Bpb Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 No I mean the bucket of dry salt itself. Not the mixed water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted October 14, 2013 Author Share Posted October 14, 2013 No I mean the bucket of dry salt itself. Not the mixed water. Oh that salt bucket...oops. Perhaps not as much as I should. I'll give it a better shake and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Cob Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 You have come a long way in a short period of time. Way to go, tank looks great. Sent from my HTC VIVID using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esacjack Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 also, dont overmix your saltwater, it can cause precipitates to form, and your numbers to skew... theres a thread about somewhere that i think vic, jetstep or bio started... one of the troublemakers.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 You have come a long way in a short period of time. Way to go, tank looks great. Sent from my HTC VIVID using Tapatalk thanks, i have to credit many of the members here for some great advice. but i'm really happy with how it is looking and glad i haven't had any major issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 also, dont overmix your saltwater, it can cause precipitates to form, and your numbers to skew... theres a thread about somewhere that i think vic, jetstep or bio started... one of the troublemakers.. uuugggg....over mixing SW. thanks, i'll have to check for that thread. although, i'm a little curious how my airstone can provide over misxing compared to the all the pumps and power heads in the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorien Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Your tank looks awesome! Mine can't mature fast enough, LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted October 23, 2013 Author Share Posted October 23, 2013 Your tank looks awesome! Mine can't mature fast enough, LOL! thanks lorien, i owe you guys and update. i got my fancy rock from patrick with several macro algeas. but i think that i have a brittle star that eats all the small stalky red ones. i put some in the DT and he went for it within an hour in broad daylight. he sat on it for a bit and when he left there was some noticeable damage. so, all of the red macro has been moved to the sump until i can figure out what to do. i also called him some nasty names, but i don't trust that this would have changed the behavior. so, once i figure out what to do about that, i'll put my cool rock back in the tank and take some more pictures. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Yes, I'd like to see pictures of your fancy rock! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted October 24, 2013 Author Share Posted October 24, 2013 Yes, I'd like to see pictures of your fancy rock! Yeah yeah yeah, I'll get to it . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted November 24, 2013 Author Share Posted November 24, 2013 ok, so it's only been a month since i promised my big update. so, here goes...i know that my saying "this may be a long one" may be a bit scary considering the length of some of my previous posts that i thought would be short. but in my defense, i have a lot to update. i'm also hoping that it will be a little reverse psycological and keep it shorter. i guess i'll just go with the bad news first. my jawfish and my molly have disappeared. the jawfish had been kicked out of his home by smith and wesson (goby/pistol) and he and his friendly birttle star relocated from the center of the tank to the left side rock. he seemed plenty happy and was having no trouble eating well. then one day i walked by and he wasn't there. or anywhere. FTS (clearly) Left side rock - frogspawn and sun coral in the pic you can see on the substrate what i have been thinking was cyano. but, after three rounds of chemiclean not working, and talking to new55galsalt, i'm thinking it may not be cyano. new55galsalt recommended shortening my photo period. so i have it at about 9 hours now. the corals seem fine and the cyanowhatever is receeding a bit. once i get a minute to do a WC i'll see how it does. it is also not growing so fast along the glass. Center Section - paly/zoas, subsea accessorry rock, mushroom, and "cool" candy cane. the mushroom and candy cane are probaby not in their permament locations. Right side rockys - zoas, sunny-d (yes, i named my dendro, what?), subsea designer rock, and surprise corals. Designer Rock - I like it, but someone has eaten off about two and half macros. i'm still happy with what is left, but am a little displeased that it lost some life. but thinks move along. i'll fix it. it was definately worth it. it came with the gorg, four types of macro, and a yellow ball sponge (not pictured). subsea kept it in his system for several months, let some things grow onto it and provided some things that didn't attach that i glued onto it. it all cost me a 6 pack of shiner. red macro 1 - i really like this stuff. this is the "half" that has not been destroyed yet. to be fair, the half that is gone may have just broken off and may turn up somewhere else. i'll look for it. red macro 2 - this one is really cool, too. so far, nothing seems to have touched it. gorg - this lost some of its meet for a while. i thought it was the cyanowhatever growing on it. but it appears that it was in fact deteriorating. so, i relocated it and put it in more flow. it seems to be helping, but i'm keeping an eye on it. i accidentally got some SPS from Dustin. so, i have a frag of birdsnest and a frag of digi. i glued them to little pieces of rubble and placed them in the tank. no bleaching, good extension, and good color (more on the birdsnest; blue digi is showing a little bit of blue, but not a lot). i didn't glue them down because i have not decided where they want to go. yesterday i noticed the birdsnest was on the sand bed being wrestled by a hermit. not sure what he was doing, but i was on the phone and unable to fix it. i came back later and he had stood it up on its rock and it was just sitting there all happy on the sand. so i left it alone. this evening, again on the phone, i looked and it was gone. i