Blenwood's Reef - 1st attempts at focus stacking

[bluecard]

Tank looks great! Cant believe how much you packed in there.

[Cannedfish]

Haha, thanks! It’s amazing the number of 1/2 inch frags that will fit in a one foot cube. It also pretty impressive what the aforementioned will do to your credit card statement. 

 

Speaking of frags... The coral fairy dropped left this little number under my pillow this morning...

 

 

 

 

Let hope that that I don’t kill it

as quickly as my last nubbin’ of WD. 

[mitten_reef]

1 hour ago, Cannedfish said:

Haha, thanks! It’s amazing the number of 1/2 inch frags that will fit in a one foot cube. It also pretty impressive what the aforementioned will do to your credit card statement. 

 

Speaking of frags... The coral fairy dropped left this little number under my pillow this morning...

 

 

 

 

Let hope that that I don’t kill it

as quickly as my last nubbin’ of WD. 

Those damn fairies, sometimes they just won't take no for an answer.  

[teenyreef]

1 hour ago, Cannedfish said:

Haha, thanks! It’s amazing the number of 1/2 inch frags that will fit in a one foot cube. It also pretty impressive what the aforementioned will do to your credit card statement. 

 

Speaking of frags... The coral fairy dropped left this little number under my pillow this morning...

 

 

 

 

Let hope that that I don’t kill it

as quickly as my last nubbin’ of WD. 

You are so much like me. The quickest way to guarantee that I will buy another expensive coral is for one to die in my tank. Then I compulsively buy the same coral again and again until I get one that lives 

 

Good luck with this one!

[Cannedfish]

On 7/8/2018 at 8:29 PM, micoastreefing said:

Those damn fairies, sometimes they just won't take no for an answer.  

It's really a serious issue. But it's just not the coral fairies, other damn pixies weave their black magic and spellbind you into unwise decisions. Of course I'm talking about the bourbon fairies, the stay-out too late fairies, and my personal nemesis, the let's make questionable food decisions at a Mexico City street food vendor fairies...

 

On 7/8/2018 at 8:59 PM, teenyreef said:

You are so much like me. The quickest way to guarantee that I will buy another expensive coral is for one to die in my tank. Then I compulsively buy the same coral again and again until I get one that lives 

 

Good luck with this one!

Right??!! I'm considering adopting the WWII fighter pilot tradition where, in addition to painting an majestically bosom'd pin-up on the side of my tank, for every high end coral kill I get to put a sticker in it. Unfortunately, it's become personal with me and old Walt Disney and if it takes a tank choked full of a mouse skeletons for me to succeed with this acro, well dammit that's the price I'll pay!

 

——

 

I wanted to give a needlessly long back story and update to the dendro skeleton I mentioned back yonder.

 

Once upon a time there was/is a great LFS oddly located off the beaten path in heart of Louisiana Cajun country. About 10 months ago, shortly after MACNA, I found myself in said LFS and was perusing its wares, when I noticed a stunning 10+ polyp fathead dendro colony. Having just purchased a single dendro head (and still smarting from the cost) I inquired about it, and was shocked when the owner said he was selling it for what he picked it up for at MACNA: a cool 5 hundo or in hood parlance "half a grip" essentially "not quite a gwap." Needless to say, my po' ass did not go home with it. 

 

Fast forward 10 months, I once again braved the raised highways that traversed the swamp, gallantly drove past the roadside crawfish peddlers, deftly stopped to munch on some cracklins and boudin (it's state law that all Louisianians must maintain a BPC (blood pork concentration) of .235), and most pertinent to this story, found my self back in that very same LFS. This time, however, I was admonished to learn that he never sold nor cut up the dendro colony, but rather it had died. However, much like a phoenix (if you disregard the fact that it is neither a mythical bird nor the pet of Albus Dumbledore), babies dendro had sprouted from the dead skeleton. In fact, about 30 pen-tipped sized mini dendros had emerged. Having had, by my admittedly low standards, pretty solid luck with dendro, coupled with the fact, based on his own experience, that the owner was pretty sure it was going to die... again, I was able to negotiate a pretty sweet deal for this NPS project piece. Moral of this story, don't throw out dead dendros, eat lots of pork products, and the swamp is good for more than just malaria.  

 

So there you have it, a needlessly long, poorly written, and half-assed proofread story saying I picked up 30+ tiny dendros... and now pictures! I will try to update the progress of these little guys. Hopefully, I can get them back to colonial form.

 

 

[WV Reefer]

8 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

It's really a serious issue. But it's just not the coral fairies, other damn pixies weave their black magic and spellbind you into unwise decisions. Of course I'm talking about the bourbon fairies, the stay-out too late fairies, and my personal nemesis, the let's make questionable food decisions at a Mexico City street food vendor fairies...

