Reef Addicts - Blogs

Dichromatic Trachyphyllia

melev — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:03:00 GMT

Here's a very surprising coral recently posted by Walt Smith Int'l Fiji. Too good to be true, right?

Here's the link to the video on Facebook (turn your speakers down): https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

And a bunch of images. It came out of the ocean like this; it's not some man-made merging of two colors. Neat find.

Someone out there will buy it no matter what it costs, and I'm assuming it won't be cheap.

What a unique chalice

melev — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:39:56 GMT

I spotted this on Facebook today. Image by Reefkoi. Look at the size of the polyps that opened up on this Chalice coral. I read that it's from Jason Fox's collection.

Some Rock Structures I made

Electrobes — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:23:04 GMT

Marc suggested I post some of my tinkering of Rock Structures here. :)

This is Man-Made Rock, using rock studs and resin epoxy on certain joints (Using the rock studs) to make it super sturdy. A cat 5 hurricane may knock it over. ;)

This structure has an arch and a semi-divided branch in the back (depending on how you look at it). I used Snapseed (Google's mobile picture editor) to edit the pics as it's very difficult to actually show what the rocks look like in real life. Hope you enjoy!

Unexpected issue with my frag tank

melev — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:30:00 GMT

The frag tank holds roughly 10g of saltwater, and the corals in there are growing bigger fighting for space. I've considered building a new one to replace this one once the 400g gets here. I don't know the date unfortunately.

Yesterday as I was looking at the tank, I noticed that one end was floating - which it never does. The first thing I did was put some shims under the end to support the corners of the tank.

This board is 1" thick and was sealed with Polyurethane on all sides, including the edges.

What must have happened is when I turned up the flow going into the tank a little too high lately, a small amount was going over the front and got under the frag display. That moisture must have gotten into the wood and caused it to warp.

The new frag tank will go in a different location in the fishroom, but I don't want to set that up until the 400g comes in to avoid further objects impeding working space when everyone is helping get it into position. It's my hope that this will hold it over for a few more weeks.

June's Full Tank Shot

melev — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:30:18 GMT

Let's see your reefs! Take your pictures, resize them for web sharing, and post it in the reply field. You'll need to host it somewhere like Photobucket to share it in your reply.

Here's the 215g, which is over a year old now.

Good to be back!!!

NEReef — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 18:30:18 GMT

Hey fellow reef addicts it has been awhile since i have been around, and man it is good to be back!!! I have been on fishtank hiatus since last summer/fall when i sold all of my 20+ fishtanks. Ive been spending most of my time and money on other hobbies that the wife finds more practical/useful, but with the sale of my house pending and a move in the plans I am itching to get back in the game. I had to completely cut myself off from the forums/fish stores/TV shows about fish etc... because I knew it was the only way not to get sucked back in. I am glad to be back but things looked like they have changed a little around here and I am trying to re-familiarize myself with the sight. I can't seem to find the store/barter section. Is that still a part of the sight? It was pretty new and not heavily used when I was on here last. Also Mark had just gotten the crack in the 400g and was trying to deal with getting it fixed. I thought for sure having been gone so long it would be back up and running smooth. I admit I was really looking forward to reading all about it and see the progress. Pretty depressed when I read it was returned built wrong and had to be redone. Good on you Mark for sticking with it and I am glad Marineland is attempting to make it right. I am also kinda sad to see things don't seem to be as lively around here anymore. I have noticed quite a few days gaps between posts.... I used to be glued to the site checking it all day every day, and I hope the slow posts are just a matter of the seasons. I am really glad to see Paul B still posts!!!! I love that guys take on fish keeping and life in general!! Anyways guys and gals like I said its good to be back and I look forwarded to diving back into this great adventure.

t5 question

tachorn — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:48:50 GMT

I am in the process of building a canopy for my tank and wanted to know what the total length of a t5 with stand off will be for a 75gal rr tank. I am currently running a Icecap vho setup and want to change to t5. I am currently running a 46.5 inch setup on the vho's and total length fit in my temp canopy of 48 inches.

thanks

Diving Galapagos

ladyonyx — Sat, 18 May 2013 23:05:32 GMT

There are endless dive spots to visit in the world, but there�s no doubt in my mind that Galapagos is on the �bucket list� of every diver out there. I know it has always been on mine, and it absolutely did not disappoint. While the rules and regulations have changed a bit over the last few years with regard to combined land/water-based trips, you can still experience both underwater and topside locations on the same trip. Ideally, it would be perfect to book two weeks or more in Galapagos, the first half diving, the second hiking around on land, but since this much time off from the grind is not always an option, I think 10 days, including travel, is a reasonable amount of time to get the feel of this incredible place and hit the major dive spots and explore a bit on the islands.

