let the insanity begin

[rick rottet]

welcome wildcats, and thanks.

The deflation issue only lasted a day or two and hasn't happened again since it resolved itself. My best guess (and a guess is all it is) would be that some water from melting snow (outside) or condensation (inside) got in between the two layers of plastic. The water froze overnight and forced a separation between the layers which caused the deflation. Then when the temps warmed up during the next sunny day, the ice melted, the plastic came back together and it re-inflated. (???) I still can't figure out why the whole thing wouldn't have deflated though.



Text update;
I did fill another tank today. No leaks. That is three in a row!!! There are now eight full of water, six of them with corals growing. There are 14 tanks now completed and the building of #15 started today. I also was able to set up an account with one of the more reputable LA importers, so things should really start moving along pretty soon.



If this works, thanks for the help melev and beerguy

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7020293#post7020293 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by beerguy
Carry on, talk amongst yourselves.

Okay, we shall. Thanks for your help. What was the problem?

 

[rick rottet]

no problems here, good sir.

 

[maxxII]

I was getting email notifications that new posts were made to this thread, but they werent showing up. I saw about 6 from each of you, (Marc and Rick).

?????


Nick

 

[Treeman]

I also got the notifications. I was thinking you guys were having a party on here and didn't invite me

 

[rick rottet]

I assure you Matt, any party I would throw, you are invited

I got the same thing. Thanks (again) to melev and beerguy (and whomever else that I don't know about who worked on the situation), it is all good now.

 

[lglamb]

No notifications. No invitations.

Crepe, foiled again.


Lowell

 

[rick rottet]

consider yourself invited (BYOB)





With insight and pictures shared by honeybee, I made a simple air trap for the deionizer from pvc. (looks like a mini skimmer) Water from the RO goes into the top T and out the bottom T. Any air that gets into the pvc canister stays at the top and keeps the deionizer units from draining themselves out due to the incoming air. When the deionizer does get some air coming into it, the top ball valve can be opened and refill the pvc trap with water as the excess air is pushed out the top. Before the trap was installed, the water couldn't run but maybe 20 minutes until the output tube from the RO would have enough air in it to push air into the DI. Maybe another two hours before the air was down to the level of the resin in the kati portion of the deionizer. The air trap has been in place for about six days now and the water can run from 4 am until 10 pm and still not expose any of the resin in the DI. The air does have to be purged from the trap at the end of each day (or the beginning of each day), but a definite improvement.

My first shipment of wild harvested corals. 8 Sarcophyton elegans. There was supposed to be 10 of the green morph of Sarcophyton, but it looks like about half of them are brown. (sigh) It's tough to tell for sure until they open up. They just came out of the shipping bag less than an hour ago and are obviously a little stressed from the journey.

A little closer view.

 

[llewoh05]

So when are we getting the grand tour in person?

 

[rick rottet]

Anybody is welcome to come by and peep the place.
If you mean when will I have a meeting up here, probably in the fall. I think the rest of the meetings are booked until our summer break.

 

[Opiy]

I really can't contribute in a helpfull way for this thread but thought I would just stop and say

WOW !!!!!!!!

(yes I bummed the cool smiley off melevs site

 

[rick rottet]

Thanks for the kind word.
melev does have the best smileys I have ever seen. I've had to pick myself up off of the floor more than once after seeing some of them.

 

[melev]

Congrats on the new leathers. Do you plan to cut the 10 into 1000?

Your air trap thing confuses me a bit, but then again I don't run DI like you do either. I'm glad that it is working for you!

 

[rick rottet]

If there is one surety in my life, it is that if a coral comes into my possession, it WILL get propagated. I can only pray and hope that over the next decade or more, the 10 (18 actually) will become many 1000's.

The air trap receives the water from the RO before it goes into the DI. Instead of the air coming through the lines into the DI and pushing all of the water out of the DI, the air gets trapped in the pvc tower first. According to Aquatechnic, the resin is not supposed to be allowed to dry out.

cute smiley!

 

[snadaud]

Woaw, i just finished reading this thread and have no idea how long it took me...all i know is it was a VERY long time
I had already read about your setting up on your site but didn't realize it had been such a long and painfull process...
Congratulation on your persistance !! I was glad to see that you didn't get any major problem since the resin thing...My guess is you've already used up all your reserve of bad luck for the next few years
Keep up the good work !

 

[rick rottet]

I appreciate your patience in getting through the thread. Thanks for the encouragement.
It just amazes me how far around the world we can share information...thanks to RC.

 

[rick rottet]

Another score from a fellow reefer. (Thanks Saltyseaman)

First is a large Lobophytum (we think), it hasn't opened it's polyps for me yet so I am reserving identification until it does. I had this out of the water this morning and it is still a little upset. When fully expanded, it is easily 15 inches in diameter.

Sinularia, about nine inches shown here, but also hasn't fully opened up for me yet.

Trays of Capnella colonies.

Large rocks full of Anthelia.

Green Rhodactis large rock absolutely covered and tray of loose ones. (now these had that unmistakable Rhodactis smell, not like the reds I had shown earlier and wondered if they were Discosoma or Rhodactis). As you can see, I'm still fighting a little bacterial bloom in some of the tanks.

Green centered Palythoa (all polyps arise from a common mat)(upper colony) The previous owner said these have fluorescent purple speckles, but they are muted in sunlight. Protopalythoa (polyps crowded together, but separate)(lower colony).

More Protopalythoa.

 

[rick rottet]

Zoanthus, very similar to the "blue eyes" that I already have in the tank.

Very attractive Zoanthus. Green tentacles, gray speckled oral disks, and yellow spot on oral opening.

Zoanthus with rusty reddish-brown tentacles and bluish-green oral opening.

oops. Brownish orange Montipora capricornis.

Some orange Monti cap that I had in the black tub.

Then there is this little guy I found a while back in the bottom of that black tub. Favite (although difficult to tell because of it's size, it does appear to have shared walls).

 

[melev]

That first coral looks like a Devils Hand to me.

 

[Treeman]

Rick,
Isn't it a pain in the arse that you can't see the true colors in the GH? I have people ask me all the time "what color is this?" Hard to answer