SeaFurn's Reef Bowl

[gena]

Normally that sargassum popping out would be exciting, but in such a small space not so much.  Your palys and zoas are definitely being "hurt" by it.  I'd move it to the contest tank for sure.  More space.  Hopefully you can get the whole thing off the rock.  You may have to dig at the rock..chip around the base of it to get the roots.  If that's even possible.  Good luck .

[SeaFurn]

13 hours ago, Friendly said:

hey SF, what about something like this? fully extended, it reaches almost 3ft in height:

https://www.amazon.com/Globe-Electric-Architect-Balanced-5698601/dp/B00RXSRQCC/ref=sr_1_8?s=lamps-light&ie=UTF8&qid=1504645091&sr=1-8&keywords=desk+lamp

 

Thanks for the link. I've seen those lamps and I know a few people are using them. 

I think I was just being covetous of a Nanobox light so that I didn't get so much shading causing my SPS to turn white at their bases. But that's a little silly for a bowl of water and 5 sticks of SPS....right? 

 

And then of course, if I get a Nanbox, I'm gonna need an Apex....

 

[SeaFurn]

13 hours ago, gena said:

Normally that sargassum popping out would be exciting, but in such a small space not so much.  Your palys and zoas are definitely being "hurt" by it.  I'd move it to the contest tank for sure.  More space.  Hopefully you can get the whole thing off the rock.  You may have to dig at the rock..chip around the base of it to get the roots.  If that's even possible.  Good luck .

Will take a crack at it this weekend. 

 

I take all the rocks completlely out of the bowl when I do a water change so I'll at least be able to get to it. The challenging part seems like it will be cutting it out of the palys without harming because it's so grown together. 

 

Last light noticed one polyp stretching about an inch to get its head above the Sargassum leaf. 

[Friendly]

or maybe just keep it trim, so you got the look but not the coral stress?   

[gena]

3 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Will take a crack at it this weekend. 

 

I take all the rocks completlely out of the bowl when I do a water change so I'll at least be able to get to it. The challenging part seems like it will be cutting it out of the palys without harming because it's so grown together. 

 

Last light noticed one polyp stretching about an inch to get its head above the Sargassum leaf. 

Oh wow...you take them all out?  That would be ideal I would think, until corals take over the bowl...then it might be difficult.  I probably won't do that.  Too much work .

[Friendly]

/me sees SF with a crazy claw robot contraption designed to pull the rock out of her pico bowl for maintenance... 

[Lula_Mae]

3 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Thanks for the link. I've seen those lamps and I know a few people are using them. 

I think I was just being covetous of a Nanobox light so that I didn't get so much shading causing my SPS to turn white at their bases. But that's a little silly for a bowl of water and 5 sticks of SPS....right? 

 

And then of course, if I get a Nanbox, I'm gonna need an Apex....

 

Most tricked-out bowl ever!

[Friendly]

why a nano box and not something like a AI Nano, which has all the controller features built into it and can be accessed via computer/tablet and phone? 

[SeaFurn]

49 minutes ago, Friendly said:

or maybe just keep it trim, so you got the look but not the coral stress?   

I was thinking that if it grew more straight and tall it wouldn't cause much of a problem. It's growing more like a palm tree/umbrella shape and slowly so I think it's gonna get exctracted and moved. 

[SeaFurn]

50 minutes ago, gena said:

Oh wow...you take them all out?  That would be ideal I would think, until corals take over the bowl...then it might be difficult.  I probably won't do that.  Too much work .

Oh yeah it so easy right now. 

Drain half the bowl water into a bucket and pull the two rocks out  and into the bucket they go. 

Then I can completely swirl the sand and drain all the water. 

I do have to be careful not to hit the edges of the bowl with the SPS when I'm taking them out and you're right there is gonna come a time where this won't be possible! 

I used to do it the other way but this is much easier - for now. 

[SeaFurn]

31 minutes ago, Friendly said:

why a nano box and not something like a AI Nano, which has all the controller features built into it and can be accessed via computer/tablet and phone? 

That would be consideration too if there was a way to get that light mounted with a long gooseneck onto to a heavy lamp base-in an aesthetically pleasing way. I'm just not very handy/DIY savvy which I'm realizing is a handicap in this hobby. People do some pretty amazing DIY stuff on this site. So jealous. 

 

So the thought would be working with Dave I'd have a better chance of getting what I'm picturing.  Or at least a long enough gooseneck. 

Nanoboxes can be controlled using an app on your phone too. 

 

[Friendly]

well...you just need to use your Googlefu errr...Amazonfu, and peer into the listings until you find something like what you're after.   

 

what about a wall mounting lamp above your bowl?

[SeaFurn]

FBS - part sun / part blues

Thought this looked kinda cool when I walked by. 

 

Removed the Sargassum but tore it up pretty bad in the process. And there wasn't much of a stalk left to use to mount it with. I guess if I do get some macros down the road I'll get some good pieces that I'll be able to work with.

