a Whacked 40B adventure

Wheee! Reef-Geeks.com rocks! Got the replacement bulb today, and some candy!!!
Light bulb pic time!

Top to Bottom:
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue Special
KZ Fiji Purple (weird photo, bulb is actually the middle purple the entire length. I suck at editing photos so I dont even bother)
ATI Blue Plus
DSCN1553.jpg

Front, right and left side just using Blue Plus and Fiji
DSCN1561.jpg

DSCN1563.jpg

Now with all the bulbs lit up and pretty
DSCN1566.jpg

DSCN1567.jpg

DSCN1570.jpg

DSCN1573.jpg


like I said, I suck at editing photo's so didn't do it. the actual color is a bit more white. Dunno why it came out so blue. I really need to ditch this POS, err P&S and get a decent DSLR. that or learn how to use the camera properly :)
Anyways, I am happy with the results. Now for the dang tank to cycle so I can put something in it!
 
Its like Beer-O-Clock now.
Tank is up, running, lit, and cycling.
Time to relax for a bit.

on my photography skillz, or huge lack thereof:
good thing tomorrow at the SAS meeting Lee Newman's topic is on aquarium photography. Know i'll learn a lot
 
figured out why the pics came out so blue instead of a crisper white like its supposed to.
Its a little something called white balance :)

Didnt have that problem so much with the pics of my 20g. Guess the camera can auto compensate with PC bulbs and not so much with t he T5's

So anyhow, I took some pics after customizing the white balance with some coffee filters.

The new pics came out much much better. the side shots was harder to do. The right side is a disaster 'cause I dont have enough room to get the camera in the right spot. The left side was hard 'cause the long stretch of sand along the front glass.

The front shot:
DSCN1679.jpg

Quite a bit of noise but i'm getting better. this photo is also not edited in any way. You can see a bit more red due to the Fiji Purple bulb. I also found out that the flash tends to yellow the picture? I thought that was strange.

(Oh, the 2 K-nano's will eventually be replaced with another K2. Just haven't gotten around to replacing them yet.)

I've been doing a LOT more reading on digital photography last couple days. Decided that my 5yr old Coolpix L4 will be put to pasture sometime. the 'on' button doesnt work sometimes so thats another excuse to get a new camera :) I've learned a lot at last SAS meeting too. Going to try to learn how to edit photos too.
 
I switched the bulbs around.
So now front to back:
Blue Plus
Fiji Purple
Aquablue Special
Blue Plus

DSCN1698.jpg


I like the color more. no hint of pink like before.

Lets see, I did 2 tests so far.
Day 7:
Temp 80
PH 8.2
Sal 1.024
Am 1
ite 2
ate 10

Day 14
Temp 80
PH 8.2
Sal 1.024
Am 0.25
ite 2
ate 40

I did a 5g water change to bring the nitrates down a bit. water was yellowish (yukky) Not running the skimmer as there really isnt a bioload. Getting plenty of diatoms tho. Blasted everything with a turkey baster before the water change. Probably why the change water was discolored.
I'm still tossing in a cube or 2 of frozen food my fish didnt like every couple days. Almost out. Good to see the ammonia is dropping.
This is definitely interesting as I never cycled a tank with 100% base rock and sand.

I'll run another test on Friday (day 21) and see where i'm at.
 
cycle, cycle, who's got the cycle? Oh, Ken does :)

Takes a little longer with all dead rock. That jawfish cave looks sweet... get the blue dot man, life is too short to settle. Once you have it you will never regret spending the extra dough.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15504256#post15504256 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bdimas
What did you make that cave out of? Blue dot Jaw has always been on my fish list. :)
Click to expand...
3/4" PVC, 4 elbows and a T. Kept it pretty small too.
Used krylon fusion black to spray the entrance.
superglue and sand to cover/hide the outside entrance. Dunno how well the superglue will hold over time but eventually it will be covered on coraline
then I drilled small holes on the top to the PVC to allow air to escape but (hopefully) not let too much sand in.
 
its more like:

Diatoms, Diatoms, whos got the Diatoms!

Holy Smokes Batman!
Last 3 days i've been cleaning the glass and blasting the rocks in a effort to get some of it under control. Changing the filter floss daily too.

Good news is, Ammonia is now at 0. The nitrites are still at 2. Hopefully it will drop soon. I'd like to put a CUC in there.
 
It be official.
Initial cycle is over but have massive diatoms.
Picked up a few hermits and snails from elliot to get a start
checked a few other LFS but seems like they all are lacking.
So I placed a order in from reefcleaners.com
I went with cerith and nerites this time, maybe more than I need but thats OK, there dirt cheap.
Just went with priority so theyll ship monday and probably get them wed.
If I trusted the mail service to my apartment complex I'd have ordered them Fri and got the Sat delivery service for a free frag.
 
Good grief!! That is alot of snails, haha! When they run out of food I wouldn't mind buying a few from ya:)
 
That is a great deal for $20! I know I need some more of these to take care of all my algae. I've been really thinking about he cerinth snails as a must-have.
 
well, first of all, I didnt order that many lol.
I actually ordered 20 of each.
I received 40 nerites and lost count after 80 ceriths, probably like 200. its like he grabbed a handful and tossed 'em in a bag. they all range from 1/8" to 1/4"
of all that, I thing I spotted 4 empty cerith shells. Not too bad considering the mass amounts I got. I'd have been happy if half survived.
Overall, I am happy with my purchase and will definitely order from him again if/when I need to.

I didnt know this but the ceriths sorta burrow in the sand, not quite like nass snails. when the lights go out they come out and start work on the glass. kinda cool
Glad I bought them. I wanted more diversity rather than just having astreae (sp?) snails. I should have ordered a few of the virgin nerites, they have some cool patterns on their shells.


I woke up this morning to the sound of my overflow being really noisy. When I put in the return spraybar, I just used pliers to snap the overflow teeth to make room for the PVC. That made room for the nerites of crawl in and the sound was the water waterfalling over them. I plucked out 3 of them from the box. I dont think any wandered into the drain, been watching it all day and all is normal.
Glad I didnt toss any of the acrylic scraps so I made a cover for the overflow and reduced the size of the openings. The Ceriths are so small there going to be able to go in no matter what I do but they wont block flow.
 
nerite snails are pretty interesting and some serious escape artists.
today on for some-odd reason I looked behind my tank. 2 nerite snails on their back on the floor. so I swept them out.
OK I figure if I run under sink to get the dust off, i'm sure the hermits will eat the dead meat and possibly use the shells so I did that.


2 minutes later the snails were up and crawling up the glass
 
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