Pete's 280 log
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psteeleb
Team RC
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13169157#post13169157 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chrismunn
all of my wifes family is in sanfrancisco. she went to school there herself for a little while. not sure where exactly though? i grew up just north of there in marin county, but the last 2 years i lived in california before i came to texas i was in fairfield and vacaville. i have a friend who works for the Alemeda county sheriff. poor guy has one of the most dangerous jobs in california :lol: where in alemeda is your sister? hopefully in the hills away from everybody!
thats nice you were able to get together with the whole family. i wasnt able to get my whole family together at the wedding which kinda sucks because i never get to see them all together anymore. naturally they all get together during christmas and thanksgiving, but i live half way across the country now.
speaking of frag plugs, i cant stand the ones i have! i got some zoas from a fellow club member here and they came on ceramic plugs in the shape of a cylindrical "T" . the same guy showed me a way of getting my frags to attach to rock rubble though. i prefer the rock rubble for the natural appearance. am actually expectine to load up on about 15 various frags here in the next 2 weeks so ill be busy trying to get frags to attach to rock rubble. then comes the tedious proccess of gluing all the rocks. i would totally hi-jack your idea of using the rigid airline tubing for pegging frags, but im not even gonna try to drill the tonga branch anymore! not only was that stuff hecka hard to drill through, but i broke 1 out of every 3 pieces i was trying to drill. i don't want to take the risk of breaking my finished rock structure
enjoy the family, eats and drinks! :cheers:
I don't know much about Alameda but I think its pretty safe where they are
I mount softies by placing them in a container with rock rubble. Then once they attach (couple days) to a piece of rubble I'll glue the rubble to a larger rock. I had little luck ever trying to glue a softie directly to a rock.
I can image drilling tonga branch would be a pain and would probably lead to a bunch of busted pieces unless you took it really slow.
psteeleb
Team RC
back home 
back home
made it home late today (just before midnight Sun) and I'm glade to say everything looks fine. My son did a great job taking care of things; he even cleaned out the skimmer. One of the small clams fell over today but looked fine when I placed him back up right. The chips acro looks fine as do all the other corals, so I'm happy
(boy was I worried at times, but like I said my son did a good job taking care of things)
back home
made it home late today (just before midnight Sun) and I'm glade to say everything looks fine. My son did a great job taking care of things; he even cleaned out the skimmer. One of the small clams fell over today but looked fine when I placed him back up right. The chips acro looks fine as do all the other corals, so I'm happy
(boy was I worried at times, but like I said my son did a good job taking care of things)
psteeleb
Team RC
a dilemma - time away
a dilemma - time away
so I have this dilemma,
about 20 years ago I bought 40 acres next to my mom and dads place in the upper peninsula of Michigan. At the time I had all intentions of building a place and even got a good start on things. I was going all out, even bought a sawmill and was cutting up my own lumber. After my dad passed away in '94' I backed of on the plans and just let things sit, but after going up there this summer I want to get started on it again. I'll probably have to waste a bunch of the lumber I cut as it was exposed to the elements and the foundations and house area that I cleared have grown over. But as you can see in some of these pictures it's probably one of the nicest stands of birch trees one will ever see. The area I plan to build on is surrounded by about 7-8 acres of paper white birch and right behind the cabin area is a stand of about 10 acres of sugar maple that was planted and harvested back in the 50's
so the dilemma is how is how do I maintain a reef tank in Texas but spend a month or so a year away working on a summer cabin? Probably not an issue as long as my son is home but he plans to move off to college this fall.
picture going in to my property
birch stand where I'm building
sugar maples
I just love the natural grass - the snow kills off most underbrush
a stack of 2X10s I cut from tree logs
I brought in power and put a well in a while back
my biggest fear is this other dream may lead to taking down my reef tank (but not for at least a couple years)
a dilemma - time away
so I have this dilemma,
about 20 years ago I bought 40 acres next to my mom and dads place in the upper peninsula of Michigan. At the time I had all intentions of building a place and even got a good start on things. I was going all out, even bought a sawmill and was cutting up my own lumber. After my dad passed away in '94' I backed of on the plans and just let things sit, but after going up there this summer I want to get started on it again. I'll probably have to waste a bunch of the lumber I cut as it was exposed to the elements and the foundations and house area that I cleared have grown over. But as you can see in some of these pictures it's probably one of the nicest stands of birch trees one will ever see. The area I plan to build on is surrounded by about 7-8 acres of paper white birch and right behind the cabin area is a stand of about 10 acres of sugar maple that was planted and harvested back in the 50's
so the dilemma is how is how do I maintain a reef tank in Texas but spend a month or so a year away working on a summer cabin? Probably not an issue as long as my son is home but he plans to move off to college this fall.