I booked my trip through DEEP BLUE (http://www.deepbluegalapagosdiving.com) and they did a fabulous job with every aspect of the trip. The staff was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the areas visited, diving conditions, and all manner of wildlife both underwater and on land. As can be expected, there is a huge emphasis on conservation when diving in Galapagos due to its status as a series of marine parks and protected areas, but more than that it�s an incredibly important place not only because of the unique biodiversity, but because Galapagos is a location paramount to the landscape of scientific knowledge as it exists today. Galapagos is the birthplace of modern evolutionary theory as described by the British naturalist Charles Darwin during his voyage there by way of the HMS Beagle in 1835; Darwin�s observations of the animal life, in particular the numerous variations and specific adaptations of avian fauna on the islands, served as the basis for the development and eventual publication of his unified theory of evolution in his best-known piece of literature, The Origin of Species (1859). Visiting Galapagos and standing in the actual footsteps of this great man is akin to making a pilgrimage to Mecca for science nerds, and I�d recommend this experience to anyone who values the importance of biological diversity and how we, as a species, both understand and protect it for future generations.

Now, into the blue!

We spent a day in Quito, Ecuador to get acclimated to the elevation. The next day was a short flight to Guayaquil on the coast where we shortly boarded the DEEP BLUE vessel and began the overnight cruise to San Cristobal. We arrived in San Cristobal around noon on a monday, where we did our checkout dive and got our gear ready and tested out for the rest of the week. Not a whole lot other than rockfish, starfish, urchins, and playful sea lions in some chilly 65F water, but a neat dive nonetheless.

On Tuesday we arrived at Punta Carrion. We did two dives that day and started to really get a feel for what Galapagos looks like under the waves with its characteristic rocky slopes and sandy reef flats punctuated with big boulders. There were plenty of sea lions, the ubiquitous schools of colorful creole fish, and lots of lovely little endemic dorid nudibranchs (Tambja mullineri) with black and blue stripes. White-tipped reef sharks visited us on both dives.

We cruised all night to arrive at Wolf Island in the morning on Wednesday where we did three dives (water temp of ~73F). The sheer amount of epic marine biomass present here will knock your fins off, as will the ripping current. Massive schools of scalloped hammerheads, eagle rays, turtles, white-tipped reef sharks, Galapagos sharks, silky sharks, Guineafowl puffers, and a variety of snappers were common sights on these dives. Bring your gloves, try not to drop your regulator out of your mouth as you say �WOW� to yourself every 10 seconds, and get ready to swim. You might be a little fatigued from fighting with a hefty current (4 knots when I was there in September), but the sore muscles are easy to ignore when you�re staring up at hundreds of hammerheads. This is certainly an incredible sight that will be seared into your mind�s eye for the rest of your existence.

On Thursday we arrived at Darwin Island where we were greeted by a lovely pod of dolphins that showed us the way to the very recognizable Darwin�s Arch. We spent both Thursday and Friday diving Darwin, the northernmost island of Galapagos, where we completed a total of six dives. There is so much to see that it�s impossible to cover everything in this paragraph. So I will summarize Darwin as follows: back roll out of the boat, descend, realize that you haven�t breathed because the beauty of this undersea paradise literally took your breath away, put the regulator back in your mouth after you recover from your daze of slack-jawed awe, and breathe. Now, here comes the visual bombardment summary: turtles, sharks, jacks, sharks, rays, whale sharks, eels, sharks, octopus, whale sharks, parrotfish, sharks. Did I mention sharks?! You will be madly in love with Darwin Island, and you probably won�t mind the boobies all over the deck of the boat either. Brown-footed booby birds of course, get your mind out of the gutter!