 

Right??!! I'm considering adopting the WWII fighter pilot tradition where, in addition to painting an majestically bosom'd pin-up on the side of my tank, for every high end coral kill I get to put a sticker in it. Unfortunately, it's become personal with me and old Walt Disney and if it takes a tank choked full of a mouse skeletons for me to succeed with this acro, well dammit that's the price I'll pay!

 

——

 

I wanted to give a needlessly long back story and update to the dendro skeleton I mentioned back yonder.

 

Once upon a time there was/is a great LFS oddly located off the beaten path in heart of Louisiana Cajun country. About 10 months ago, shortly after MACNA, I found myself in said LFS and was perusing its wares, when I noticed a stunning 10+ polyp fathead dendro colony. Having just purchased a single dendro head (and still smarting from the cost) I inquired about it, and was shocked when the owner said he was selling it for what he picked it up for at MACNA: a cool 5 hundo or in hood parlance "half a grip" essentially "not quite a gwap." Needless to say, my po' ass did not go home with it. 

 

Fast forward 10 months, I once again braved the raised highways that traversed the swamp, gallantly drove past the roadside crawfish peddlers, deftly stopped to munch on some cracklins and boudin (it's state law that all Louisianians must maintain a BPC (blood pork concentration) of .235), and most pertinent to this story, found my self back in that very same LFS. This time, however, I was admonished to learn that he never sold nor cut up the dendro colony, but rather it had died. However, much like a phoenix (if you disregard the fact that it is neither a mythical bird nor the pet of Albus Dumbledore), babies dendro had sprouted from the dead skeleton. In fact, about 30 pen-tipped sized mini dendros had emerged. Having had, by my admittedly low standards, pretty solid luck with dendro, coupled with the fact, based on his own experience, that the owner was pretty sure it was going to die... again, I was able to negotiate a pretty sweet deal for this NPS project piece. Moral of this story, don't throw out dead dendros, eat lots of pork products, and the swamp is good for more than just malaria.  

 

So there you have it, a needlessly long, poorly written, and half-assed proofread story saying I picked up 30+ tiny dendros... and now pictures! I will try to update the progress of these little guys. Hopefully, I can get them back to colonial form.

 

 

Omg! Such cute wittle babies!

 

 

[hinnenkm]

No doubt you will get a colony from it! I had the same thing with babies last July and here they are a year later....just feed them a lot 🙂

 

[Cannedfish]

23 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

Omg! Such cute wittle babies!

 

 

They got it from their mamma?

 

23 hours ago, hinnenkm said:

No doubt you will get a colony from it! I had the same thing with babies last July and here they are a year later....just feed them a lot 🙂

 

That's some nice a-looking dendros there! If I can get half that growth I would be happy. I will definetly goose the feeding like I want frou gras. 

[Cannedfish]

Strangely up and down week for the tank. Although, the roller coaster ride of emotions is nothing new, the fact that it ended on a generally high note is slightly surprising. It all started Sunday, while doing a deep clean on Blenwood Cash Money $$'s Bachelor pad I heard a soft splash. Immersed in my generally and admittedly terrible podcasts, I thought nothing of it I went on cleaning. Later that day, however, I noticed that Lorp was not being his normal self. See unlike most possum wrasses, Lorp didn't get enough oxygen at birth (hatching?), and this condition manifests itself in the fact that he is like a very aloof yet jolly puppy. He generally, spends his days buzzing in circles around the tank (he doesn't really swim? it's more of a strange hover), or if someone is in the kitchen he intently follows their every move with hopes of getting treated with a few Lorp Cubes (what the lady-friend calls the pellets that only he likes). Anyways, as I said, I noticed Lorp wasn't acting his normal self, in fact, I didn't notice Lorp at all. Then, like an ominous stomach gurgle while sitting in a traffic jam,  the icy realization of the soft splash hit me, Lorp had taken his skills skyward. Frantically, I searched around the tank, finding nothing. So I began tearing apart the filtration chambers, still nothing. I search around the tank again, nothing. I began to think maybe our deliciously plump cavalier might of eaten him had been flopping around on the floor. Lord knows, if the dog didn't do it, one of our house chickens would have, they are like tiny beaked velociraptors. On last time, however, using a flashlight, I scoured  the back chambers, and low and behold, from under the weird cavity beneath the first and second chamber of the IM10 comes poking out the unmistakable dumb-guy face of Lorp. So without much trouble he was netted and put back in the tank. 

