
hazymranch
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Everything posted by hazymranch
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Engineering student, eh? Couldn't tell. Really, really nice work.
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Hey Chim, I have the same camera and my pics are crap compared to yours. If I set it to P, how do I get to the macro setting? Also, the halides cause everything to look really washed out and any color that might have existed simply looks white. Help?
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I recently got a 100 gpd 6-stage RO/DI from ebay and it worked out to be around $400 NZD delivered. Nedless to say I am thrilled with it.
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I wonder what he heard/learned that made him sleepless? As for him forgetting to add water during his last or last few water changes, he apparently does not do water changes on that tank so that theory does not "hold water". (sorry for the pun) Also, that part of Texas is hard clay. If it had not rained in a week, which apparently it had not, any water that suddenly ran onto the lawn would run right off it and into the gutter/french drains. It definitely would not soak into the grass enough to kill it or even turn it slightly brown. Baffling. I am dying to find out what happened.
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What's the trick with hydnophora anyway? The LFS gave me a frag that was doing poorly in his tank and asked me to see if I could bring it around. It is looking better than it did, but still nowhere near as healthy as the one in Helifax' tank. I have it placed high in the tank with solid flow (somewhat laminar unfortunately) and my water quality is really good. Is there anything else I should consider? Hey Rossco, I don't mean to hijack your thread, but you did bring up the hydrophora. I hope you don't mind.
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I imagine that the size of the tank and resulting number of hiding places/areas to call their own would have a fair amount to do with it, as would who was in the tank and established first. I have also been told that puffers will eat shrimp and I know a bloke who has kept both peacefully for well over a year. Go figure. There are so many factors that go into socialization of livestock that every case will be a different one. I guess my point is that it can happen and don't put a coral banded in there with a cleaner unless you are prepared to lose the cleaner(s).
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Hey Rossco, DO NOT put a coral banded shrimp in with your cleaner(s) as they will fight to the death. That usually means the cleaner's death as the coral banded are heavily "armed". (I have been dying to use that joke). That was how I lost Groundskeeper Willie I. I never saw it happening because he only "hunted" at night, but my wife was in feeding our son one night and saw the whole bloody fight by cold blue (simulated) moonlight. Even given that our coral banded only had one arm/claw, it wasn't anywhere near a fair fight. Good luck.
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Hey Poppy, I am also a relative newby as I started just before Helifax. I will echo his recommendation to read the Paletta book, and add one of my own as I found it extremely helpful. "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Bob Fenner was my bible to start with. Bob Fenner is a renowned expert in the field and writes for Wet Web Media, which is also a helpful website. You may be able to get a multiple book deal for these two books on Amazon, but as you are a dealer you may have better sources for both or either. My advice is to read the Fenner book cover to cover, and that will give you an idea of what is involved in keeping a Marine tank as well as alot of the biology of Marine animals. Understanding what these animals (your pets) need to live will help you figure out what you will need in order to provide for them. Then, the Paletta book will give you step-by-step instructions on how to get your tank started. Reading Fenner first will give you the theory required to make your own modifications to Paletta's method, in my opinion, and both are written in relative lay terms. Several websites are golden, including Reef Central and especially this forum as reef keeping in NZ is very different due to the availability (or lack thereof) of various things. You will get differing opinions in answer to your questions and please do not be discouraged by your initial outing as the people here are very helpful and knowledgeable. As you have noticed, you may not always get the response you were hoping for, but it all comes from a good place and the strength of response is due to a passion for the hobby. Sorry for the length of this, but it is easy to get discouraged in this hobby, but the hours you spend staring into your tank in amazement as it comes alive before your eyes is worth every bit of effort getting there. Good luck
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Hey Layton, what's your recommendation with regards to baking soda? I normally mix 4L of Kalkwasser at a time and use it in 2 days. Should I add a tsp of baking soda to every other mixture? Every 4th mixture? Do I keep the baking soda clear of the Kalkwasser altogether and alternate mixtures of Kalkwasser with something like Reef Success Ca? Do I add baking soda to the Ca mixture? Basically, I suppose I am asking for an ideal supplementation regimen that will keep my KH, pH, Ca, and Mg levels roughly constant.