After two days of nothing but amazement, we arrived at Punta Vicente Roca on Saturday. Our departure south carried with it a massive drop in temperature. Grab every layer of dive gear you brought and put it on, and you�ll still be cold. The water temperature here was a balmy 51F, and the frozen extremities reminded you of it regularly. But the cold water was no match for the incredible creatures that inhabit this area. You soon forget you can�t feel your feet and start to notice all the unique animals here. The primary attraction in this dive spot is the endemic red-lipped batfish (Ogcocephalus darwini), which resides in about 100ft of water. Sea lions keep you company here as well as seahorses, cephalopods, all manner of crustaceans and then holy Mola mola! Right in front of you there are three ocean sunfish relaxing at a cleaning station letting you snap pictures until you run out of space on your memory card! Penguins, sea turtles, schools of salema, and marine iguanas accompany you in the rocky shallows, an area comprised of huge boulders covered by a layer of perfectly manicured macroalgae that looks more like the greenest rolling hills of Ireland than an underwater scene off the coast of South America.

Finally, we reached our final dive destination of Cousin�s Rock on Sunday. We did two dives here, and while this spot has a good reputation, the day we were there the water was extremely choppy and the visibility was terrible. We still saw picture-worthy creatures, but the less than ideal diving conditions made it more of an exploratory experience than a photographic one. A few eagle rays were spotted along with quite a few sea lions, including some very young and equally curious pups. Black coral bushes grow under rocky ledges and slipper lobsters adorn the many crevices of the triangular Cousin�s Rock. In the afternoon, we enjoyed the dry land of the Charles Darwin Research Station on Bartolome.

The following day was spent back in San Cristobal visiting the Charles Darwin Interpretation Center, photographing the famous Galapagos tortoises, and walking along the beautiful beaches covered with sunning sea lions. This sea lion rookery was fantastic for photos and was a great way to end an unforgettable week.

We flew out of Quito, Ecuador the following day after some delicious local food and lots of chocolate. I hope to return to Galapagos some day, and honestly feel like this is one of those dive destinations that absolutely cannot be missed. The importance of conservation is a message that permeates every aspect of your time spent in Galapagos and stays with you long after you�ve returned to the likely less fantastic place you call home. Places like Galapagos are worth more to us as a species than any sum of wealth imaginable, and need our full devotion to their continued preservation and protection.

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My Saltwater Transition

BadPenny — Thu, 16 May 2013 02:04:25 GMT

I've been working on this project for around a month. The planning has been going on for more than a year. With that being said, i'm a newb when it comes to this.
For many years, I have kept freshwater tanks. After a recent move, I got rid of everything except the tank itself, and I decided to change over to a saltwater tank. I sure that I am ready for the challenge and am interested in learning the new techniques for this new part of the hobby.
Heres the area before. unfortunately i could only fit a 30g. in the spot.

My first biggest challenge was that of deciding where to place the overflow. This tank being on the small side i decided to place the overflow bulkheads in the center. From my research i went with the most fail safe design i could find. The three overflow system i found at Bean Animal's website.

With that decision i decided to place a return on either side of the return
heres what i ended up with.

i didn't think that drilling the tank was too difficult. That was until i did a wet test. the end of the cut left small chips on two of the holes.

I couldn't get the leak to stop by tightening so i had to resort to silicone. I just hope that this fix wont cause problems down the road but it does not leak anymore.

Since the tank seemed to be in good order time to work on the sump. Sine i'm working on a budget i'm going the Rubbermaid path. This is what i came up with

I couldn't find anything that could adhere to the sterylite material. So instead of trying to get something to stick to the sides which bow anyway, i made a modular baffle cage for my return pump. I left it with no bottom because during testing i found that it had a tendency to float under some situations. Because of this some water does come from underneath the sides. I don think that this is a problem though.

Having the tank and sump mostly finished it was time to make the stand.
Heres the stand finished and in place

With the stand in completed and in place time it was time to finish the plumbing.

That's that it for the build. Now the waiting begins.

