Blog Comments

Not that editing pics for RA is a pain.............but I have a new appreciation for photographers and such..............because just going through the process of choosing then resizing and even auto correcting pictures takes time. It adds a entire dimension to our hobby, I can't wait for you to make your lighthouse video live.............as you have a way of "dumbing" stuff down....................BTW thanks for our convo on the APEX as I now understand and can't wait to blog about that process.

I took a picture today, and will be posting it up when I have it offloaded and edited for RA.

Please post a picture of this "boring algae" as I have seen green skeletons before and have always been at a loss and am very interested, I have always attributed it to lack of flow and detritus build up causing algae to grow on the skeleton and then causing the STN or even RTN. This is very interesting and I would love to see you interpretation or even facts about an algae that can kill from within.

Another follow up. Today the anemones are opening up further, as is the gorgonian. Alkalinity measured 8.5 dKH. I still see some of the damage some corals suffered, but I believe I was able to resolve the situation in time before it could snowball into major destruction. I'm going to call it a close call, and keep up with my Alkalinity testing every other day for a bit.

More facts gleaned:

Alkalinity test kits are not the same, even when the method is strongly similar:
Tropic Marin Alkalinity Test: count the drops as they turn from green to orange-red
Elos Alkalinity Test: count the drops as they turn from blue to yellow

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda is Sodium bi-carbonate
Baking baking soda in the oven at 200° F drives off the CO2 (which I knew), which makes it Sodium carbonate (which I didn't recall). More detail here
Soda Ash is Sodium Carbonate (or baked baking soda)

Username updated as requested.

Hmm. Carbonate vs bi-carbonate. Sounds like I had that mixed up, for some reason. Many years ago when I'd use B-Ionic to dose my tanks, I bought the wrong version that didn't help raise pH and was essentially useless to me. I couldn't return it, no-one in my area wanted it and I ended up throwing it away. I could have sworn it was the carbonate version. Since I've used Arm & Hammer baked baking soda whenever I was in a pinch, it acted a specific way when added to the water, and it is clearly bi-carbonate (I checked the box to be sure before I started). I don't know why the Fritz version would not mimic Arm & Hammer. I may mix up two different cups to observe if they appear to act equally, or not.

as you know sodium bicarbonate will raise Alk and not so much on the ph versus sodium carbonate which will raise both Alk and ph. I would assume that the material of choice in your supplement was sodium bicarbonate (as you already stated). I have been using that Elos kit kit since 2008, always used the result went it went to yellow, fwiw. I think you caught it, but the next 48 hours will definitely be a wait and see! Sorry! Can you change my registered name from mysterybox to Ralph Scheriff? no rush!

Well I can't confirm this but I am convinced that the bubbles have to do with food. It may be coincidence but I am doubtful, whenever I feed large chunks, krill, squid, silversides, they always seem to bubble up after. So I don't know if this is a digestion thing or what. What I have concluded is that they stretch out in order to be able to catch more food, just my thoughts no science or even an experiment to test this just what I notice in my nem tank aka the "Rose Garden." On another note they always seem to bubble up and split after they have eaten well too, so lots of choices here. But if I blog that tank after this remodel i'll go over all of that as well.

Thanks! I'd really prefer to see the beautiful bubbles they seem to start out with.

KK I think I am going to do a blog on the "Rose Garden" Love the extension you get out of you RTBAs

Talk about dancing with death.... this guy was very, very lucky. I wouldn't try it again if I were him....

Sadly, yes.

ROTFL!!!! Is that picture actually real?!?!?

I agree. Thanks!

I think it looks better now that they are all the same Wattage! Your tank is looking great Marc!

Originally Posted by guppy breeder

out of the few times I've been over I have never noticed that.

Which means it works.

out of the few times I've been over I have never noticed that.

That is one nice set of corals...
Can't wait to see your tank hit a couple of years old and mature as much as the old 280!!!
That blue tort is sweet, Good luck with it, it was a real bad day when I lost my ORA blue oregon tort.

The new Apex Fusion is a great new addition, I have been using it for a few weeks with no problems.

There's always a way to build woodwork. I've got plans but zero rush to implement them. I spoke about the concept back in January / February but it may only happen this summer. We'll see.