Non-Garbage Picked 210 Journal - Page 5

tekknoschtev · #61 (**permalink**) 07-01-2008, 10:38 PM

WE HAVE LIFE!

After hearing the good news of being "approved" for life, my mom and brother moved the two urchins over. This morning my mom picked up a pair of bangaii cardinals and a spotted foxface (the kind with one spot, but otherwise looks like a normal foxface). The two cardinals didn't take long to find home in the Urchin.

I'm so excited to finally see things getting in there. Most of the corals and existing fish will be going back, but that'll require the removal of the canopy - a task she wants to save for my dad and I since its got all three ballasts for the halides on top, plus it weighed quite a bit before even getting on there.

tekknoschtev · #62 (**permalink**) 07-03-2008, 10:44 AM

Well, more things are slowly finding their way into the tank. My mom moved Gert the electric blue damsel back and has been treating aiptasia on the rocks in one of the tubs we stored things in after the second 150 split on us so hopefully with the addition of the silver scat, we'll be covered.

I'm headed home this evening and am planning on getting the majority of everything else moved over. I'm super paranoid about some of the corals because some of them are starting to look unhealthy, but moreso I'm worried about the ones that are looking very healthy. Don't want to disrupt a good thing but I know long-term storage in the tanks that they're in now is not an option. My biggest concern is moving the anemones because I want to minimize the wandering tendencies. Hopefully we can do that adequately enough to keep them in at least the same general area.

I'll post updated pictures once things have settled down after being moved. I'm hoping that very soon that we'll be seeing things growing again

PEACOCK MANTIS · #63 (**permalink**) 07-03-2008, 10:44 PM

your setup looks real sharp, i always liked the long spine urchins

tekknoschtev · #64 (**permalink**) 07-04-2008, 12:45 AM

I don't know where the smiley that exemplifies our utter exhaustion, sheer elatedness, and absolute relief that we're where we are. I won't keep you waiting:

YAHOO! It's done! Well, "done." This is never going to be "done" I suspect, but there are fish, anemones, corals and some inverts!

As of right now, the tank inhabitants are as follows:

2x percula clownfish
2x silver scats
2x bangaii cardinals
1x electric blue damsel
1x single spot foxface
1x long spine urchin
1x pincushion urchin

My mom has more photos on her camera, so I'll have to try and get those photos tomorrow. We've got some big plans for getting color in this tank, but for now we're going to let things simmer a bit and settle down (I think).

Thanks for all the encouragement and compliments everyone - it surely helps!

Poseidon · #65 (**permalink**) 07-04-2008, 09:47 AM

Looks GREAT!!!! Good job Steve.

fishgeek88 · #66 (**permalink**) 07-04-2008, 10:17 AM

Perfect amount of rock, love the two piles!

tekknoschtev · #67 (**permalink**) 07-05-2008, 08:34 PM

Thanks everyone! I'm a big fan of the two pile look too, though "pile" makes it not sound like we tried, rather just dumped it in and let it be. Far from the truth - it took quite a while to get that look

John · #68 (**permalink**) 07-06-2008, 12:17 PM

can't wait to see it completely filled.

tekknoschtev · #69 (**permalink**) 07-16-2008, 11:21 PM

I was home this weekend, albeit briefly since I was only home to meet up with my folks and take off for Massachusetts for one of my best friend's wedding. But I was able to snap some shots of the tank before I left to come back to Lansing.

We only have a few corals in the tank at this point, partially because we were only able to save a few, and partially because we don't want to clog the tank up with browns and greens. I'm so glad that this bugger survived the crash of the 150 though. And it is one of the corals that is responding VERY favorably to the new tank. When we arrived back from Massachusetts, I was welcomed to the echino which almost had more tissue than the skeleton could support. I've never seen it expanded as much as it was at this point.

This is another one which I was worried about in the temp/frag tank. It had started to recede towards the later time in the tank but I'd be hard pressed to find any signs of recession on this bugger (the economy, on the other hand...).

WOO HOO!

My mom spent an untold amount of time (and an untold amount of memory on the camera) to get this shot. She was kind and refrained from emailing me the gazillion photos that it likely took to get the clownfish IN the anemone. They both seems to like hovering ever so close as if to mock us for wanting them to live there!

