Cycling with TBS start to finish

[hdtran]

The blue with yellow/green fluorescent ring is a tunicate, Clavulina or Clavularia or something like that. Check out wetwebmedia; they've got a picture just like that.

The anemone is, I believe, a curlicue, not an Aptaisia. You can tell because the tentacles are curled and striped. The Aptaisia have a longer body, skinnier tentacles, and are all monochrome.

The curlicues get up to about 1" or so.

I've got one of those brains too. Look up 'Caribbean rose coral' if you want genus & species.

Hope your weather turns good on you. It's not worth Richard or Mark taking their lives into their hands getting rock.

If I can ever figure out how to work my $#$&*) panoramic stitching software, I'll post a panoramic shot of my tank (got some bryopsis, I think, blooming on the back wall, which needs to be scraped off).

 

[landlord]

Sure enough, okiebones said the little honeycombs would coalesce into a sponge and sure enough, the day after posting picture tunicate 1 of 3 the bugger turned into a little orange sponge. I have now noticed that these same honeycomb-like structure are covering my big sponges.

Ahh, the Circle of Life

 

[landlord]

12/07/03 - Day 16

Results:

Date/Time: 12/07/03 9:31 PM
Temp: 79 degrees
Ph: 8.2
Salinity: 1.025
Alkalinity: Normal
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10

Notes:

Nothing really changing today. Saw a bunch of new baby hermits. The frogspawn is beginning to split, yeah! Life is generally pretty peaceful in the tank. Had to do a 40% water change to my Better Half's FO tank. Had an unusual spike today. Everyone seems happy now. Everybody out there waiting for TBS needs to think good thoughts. The weather has been clear so everyone keep your thumbs crossed!!!

-landlord

 

[PRC]

The weather's mellowed considerably over on this side of the state, hopefully it's headed that way!
If anyone's interested in a really good set of books to ID TBS rock critters, the best one I've found so far is the Reef Creature Identification book by Paul Humann & Ned Deloach.
But get the CMA book first! Quick!
Seriously, if you can't get the book soon, alot of the material is covered on http://www.WetWebMedia.com.

 

[landlord]

12/08/03 - Day 17

Results:

Date/Time: 12/08/03 9:00 PM
Temp: 79 degrees
Ph: 8.2
Salinity: 1.025
Alkalinity: Normal
Ammonia: 0.1
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 12

Notes:

I think that I have been looking at test results too long. They are starting to drive me nuts. I wish mine was more accurate. It just seems to involve a lot of "guess-timation" which I dislike. Oh well. All seems to be stable. I never got a chance to call TBS to see if any new rock made it to the shop. Did anyone else make the call today????

PRC - Thanks for the info and the web link. I will check it out tonight.

Anyone??? When is a good time to start dosing the tank with Calcium / Strontium / Molybdenum/ Iodine, etc... Someone just set me up with a package of those trace elements. They are manufactured by Kent.. Not really sure what to do with them. Any thought / comments would be greatly appreciated.

-landlord

 

[hdtran]

There are several schools of thoughts regarding additives. One school says, 'if you can't measure it, don't add it.' Another is 'just follow the label instructions.'

I tend to mix the two. I can't measure Mo, Sr, etc. But I can measure calcium & alkalinity. The trace element additives usually (check your label) add not only Mo, Sr, I, but also massive amounts of calcium. So, measure the calcium. If you feel the need to top-off your calcium, use your additive pack.

Last school of thought: Never add additives; rely on water changes to make up the trace elements that are taken up by your critters. After all, your synthetic salt mix is full of these trace elements.

My personal inclination: They can't hurt if used according to label, but probably don't help either.

 

[landlord]

Any recommendations on a test kit that can accurately measure Alkalinity / Calcium. The Red Sea one I have does not even come close to getting accurate measurements of either of the two???, and thanks!

kurt

 

[hdtran]

One more thing: Got a calcium test? If not, get one. You don't have calcium consuming critters yet, but you will. One of my friends set up a reef tank (w/o TBS, btw, his mistake) and didn't test calcium. Turns out that as his LR cycled, it ate all his calcium (not to mention all the life on his LR), and he's got hair algae and diatoms up the wazoo (even with RO/DI water from a semiconductor factory where he works).

 

[landlord]

10-4. I'll find one tomorrow.

Thanks

Kurt

 

[hdtran]

The alk. kit I have is a pH/alk. kit (Seachem). The calcium kit that I have is Red Sea.

The pH is a single drop, match the colors. Alkalinity is add drops until it changes from blue to yellow, multiply by 0.5 to get alkalinity in meq/L.

The calcium kit is 'add 4 drops of reagent A; mix; add 5 drops of reagent B; mix 30 seconds; add reagent A drop by drop until color changes; dance on left foot while holding finger to ear with right hand and twirling right toes; ...' Good to 50ppm, but a pain to use.

Fenner (and all) recommend that aquarium saltwater should run higher alkalinity and calcium than NSW.

The above mention of brand names does not constitute an endorsement (though it is what my LFS pushes, and I trust him).

 

[landlord]

Good to know. I found a LFS with both kits you describe. I will check them out today.

Thanks Hy

 

[landlord]

12/09/03 - Day 18

Results:

Date/Time: 12/09/03 8:03 PM
Temp: 79 degrees
Ph: 8.2
Salinity: 1.025
Alkalinity: Normal
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 12

Notes:

Nothing new to report. Just waiting for more rock. Gotta run Battlestar Gallactica is on!

-landlord

 

[kashmir]

Still waiting on 2nd shipment. Richard was diving yesterday, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. finally got my digital camera. can't post my initail pic. file is to large. All of my new pics are to large. Any way to compress them?

 

[landlord]

kashmir

Just spoke with Richard, yesterday was unproductive. Today the is a small craft warning for the site so nothing coming today. Winter is just a bad time for the open seas

As far as you pics are concerned you should be able to get them into your gallery because the size limit does not apply, or at least allows for larger size pictures.

-landlord

 

[kashmir]

Thanks landlord. I know about the weather, it's striper season here, but its been blowing to hard. I'll try the gallery.

 

[hdtran]

Pictures

Pictures

I thought that you also had a 50K limit on individual pictures in the gallery? If not, I've got a ****load of pictures that I can upload.

To resize photos for attachment, I use Irfanview (free program). You can also use "Image Resizer" (also free). Both of those have mentions/links here. I happen to like Irfanview a bit better. You open your jpeg, find the "Resize/resample" tool, give it a new size. I find that 480x320 almost always results in a sufficiently small size. My problem with Irfanview is that I haven't figured out how to have it tell me what the jpeg disk size is before saving...

My biggest problem is getting the autofocus on my camera to focus on what I want it to focus on; 2nd problem is getting the exposure right (flash tends to wash out color or give unwanted reflections even at an angle; no flash is too dark).

 

[kashmir]

Had to resize images

 

[kashmir]

Day 14

 

[kashmir]

One more

 

[kashmir]

Anyone knows what the black sponges are on the bottom right?