-daily/2016/05/02/kate-upton-engaged-justin-verlander-engaged

But Justin Verlander's parents live just a couple miles down the road from me...maybe she'll be hanging out here sometimes?

I'll just leave this here (from the same web page), to make up for posting such depressing news

3aHIT7DsIMJ5QX by TeenyReef, on Flickr

 

I left this for you in the lounge but I realized you may never see it, as fast as things move there

[jedimasterben]

I'm so sorry, Benny

 

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/26512191210_3fa5b8692a_z.jpg

 

http://www.si.com/swim-daily/2016/05/02/kate-upton-engaged-justin-verlander-engaged

 

But Justin Verlander's parents live just a couple miles down the road from me...maybe she'll be hanging out here sometimes?

 

I'll just leave this here (from the same web page), to make up for posting such depressing news

 

 

I left this for you in the lounge but I realized you may never see it, as fast as things move there

Yeah, it does move fast in there lol. Still depressing

Love it! Instant Planted Tank

Yeah, still can't believe how many that dude sent!

[pappadumplingz]

This tank is amazing! The marine pure leaching aluminium is a myth apparently, and

is In Amber Clad a Halo reference?

[jedimasterben]

This tank is amazing! The marine pure leaching aluminium is a myth apparently, and

is In Amber Clad a Halo reference?

Thanks!

 

As for the Cermedia blocks and aluminum, it isn't outside of the realm of possibility. Seachem claimed for years and years, and still does, that Phosguard doesn't leach aluminum, but Randy Holmes-Farley has proved that it does. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/7/chemistry#section-7Though, of course, that is aluminum oxide versus inorganic aluminosilicate. Having a tank full of leather corals, which are sensitive to even low levels of free aluminum, I'm cautious to add anything that could potentially be a source, even if the risk is very small and possibly unfounded.

[pappadumplingz]

Thanks!

 

As for the Cermedia blocks and aluminum, it isn't outside of the realm of possibility. Seachem claimed for years and years, and still does, that Phosguard doesn't leach aluminum, but Randy Holmes-Farley has proved that it does. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/7/chemistry#section-7Though, of course, that is aluminum oxide versus inorganic aluminosilicate. Having a tank full of leather corals, which are sensitive to even low levels of free aluminum, I'm cautious to add anything that could potentially be a source, even if the risk is very small and possibly unfounded.

Well thank god I don't have any leathers in my tank, cause I have a bag of phosguard in the back. Maybe I should switch to the chemipure version if I plan to add a leathers, cause it's iron based.

[ReefWeeds]

Thanks!

 

As for the Cermedia blocks and aluminum, it isn't outside of the realm of possibility. Seachem claimed for years and years, and still does, that Phosguard doesn't leach aluminum, but Randy Holmes-Farley has proved that it does. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/7/chemistry#section-7Though, of course, that is aluminum oxide versus inorganic aluminosilicate. Having a tank full of leather corals, which are sensitive to even low levels of free aluminum, I'm cautious to add anything that could potentially be a source, even if the risk is very small and possibly unfounded.

Well crap. I just ordered seagel which has carbon and phosguard

[jedimasterben]

Well thank god I don't have any leathers in my tank, cause I have a bag of phosguard in the back. Maybe I should switch to the chemipure version if I plan to add a leathers, cause it's iron based.

Chemipure only has a very small amount of GFO in it, I would just use separate carbon and GFO if going that route

 

Or if you have a skimmer, then you could use lanthanum chloride.

And here is a newer thread about aluminum, Triton, and marinepure http://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-much-aluminum-will-it-leach-lets-guess.247034/#post-2902402

[ninjamyst]

I keep my Seachem Matrix biomedia in media bags and breeder net. I plan to take them out once every 6 months for a good rinsing.

[metrokat]

Aluminium. It's the one thing Triton said I don't have excess of.

[jedimasterben]

I keep my Seachem Matrix biomedia in media bags and breeder net. I plan to take them out once every 6 months for a good rinsing.

I have four liters of it, though, so a bit much to keep in media bags lol. After some googling, I stumbled across this post from MFK http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/matrix-vs-pond-matrix.389222/page-4#post-6298837

 

DERP! Cross stitch mesh is dirt cheap, as are zip ties, and will work well. I also have the plastic gutter guard that I got a couple weeks back that I can possibly use, I think the holes are small enough to keep the deNitrate pellets in. If that's the case, then tonight I'll get to working on building a box out of it that is the same size as my skimmer compartment so that it can hold my skimmer up lol.

Also, I finally decided it was time to clear the ball valve on the main drain of whatever was clogging it and to remove the full siphon standpipe and replace it with a simple snap-on bulkhead strainer. I was determined to get it all fixed and get the tank silent again! I got out my PVC primer and glue, found my cutters, and was about to snip the line when I first decided to remove the standpipe and get the strainer installed. Well, once I did that, I kinda found the clog.

 

 

 

 

Oops. Guess that's what I get for not having a strainer or an overflow cover! But now I have both, so should prevent this from happening again. Now the full siphon is back to being a full siphon and the tank is quieter and hopefully has less bubbles in it

[gena]

Hopefully mine does similar - right now it is TINY, 3/4-1", so just about everything is bigger than it is, so honestly I don't blame it for wanting to hide lol.

At least you know it's a young one . I can't remember mine being that small but I know he's grown in the years I've had him.

 

Your tank looks amazing, BTW!!!!! I think this is my favorite jedi tank yet .

[jedimasterben]

At least you know it's a young one . I can't remember mine being that small but I know he's grown in the years I've had him.Your tank looks amazing, BTW!!!!! I think this is my favorite jedi tank yet .

Thanks! I haven't seen it since the second day, though, so hopefully it is just super good at hiding. I figured I would have been able to at least get a glimpse, but then again, those anthias hid for two weeks without me knowing lol

[gena]

Thanks! I haven't seen it since the second day, though, so hopefully it is just super good at hiding. I figured I would have been able to at least get a glimpse, but then again, those anthias hid for two weeks without me knowing lol

I'm sure it just needs to get used to the conditions in your tank. They are VERY good at hiding .

[pappadumplingz]

I can understand why you bought the 980ti, so you can run the new Battlefield game at Ultra Graphics.

 

[jedimasterben]

I can understand why you bought the 980ti, so you can run the new Battlefield game at Ultra Graphics.

I've never played a battlefield game before in my life lol

 

and that GTX 1080 tho... dayum.

[Halo_003]

GTX 1080 might actually be when I decide it's time to upgrade... I still have a GTX 580 3GB overclocked to 1100MHz. Not efficient at all but pretty quick.

 

Battlefield 1 won't happen for me until it's $15-20, I got taken on BF3/4, not gonna happen again.

[pappadumplingz]

GTX 1080 might actually be when I decide it's time to upgrade... I still have a GTX 580 3GB overclocked to 1100MHz. Not efficient at all but pretty quick.

 

Battlefield 1 won't happen for me until it's $15-20, I got taken on BF3/4, not gonna happen again.

 

They won't have another repeat of bf4. As proven with Star Wars battlefront, Dice have learnt from their mistakes in terms of NetCode.