 

Come Wednesday night after coming home from work and the gym. I again noticed Lorp missing. As mentioned before, I have been leaving the glass top of the tank, because despite the fact we keep our A/C on the "colder than a witches tit" setting, the stellar 1890's insulation of our house keeps the the tank at about 80 degrees without the heater. Furthermore, as been documented on numerous occasions throughout this thread I have a propensity for myopia, which evidenced itself by the fact that even having witnessed Lorp jump, I still left the top off. Unfortunately, this time, dispute a diligent search, I could not find old Lorpy boy. As a result, Wednesday night and Thursday we pretty depressing. After work Thursday, however, I decided to tear apart the rear chambers in a last ditch effort to find my slow but lovable wrasse. And would you know, as soon as I removed the pump, the snout of a possum wrasse appeared and Lorp swam right up to the surface. Apparently, he didn't enjoy spending 24 hours in the tank gutter. Serves him right.

 

It's remarkable that having jumped twice he managed to land in the one spot where he wouldn't die, which is impressive when you consider this is about a 2"x2" area. Anyways, lesson learned, I immediately ordered an Artfully Acrylic lid and paid for the expedited manufacturing and shipping. It should arrive early next week. In meantime, the tank will have to survive with the glass lid loosely on. 

 

To summarize: that was a really really long story to say, Lorp jumped — twice — and is still alive. Pictures!

 

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

26 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

Strangely up and down week for the tank. Although, the roller coaster ride of emotions is nothing new, the fact that it ended on a generally high note is slightly surprising. It all started Sunday, while doing a deep clean on Blenwood Cash Money $$'s Bachelor pad I heard a soft splash. Immersed in my generally and admittedly terrible podcasts, I thought nothing of it I went on cleaning. Later that day, however, I noticed that Lorp was not being his normal self. See unlike most possum wrasses, Lorp didn't get enough oxygen at birth (hatching?), and this condition manifests itself in the fact that he is like a very aloof yet jolly puppy. He generally, spends his days buzzing in circles around the tank (he doesn't really swim? it's more of a strange hover), or if someone is in the kitchen he intently follows their every move with hopes of getting treated with a few Lorp Cubes (what the lady-friend calls the pellets that only he likes). Anyways, as I said, I noticed Lorp wasn't acting his normal self, in fact, I didn't notice Lorp at all. Then, like an ominous stomach gurgle while sitting in a traffic jam,  the icy realization of the soft splash hit me, Lorp had taken his skills skyward. Frantically, I searched around the tank, finding nothing. So I began tearing apart the filtration chambers, still nothing. I search around the tank again, nothing. I began to think maybe our deliciously plump cavalier might of eaten him had been flopping around on the floor. Lord knows, if the dog didn't do it, one of our house chickens would have, they are like tiny beaked velociraptors. On last time, however, using a flashlight, I scoured  the back chambers, and low and behold, from under the weird cavity beneath the first and second chamber of the IM10 comes poking out the unmistakable dumb-guy face of Lorp. So without much trouble he was netted and put back in the tank. 

 

Come Wednesday night after coming home from work and the gym. I again noticed Lorp missing. As mentioned before, I have been leaving the glass top of the tank, because despite the fact we keep our A/C on the "colder than a witches tit" setting, the stellar 1890's insulation of our house keeps the the tank at about 80 degrees without the heater. Furthermore, as been documented on numerous occasions throughout this thread I have a propensity for myopia, which evidenced itself by the fact that even having witnessed Lorp jump, I still left the top off. Unfortunately, this time, dispute a diligent search, I could not find old Lorpy boy. As a result, Wednesday night and Thursday we pretty depressing. After work Thursday, however, I decided to tear apart the rear chambers in a last ditch effort to find my slow but lovable wrasse. And would you know, as soon as I removed the pump, the snout of a possum wrasse appeared and Lorp swam right up to the surface. Apparently, he didn't enjoy spending 24 hours in the tank gutter. Serves him right.

 

It's remarkable that having jumped twice he managed to land in the one spot where he wouldn't die, which is impressive when you consider this is about a 2"x2" area. Anyways, lesson learned, I immediately ordered an Artfully Acrylic lid and paid for the expedited manufacturing and shipping. It should arrive early next week. In meantime, the tank will have to survive with the glass lid loosely on. 

