New tank 125 (note: this may progress slowly)

[boviac]

I did test the water again and found Alk was actually low. Everything else was where it should be. By the time I did bring Alk up, pH was back at a more comfortable range. Also during the late afternoon when there is the minimum temp between outside and inside house, I've been opening up the slider window to add some air exchange.

Well, I did complete my first water change last week but It seems the slight greenish-brown hair algae is growing more prolific. Cleaned the prizm skimmer and running it rather wet to aid in removal of DOCs. Shifted the light around and used the magnet cleaner by my hand inside the tank to clean the back wall and the overflows. Got about 70% of it off taking breaks to put in a net to attempt to catch much of the hairy stuff floating around the tank. THen when I was done I put in a new filter pad.

Yesterday while attempting to adjust a coral I accidently tapped the black eggcrate tray (it's a bit thinner than the white and thus doesn't hold as well to the hooks I bought for them) and it dumped its frag contents. I put them all back but notice I had a frag plug still on the rack with no frag.... hmm I swear they all just fell in front of a rock or on the rock - rock filled with shrooms, lettuce leather and palys. After trying to tear the softies apart I simply stared at the frags trying to remember which one it might have been.... Sure enough it was the blue polyped brown now turning greenish yellow base monti from Reef Connections. Whew. Problem solved - until the tray falls again. I think for now I'll eventually swap it with a larger white tray. Until I get the rockscape complete...

Also for some reason a frag of pocillapora was growing very well on the opposite side of the tank even though it was setting relatively low -but under the new light - was sheared from it's mounting rock. Crabs or Snail? Hmm.

Took both the monti and pocillapora out and reattached them to their plug and rock, respectively. I also removed the carbon bag that has been in the sump for too long. I wish I had this weekend to do fish work: I want to change my PO4 media, clean the rest of the back and PH's of this annoying algae, try to see if I can work that skimmer to minimize leaks and or fix it so it can leak and I can pump it out weekly or so. I was thinking a 1 gal milk jug with the top cut off. I really think this additional and more effective skimmer will aid in algae reduction. I still need to remove the softies out. I want to organize and label the wires. I want to see if I can run the old fuge on the back of this tank - strattling the left overflow. And I could possibly sell a few other corals out of the 29g!!!! Oh if only I had another free weekend.... ha ha...

Hope everyone else has a good weekend!

 

[boviac]

Ok time for an update.
FTS

Last night I cut out a new section of egg crate since the previous ones had more algae than not. Plus, I was able to move the frags over to the middle and all on one tray. I also scrubbed some algae off the frag mounts with my tank toothbrush. :2thumbs I'm noticing some are very distinct, hard (i.e. not slimy), & tough to pull off.

I replaced the two other MH bulbs so now are all fresh with the left one being replaced about a month earlier. I've got a call in to Dan to see if we can record the lux coming out of these new bulbs vs the 1+ month one. As of this morning WOW I wish I would have done this from the very beginning!!! All three of these bulbs are amazing! Nice crisp white with a light blue tint. Photo is much blue-er than in person. Bulbs are AquaMaxx 14k 175W from MD.

I so far have cleaned two of the three PH and the Prizm skimmer body. I plan to clean the last PH today.

I cleaned about 50% of the back glass of this greenish-brown hair algae carefully, by swiping inside with the glass cleaner upward and removing it to rinse it off in the sink. Nasty slime. Stinky too! hmy: Halli has declared I will have a fish sink in any future houses! ha ha.

This morning I also cleaned out the PO4 reactor and put in fresh media. Now I'm beginning to wonder if granuals are better than pellets.

I mounted the ATO controller box (previously I had it sitting on top of the lid of the ATO bucket) and moved the larger skimmer inside the bucket. I figure what it slowly leaks will eventually get put back into the system via the ATO and I let the ATO bucket get down pretty low before I refill so it's a win-win.

Also the photos come out much more blue than they look in the real world. But here's one of the blue polyped monti I got from Reef Connections. Here you can see the base is turning more of a yellowish-green. Very cool!

