OK! Enough chat...Starting a 1000g+ Reef

[jnarowe]

aaahhh...good books. I guess I will go.

 

[jnarowe]

BAX: Thanks! It is working well so far...

Brad: Good to hear you haven't killed the Regal! :lol:

So a reactor update: I blew off almost an entire bottle fo CO2. Everything was going great and I went to my office to post and take care of business. Then my wife came home and I took her to see the reactor. I heard ahissing and found the regulator caked in ice. I really don't know why it worked well for so long and then started to leak, but I can guess as it cooled the sealed released...Good thing I have excellent ventillation. The display pH dropped to 8.04 though.

I have it all squared away again.

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8053031#post8053031 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
Tank is doing great except for the elegance. Who is Scott Michael???

My folks will be in town starting on the 6th for a week, but we should talk before you go.

What is happening to the Elegance? Are you feeding it?

Brian

 

[rdmpe]

Yikes! That could be really dangerous! Glad to hear there were no major problems. I used to run CO2 on a FW planted tank, and it always made me a little nervous.

Amazing setup by the way!

 

[jnarowe]

Brian: Not directly. Do you think I should be hand feeding it?

rdmpe: I run a ghetto CO2 setup on my FW Planted but it's only two yeast/sugar canisters and mini venturi pumps.

I exchange the air in my reef tank room 15x/hour so I think that helped a lot. Thanks for the compliment...I only aspire to learn enough to have a tank like so many I see on RC, including some that post in this thread.

 

[Enderrea]

wow...........i do like the Idae of having that set up After the Skimmer, that thang is a monster.
so are your free monday? my wife has to work , but i have the day off so i thought i would drag my little girl down with me. i am bringinf my Canon power shot (the big one with a good macro) and the instalation disk and the transfer cable to get you so me good tank pics. if you are free.

 

[jnarowe]

Should be here. PM sent.

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8054923#post8054923 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
Brian: Not directly. Do you think I should be hand feeding it?

Absolutely, if it is sick, it needs to eat to fight off the infection. At least that is how the girl on MD kept hers alive so long. It was rapidly receeding and then she started feeding it and it even regrew some tentacles, of course it still wasn't looking good, but at least had a positive effect.

Try to give it food soaked in vitamins such as beta glucan or selecon.

Brian

 

[jnarowe]

Where? I can't see a mouth on this thing. How about brine soaked in Selecon?

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8058632#post8058632 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
Where? I can't see a mouth on this thing. How about brine soaked in Selecon?

That might work, see if the tentacles will "grab" the food and put it in its mouth. If not, you might need to go with something larger like a store bought shrimp or silversides chopped up a little.

No need to find the mouth, the coral will do that, all you need to do is get it on its tentacles and if it likes the taste, it will find the mouth.

Brian

 

[jnarowe]

OK, so I tried the brine...the elegance did hold onto it but the fish came and snatched it all away. They pummeled the poor thing. I will try silversides next, and if that doesn't work I'll give it a herring...

 

[agarza]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8059993#post8059993 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
OK, so I tried the brine...the elegance did hold onto it but the fish came and snatched it all away. They pummeled the poor thing. I will try silversides next, and if that doesn't work I'll give it a herring...

Try covering him after feeding with a transparent container, maybe something that lets water flow through but doesn't let the fish in

 

[Roland Jacques]

Deleted

 

[Roland Jacques]

never mind

i need to read first and talk later. sorry

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8059993#post8059993 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
OK, so I tried the brine...the elegance did hold onto it but the fish came and snatched it all away. They pummeled the poor thing. I will try silversides next, and if that doesn't work I'll give it a herring...

Small food is fine. You need to keep the predators away though.

 

[jnarowe]

Well I don't know if it ate the silversides but they are gone...I'll try bathing it in brine shrimp again tonight.

Marc, should I use a bang stick?? :lol: Maybe I'll stick in a piece of acrylic to thwart the herds.

Reactor is running well. I am really pleased with it although I still haven't tested the effluent. I think I may do a little mod and insert a T with valve on the recirc return line to help with priming. It would be easy to do and help a lot since I am having to undo the top union to get the water flowing. It works OK but makes a mess.

Next I make baskets...

 

[melev]

As the other person posted before me, you can make a basket or cover to place over the coral to keep fish away. Maybe out of eggcrate if it is standing out on its own on the sand.

 

[Spiffyguy]

I heard strawberry baskets work good too depending on the coral size.

 

[jnarowe]

Well the coral is about 16 - 18" across so I have to rig something up.

Not to be outdone by what I am sure is a strong reputation for water related accidents, I had another fun one today.

I am sure many of you are familiar with the phrase, "Oh, a water letter outer, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk". This was just one such Stooges experience.

So I was refilling my new reactor and having a hard time priming the pump. I opened the top union like have have done twice before and waited for the water. Only this time, it really shot out. There I was trying veinly to close the union and water was going everywhere...I got totally soaked before I decided to turn off the flow and re-group.

It was totally funny as I yelled for my son to bring the shopvac down from the shop, and my wife ran to see if I was OK...

All is good and I am watching the pH drop on Aquanotes from my office upstairs. Life is gooooood.

 

[melev]

<i>.....drip, drip, drip.....</i>

:lol: