Urban_Squrill
New member
I just got done reading this. WOW. Next summer I wanna make a mini green house for my extra 40 breader.
let the insanity begin
- Thread starter rick rottet
- Start date
Re: Thread Index
Re: Thread Index
Wow nice work, should save me (and others) much time.
Rick, I have been trying to read this thread for some time and I have to say it is the coolest project and most interesting one I have subscribed to on RC.
One thing really ticks me off, I am trying to get MY projects complete but with so much cool eye candy and info available on here I just can't get to it. How do you guys manage it all?
Sheesh, makes me feel like I live in a part of the world where there are fewer hours in a day.
:rolleye1:
BTW echoplex does your tag name come from something to do with music. I remember back in 19xx I had an "echoplex" tape type echo machine for my guitar. Another life but it was cool.
Re: Thread Index
Wow nice work, should save me (and others) much time.
Rick, I have been trying to read this thread for some time and I have to say it is the coolest project and most interesting one I have subscribed to on RC.
One thing really ticks me off, I am trying to get MY projects complete but with so much cool eye candy and info available on here I just can't get to it. How do you guys manage it all?
Sheesh, makes me feel like I live in a part of the world where there are fewer hours in a day.
:rolleye1:
BTW echoplex does your tag name come from something to do with music. I remember back in 19xx I had an "echoplex" tape type echo machine for my guitar. Another life but it was cool.
rick rottet
reefkeeper// propagator
only to say I'm looking forward to having you (all) up here. really haven't had much time for picture taking.
After a week I've finally finished making my way through the whole thread. (have to admit i skipped a whole lot of the physics and rushed ahead to the pics!)
Amazing work. Your devotion to conservation and the hobby is clear.
I'll add my voice to those wondering when and where you'll be selling the fruits of your labor.
And thanks for unintentionally clearing up a frag ID for me. (i've got protopalythoa not palythoa)
Amazing work. Your devotion to conservation and the hobby is clear.
I'll add my voice to those wondering when and where you'll be selling the fruits of your labor.
And thanks for unintentionally clearing up a frag ID for me. (i've got protopalythoa not palythoa)
rick rottet
reefkeeper// propagator
I appreciate you taking your time to read through the thread. As I've said, I envy anyone who has the patience to get through it. I appreciate the kind words as well.
As far as the other question, for you and the many others, there are a multitude of avenues through which I can be contacted. This public arena is for the sole purpose of documenting and discussing the CONSTRUCTION PROCESS ONLY. Sorry, but there are rules and promises I am obligated to honor.
As far as the other question, for you and the many others, there are a multitude of avenues through which I can be contacted. This public arena is for the sole purpose of documenting and discussing the CONSTRUCTION PROCESS ONLY. Sorry, but there are rules and promises I am obligated to honor.
rick rottet
reefkeeper// propagator
lol... nice pun 
rick rottet
reefkeeper// propagator
newest Lobophytum
newest Monti
newest Monti
rick rottet
reefkeeper// propagator
new"est"
rick rottet
reefkeeper// propagator
not very good.
in fact, not much of anything has been doing real well for me. the main reason i haven't followed up with any pictures in quite a while.
green star polyps went from bright green 1 1/2" long polyps to pale and tan tiny little nubbins. i see very miniscule new growth and there is just as much tissue dying as what grows new.
lost the whole tank full of Ricordea (about 120 polyps)... dead and gone.
Lobophytum is declining and hard pressed to say there is any real vigor except for a few frags that seem to go through a daily cycle of expansion and contraction. polyps don't extend. that first mother colony is about 1/2 the size that it was when i got it and turning blotchy/mottled. that newest colony with the nice green polyps is turning pale.
mushrooms turned pale and were shrinking away. i tried a refractive blue material over the tank (among other things) and some of the colors have returned, but again, no real growth and some continue to wilt away.
yellow sarcophytons are doing fair(ish), but it takes about 3 months for a colony sliced in half to heal, and there is one that i sliced back on july 1st that still isn't healed yet.
zoanthids aren't growing either, except for the one larger Palythoa colony seems to grow back pretty quick after fragging. all of the colored zo's, when i take a frag from them, just sit there with a bare spot on the rock. every time i have taken a frag, just makes me have less stock.
brown sarcophytons i've had since april, have yet to even show polyps. their calyces raise up about once a month, but the actual polyps themselves never show. they just cover themselves in mucous, shed mucous, cover themselves again, repeat.
rhodactis that were 3" and rich in color are shrinking down, probably about 1/2 the original size and you can practically see right through them
most of the montis i purchased this past summer are pale, heavily bleached but still are extending polyps, so i still have hope that they will come back.....someday, if i keep trying to feed them. but when i do, it seems like all i have to do is walk into the gh with a cup of any type of food and the tanks immediately explode with diatoms and dinos. i swear i have to get in there and siphon clean each tank about every two months.
xenia which were on stalks as big as my thumb are now looking very shriveled, flaccid, and tiny. some are even coming loose from their rocks. obviously unhappy.