Here is a similar monitpora that I got from the Dec MARS swap. I really need to grind off the base to get it to sit level.

And finally, my huge red/orange monti with the anthias and hippo schooling together. I should note much of that growth was under PC bulbs - albeit right under.

 

[mrbncal]

Things look great. Healthy and happy in the new reef home. Job well done.

 

[boviac]

Thanks mrbncal! Much appreciated.

I Love the DIY skimmer now that I don't have to worry about leaks and have it broken in. I'm still running the prizm HOB but at this rate with with the dark greenish brown wet skimmate I'm getting along with the neck accumulation on the new one, I don't think I'll keep the Prizm there much longer, even at only 10W/hr usage.

Here's a pic producing foam:

Here's a pic of it in the ATO bucket:

 

[boviac]

The new skimmer is amazing compared to what the Prizm would clean out. By my estimate about 2-4x more foam waste and about 2x wet skimmate. A few days after cleaning the inside of the cup is so dirty that I can hardly see the neck but it too is coated with scum.

Very happy to have this working so well.

 

[boviac]

Also amazing increase in coral growth since I've finally put the remaining two of three bulbs in! And I love the color compared to the old PC 50/50's (still on the 25g) as these are MH 14k bulbs. Much crisper colors and whiter with a tint of blue - whites. The orange/red montipora has easily grown about a centimeter around, my acro valida (tri color) has finally sprouted it's third purple color, and several other corals are also showing much improved growth colorations. The Nephthia trees have opened up and are doing fantastic. I can't wait to get them out. Maybe I'll do that too later this weekend.

I still have about 50 lbs of rock that needs to be cured in the garage from PlayWithBob. Once I get more of the frags and mushrooms out of the 29 I plan to start that process. I also plan to move the only remaining habitant fish-wise left in the 29 over to the 125 - a lawnmower blenny. I worried about putting him in with the shrimp goby but since he's bit the dust and I've got an algae problem in the 125 that I think he could help me with... The transfer should be done this weekend.

A few weeks ago I bought a huge sump 5' long that used to be a large acrylic tru-vu tank but has been fashioned into a sump with a refugium section, skimmer & equipment section, and a return section with a 2.5" bulkhead and 2.5" true-union ball valve. I was figuring it was going to cost upwards of $300 for the sheet of acrylic I wanted to make my DIY sump alone not including some of the tools like an 80+ tooth 12" table saw blade to make the cuts and a dedicated router bit for acrylic as well as my inexperience with cutting and welding acrylic when the price was right for this - it was a no brainer.

All along I've concluded I needed to build a second stand. Now I have no further excuses to not start it. I cannot use it in the current stand because of the placement of my chiller. I plan to extend the distance the tank is away from the wall and place the chiller behind the sump. I also plan to complete the stand such that there will be panels rising up to cover the sides behind the tank and meet up with the canopy to be one continuous stand/canopy appearance. It is my hope to move to the LED's that are taking the Chico area by storm but I would need some significant change to my cash flow to do that. It will be interesting too as I plan to make some of the sides such that they can be removed with child-proof locking magnets as well as 'relatively' easy to tear down and reassemble for a move. So alas, to say there's still some design quirks I need to get back on before I start the build. I did learn a few things from my last build and this was one of them.

 

[melev]

Fortunately, you aren't taking on too much stuff at once. Not. :lol:

Looking forward to tons of pictures and descriptions.

 

[boviac]

ha ha... I can't really think of a time in my life where I've had so many hats with each so many tasks - good thing my work has slowed significantly but the loss of income certainly is becoming painful. Plus just do each small thing one step at a time, right. Confucius say journey of 1,000 leauges begins with first step.

Will do with the pics and descriptions. And I should also start out that I set very high goals that often get lowered along the way.

Thanks for the visit!

 

[boviac]

March 23, 09 Photos of some things...