 

To summarize: that was a really really long story to say, Lorp jumped — twice — and is still alive. Pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

You cant just make a passing mention of “house chickens”!  😄

[TheBig053]

51 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

Strangely up and down week for the tank. Although, the roller coaster ride of emotions is nothing new, the fact that it ended on a generally high note is slightly surprising. It all started Sunday, while doing a deep clean on Blenwood Cash Money $$'s Bachelor pad I heard a soft splash. Immersed in my generally and admittedly terrible podcasts, I thought nothing of it I went on cleaning. Later that day, however, I noticed that Lorp was not being his normal self. See unlike most possum wrasses, Lorp didn't get enough oxygen at birth (hatching?), and this condition manifests itself in the fact that he is like a very aloof yet jolly puppy. He generally, spends his days buzzing in circles around the tank (he doesn't really swim? it's more of a strange hover), or if someone is in the kitchen he intently follows their every move with hopes of getting treated with a few Lorp Cubes (what the lady-friend calls the pellets that only he likes). Anyways, as I said, I noticed Lorp wasn't acting his normal self, in fact, I didn't notice Lorp at all. Then, like an ominous stomach gurgle while sitting in a traffic jam,  the icy realization of the soft splash hit me, Lorp had taken his skills skyward. Frantically, I searched around the tank, finding nothing. So I began tearing apart the filtration chambers, still nothing. I search around the tank again, nothing. I began to think maybe our deliciously plump cavalier might of eaten him had been flopping around on the floor. Lord knows, if the dog didn't do it, one of our house chickens would have, they are like tiny beaked velociraptors. On last time, however, using a flashlight, I scoured  the back chambers, and low and behold, from under the weird cavity beneath the first and second chamber of the IM10 comes poking out the unmistakable dumb-guy face of Lorp. So without much trouble he was netted and put back in the tank. 

 

Come Wednesday night after coming home from work and the gym. I again noticed Lorp missing. As mentioned before, I have been leaving the glass top of the tank, because despite the fact we keep our A/C on the "colder than a witches tit" setting, the stellar 1890's insulation of our house keeps the the tank at about 80 degrees without the heater. Furthermore, as been documented on numerous occasions throughout this thread I have a propensity for myopia, which evidenced itself by the fact that even having witnessed Lorp jump, I still left the top off. Unfortunately, this time, dispute a diligent search, I could not find old Lorpy boy. As a result, Wednesday night and Thursday we pretty depressing. After work Thursday, however, I decided to tear apart the rear chambers in a last ditch effort to find my slow but lovable wrasse. And would you know, as soon as I removed the pump, the snout of a possum wrasse appeared and Lorp swam right up to the surface. Apparently, he didn't enjoy spending 24 hours in the tank gutter. Serves him right.

 

It's remarkable that having jumped twice he managed to land in the one spot where he wouldn't die, which is impressive when you consider this is about a 2"x2" area. Anyways, lesson learned, I immediately ordered an Artfully Acrylic lid and paid for the expedited manufacturing and shipping. It should arrive early next week. In meantime, the tank will have to survive with the glass lid loosely on. 

 

To summarize: that was a really really long story to say, Lorp jumped — twice — and is still alive. Pictures!

 

 

 

 

Geezus! I thought we’d never get to the pictures 😜

[Cannedfish]

39 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

You cant just make a passing mention of “house chickens”!  😄

Doesn’t everyone have house chickens...

 

 

[specore]

49 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

You cant just make a passing mention of “house chickens”!  😄

Lol...When the person from West Virginia is like "Seriously, house chickens?!"

[mitten_reef]

1 hour ago, WV Reefer said:

 

You cant just make a passing mention of “house chickens”!  😄

 

20 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

Doesn’t everyone have house chickens...

 

 

 

15 minutes ago, specore said:

Lol...When the person from West Virginia is like "Seriously, house chickens?!"

these last few posts just took this thread to a whole new level that I never thought it could achieve.  😂 

 

This just made my friday much more tolerable - since @Cannedfish is on his way to collecting the winning pot on the acro growout contest and he's bragging hard about it on a weekly basis.

 

HOUSE CHICKENS?  WHO DOES THAT?  birds weird me out, with their feather and beaks, and their superior ability to fly - kudos to you for being brave enough to keeping them inside. Granted, your house chickens probably don't/can't fly - but I'm also willing to be further surprised with a few photos of them mid-flight in the living room.

[FISHnChix]

1 hour ago, Cannedfish said:

Doesn’t everyone have house chickens...

 

 

Whoa house chickens!!!! I thought a "house chicken" was some euphemism I just wasn't hip too.. 

[jSully]

I had expected a peregrine falcon.

 

The chicken is cool though. What's her name?

 

[Cannedfish]

Alarming update:

 

Yesterday, I recalibrated the dosing pumps (alk was being used faster than calc) and diluted the 2-part in order to be able to dose smaller concentrations more often. Yesterday alk was at 8.0, checked this morning alk was sitting at 10.3. Turned off the dosing up and will implement small water changes the next couple days to reduce alk slowly.  