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A Shrimp Tale

Paul B — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:05:50 GMT

Once upon a time (OK last year) I had this shrimp and Gobi

He looked lonely so the King of this section of reef (Me) went out and got him a little companion. In time, the little guy grew to where he could be friends, or maybe more than friends with the older guy. In the beginning the King was worried because the little gobi was tiny and he was afraid he would be eaten.
The two gobies moved into the tunnel dug by their friend the pistal shrimp. and it looked like they would be happy and safe forever.

Then this big, mean Watchman gobi came by and evicted these two smaller gobies, moved into their home, enslaved their shrimp and they had no place to live.

So the King (me again) searched far and wide and found a new shrimp that had no gobi friends and he bought him.
He put the shrimp in the six foot long tank not thinking these 3 creatures would ever meet up, but to his surprise, with in 10 minutes, the gobies found that the shrimp was living in a tube and they took up a position outside the entrance. The shrimp inched out and noticed the gobies guarding his cave and he immediately started digging a tunnel right beneath their watchful eyes.
Now the tunnel is about an inch deep and the gobies are laying across it, protecting it and the shrimp from harm. (you can just about make out the shrimp antenna sticking out of the hole, touching the gobi) The King of this reef (yes me) believes that by tomorrow, the gobies and the new shrimp will again be safe and comfortable in their new home. And the old watchman could go and sit on a tack and rotate.
The End.

Colt Coral Spawning

FlammySnake — Sun, 12 May 2013 07:33:44 GMT

So I'm writing this at 2:28 EST in an effort to:

Try my best to document the spawning of my leather coral. I've seen hard coral spawn, gorgonians, but have yet to see a leather tree coral spawn. I will update this on Sunday evening with pictures, but for the moment, this is so I don't leave out details I would otherwise forget.

Spawn noticed at approx. 2:09 am EST. All flow turned off immediately to determine source.

Small white dots. Gametes? Eggs? < or = 1mm.

Float to the surface. Some small fish consume them (damsels, anthias) others simply ignore.

At approx. 2:15 can see a lot of the egg/gametes building up inside the arms. Exiting through the polyps of the animal as like typical coral spawnings.

As of 2:42 am I can count maybe 300 eggs/gametes? Arms look filled with at least another 1,000 or so. Gorgonians definitely consuming spawn. Montipora Digitata maybe spawning as well? Heavy feeding of tank earlier in evening, approx. 11:35-45 pm EST. PE Mysis, frozen rotifers, RN ROE and Oyster Feast.

3:01 am one Vortech resuming flow. No digitata spawn. Seeing if increase in flow creates increase in speed of the release of egg/gamete/things. Contemplating capturing some of spawn.

Single pump showing no effect, returning all pumps to normal on position, same as when spawning began, 3:18 am

Things to note:
SG: 1.026 per refractometer
Nitrate: 0 per API test
Temperature: 79 F
Protein skimmer: Not happy.

10 gallon water change Monday. 10 gallon water change Tuesday. First water changes in 3 months. I know, I know. Wednesday large Sarcophyton leather moved near current spawning leather tree. Polyps retracted on spawning leather tree since Wednesday, today first day of full polyps extension. No visible contact seen between the two corals, invisible contact assumed and very likely.

3:29 am fish wondering what the HELL am I doing still bothering them. Turning off blue viewing led strip, letting system run. No collection of egg/gamete/planulae/things, going to bed.

Got a few decent pictures, a decent video, and will update this post on Sunday evening after work. Now so tired. Go. to. sleeeeeeeeeeeee....

EDIT: A little past Sunday now! Finally a couple of pictures and a little video!

http://youtu.be/vVSDqyEba8o

It's up, it's down, it's good, it's ... not as good as it could be...

melev — Thu, 09 May 2013 07:32:25 GMT

It's been an interesting week for the reef.

Alkalinity
Testing alkalinity, I noticed that it was getting a little low, probably around 7 dKH rather than the normal 8 dKH. To raise it up slightly, I adjusted the pH controller from the 6.5 setting to 6.2 instead. The next day, I checked on the calcium reactor to find that nothing was coming out. Annoyed, I opened up the needle valve a quarter twist and flow resumed. The following day I checked on it again, and again no effluent. I opened up the valve once more. Looking at the tank, I spotted two areas of the large Birdsnest colony turned pure white. Ugh. Fortunately, it was maybe 10% of the colony, but I knew it would progress more before it stopped. Checking the Alkalinity level of the tank again, it showed the water was measuring 6ppm.