I don't recall this one's name I believe I bought from UWP a few months back but I really love the bright blue coloration of the tips

ORA Borialis - also seen in the DBTC thread

A beautiful white/orange monti (MARS swap 12/08) that hasn't really grown much. My suspect is due to algae growth irritating the coral on the plug. I might try to remove it and place onto a new plug or rock

Here's another monti frag (MARS swap 12/08) ironically it turns out to be the same species as this one...

Reef Connections Green/Blue Monti. However, I've noticed the base is turing yellowish-green and the new growth does have bright blue polyps, the existing growth tends to have the polyps turn into a faded purple as seen in the middle.

 

[boviac]

Ok so finally moved over the algae blenny to the 125 yesterday and some of the rock that I was curing in there after removal of some of the mushrooms. I've just staged the rock in the 125 on the left hand side back on the outside of the left overflow. I'm ready to attack the red slime though I realize I included the gravel vac when I sold the FW smaller tanks I had.

Also I do not have any airstones as I really want to attack it with chemiclean but still maintain DO up to maintain levels for life in the tank as well as attack the slime. So I'm off to the LFS to pick up some airstones at least while I'm mixing salt in a container as well as filtering some more RO/DI water in the large olive barrel I got from Josh.

 

[boviac]

Ok I added chemiclean for 130g yesterday at 1 level tiny scoop (included in box) per 10g. I figure with the sump, piping, etc - rock, coral, sand I'm at less that but I want it gone!!! Got an airstone weighted down and a PH pushing the bubbles around. Turned the skimmer and PO4 rx pumps off.

Here's the right side

Here's the FTS

 

[boviac]

I just completed a reading of my thread here on CRC.org. One thing I noticed was some of the frags that I took pics of back in Dec how much they have grown when I finally recognized which pieces they were!

Also let's see... I have cleaned up the 29g, siphoned some of the sand, and did a water change on it so once I can get some of the items in there out I'll be happy to place some additional rock that needs to cure in there. Sparcely feeding simply to keep the bristleworms and other life in there happy.

I still haven't completed any work on a water leak alarm which would require me to obtain a transformer to wire in the continuous power supply. I found even with batteries over time, a leak discovered would yeild a barely discernable wail and that with listening for it.

I took down the prizm protien skimmer finally and rinsed it. It could still use a decent cleaning.

Putting in airstones in the ~18-20" water wasn't as simply as I initially thought.

I added a purple tang earlier this week. It's pretty scrawny but eating very well. I noticed the yellow tail blue hippo tang that's about half the size of the purpler tang were duking it out tang style to determine the 'pecking' order. Now after a few days I think the purple one lost. ha ha

 

[boviac]

Ok that chemiclean for just under 4 days did the trick so far and seemed to do some damage to the Bryopsis as well!!!

Spent some time today scraping some of the hard pockets of green algae off the glass sides with a razor.

Earlier this week I got a Tomini tang and 5 chromis from UWP! Thanks Rob. Also I bought some Tigger Pods (copepods) even though I don't have a fuge I do have a mandarin and a six line wrasse. So twice in one day I squirted half the bottle on one side and then next the other to help distribute them. Also I should say I fed my fish about 5-10 minutes pretty well before these additions. The bottle of Tigger Pods I bought on April 1 had a bottled on March 30 sticker on it and said it had 2,000 to 4,000 pods. I certainly couldn't count that many but it certainly looked like there there were about 2x as many as last time I bought them!

Also I often forget to add it but I got some Reef Chili from BRS with my two part system. I added it tonight about 30 minutes after all the lights have gone off and the corals start to extend their feeding polyps. I notice some of the LPS polyps did react the the direct solution spray and retracted towards the mouth.

I've had this annoying, red, stringy strands of fracture-resistant algae. Ealier today I moved down off the frag tray the main frag it started on (neon trumpet) and within 10 minutes the purple tang was nipping at it. Love it!