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I have been getting my lighting from Dr. Evil but the freight from Singapore and the hassle of having to go to the bank and do an international funds transfer, aside from the additional cost of the transfer itself, has made me a bit hesitant to go that route again. Do you know of any NZ sources of good T5 kits (waterproof endcaps, decent bulbs and selection, etc.)? Where are you thinking of getting yours?
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Cool. I will look into the acetic acid, thanks for the info. I run my sump lights at night to counteract or at least buffer the photoreactive drop in pH, but it still drops a little and so I top off at night too. Where did you get your PC bulbs and what kind of pin configuration do they have? I'm planning my mini reef (10G) hood and I would like to use PC but thought I was limited by bulb color/temperature availability. I can get the ballasts easily enough for less than $20 each.
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Hey dude, your tank is looking phenomenal and very natural and balanced. The variety of zoanthids is also very cool to see. I ave also started adding Kalkwasser to my top-off water and I go through about 2L/day of 2.5g/L solution. I noticed that my pH dropped steadily. Do you add baking soda to your Kalk solution? I have Reef Success Ca and I am debating whether I should alternate Kalk with the Ca + baking soda. I am also debating dropping the concentration of the Kalk in my solution to 1.25g/L. What conc. do you use? By the way, the leather frag you sent me has been split already and each of those is almost ready to be split again. Thanks a million.
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I got the bronze glass home and had a better look at it and it is only very slightly tinted so I don't think there will be any significant loss of light intensity or shift in the spectrum. It will work for the interim while I sort out a longer-term solution. Thanks for the info Joe. I will call around and see if I can find another shop that does untinted hardened glass.
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So, did you have the glass cut/drilled and then hardened? If it was hardened glass, didn't it shatter when you tried to cut or drill it? I'm so confused.
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Why couldn't I have read your post BEFORE I went to the glass shop. :oops: They tried to cut and drill it and it shattered as it was obviously hardened glass. So, for the bargain basement price of only $67.50 I bought a 20cmx20cm piece of bronze glass made for woodburner windows. It is slightly tinted bronze, but it should stand up to the heat easily enough. Does anyone see a problem with using this glass? As normal 5mm glass is 75% UV resistant, this should be at least that. If I hadn't been given this light fixture for free, I might be really upset about all of this rather than simply saddened about the loss of my fish and corals. I suppose this is a learning exprience and everyone has done similar and possibly worse in their first outing. So far my death tally numbers 2 fish, 2 shrimp, and the number of corals remain to be seen as none of them are entirely dead yet.
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Sweet, thanks for the info. I plan to take the glass from the original case and bring it to a glass shop to have it cut and drilled so I can affix it right to the reflector. The white xenia is now all but dead and I have cut away the dead bits and left a few polyps that may survive. The brown xenia is much the same. Both of the euphyllia managed to escape death, probably because they pulled completely inside at the first sign of UV burning and I hope they will recover. The 'shrooms shouldbe OK as they were in a low-light area to begin with. The clam is looking pretty bad and the zoanthids are variable. Some will die and some will live. On the upside, all of the algae is gone. :lol:
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In fact, it was a BLV 14,000K 150W bulb. It was only running for a few hours, but that was enough to kill the blennie (just found on the bottom). The fate of the corals remains to be seen, but the white xenia that was growing a pulsing beautifully has been hit hardest. I'm hoping that parts of it will survive to regrow. Now, as far as lens material goes, will any glass thick enough to withstand the heat suffice? Do I need to get a special polarized or tempered glass? What if I put an acrylic lid over the top, which would be 150mm from the bulb? When do I re-introduce the shielded MH? Do I let everything recover first and risk the death of the clam?