Opening up a new box of baking soda, I baked it in the oven for 45 minutes at 375� F to drive off trapped CO2, let it cool and then mixed up a couple of cups of RO water with 3 heaping teaspoons of the baked baking soda. Trickling this into the tank buffered up the alkalinity, and I expected the calcium reactor to get back on track. The next day, I mixed up another batch with 2 heaping teaspoons, and the third day I mixed it up with 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Testing alkalinity, it still wasn't holding at 8 dKH, and that birdsnest coral continued to turn more and more white. I saved a few twigs that survived, but the colony is gone.

The calcium reactor seemed fine operationally speaking. There's about 50% of the media it could hold, which should be fine. I pulled apart the check valve of the CO2 line in case it was stopped up, but nothing unusual was found. The effluent of the calcium reactor should be between 19 and 30 dKH, but it was measuring 11. No wonder the tank's number was dropping. I buffered the tank again manually, and left the reactor to get back on track. The pH controller was reset to 6.5 to avoid a spike in the opposite direction.

None of the other corals have looked any different, fortunately. Acros, LPS, anemones, the clam, etc... all seemed well. Alkalinity has risen, higher than I'd like with the latest measurement around 12 dKH. Thus, I'm going to still have to fine tune this to balance out the proper effluent rate at the proper strength to get it back to 8 dKH. It was sad to lose that one colony, but I'm glad it was only the one and not multiple losses. Birdsnest grows quickly, but it is also one that heads south fast with little chance of survival once the tipping point has been reached. I chose not to handle the distressed coral, hoping it would stop on its own. Once stabilized, I could later cut off what had died and watch it regrow. It didn't work out this time, but messing with dying corals rarely yields satisfactory results; this is why I keep my hands off as long as possible to avoid adding even more stress to the situation.

Salinity
Salinity is measuring at 1.027 sg, or 36 PPT, using the Milwaukee digital refractometer. A little bit higher than two weeks ago.

pH
The probe I've used for the past year has been reading too high, providing numbers that others would envy. I knew better, and soaked the probe in white vinegar for about an hour and cleaned the tip with a toothbrush - like I always have. However, the probe didn't work any better; if anything, it was even less believable. I ordered a new probe, which has been installed but it is measuring far too low for me to believe. I picked up some calibration solution, and will get that taken care of tomorrow.

Nitrate
Having not tested this parameter in over a year, I was curious what level it might be. I was sure it was low because of the coral growth, and because I expect low numbers since I use biopellets. The kit shows yellow as zero nitrate, and it was very close to that color. The card offers 0, 5, 10, or higher. I'd say it was 3ppm. Considering that the reef gets three meals per day, using both pellet & flake food as well as frozen every night, plus a half sheet of nori is clipped in the tank four days a week, I'm very pleased to have this low number. Biopellets work.

Biopellets
When the pump is off, the reactor had about 1" of Vertex NP biopellet media left, so it was time to refill it. This time, I'm using Thrive's Crush biopellets. I won them in a club raffle and would like to see how they work. The pellets come in a foil pouch that's waterproof. I cut off the top of the package and filled it up with RO water to presoak the media for 24 hours, which was even more handy than pouring them into a container and adding water. Soaking them helps avoid clumping and reduces the tendency for pellets to float in the reactor initially. The next day, I poured in 500ml of Crush, and time will tell if they work as well as other brands.

Skimmate
The Skimmer Swabbie makes me lazy. It keeps the skimmer's neck clean of sludge and I empty the cup when it holds about a gallon of skimmate. Last night, the tank was fine, the skimmer operating normally, the weather is stable and the cup held about half a gallon of waste. Instead of dumping that out, I slept. When I got up this morning, the skimmer was overflowing and the system was quite cloudy. The waste was reintroduced into the tank, at least in part. I believe the anemones spawned, and that triggered the skimmer to overflow. I must have caught it early though. I cleaned out the cup, reset the skimmer again and within a few hours the water was crystal clear again.