kenya tree corals laying down flat. where i have cut a few branches, a little 1/8" nub grows back in about two months.
anthelia are maintaining, but like the zoanthids, if i scrape a frag, they just sit there with a bare spot on the rock. any new growth i have seen from them is actually on the underside of the rocks.
most of the sinularia are doing fair, some mothers even show new growth where i have cut branches, but is slow as all get out. there are some frags which i took and sewed to rocks more than four months ago which are still not attached.
i have been trying all sorts of things, water testing at all different stages of processing, all different levels of shade cloths and screens, refractive materials to give the corals more blue end spectrum, acrylic uv filters, all sorts of feeding regimens, more and bigger water changes, less and smaller water changes, mixing up the flow from the airlifts, addng airlifts, turning airlifts off, addng pumps, talking with other gh guys around the country, had people come over to look and see what they think, you name it. I even hooked up with Dana Riddle and did a bunch of lux readings every hour throughout the course of two different days, sent him all of the info and samples of several different kinds of materials, shade cloths, poly plastics, refractive materials and had him do all sorts of tests with his fancy spectrographs and computer software. he also compared what i was getting to the natural measurements from Hawaiian reefs. it just doesn't make any sense at all.
most of this has been a very gradual decline. it can hardly even be noticed until "suddenly" one day i notice, hey that coral isn't as big as it used to be, or hey that coral is getting pale, or hey that corals isn't healing/growing.
it has gotten to the point that i am afraid to put anything new out there and i am afraid to even try to frag anything. the only reason i put that new big monti out there is because it was free (well, i did trade a box of salt for it), but i fear it will have a similar fate as everything else.
it's getting soooo very frustrating and depressing. including the research, construction and stocking, i've got about 4 1/2 years tied up in this facility. even with my most conservative estimates, the place should have been breaking even at a minimum by now. i've had corals out there for about 14 months now. there has only been one month that i actually took in more than i spent... but that was because i sold over 30 boxes of salt to a friend who owns an LFS and was needing some immediately for his systems. I've got distributors hanging on the line waiting for me to get this place going. i probably haven't sold $2,000 worth of corals total. when i do sell them, if they go to a tank where i can go look at them in a couple of days, they are just blooming back with color and become very thick and full again. everybody i follow up with just exclaims how nice they look in their tanks.
i know i could easily buy/resell, or buy/frag/resell, but what is the point of that. a facility like this actually starts to do more harm than good with that plan. it ain't all about the money. i want to be dedicated to keeping parent colonies and having sustainable propagation/harvests.
i'm starting to wonder if there wasn't some sort of coating (or something) on/in the pvc sheet. it's probably a stretch, but i am in the process of communiczting with company that sent me the sheet to see if they can contact the mfg and find out.
i haven't been on a good rant in a while, but it has been building up and that just about got it out of my system. sorry you asked???
maybe i just need to grow vegetables for the local grocery store.
in fact, not much of anything has been doing real well for me. the main reason i haven't followed up with any pictures in quite a while.
green star polyps went from bright green 1 1/2" long polyps to pale and tan tiny little nubbins. i see very miniscule new growth and there is just as much tissue dying as what grows new.
lost the whole tank full of Ricordea (about 120 polyps)... dead and gone.
Lobophytum is declining and hard pressed to say there is any real vigor except for a few frags that seem to go through a daily cycle of expansion and contraction. polyps don't extend. that first mother colony is about 1/2 the size that it was when i got it and turning blotchy/mottled. that newest colony with the nice green polyps is turning pale.
mushrooms turned pale and were shrinking away. i tried a refractive blue material over the tank (among other things) and some of the colors have returned, but again, no real growth and some continue to wilt away.
yellow sarcophytons are doing fair(ish), but it takes about 3 months for a colony sliced in half to heal, and there is one that i sliced back on july 1st that still isn't healed yet.
zoanthids aren't growing either, except for the one larger Palythoa colony seems to grow back pretty quick after fragging. all of the colored zo's, when i take a frag from them, just sit there with a bare spot on the rock. every time i have taken a frag, just makes me have less stock.
brown sarcophytons i've had since april, have yet to even show polyps. their calyces raise up about once a month, but the actual polyps themselves never show. they just cover themselves in mucous, shed mucous, cover themselves again, repeat.
rhodactis that were 3" and rich in color are shrinking down, probably about 1/2 the original size and you can practically see right through them
most of the montis i purchased this past summer are pale, heavily bleached but still are extending polyps, so i still have hope that they will come back.....someday, if i keep trying to feed them. but when i do, it seems like all i have to do is walk into the gh with a cup of any type of food and the tanks immediately explode with diatoms and dinos. i swear i have to get in there and siphon clean each tank about every two months.
xenia which were on stalks as big as my thumb are now looking very shriveled, flaccid, and tiny. some are even coming loose from their rocks. obviously unhappy.
kenya tree corals laying down flat. where i have cut a few branches, a little 1/8" nub grows back in about two months.