Finally, I bought (indirectly) - as I mentioned to my wife I was interested in a table saw from a yard sale yesterday) we saw one and before I could tell her the reasons why I didn't want it she bought it for $10. Turns out after doing research on it is a 8" blade - 1/2" arbor 1952 or 1953 Craftsman with a belt driving 1/2 HP motor. Had to go back with my truck to take it home. Couldn't figure out what this one part was on the arbor - turns out it was most likely a homemade piece of brass to insert on the blades or arbor to mate the old 1/2" arbor to the newer 5/8" arbor hole blades. I'm planning to use 7-1/4" blades from my skill saw. The belt desperately needs replacing, the motor doesn't get it up to the speeds most table saws I can tell get up to, the working surface is rusted and the miter guide tracks are too tight with rust,I spent an hour trying to modify the fence clamp to work and came with the solution to just put some firm paper between the rail and the fence clamp - works great now. But it is built an a stout case and the mechanics of the rise/lower and tilt mechanism work great once I figured out that there was a stop on the threads prevent me initially to raise the blade more than 1/4" above the surface. All the better to do most of my new stand work better this time.

 

[melev]

Can you post a picture of that algae you mentioned?

That table saw sounds like a project all right. Congrats on your new toy.

 

[boviac]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14783617#post14783617 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Can you post a picture of that algae you mentioned?

Poor photo but you can see the red strands in this one.

Assuming this red annoying algae is what you were interested in, right?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14783617#post14783617 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev

That table saw sounds like a project all right. Congrats on your new toy.

Yeah it's turing out to be interesting. I put a new 7-1/4" blade on it and new belt and made a few test cuts on small scrap. Should do fine for $10 and a $3 belt. And if it turns out I actually *use* it regularly, then I can make the excuse for getting a decent one.

 

[boviac]

OK just a few pics I had of some of the other things in my tank.

Here are the brown uninteresting palys that until under these actinics and 14k MH did they really burst with some deep mint green colors.

Here's the mother orange monti I got when Joel was auctioning items out of his tank. It had just maybe a 2" piece on it. I've since fragged of several pieces of it for swaps. You can also see slightly distorted the blue hippo tang, and my blue and green zoas. Those are the green eye with green skirt zoas. I also have some green eyes with yellow skirts elsewhere in the tank. Interesting enough the hole you can see in the middle of the monti is where the blue hippo likes to hide upside down so she can still see out the hole but be protected. Plus, she aggressively defended it when during the daylight period an emerald crab was up in the monti and she scared it away.

And those these are not in my 125 they are an example of the mushroom rocks I have available in my 29g

 

[boviac]

A few photos I took yesterday before camera battery died.

Middle tank shot with purple tang, anthias, chromis, blue tang, zoa area, silver tipped Birdsnest, the left edge of the trumpet coral, etc

CRC frag swap raffle win! Purple/Green Chalice donated from UPW. itially started to show retraction on the right most forward point if this were a spaceship (ha ha use your imagination). But that has stopped and growing back I suspect.

Aleviapora and the green monti frag I got from Camlov2 at the March meeting! Thanks Brian! And the top part of the rock I'm considering selling.

Here's my Acropora Valida (tri-color) frag that broke off twice but the second time left a small part of the coral behind so I reglued a third time to a space just a bit further on the mounting rubble. Both are growing fine now and the actual piece has shown it's third color nicely under the new bulbs. To the left of that is a yellow monti I got from the MARS Dec 08 swap, and you can see a blurry Orchid Dottyback.

Here's the remaining piece of the Bali Slimer I got from the MARS Dec 08 swap, (though I do still have one more frag on a plug) and behind it is another MARS Dec 08 swap pick - acropora Humilis?
Don't know but that's how it was labeled.

Sorry again for the blurry images but here are the minty green centered palys I spoke of early in my thread.

 

[boviac]

By the way, I've moved to frags off the rack that has that red strings of algae growing on it and my purple tang LOVES it! Unfortunately the frag tray is too high up for the tang to eat it.

 

[RiOnRoxXx]

Jusr read all 6 pages of your thread!!! Good stuff and keep it going

 

[boviac]

Thanks at some point my posts are replicated on the chicoreefclub.org site. Unfortunatly, April is a very busy time for me so tank takes a back seat. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep things going here again soon.