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So, I finally got around to wiring up the lighting kit I bought from DEL this weekend. The first step was to remove the MH from the industrial casing (it is an industrial work light with the bulb and ballast in the same casing) to make room for the T8 and T5 fixtures. I wired up the fluorescent bulbs well enough (Good stuf Dr. Evil...thanks) and fitted the MH in the center of the canopy. All of the lights worked beautifully although all of the corals pulled in their polyps and shrunk up tight. I thought that this was normal as the zooxanthellae will have to adapt to the new lighting. That was until my eyes started to burn at around 9pm last night and got worse until I finally went to the ED at 3am where they told me that I had "arc eye" common to welders who don't wear appropriate eye protection. This made me reflect on what was going on inside my tank and when I looked at the tank this morning (after a topical analgesic, voltarin, codeine, and paracetamol allowed me to open them) I noticed everything was still looking very bad and my bicolor blennie was visibly struggling and would not eat (very alarming as he is typically voracious). Oddly enough, my ocellaris and cleaner shrmps are fine. So, my question is: assuming that the bare MH bulb subjected the tank (and my eyes as the bulb flared to life unexpectedly as I was looking at it struggling to ignite) to a pretty bad dose of UV, how much damage have I done and what can I do to alleviate it? Do I keep all light off in the tank until everything recovers? Do I quickly figure out a way to cover the bulb with the original glass (polarized I now assume) and get it up and running ASAP so the clam and other high-light requiring corals don't suffer? Could the light have affected my Blennie that much or should I be looking for another reason why he is struggling?
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I just asked about this in Fay's thread when I saw her zoo's doing so well. (I didn't mean to hijack yoru threat Fay, I was hoping you would impart your secret) I moved some of mine to my nano and it opened up beautifully under 11W PC 8000K and low flow. The color changed from green to a very cool chestnut brown. I assume brown is the color of the zooxanthellae that adapt to that kind of light. The others I have under 150W MH in shadows and they are green, but only open partially. When the lights go out and indirect evening sunlight hits the tank, they open fully. Bizarre. I just moved them again today to try a less lit spot.
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Wow Fay! What incredible pictures. Also, from what I can see, your tank and inhabitants look great. I have the same sort of zoanthids in my tank but I can't get mine to open up like that. I have tried to move them to a lower flow, less lit area, but they don't fully open. I moved some to my nano with a 11W 8000K PC and it is so open it is nearly inside-out, although the color is much more brown than green now.
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I'm in the same boat and am looking to stock my 'fuge.
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I have officially given up. I just ordred a CPR BakPak and an AquaC Urchin, both of which I wil run out of my sump. I will worry about plumbing a monster skimmer on my next tank upgrade
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So, I am also trying to gravity feed a skimmer as well and I was hoping to learn how here. I am about to buy a skimmer and whether or not I can plumb it externally directly from the overflow to the skimmer and then into the sump will determine if I get an external skimmer or an in-sump or HOB skimmer. As you can see here, one of the overflows is plumbed with 25mm tubing. I have figured out that I can eliminate any air getting into the downflow (and eliminating the horrible sucking sounds) by closing the ball valve a bit, so I am not worried about large bubbles. If I can divert the flow from this weir to a skimmer, then would I need a pump to get the skimmed water into the sump from there? The weir currently flows into the far left chamber here where you can see the crappy Berlin Airlift presently in operation. As you can see, there is no room for an in-sump skimmer except perhaps an AquaC Urchin. My present thought, barring the external plumbing, is either the Urchin or a HOB that I will hang from the side of the sump. That said, I am still hopeful that I can plumb this externally. Any thoughts? Is this similar to what you are trying to accomplish?
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I have used it with no problems. Then again, I probably wouldn't know if it was the carbon causing a problem. Bottom line is that my water is clear.
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I have been meaning to get a few pics up but my laptop blew the pooch so posting has been delayed. Alot has changed since the last round of pics. By way of an update, I have managed to sort out my KH issues by a series of 20% water changes. The KH is now down to 13 from 20 (as of a few days ago) and dropping nicely. As a result of this, the Ca I have been supplementing is becoming soluble and Ca has risen from 180 to 380 and is climbing steadily. Mg has held solidly. I have been getting double distilled water from the Uni to replace evaporative loss. The heat from the MH and this sticky hot weather had my loss at 1L per day (open top) and the wiring of a cooling fan has increased that to 2L a day, but it now keeps the tanks steady at 24.5C. I have also started supplementing iodine this week. The corals have really responded to the changes. The white xenia has extended its stems and polyps are wide open and pulsing beautifully. The brown xenia is still shorter than it was, but the polyps are more open and also pulsing nicely. The finger leather is growing almost visbly now, and is a far cry from the purple blob it had become. The green zoanthid is still a worry. One or two polyps are partially extended, looking like short eyelashes, but the vast majority have still closed shop and look like individual pipes. The color is mostly brown, but the center of each polyp is a nice fluorescent green. Any suggestion on how to get it to open up? More direct light or flow?