looked around and smith and wesson had decided they wanted to use it as the door to their little bungalow. i grumbled and cussed at them. wesson shot at me as i grabbed it and put it back on the rock. i think the picture of the birdsnest looks pretty good, but the digi is not easy to capture. not sure why. Plays - JamesL warned me about these spreading quickly. Boy was he not kidding. I actually fragged them already (accidentally). They were in QT for a month and sitting on a rock. when i went to pull them out, it had already grown onto the rock they sat upon. i figured i'd kinda killed some of it. so, imagine my surprise when i saw a single head sitting on the rock in QT the other other day. So, I have placed them in the back corner here hoping they will grow up the back wall and overflow. however, i am finding it a bit tricky to feed them because the swirling flow takes all the food away. based on how fast they are growing, it seems they don't need food, so the few shrimp they get seems fine. i just like watching them eat. Fuge - I had to trim back the feather calurpa from the DT and devided to add it to the fuge (after seeing it in Grog's i think). it is just for fun. i have replaced the prolifia in that one section with the feather. i'll see how it does and leave it or add the prolifia back. the prolifia grows very quickly. i've had to cull the heard twice in the last few months. i got a handful of cheato, but it didn't take. i had stuck it above the rubble in the return section. i'm not sure if it was a lighting thing or it got all mixed into the rocks and died. i found a few odd pieces and pulled it out. i may try that again later. Finally, the sun has set on the tank, but it is a full moon tonight. i do think the AI Sol is pretty fun for the lunar cycle and the thunderstorms. reverse psycology didn't seem to work. thanks for reading (if you did) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorien Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 Bummer about the fish, but your tank looks great! Lots of interesting stuff going on in there. Thanks for the update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 Great update! I miss the lunar cycles, that is a great feature. Sorry about the jawfish, I know that was one fish you really wanted. Things look great with the coral and macros! The palys definitely don't need to be fed. Have you tried feeding the gorg though? I think higher flow was a great idea for it. If you have some filter feeder food, that will help too. I have a huge container of filter feeder food if you want some. I have the same stuff in one area of my sandbed, kinda like diatoms. My conch does a good job of eating it, do you have one? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted November 24, 2013 Author Share Posted November 24, 2013 Thanks guys. I am pretty sad about Ali (jawfish). I'll get another one someday though. Kim, your fancy lights don't do the lunar cycle? Don't you have kessils? I feed the gorg, sun coral, and the candy cane phytoplankton. I have it in a little squeazy-bottle and just sqeaze out a cloud around each one. Sometimes at the zoas and (now) SPS too. But, it did take me a little while to get used to the idea that the gorg was there and probably hungry, so he missed some meals. I don't have a conch. I was worried because they're the ones that get big and wreck your corals, right? I started thinking that my algae is Dino....(stuff that I want to call fillangies, but I know that isn't right). It's not dusty like I think diatoms are, it's kind of stringy. But it doesnt seem to form the thick mats that cyano is supposed to. If the reduced lighting and gravel vaccing doesn't fix it soon I'll look into the conch. I'll need to go to the store soon and pick up a new jawfish. Shannon sharp, maybe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Like Kim said, the Palys really don't need any direct feeding. Mine get some accidental food when I feed the rest of the tank (that great once every few weeks event). As for the gorg, it is a light loving one, so maybe your new position will help. Also, make sure no one is nipping at it. I have a coral beauty angel in my large tank that loved to pick at that same one. I moved it to my small tank, and it is happy again. Also, I seem to remember with mine it never really seemed to grow for a while, then one day it just took off. Great progress on that tank! I seem to fighting the same brown "stuff" in my tanks too lately. I thought it was because I re-arranged the big tank recently and kicked up a bunch of junk from the sand. But I am thinking it might be the cooler weather now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted November 25, 2013 Author Share Posted November 25, 2013 thanks james, you feed once every few weeks? wow, i see people online saying that "oh, clowns should be fed 10x a day". i usually feed daily. sometimes skip a day. i probably shouldn't, and definitely don't need to, feed my palys often, but like i said, i just like seeing them eat. maybe i'll get bored with it, but man my palys seem to grow fast. i haven't noticed anything nipping at my gorg, but i haven't had a lot of intimate time, gazing lovingly into it's eyes, with my tank lately. but, it does seem happier where it is. it is "bushier" and i don't think it is deteriorating anymore. of course, it's been three days or so. the reduced lighting is continuing to help the brown stuff. still haven't vacuumed the sand. but i'm hoping to do that before leaving town for thanksgiving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted November 25, 2013 Author Share Posted November 25, 2013 so, to do a brief summary or 21 pages that have various discussions of my sandbed... i had originally thought that doing a 3" sandbed throughout take up too much room in the tank. so i came up with a fancy retaining wall through the middle and asked all the sand on one side to be deep and all the sand on the other side to be shallow. i wanted the deep portion for my goby/shrimp and jawfish and possibly help with denitrification. the divide was sort of diagonal, so the primary viewing angles were shallow and the back would be primarily deep. however, it quickly became apparent that my 1 hour a week could not keep