SeaFurn's Reef Bowl

[SeaFurn]

Regular 3% variety and I didn't dilute it. I just put a drip on small piece of a paper towel (not so much that it would drip onto the snail's tissue) and wiped away!  Was surprised that the coraline on it's shell wasn't affected. 

[Rain24]

There's nothing I love more than acans having new heads!

 

I sort of wanted to try the meatballs at IKEA but...you know. LOL

 

What kind of camera are you using? Does it have white balance settings?

 

Also, could you check your Tuna Blue lamp please and let me know if one of the 5 central LEDs is really dim? I don't know if there's something wrong with my bulb. One of the five is either really dim our out. It's hard to tell.

[SeaFurn]

I'm using my iPhone 5s...but with a camera app called ProCam. That app lets you adjust many things like on a DSLR...shutter speed, ISO, white balance, etc...and it has auto settings too. I'm sure it would work almost as well as a DSLR (limited by the quality of the phone lens of course) but I just haven't learned how all the settings work together. Been spending too much time reading this forum learning about reef stuff! Here's a screen shot of the app. 

 

I've then been editing the photos in the Snapseed app but haven't mastered that yet either. 

 

Yes, I'll check my bulb when I get home tonight. I think I noticed something similar when I first got mine but looking at closely I decided it was one of violet/purple LEDs and it just didn't put out as much brightness as the others. Let me double check that though.

[SeaFurn]

18 hours ago, Rain24 said:

 

Also, could you check your Tuna Blue lamp please and let me know if one of the 5 central LEDs is really dim?

Yes, one of my 5 central LEDs is more dim than all the others. It is one of the violets. 

[Rain24]

4 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Yes, one of my 5 central LEDs is more dim than all the others. It is one of the violets. 

Thanks! I thought mine was broken. It's really, really dim.

[SeaFurn]

So everything has been stable in the reef bowl and growing! 

Been checking calcium and alk after each water change and it's good and consistent (using Red Sea Coral Pro which runs a bit high)....Soooo...I decided to step it up and test out the big league.   Introducing my latest! Such a cool piece.

 

 

I have two others that I'll try to get shots of later. This should let me see if the Par 38 bulb is strong enough, known if the flow is strong enough with just the airline, and learn how ca and alk are consumed. I have the frags all the way up top already and the polyps look good as far as I can tell! 

 

 

[natalia_la_loca]

Looks fantastic  

[SeaFurn]

[Weetabix7]

19 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

 

This is looking good, and it's so exciting that everything is doing well and that you got pretty, new sticks!!

I'm really interested to see how it does in here. 

 

Also, on the bulb, 3 of the LEDs in the middle are diffused and look different as a result. 

[natalia_la_loca]

Really loving how this is taking shape. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that your sticks are going to do very well.

[SeaFurn]

59 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

This is looking good, and it's so exciting that everything is doing well and that you got pretty, new sticks!!
I'm really interested to see how it does in here.

Also, on the bulb, 3 of the LEDs in the middle are diffused and look different as a result. 

Thank you!  

Yeah, I noticed that there were diffuser stickers over the two whites and the green LED in the center of the bulb....and the violet one there looks dimmest of all.  I've been running my light at about 13" over the water line.  The sticks are at an inch and 2 inches below that.  I'm keeping a close eye on everything.  I started at 16"  and slowly lowered it as the corals seemed to respond better when I brought it down.  My bowl does get a little ambient lighting from the window nearby but not as much as with your waterfall.  

[SeaFurn]

1 hour ago, natalia_la_loca said:

Really loving how this is taking shape. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that your sticks are going to do very well.

Thanks!  I hope so!

 

You know what's going to be a challenge?  Not knocking them over when I go to do a water change!! There is not a lot of room to work in there.  I've been able to be like a bull in a china shop with the siphon getting behind the rocks.  Or...I can totally see myself whacking them with the turkey baster!  

 

I get a lot of micro bubbles sticking to the glass.  Did you see the white speckles on the FBS?  That's what that is.  Any ideas about that other than doing a better job keeping the algae (which you can't really see) off the glass? 

[natalia_la_loca]

Not banging the sticks is a challenge. Do you have a long forceps? If not, I suggest you get one. That said, I still brush the SPS from time to time with the forceps, turkey baster or siphon. They don't seem to mind too much.

 

I get a fair number of microbubbles too, even though I don't use any kind of diffuser on the airline.  I just try to adjust the camera so it focuses on the corals.  The lens will often want to focus on the bubbles--that appears to be what happened with your latest photo.

 

For removing biofilms, try a piece of Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  Along with turkey basters and peroxide, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are among the unsung heroes of reefing. Requisition some kind of kitchen implement that doesn't get used much (I use an old meat carving fork) and stick the piece of eraser on the end of it.

[Weetabix7]

I got some long Reptile Feeding Tongs, and they have been a lifesaver in moving stuff around in my Waterfall Pico. Before that, I was having the same problem as you. 

 

For cleaning algae off tank/bowl walls I just use a toothbrush that is used for Reef only purposes, I'm sure it'd work just was well for microbubbles. 

[Lula_Mae]

Tank looks great!  Congrats on the new stuff!

[SeaFurn]

So the shrimp has taken an interest to the new coral. I'd like to think it's just tending to them looking for food. Any chance the shrimp is harming them? 