Kinda in the mood to get some new additions to the bowl. 

 

One thing that has me baffled me is how well the SPS is doing with the weekly water changes. I would have thought the alk swings with replacing all the water each week would cause it problems. It hasn't. I've not tested my alk daily to know how much is getting consumed over a week (and maybe I should do that) but there's no issues right now. Maybe there's not enough SPS and LPS in the bowl consuming alk that the swing from Saturday to Saturday isn't that bad. 

[SeaFurn]

On 9/6/2017 at 11:25 AM, Friendly said:

well...you just need to use your Googlefu errr...Amazonfu, and peer into the listings until you find something like what you're after.   

 

what about a wall mounting lamp above your bowl?

I might move the bowl upstairsnext to the contest tank which opens up some possibilities. I could do a wall mount. I might even be able to mount a light from the ceiling.

 

My wife said actually likes the bowl downstairs. She said she'd

never see it if I move it upstairs. 

Wow! We've come a long way since January....

[Weetabix7]

1 hour ago, SeaFurn said:

FBS - part sun / part blues

Thought this looked kinda cool when I walked by. 

 

Removed the Sargassum but tore it up pretty bad in the process. And there wasn't much of a stalk left to use to mount it with. I guess if I do get some macros down the road I'll get some good pieces that I'll be able to work with.

Kinda in the mood to get some new additions to the bowl. 

 

One thing that has me baffled me is how well the SPS is doing with the weekly water changes. I would have thought the alk swings with replacing all the water each week would cause it problems. It hasn't. I've not tested my alk daily to know how much is getting consumed over a week (and maybe I should do that) but there's no issues right now. Maybe there's not enough SPS and LPS in the bowl consuming alk that the swing from Saturday to Saturday isn't that bad. 

 

Wow, this looks GREAT!!

What salt are you using for water changes?

As long as it isn't one with a naturally high Alk, the swings won't be as bad.

[Lula_Mae]

Bowl looks amazing!

[SeaFurn]

57 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

Wow, this looks GREAT!!

What salt are you using for water changes?

As long as it isn't one with a naturally high Alk, the swings won't be as bad.

That's the thing - I am. Red Sea Coral Pro. 

 

I think I'm going to measure it after the next water change and then daily until the next water change just so I know what's really happening.

I'll be using a Red Sea test kit and it only measures it in 0.5 dKH increments so if it doesn't change by at least that much daily I won't really know the daily amount is. It will be interesting to see how much it changes over the course of a week though. 

[Weetabix7]

1 hour ago, SeaFurn said:

That's the thing - I am. Red Sea Coral Pro. 

 

I think I'm going to measure it after the next water change and then daily until the next water change just so I know what's really happening.

I'll be using a Red Sea test kit and it only measures it in 0.5 dKH increments so if it doesn't change by at least that much daily I won't really know the daily amount is. It will be interesting to see how much it changes over the course of a week though. 

 

Wow. That's interesting. 

My little Waterfall almost crashed cause of 100% WC's with RSCP.

However, yours very obviously looks healthy and I really see no reason to mess with what is obviously working.

[SeaFurn]

So I did a little alk testing yesterday using Red Sea kit.

Just before the water change the bowl came in at 9 dKH.

I also tested the newly mixed water that would be going into the bowl which came in at 11 dKH.  This is the same bucket of salt I used for last week's water change so it looks like the bowl is using 2 dKH per week or 0.29 per day.   

I've read that alkalinity shouldn't be raised more than 1.4 dKH per day so I guess the 2 dKH swing that comes with a water change is still in a safe zone for my corals 

I wonder how much it would have to swing before I'd start seeing a problem?

 

For reference I have 6 acros, 5 acans, a hammer, and a candy cane all consuming alk.  They are all pretty small still. 

 

[SeaFurn]

Holy crap-just peeked into the bowl and this is what I see-an acan munching on a snail! Will it totally consume the snail??

 

 

[Lula_Mae]

5 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Holy crap-just peeked into the bowl and this is what I see-an acan munching on a snail! Will it totally consume the snail??

 

 

I believe it should spit the snail shell out lol.

[Friendly]

guess you need to start a snail farm now!!!   

[SeaFurn]

On 10/19/2017 at 4:12 AM, Lula_Mae said:

I believe it should spit the snail shell out lol.

You were right! It spit it out about 24 hours later. 

 

On 10/19/2017 at 9:58 AM, Friendly said:

guess you need to start a snail farm now!!!   

Gonna need a snail refresh for sure if that keeps happening! 

[Friendly]

no no, a farm so you can spot feed.    

[Lula_Mae]

On 10/21/2017 at 11:42 AM, SeaFurn said:

You were right! It spit it out about 24 hours later. 

 

Gonna need a snail refresh for sure if that keeps happening! 

I only knew from reading what others had said about similar situations.