 

Buckle up the tank could be in for a wild ride the next couple days. Things aren’t looking stressed yet so I’m cautiously  optimist the tank isn’t immediately going to crash. 

[This guy is extra salty]

@Cannedfish dosing fail...

[mitten_reef]

10 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

Alarming update:

 

Yesterday, I recalibrated the dosing pumps (alk was being used faster than calc) and diluted the 2-part in order to be able to dose smaller concentrations more often. Yesterday alk was at 8.0, checked this morning alk was sitting at 10.3. Turned off the dosing up and will implement small water changes the next couple days to reduce alk slowly.  

 

Buckle up the tank could be in for a wild ride the next couple days. Things aren’t looking stressed yet so I’m cautiously  optimist the tank isn’t immediately going to crash. 

good luck man.  I still haven't set up my dosing pump - don't have the time to pay close attention to how it'll turn out at the moment.  Have you figured out what might have gone wrong?  In case there's any lesson for me to learn 😉  

[A Little Blue]

From 8 to 10.3? No need to panic. But dosing pumps can be major PITA. 

BTW, what are the most accurate, stable dosing pumps out there (other than Neptune)???

[specore]

8 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

From 8 to 10.3? No need to panic. But dosing pumps can be major PITA. 

BTW, what are the most accurate, stable dosing pumps out there (other than Neptune)???

I have the Drew's dosers from BRS and have been really pleased.  They just oscillate on for so many seconds every couple of hours via my Apex.  If Alk looks a little high or low I just jump in, add or subtract a couple of seconds from the on cycle and save.  

[A Little Blue]

1 minute ago, specore said:

I have the Drew's dosers from BRS and have been really pleased.  They just oscillate on for so many seconds every couple of hours via my Apex.  If Alk looks a little high or low I just jump in, add or subtract a couple of seconds from the on cycle and save.  

I’m looking for set and forget kinda solution. My Jebao doser isn’t reliable and I wouldn’t mind investing in something else. My budget is flexible. 

[Cannedfish]

The tank is somehow still alive and it's been a pretty slow week on NR so I guess I will finally address the elephant in the room. It's kinda a long story so it might take a few chapters. So without further ado:

 

A TALE OF TWO CHICKENS, ch. 1:

 

It all started 2L year of grad school. We lived in a house that could only be described as a slightly more organized (and cleaner) Animal House... in New Orleans. We had a nationally known house band, had commemorative posters commissioned for our parties, were put on double secret probation, and ultimately forced to have a hearing with the dean because of our antics. Unlike Delta Tau Chi, however, we were really good at paper work, weren't shut down, and somehow / miraculously all graduated. Anyways, shortly after a particularly grueling first semester finals we were all sitting around enjoying a few sodas, and somebody brought up an article in the NYTimes about hipster urban farmers in Brooklyn. (side note: although we did enjoy craft cocktails and one of us had a beard, we were definitively not hipsters; we liked craft cocktails because, alcohol, and the beard resulted from laziness.) This was slightly before the whole urban farming thing really took off, and we all thought the idea of having chickens was both ridiculous and, to be honest, stupid. Just stupid enough to be right in our wheelhouse, as the closest thing to poultry husbandry any of us had was KFC. As I mentioned, we had been enjoying a healthy amount of cold ones, and one thing lead to another and before we knew it we were surprised to learn just how easy it was to purchase livestock over the internet. Also this wasn't the only stupid idea to be generated in this matter, others included: renting our attic to a burlesque dance troupe, getting a hold of a 35 ft RV in order to go to swim with manatees, attempting to build a large fish tank into a bookshelf (it failed in spectacular form), etc, etc. So a few weeks later... we get a call from a very confused lady at the post office, who politely ask in a very yatty accent, "yo, is dis yo box of peepers? Well honey, it's here, and it's peepin'!" After driving to the post office and explaining to her that we weren't in fact planning on feeding them to a snake, we came home with 25 baby chicks. 

 

Unfortunately, this tale as a few more twists and turns including but not limited to: taxidermy, possum murder, hurricanes, and New Jersey. I will have to finish up in another chapter.  In the meantime here are some pictures. 

 

Little Chick (named by the neighbors kids):

 

The one and only Fluff Nugget:

 

Commissioned commemorative poster from one of the house parties:

[FISHnChix]

Really cliff hanger?? 

😋

 

[mitten_reef]

1 minute ago, Weikel said:

Really cliff hanger?? 

😋

 

Not sure what caught more of my attention....the flashing caption or ....