Corals
When a friend stopped over today, visiting when all the lights were on for a change, he was really impressed by my reef. He knew it was my temporary setup, but couldn't help remark how nicely everything is doing regardless. He even was calling dibs on a couple of corals. :cupcake: I'm happy to see the recent corals I've gotten in the past 60 days are doing very well. Acros, Montis, Pagoda and more... and will look great in the 400g.

Aquarium
The last I've heard from Marineland, they expected to ship the 400g to me by the end of April. This is May 9, and I've not heard anything else yet but I do think I'll get it this month. At last, right? Once it is here, I have to get help bringing it in and onto the stand, get the rockwork aquascaped on the acrylic support system, add the rinsed sand, transfer the livestock, get the 60g plumbed in, aquascape and add the anemones, and then breakdown and remove the 215g from the fishroom. It'll be a lot of work, but it'll be great to finally get things back to the way they were, get my house back to what I'd intended, and enjoy my reef.

I recently uploaded a short video to facebook showing how I feed some banana to my reeflings. They love the occasional treat. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

Why I love this hobby

Paul B — Sun, 05 May 2013 21:26:49 GMT

I mean is it me, look at how cool some of this stuff is. You can have a dog, and well, it's a dog. OK everybody has a dog. (I don't) or you can have a cat although I don't know why anyone would have a cat. (I don't have one and never will) My Daughter has one for about a year and I don't think I ever saw the thing. I have no idea what color it is, how many legs it has, nothing, it's a cat. It's name is probably, cat. Maybe Felix, I have no idea.

But fish are so cool. How many different types of cats are there? 4, 7? Who knows, and more importantly. Who cares. It's a cat.

But fish. OMG, there are thousands, and they don't poop in a stinky litterbox, they don't spit up those disquesting hair balls or scratch the furnature (although they sometimes leak on it). When they die, you flush it and go buy another one. Even catfish are cooler than cats. Hech, amphipods are cooler than cats. OK, so I don't like cats, don't hate me. I know a lot of people have cats. I don't know why. But a lot of people don't know why I have fish. They just don't get it.

If you have a dog or cat, you give it some food and water and forget about it. But fish, have a life. Well for me they do. Yes, I know, I am weird.

But I do have multitudes of friends, some since grammar school but of course none of them have fish. They all have dogs and cats.

My wife has a cousin and quite a few years ago we went to their house for dinner and they have this big cat. It could have been a lion but they said it was just a house cat. It was on top of this high piece of furnature staring at us. Her cousin said not to make any sudden moves or the cat will attack you. I mean, Really. Would you have an animal that may attack you if you make a sudden move? I can run back and forth in front of my tank for as long as 15 minutes and not one of my clown gobies will make a move towards me.

My neighbor is going on vacation and she wants me to feed her dog. I hate that dog and I am scared to death of it. Whenever I walk up to her door, it growls, barks, jumps up and down and scratches curses in the glass door referencing me. She says he is playing. Like Duh, Playing. I get the horrors when I go there and now I have to play with this thing.

Anyway. Fish are so interesting and cool. just look at these guys. Try and get a cat that looks like this.

White worms, Black worms

Paul B — Sat, 04 May 2013 15:49:37 GMT

I have been feeding blackworms to fish for about fifty years and still do, but now I also raise white worms because I wanted something that I could "fill" with fish oil before I fed them to the fish. Here are some white worms. I put that piece of Matzo in there about 2 hours ago. in a couple of more hours it will be gone and it was covered in fish oil. I just take a knife and lift out a blob of worms from the top and no dirt comes along with it.
I also feed them Cheerios with fish oil.
All my paired fish are spawning and there has not been a disease in about 35 years. Must be something to it.

New Beginning. New Tank. I Need Your Opinion On Stand Color!

Blennymower — Sat, 04 May 2013 14:50:03 GMT

Starting law school led to me exiting the hobby for a while. But I'm back. I need your opinion on what color I should make the stand. I'm thinking white or black. Black will match with the tank seams and the soon to arrive Hamilton Cebu Sun fixture. White will look nice and will match the sand. Tell me what you think. Here's the new tank (all Starphire):