240 Inwall Construction (Image Intense)

[weatherson]

I had to dust the camera off to take some equipment detail shots today for someone so I decided to take a few tank inhabitants shots too. The orange zoa shot was taken in my 12-gallon nano through the curved front glass. Unfortunately, this doesn't do well for photography but I thought I'd add it anyway. Here you go...

Joseph.

 

[Hop]

My, my. I have to say that I love pics from you. I just joined the HD crowd and those are incredible on the HD monitor!

Any plans on updating your website? I use this thread as a reference often times and scrolling through the pages for the info needed is a chore at times I know, more selfish questions:lol:

 

[tcmfish]

Hey thanks for the links to the air injection. I was expecting something a lot simpler but what was I thinking it is your tank and everything is over the top (compliment). It would be awesome if I could imagine doing the things you do. Also your bannerfish or heniochus butterfly does it or has it ever bothered anything and do you have feather dusters and if you do has it ever picked on those or anything basically?

 

[weatherson]

Hop, Thanks and I'm pleased the photos work well with your HD monitor. I do plan to someday update my website but it's just a matter of initiative and more-so, time. It's on "the list".

tcmfish, You are welcome. The Heniochus only has a taste for snails and only if they have fallen to the sand, up-side down. :rolleye1: Other than this, he is a model citizen.

Joseph.

 

[EBOLII]

This is a true inspiration. Wow!

How much watts do you use daily on this setup? So what kind of energy backup do you have if any? I was reading the portion of the air added to the Penductor section but am unclear. Can yoou provide a better explanation

Man I think I am going to model my tank after this. I have a 240g aswell but it differs 72x24x31h

Wow a true pleasure reading this :eek2:

 

[weatherson]

ebolii, Thank you very much. To get an idea of the electricity consumption, take a look at the following page on my site...

Specs page.

Scroll down to the Power Chart. There have been a few changes since that was published such as running both closed loops with Iwaki 55's and switching out two of the five 250-watt metal halides to 400-watt units. So to answer your question... too much.

For further information on the air injection system and its workings, take a look at the reply to tcmfish about six posts back. There are links there to where it is described further within this thread. If those don't provide enough detailed information, just let me know.

Joseph.

 

[saxsan]

Joseph...by far the cleanest and most impresive tank I have ever seen! You meantioned the Central Valley Heat....Do you mean the Fresno area? A cool 103 today.

 

[george1098]

Hey Joseph
Your fron pain is starfire correct? do you think that makes a huge difference as far as macro-reef-photography is concerned? I am going to build myself a new tank soon, and I would love to go with starfire, but the cost is discouraging.

 

[weatherson]

saxsan, Thank you very much. I'm showing only 100 for Fresno Air Terminal right now. Where's my sweater?

george1098, Actually, no, my tank's glass is all of the green, non-Starfire type. I have shot a tank with Starfire and without an exact one-to-one comparison, couldn't see a difference in the photographic results. Although, I do know that looking into a Starfire tank creates an illusion that objects are closer to the glass than they actually are. I would assume this is due to the clarity and an interesting side effect.

Joseph.

 

[weatherson]

While relaxing tonight watching some television, I look up at the tank and notice a "puff" of what I thought was sand being stirred up by one of the fish. I keep looking and there is another puff but this time from another area of the tank. Hmm, I think. Then another. I get up to look closer and realize that the puffs are being emitted from my clams. :eek2: How cool is that? Yep. They are getting groovy in there. I run and get my camera and snap a few shots of the occasion. Here's a shot of one with a good plume going...

And an animated GIF of another...

And finally, a shot of my skimmer's neck full of... well... you know.

This spawning went on for about twenty minutes. Ten of the thirteen clams participated with both larger Tear Drops and the smaller Blue Squamosa sitting this event out. I'd had three clams spawn in my old 65-gallon tank many years ago but this was still extremely exciting... for me and the clams. :inlove:

Joseph.

 

[drummereef]

Wow, simply amazing shots of the clam spawning. Amazing. :thumbsup:

 

[Hop]

Very cool! I guess it really is a protein skimmer:lol:

 

[tcmfish]

I have read people post on other threads that the clams spawn like that because they are stressed and research has been done on it supposedly but it would be hard for me to believe they are stressed in your tank.

 

[weatherson]

Thanks everyone. I don't think it was stress induced either. If anything, I'd lean more towards it being related to the lunar solstice. As a side note, my wife had informed me about a week ago that when she was viewing the tank early one morning, she witnessed my oldest Birdsnest coral spawning also. Unfortunately, she rises before me and didn't wake me to get any photos.

I flushed the skimmer out multiple times and changed my filter sock as well but even after 10-hours, the skimmer is still not foaming as usual. I may do a water change today if it doesn't soon. Basically, the tank was fairly cloudy right after this event but is looking clear this morning. We'll see once the lights come up.

Joseph.

 

[Absolute Reef]

Nice puff!

Great pictures.

 

[tfp]

joe, inspiring stuff as usual from you! glad you pointed me to this thread.

whats really amazing is that your reef is absolutely thriving with the presence of aefw that have driven so many reefers out. do you think maybe you've got a different variant or strain of them? your sps don't look stressed at all .

 

[weatherson]

Absolute Reef, Thank you very much.

tfp, Thanks. The reason the AEFW's seem to stay in check in my tank I would suggest is for a couple of reasons. First, I do weekly baster blasting's on the corals known to have a propensity for AEFW habitation, primarily only a couple. This breaks them free and sends them water bound where several of my fish dine on them with great ferocity. Good fish.

The other possibility would have to do with the fish in my tank. There are several that openly eat the AEFW's and include my Heniochus, the two Blue Devil Damsels and both the Choris and Sixline wrasses. Others contribute too but I think more-so in an eating-frenzy manner.

I do know for sure though that it has nothing to do with acro crabs as there are none remaining in my tank after the Red Bug treatments. I have yet to find a source for these to re-establish their population but am not sure whether these contribute to alleviating AEFW's on their hosted corals or not. I think it would be interesting to find if there is a greater instance for AEFW's in those tanks where the acro crabs have been eliminated. Maybe someone should do a poll?

Joseph.

 

[Sparkss]

Joseph,

There was a poll some time ago about acro crabs and AEFWs, and it came out that there was no correlation between not having acro crabs and haveing AEFWs, IIRC. Several people reported their worst infected colonies had acro crabs living in them, discounting the belief that acro crabs had held the AEFWs in check prior to the red bug treatments. But maybe that has changed ?

 

[weatherson]

That could very well be as there are many less than symbiotic acro crabs out there. A little selfish on their part beings they get life saving protection from the corals.

Joseph.

 

[melev]

Joe, I just wanted to thank you for your latest round of pictures. Stunning, image after image. You continue to be a huge inspiration for me, as well as for others.