anthelia are maintaining, but like the zoanthids, if i scrape a frag, they just sit there with a bare spot on the rock. any new growth i have seen from them is actually on the underside of the rocks.
most of the sinularia are doing fair, some mothers even show new growth where i have cut branches, but is slow as all get out. there are some frags which i took and sewed to rocks more than four months ago which are still not attached.
i have been trying all sorts of things, water testing at all different stages of processing, all different levels of shade cloths and screens, refractive materials to give the corals more blue end spectrum, acrylic uv filters, all sorts of feeding regimens, more and bigger water changes, less and smaller water changes, mixing up the flow from the airlifts, addng airlifts, turning airlifts off, addng pumps, talking with other gh guys around the country, had people come over to look and see what they think, you name it. I even hooked up with Dana Riddle and did a bunch of lux readings every hour throughout the course of two different days, sent him all of the info and samples of several different kinds of materials, shade cloths, poly plastics, refractive materials and had him do all sorts of tests with his fancy spectrographs and computer software. he also compared what i was getting to the natural measurements from Hawaiian reefs. it just doesn't make any sense at all.
most of this has been a very gradual decline. it can hardly even be noticed until "suddenly" one day i notice, hey that coral isn't as big as it used to be, or hey that coral is getting pale, or hey that corals isn't healing/growing.
it has gotten to the point that i am afraid to put anything new out there and i am afraid to even try to frag anything. the only reason i put that new big monti out there is because it was free (well, i did trade a box of salt for it), but i fear it will have a similar fate as everything else.
it's getting soooo very frustrating and depressing. including the research, construction and stocking, i've got about 4 1/2 years tied up in this facility. even with my most conservative estimates, the place should have been breaking even at a minimum by now. i've had corals out there for about 14 months now. there has only been one month that i actually took in more than i spent... but that was because i sold over 30 boxes of salt to a friend who owns an LFS and was needing some immediately for his systems. I've got distributors hanging on the line waiting for me to get this place going. i probably haven't sold $2,000 worth of corals total. when i do sell them, if they go to a tank where i can go look at them in a couple of days, they are just blooming back with color and become very thick and full again. everybody i follow up with just exclaims how nice they look in their tanks.
i know i could easily buy/resell, or buy/frag/resell, but what is the point of that. a facility like this actually starts to do more harm than good with that plan. it ain't all about the money. i want to be dedicated to keeping parent colonies and having sustainable propagation/harvests.
i'm starting to wonder if there wasn't some sort of coating (or something) on/in the pvc sheet. it's probably a stretch, but i am in the process of communiczting with company that sent me the sheet to see if they can contact the mfg and find out.
i haven't been on a good rant in a while, but it has been building up and that just about got it out of my system. sorry you asked???
maybe i just need to grow vegetables for the local grocery store.
David MC Lee
Well-known member
Rick: Did you ever try to setup my old tank tank? Also if you would ever like to try some water from another source, I can mix up a 100G in no time.
If you run you finger across the PCV does it make any sound? I always clean any plastic containers until it squeaks when I run my finger across them. Most of the time I use a scotch bright pad which will scratch into the surface and removes any mold release agents.
David
If you run you finger across the PCV does it make any sound? I always clean any plastic containers until it squeaks when I run my finger across them. Most of the time I use a scotch bright pad which will scratch into the surface and removes any mold release agents.
David
melev
Well-known member
Rick, you listed quite a few possibilities, but you didn't list what the conclusions were. For example, what did Dana conclude about your lighting? Do you have sufficient light? What is your temperature from day to day, and how stable is the salinity?
You mentioned many feeding regimes. I have an idea due to the bleaching, but perhaps you've already tried it: Why don't you contact your LFS and see about getting a handful of fish and putting them in one of your prop tanks? Even better, put them in the tank that drains into the prop tank. The nutrients coming from the food and the fish waste may be what your corals currently lack.
The fact that the corals color up in other tanks makes me think they are in a nutrient rich environment.
Diatoms / algae are the bane for almost everyone. A cleanup crew would be of benefit, to keep the tanks cleaner.
I know you have an enormous LR vat. What about putting LR under the eggcrate trays to provide LR where the corals are? It wouldn't make cleaning easier, but I do wonder if the corals might benefit from that localized bacterial source.
You mentioned many feeding regimes. I have an idea due to the bleaching, but perhaps you've already tried it: Why don't you contact your LFS and see about getting a handful of fish and putting them in one of your prop tanks? Even better, put them in the tank that drains into the prop tank. The nutrients coming from the food and the fish waste may be what your corals currently lack.
The fact that the corals color up in other tanks makes me think they are in a nutrient rich environment.
Diatoms / algae are the bane for almost everyone. A cleanup crew would be of benefit, to keep the tanks cleaner.
I know you have an enormous LR vat. What about putting LR under the eggcrate trays to provide LR where the corals are? It wouldn't make cleaning easier, but I do wonder if the corals might benefit from that localized bacterial source.
Oblivionis
Member
Rick, set up a small (55 gal) glass tank in the greenhouse to rule out your PVC theory.