picture going in to my property
birch stand where I'm building
sugar maples
I just love the natural grass - the snow kills off most underbrush
a stack of 2X10s I cut from tree logs
I brought in power and put a well in a while back
my biggest fear is this other dream may lead to taking down my reef tank (but not for at least a couple years)
melev
Well-known member
You've got BigJay to watch your tank. 
You could probably hire a tank service, such as Brad Ward, to keep an eye on the system weekly, with some family members keeping an eye on the tank ready to make a call for help if something comes up.
One month away doesn't sound like a bad thing, if you have a good support system.
The area is pretty. I can see what keeps you going back for more.
You could probably hire a tank service, such as Brad Ward, to keep an eye on the system weekly, with some family members keeping an eye on the tank ready to make a call for help if something comes up.One month away doesn't sound like a bad thing, if you have a good support system.
The area is pretty. I can see what keeps you going back for more.
Aquarist007
New member
beautiful land---I wish I had the same delima as you do.
I'm am glad this little piece of eden is in the control of a reefer--someone that appreciates and respects this kind of beauty.
I'm am glad this little piece of eden is in the control of a reefer--someone that appreciates and respects this kind of beauty.
BigJay
New member
UP Mich is beautiful Pete. I grew up in the Detroit area, I've been there a few times. A summer home up there sounds like a dream come true.
I'd be glad to help out. Between myself and some other local club friends I'm sure we can help keep your reef going. A tank service isn't a bad idea either in case something goes really wrong.
With all of the tank automation changes that you've been making lately it shouldn't be a problem. Your ATO system was recently completed, and you're also working to add in an automatic water change system. On top of that you're planning on adding a calcium reactor. For a month vacation, all that's left to do is the feeding, cleaning, and daily inspections for corals that get knocked over or are fighting eachother..
You could also upgrade to the RK elite or ACIII Pro so you can put your tank on the web. If you can at least get cell phone internet service up there, you can check on your tank params.
I'd be glad to help out. Between myself and some other local club friends I'm sure we can help keep your reef going. A tank service isn't a bad idea either in case something goes really wrong.
With all of the tank automation changes that you've been making lately it shouldn't be a problem. Your ATO system was recently completed, and you're also working to add in an automatic water change system. On top of that you're planning on adding a calcium reactor. For a month vacation, all that's left to do is the feeding, cleaning, and daily inspections for corals that get knocked over or are fighting eachother..
You could also upgrade to the RK elite or ACIII Pro so you can put your tank on the web. If you can at least get cell phone internet service up there, you can check on your tank params.
psteeleb
Team RC
thanks capn - it's kind of sad when driving around some of the remote areas to see how some people just don't care about the natural beauty. My plans are to minimize the impact to the area form both a natural and visual prospective.
for example; I paid the extra to bring in my power and phone services underground. I'll have to clear a few trees to work in my passive solar design and open the view of a spring fed pond that I intend to expand some. Once established I'm sure I'll work in some natural landscaping and put in a few paths for taking strolls through the woods but that's about it.
psteeleb
Team RC
thanks Jay
I'm pretty sure that with the Reefkeeper2 I can remotely monitor some aspects of the reef. I'll have to get a cheap laptop and with the "My Reef" software I can get email notifications, web cam viewing, channel status and Temp and PH tracking. Not a lot but probably enough. Did you see that post where a guy can access his RK2 status on a display in his car? Talk about toys
One of these days I intend to hook up at least one if not two webcams.
my water change station will still be very manual. I'll still have to mix the salt water and reposition valves to do the change but it will be a ton easier then my current set up.
your right on with the CA reactors etc, my only other real issue will be feeding. I don't know of any proven frozen delivery systems but maybe I could get by with frozen every other day and use a dry food automated setup for the primary feeding. Another thing I've been contemplating is a dry food delivery of freeze dried food that dumps it onto a small hydration container then flushes it out to feed the tank. I don't know how good the freeze dried selections are these days as I'm sure they are not as good as frozen but I don't have any real exotic or finicky fish either (most of them are pigs)
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