Timfish

Or something doesn't like the Hollywood Stunner. I'd have to blame the blennie. If only because they sit on stuff and are more inclined to grab stuff off the sand than the others. Sounds like it's time to set up an infrared camera to record the culprit.

No, that won't work on a tank that's already built. (I guess I should have mentioned I'm putting holes in existing tanks in my first post. 😏)

I'm working on a project and need to put a large hole in the side of a tank. I have a 5" diamond bit that will work but was kinda thinking a square hole would work better. I did a setup a long time ago where I did a rectangular cut out in a top corner for an overflow. @KimP 150 had also had small rectangular cutout for the overflow. But I want one in the middle which obviously puts a great deal more stress on a tank. Since aesthetics wouldn't be an issue I was thinking maybe glass tiles and glass strips could be used to reinforce the glass. So here's my first attempt: So far so good. And failure! First and second went fine but the third one three cracks appeared as the bit broke through. One going under the glass reinforcement all the way to the edge of the glass. Well, might as well see what happens finishing up the other hole and cuts. 😕 First two cuts with a cordless circular saw and masonry blade. And here's the finished hole. One mistake was not cleaning out the silicone. While the masonry blade would cut though it easily enough it made it hard to aligned the blade with the glass strips. The last cut ended up jagged as a result. One note on the glass tiles used. A plastic or epoxy coating is put over the painted side of the tile. I attempted to scrap it off one and it was pretty difficult. I left one out to weather to see what might happen and it took a couple months but the coating didn't hold up to sunlight and started to flake off. For my second attempt I'll need to figure out hoe to take off the coating and paint so I'm dealing with a clean glass surface.

Got three more to add to this thread: "Jewel Box" clam Not sure what these are. And I with I had looked closer to this candy cane skeleton when I pulled it out of a cryptic sump and dropped it in an empty bucket

Cool! It'll be interesting if it keeps that color or if it's just something that happens with a newly exposed exoskeleton after molting.

Welcome back! Thin Stripe Hermits from the coast are great herbivores and quite comical. Actinodiscus sp. mushrooms would be a good first coral to add to your system.

I've complained about the terms "SPS" "LPS" and "Softies" being used to deonote difficulty in keeping and Purple Stylo is a perfect example how those terms don't work. It's one of the hardiest corals I've come across. Keeps it's colors under a wide range of lighting conditions, tolerates conditions that kills 'shrooms and leathers, and is a potential indicator of low PO4 when the purple starts to shift to pink. I've even had a small colony survive 50° when I forgot it overnight in a bucket in my truck. You'll see people blame the algae on PO4 being released by teh rock. Problem I have with that assumption is I've seen localized hair hair algae issues like that on glass ond acrylic. Biofilms can also sequester huge amounts of PO4 so that has to be taken into account in explaining nuisance algae issues.

Kudo's on emphasizing acessability, redundancy and simplicity! Our animals will live decades and simple systems are much easier to maintain. And the biology really could care less about fancy designs or equipment. (But I'd get a different house sitter )

Red Mithrax is my vote also. Defining characteristic would be "spoons" at the tips of the claws. Some mithrax can be quite "hairy" like some "pest" crabs so that characteristic isn't a reliable way to identify them.

I take it your tank moves have gone well?!

(I don't understand, whenever I'm around my tanks it's reefing time. )

Yeah, I'm surprised therre hasn't been a lawsuit. With the end sockets falling off so quickly it has to have caused issues with someone.

Appogee PAR meter is nice but seeing tanks like yours that don't look like what the color temp of the bulbs claims bugs me. I have a fair confidence in my guessing ability since I see lots of differnet tanks but it's still an educated opinion. One of these days I'm going to have to get a Licor that produces a chart of the visible light output

One of my best clients hired me because his wife refused to help anymore when he went on business trips.

Great news! That and the wetlands being created will really help the bays and coastal waters!

Purple Tang is going strong at 30+! Was really worried about it after the ice storm last year. It had a slight bobbing as it swam for abut a month suggesting a swim bladder problem but it was eating well.

I don't know why you bothered, that Hollywood Stunner is going to cover the tank soon enough. 😃

That's too bad! Comparing the two LED assemblies it almost looks like initially something got between the led and lens that started to fry the lens. I've always liked Kessils, over the years thier A360s have been one of the most reliable fixtures I've worked with.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Looking good! Glad to hear things are improving! Just FYI, if you keep the mangrove you'll need a much bigger planter and brighter lights mounted on the ceiling. 😃

Just FYI, "old school" is T12s and 5000K MH. 😄

One of the more original names I've heard for a hermit. ANd keeping the GSP on the sand makes it easy to frag colonies as it grows onto the sand. Keep adding phosphate, probably best to stay with you current dosing levels. Even if you aren't seeing it on your test kit your corals are enjoying it and that may be why you don't see it on your test kit. You might try verifying your tester by adding a drop of neophos to the water sample. It should give you two results.

To start with I'd be doing weekly water changes (5% - 10%) siphoning off as much algae as I can. Steel Straws may help maximise reducing the unwantd stuff without going over 20% - 40% monthly total and sand can be rinsed off in fresh nwater or aquarium water and returned. Nuisance algae can dump a lot of DOC into water that promotes microbial issues with corals and you don't have a lot of corals yet to counter by promoting microbial beneficial processes. As far as "ideal" above .03 mg/l, this was the threshold number identfied by researchers at Southampton University to reduce the risk of phosphorus deficiency. For refference, upwelling will expose corals to .3 mg/l, one study showed increased growth in Acropora murcata at .5 mg/l, RIchard Ross (Thales on the forums) has sexually reproduced acropora millipora at .9 mg/l.

Yeah, good example how an animal can change between systems and why it can be important to learn as much about how an animal is kept to keep colors