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

[jnarowe]

I'll give it a try. Also, there are some babies in my overflow that appear to be stomatella or possibly limpets. Way to small to get a pic. Flat underside primarily foot. Edge of shell that meets the glass is serated. Any suggestions as to were I should look to ID?

 

[BrianPlankis]

It could be a limpet as the stomatella shells are usually smooth on the edges. There are MANY reports of these small limpets breeding in aquariums, but they rarely get larger than 1/4" so people usually don't notice them. Also hard to get pictures of them due to their size. In all the reports I've read I've never seen even a Genus ID. If you can get a picture you can always try Dr Shimek, but other than that I don't have a suggestion.

 

[Hop]

Fuge looks good J. I keep looking at it, wondering why my chaeto quit growing

I hear you on the time to scrape and clean the viewing pane. It's been a month here. I'm trying to get the motivation to do a water change, scrape the panes, syphon some diatris and clean the sump today. But I'm not certain I'll be batting a .1000 when the day ends

 

[jnarowe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8442979#post8442979 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BrianPlankis
It could be a limpet as the stomatella shells are usually smooth on the edges. There are MANY reports of these small limpets breeding in aquariums, but they rarely get larger than 1/4" so people usually don't notice them. Also hard to get pictures of them due to their size. In all the reports I've read I've never seen even a Genus ID. If you can get a picture you can always try Dr Shimek, but other than that I don't have a suggestion.

I have a 94" external acrylic overflow that I like to keep an eye on. I have several resident snails in there and pods so I am more apt to spot small creatures than most. I really enjoy the micro world of reefs and in fact, when I was diving, spent more time examining the rockwork than looking at the pretty fish. I will try to get someone over with a real macro lense to get some pics. I really should buy a good Digital camera with a macro lense but I find it hard to swallow that i bought a nice Nikon SLR right before the digital boom. I never use the SLR.

 

[jnarowe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8444635#post8444635 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hop
Fuge looks good J. I keep looking at it, wondering why my chaeto quit growing

I hear you on the time to scrape and clean the viewing pane. It's been a month here. I'm trying to get the motivation to do a water change, scrape the panes, syphon some diatris and clean the sump today. But I'm not certain I'll be batting a .1000 when the day ends

My cheato stopped growing when I added the extra light. I had a major blowout and I think primarily because I forgot to burn the lamps before I installed them. It looked a lot like Marc's blowout and I just cleaned out most of the diatoms and HA and tossed in new cheato. We may find out from future research that the blowout is what actually created the apparently massive snail spawning event I had. The two events do coincide.

 

[Hop]

Hmmm, interesting. Mine actually just quit growing and is falling apart. I'm wondering if the skimmer is stripping the water too clean or if the dinos have something to do with it. My zoos, devils hand and GSP are looking horrible, my birdsnest is looking glum and appears to be stning, but my favia, colts and acro are doing amazing.

I just have to find time to get in there and find out whats going on with my water

Yours is looking good though!

 

[jnarowe]

Thanks. Sounds like you have a nutrient issue. The birdsnest should be in the same catagory as the acro in terms of how it reacts to water quality. I would definitely do some testing. I doubt your skimmer is stripping the water of ALL nutrients. GSP go through good and bad stages as I have witnessed while other corals seem unaffected. I think it may be related to salinity though.

My did just die off and then the fuge was over-run with cyano and HA.

BTW, I forgot to mention the my yellow cucumber split.

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8447022#post8447022 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
BTW, I forgot to mention the my yellow cucumber split. [/B]

Very cool! What do you feed it? Is this the filter feeding kind?

Brian

 

[jnarowe]

Yeah, filter feeding kind and it has not moved from in front of my spray bar since I put it in the tank. The spray bar is along the bottom back of the tank and the flow goes along the bottom, under the rocks, towards the front. It has positioned itself right in front of the flow. So...I don't feed it. It and the other one I have respond to tank feeding though, and usually are open at night.

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8447065#post8447065 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
Yeah, filter feeding kind and it has not moved from in front of my spray bar since I put it in the tank. The spray bar is along the bottom back of the tank and the flow goes along the bottom, under the rocks, towards the front. It has positioned itself right in front of the flow. So...I don't feed it. It and the other one I have respond to tank feeding though, and usually are open at night.

I've always had a hard time getting these locally, maybe when I send you some DIBS stuff you can send me one (If it splits again of course!)

Brian

 

[sherm71tank]

If only it wasn't for his lack of feeding. J/K of course! :thumbsup: Those are some spoiled fishies! I think my other fish are coming down with lateral line disease in an attempt to move to Jonathon's tank!

 

[jnarowe]

No problemo Brian, but won't it be me sending you DIBS stuff?

Hey Sherman...what can I say? I have a couple human friends that want to live in my tank! :lol:

 

[Enderrea]

BAAAHAAAHAA Keep me fed and fat i might even do tricks!:wildone: :celeb1:

 

[jnarowe]

No doubt James! :lol:

 

[jnarowe]

So I pulled out a gallon of cheato tonight and did the swisharoo. I swished half of it in my grow-out tank and half in my larvae tank. It seemed to work but I doubt I got them all.

I did find one interesting creature in the macro. I am fairly certain it is a baby stomatella. It was about an inch long when extended with a small flattened "hat" and moved quite quickly. Just like the mature ones I can't catch because they are so fast! Anyway, I wasn't sure what to do with it so I tossed it back into the fuge. Hopefully it has a mate opportunity in there. There seems to be a lot of sex going on in that fuge...wish I had a time lapse set up for that!

 

[jnarowe]

So I got my Barr-Aquatic kalk stirrer today and set up the doser. It is producing air bubbles about every second or so. Wouldn't the air have worked itself out of the tubing? I have been running it for 4 hours and I don't see any air coming through the input line but do see a small amount right at the intake, and of course, leaving the pump. I re-did the hose-to-pump connection but that did not help. Anyone have any idea what this is all about?

 

[melev]

Could be air in the media perhaps.

 

[jnarowe]

I am just talking about from the RO/DI reservoir to the reactor with the pump in between. No media in it or in that part of the loop. I cannot figure out what is going on!

I just wired up a float switch to my ACIII Pro so I will be able to control top-off based on water level as well as pH. I should have it all running tomorrow, air bubbles or not. So far the kalk reactor is about 1/2 full. This doser may be too slow for the long term.

 

[jnarowe]

Got a couple new corals today off the LFS, Ocean Reef Aquatics:

Encrusting monti:

jade Torch:

 

[jnarowe]

My corals are so stoked! OK, OK...I am stoked, but the corals will be...

Got my Barr Aquatic Kalk stirrer today! First let me say that I am a bit embarrassed that I bought this but since Brent builds them just the way I would (but with a much better refill lid) I am calling this a "Commissioned DIY" Kalk Stirrer! :lol:

Hanna Magnetic Stirrer:

At rest:

30 seconds of stirring:

1 minute of stirring:

So after being up for a few minutes, I did an alk test and it was toatlly off-the-chart at 80 dKh. I'll have to re-test tomorrow to confirm that rediculous number but I must say, it had an immediate and positve influence on my pH and my calcium reactor also started running (CO2) right along with it.

I haven't programmed the ACIII Pro yet so I am doing it manually but hopefully tomorrow I will have the level sensor wired up and the program entered. I will program it to run when the float sensor is low and when the pH gets too high, it will shut down.