up with the 24 hours a day that wesson has to bulldoze the sand whereever he wants. i've tried to explain the concept of the wall and he just stuck a claw in the air, which i am quite certain was shrimp bulldozer for "eff off, i do what i want". also, when ali (jawfish) and his pet brittle star got evicted by smith and wesson, he ended up moving into the shallow portion of the sand bed. so, now it seems that about 75% of the front of my tank has a 3" sandbed. and, i don't mind how it looks. so, i'm thinking about just adding another 2' of sand and going with a 3" sandbed everywhere. that will get my future jawfish more places to burrow and maybe wesson wont run him out of his home at claw point. i'm thinking that i'll leave the rubble wall in place so that future generations of archeologists will have something to research. it'll be interesting to see if there is a debate over the origins; whether is was done by ancient cultures using massive amounts of slave labor or ancient aliens built it as a landing strip for their space subs. maybe i'll sprinkle in some advanced tools and clay pots with copper probes to spark debate. i do realize that the inhabitants will still rearrange their sand and that i'll end up with portions that are 6" and portions that are 2". but i like the rolling natural look more than the manicured even look anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 If it were me I'd just leave it, like you said, the inhabitants are going to rearrange it all anyway. And definitely don't add copper probes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted November 25, 2013 Author Share Posted November 25, 2013 If it were me I'd just leave it, like you said, the inhabitants are going to rearrange it all anyway. And definitely don't add copper probes i was thinking that would hurry the generations along so i don't have to wait 50 years to get a good enough divergence from the current generation of creationists. adam and eve are still there and will know the truth. then, in a year or so i can get a mr. cob's feedable man-darwin to plant the seeds of evolution and form a schism in the belief structure. sadly, i can't find a punny marine animal for anne nicol gaylor that'll fit in a 40g tank... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 If it were me I'd just leave it, like you said, the inhabitants are going to rearrange it all anyway. And definitely don't add copper probes i was thinking that would hurry the generations along so i don't have to wait 50 years to get a good enough divergence from the current generation of creationists. adam and eve are still there and will know the truth. then, in a year or so i can get a mr. cob's feedable man-darwin to plant the seeds of evolution and form a schism in the belief structure. sadly, i can't find a punny marine animal for anne nicol gaylor that'll fit in a 40g tank... I suspect that you are in tune with the "other side". Perhaps you should listen to more of "The Dark Side of the Moon". The bacteria will rule. They defeated the Martians in "War of the Worlds". Banzai, Patrick PS. I may have taken too many anti-histamine today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted November 25, 2013 Author Share Posted November 25, 2013 If it were me I'd just leave it, like you said, the inhabitants are going to rearrange it all anyway. And definitely don't add copper probes i was thinking that would hurry the generations along so i don't have to wait 50 years to get a good enough divergence from the current generation of creationists. adam and eve are still there and will know the truth. then, in a year or so i can get a mr. cob's feedable man-darwin to plant the seeds of evolution and form a schism in the belief structure. sadly, i can't find a punny marine animal for anne nicol gaylor that'll fit in a 40g tank... I suspect that you are in tune with the "other side". Perhaps you should listen to more of "The Dark Side of the Moon". The bacteria will rule. They defeated the Martians in "War of the Worlds". Banzai, Patrick PS. I may have taken too many anti-histamine today. talk about the meek inheriting the earth. can't get much meeker than bacteria. enjoy your sneeze-free ride on the dark side of the moon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 http://marineplantbook.com/marinebooknemastoma.htm This is your #1 red macro. I have a large live rock with many colonies of this red macro. It is fleshy and somewhat slippery to the touch, The Yellow Tang in my #2 55G lagoon loves it. There is so much macro he grazes on it all. He is prunning and grooming. I thought about your request to supply an undulating veggie bar on a pump discharge nozzle. The long entestine shapped tubes of green macro are a first cousin to Ulva, which is the principal ingrediant in Nori. http://marineplantbook.com/marinebookenteromorpha.htm If you want some, come and get it. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted November 25, 2013 Author Share Posted November 25, 2013 http://marineplantbook.com/marinebooknemastoma.htm This is your #1 red macro. I have a large live rock with many colonies of this red macro. It is fleshy and somewhat slippery to the touch, The Yellow Tang in my #2 55G lagoon loves it. There is so much macro he grazes on it all. He is prunning and grooming. I thought about your request to supply an undulating veggie bar on a pump discharge nozzle. The long entestine shapped tubes of green macro are a first cousin to Ulva, which is the principal ingrediant in Nori. http://marineplantbook.com/marinebookenteromorpha.htm If you want some, come and get it. Patrick good to know. although, i was going to call it devil's fingers...oh well. ps: sadly, i have no medical excuse for my mood today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Both Halymenia Elongata and Nemastoma are called Red Finger. H. Elongata maximum height is 12" as oppossed to 6" for Nemastoma. Both are common in GOM. Cold rainey days make for strange bedfellows. Keep the peace. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted November 26, 2013 Author Share Posted November 26, 2013 Wow, it'll be cool if it gets that big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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