[SeaFurn]

Headed here tomorrow!

Hope I can find some nice stuff for the reef bowl! 

 

[Weetabix7]

29 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Headed here tomorrow!

Hope I can find some nice stuff for the reef bowl! 

 

 

Oooh, that's gonna be good, have fun and bring home cool new Bowl Stuffs!!

[HammerLover]

Amazing corals Seafurn! I need to try that procam app. Though snapseed makes my iphone shots decent, most of the time everything is way too blurry and blue  

 

that  new sps looks just great!

[SeaFurn]

Good news and bad news today.  

 

First the bad - lost the anemone shrimp yesterday.  Such a bummer.  He was pretty cool.  He was fine Friday and eating, and fine before the water change in the morning.  Then later in the day when I got home from the coral expo he didn't come the front of the bowl when I approached as usual.  I'm just baffled.  He's been through several water changes with no issues. I double checked salinity and temp of the new water to make sure it was exactly the same as the water in the bowl.  I didn't check any of the other params before or after the WC. The corals were looking great after the WC. Do alk swings affect shrimp? That's the only thing I can think of that might be happening with more corals consuming alk than there's been in the past.  Water changes using the RS Coral pro basically reset it to 11 dKH each time.   

I think I'm gonna wait on getting another one for awhile. 

 

The good news is I got some really nice frags yesterday! 4 acans (i think I have a thing for acans), a couple of zoas (Sunny D's and Armor of the Gods - not so sure on that one though), and a Tyree Pink Lemonade acro.  The Pink Lemonade doesn't look as pink under the Par 38 bulb as it did under the Kessil at the expo.  Everything is acclimating and seems good so far.

 

[Lula_Mae]

On 4/16/2017 at 3:33 PM, SeaFurn said:

Good news and bad news today.  

 

First the bad - lost the anemone shrimp yesterday.  Such a bummer.  He was pretty cool.  He was fine Friday and eating, and fine before the water change in the morning.  Then later in the day when I got home from the coral expo he didn't come the front of the bowl when I approached as usual.  I'm just baffled.  He's been through several water changes with no issues. I double checked salinity and temp of the new water to make sure it was exactly the same as the water in the bowl.  I didn't check any of the other params before or after the WC. The corals were looking great after the WC. Do alk swings affect shrimp? That's the only thing I can think of that might be happening with more corals consuming alk than there's been in the past.  Water changes using the RS Coral pro basically reset it to 11 dKH each time.   

I think I'm gonna wait on getting another one for awhile. 

 

The good news is I got some really nice frags yesterday! 4 acans (i think I have a thing for acans), a couple of zoas (Sunny D's and Armor of the Gods - not so sure on that one though), and a Tyree Pink Lemonade acro.  The Pink Lemonade doesn't look as pink under the Par 38 bulb as it did under the Kessil at the expo.  Everything is acclimating and seems good so far.

 

Bummer on the shrimpie!  I've had poor luck with shrimps (both FW and SW) myself.

 

FOUR acans!  Acan tell you have a problem! (See what I did there?)

 

Pics?

[Rain24]

Sorry to hear about the shrimp. I hope having new frags takes away the sting.

 

Pics when you can!

[Weetabix7]

I feel for you on losing the Shrimp.

You know that Macroalgae Pico I had, the one that I have pics from in my Sig?

Well I had 2 Anemone Shrimp in it & I really loved 'em, but the same thing happened to them that happened to yours, they just died out of the blue for no reason I could see. 

I was really upset when it happened. 

I do remember someone telling me that they had a short lifespan though, like just a year or something and I may have just gotten them at the end of their lifespan. 

Maybe that happened with yours as well. 

 

Like you, I love Acans. 

One of the things I love about them is how easy they are to Propagate!!!

I need to get back into that sometime. 

Anyway, we look forward to seeing your new goodies when time allows. 

[SeaFurn]

5 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

FOUR acans!  Acan tell you have a problem! (See what I did there?)

Lula - very clever! Acan see what you did there!    I'm liking all your new additions too!  Glad things are going much better now!

 

59 minutes ago, Rain24 said:

I hope having new frags takes away the sting.

 

Thanks Rain - yeah, it does - but it seems less lively in the bowl now. Will get some photos up soon - still kinda dread that part because they mostly SUCK.  

 

@Weetabix7 It's always nice when people can relate.  But so frustrating when you don't have a clue. The acans are all looking great.  The Sunny D zoas aren't quite right with the world still...which is strange because ALL the others current zoa inhabitants are just fine.  I'm going to move them to a different hang-out spot so we'll see how they are tomorrow. 

 

 

[Weetabix7]

Just now, SeaFurn said:

 

@Weetabix7 It's always nice when people can relate.  But so frustrating when you don't have a clue. The acans are all looking great.  The Sunny D zoas aren't quite right with the world still...which is strange because ALL the others current zoa inhabitants are just fine.  I'm going to move them to a different hang-out spot so we'll see how they are tomorrow. 

 

 

 

Believe me, I KNOW!!!

Also, Zoas are just weird sometimes. 

Sometimes they just decide to get mad for apparently no reason at all. 

Natalia might be able to give you some suggestion on them, she's worked with Zoas a lot and with those in particular, I'm sure.