So yeah, never use the flash to take a photo of the underside of your long-spined urchin - its creepy and might just make you think twice about reaching into the tank. On that same note, long spined urchins in an aquarium painted black are like NINJAS, ninjas with long pointy daggers waiting to lunge out of nowhere to stab you.

We're experiencing a bit of a diatom/cyanobacteria bloom at this point but I can guarantee that the problem is due to a lack of flow. The impeller on the Seio 2600 decided to bite the dust and so we're only rockin' the Koralia 4. I plan on picking up one more Koralia 4 as well as finding a replacement impeller for the Seio if we can. Once we have all of those taken car of, I think things will be in pretty good shape.

Tim! · #70 (**permalink**) 07-16-2008, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tekknoschtev

On that same note, long spined urchins in an aquarium painted black are like NINJAS, ninjas with long pointy daggers waiting to lunge out of nowhere to stab you.

I've fallen victim to this after lights-out a number of times. P-A-I-N is what's in store for you when you do that. >ouch<

You'd think I'd learn, but about every 2-3 months for going on 5 years now, I get stabbed by one of my stupid urchins. Sometimes just a little poke, but others a handful of spike!!!

tekknoschtev · #71 (**permalink**) 07-19-2008, 12:03 PM

My mom is apparently training to becoming a mechanical engineer. With some guidance on how things are supposed to work, she fixed the Seio 2600! Now she's just waiting for my pop to get home so he can help reinstall it and we'll be back in business! I still want to add another Koralia 4, but this is better than just one Koralia in there for sure!

schroeders5 · #72 (**permalink**) 07-19-2008, 12:54 PM

Greg was of assistance in lifting the canopy while I hung the pump. And well the pump is back in and working. Got the flow happening again.

The Dad

tekknoschtev · #73 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 07:35 PM

YUCK!

Poseidon · #74 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 07:57 PM

Yup, that is NASTY! Way to go!!!! LOL!!!!

tekknoschtev · #75 (**permalink**) 09-10-2008, 02:10 PM

We're apparently still in the settling and figuring things out stage with this tank. One thing we are quickly leaning is that the canopy was very pooly designed, and it does more to restrict access to the tank than it does to help with access. 2 more inches and we'd be in pretty good shape.

I only bring this up because "step 0" of helping diagnose very slow drains that my folks were noticing yesterday was to remove the ballasts (on top of the canopy) and then to remove the canopy. Given that I'm about 100 miles away from the tank, my brother is as well, and my sister is off to college more than 800 miles away, it was a task left to both my mom and dad. Fortunately they were able to do it without a problem (at least they never mentioned a problem to me :P) and found that the strainers for the stand pipes were very clogged. Now that we know what caused the problem this time, we can work on a solution for making it easier next time. But all is well.

Also in the "adjusting and settling" stage, the anemones have begun to wander a bit and were looking a little shrunken and bleached last time I was home. But, with target feeding I hear that they are looking better, so that's great! We've also added a dozen or so snails (mostly turbo snails, I believe) who are doing a wonderful job at chewing through the little bits of algae on the glass (now if we could only train them to stick to the areas that are hard to reach!).

Speaking of cleaning the glass, this is something I may have mentioned before. Mag floats suck. I know plenty of people have good luck with them, but our tanks seem to be extremely susceptible to scratching. Right after we setup the tank I put the large mag float in, after it had been brushed off, and proceeded to put a 2" scratch in the glass on the side. Its hard to find but it still boils my blood that it happened that quickly and on a brand new tank! We've been reduced to using the medium sized one, which as you can imagine, is only useful on the powder-like algae that accumulates from time to time. Anything else and its pretty useless. One of these days we may spring for a Magnavore, or some such but until then, well, I can only imagine how much of a PITA daily cleaning is.

I haven't been home in a while to see the tank, but next time I am, I will most assuredly snap some photos for a visual update with how things are going. I do know that I was floored by the growth of our stony corals and I believe I used the word "exploding" in a good way to describe the echino and the blue candy canes. So we've obviously got something going right.

Anyways, there's the monthly update! I hope to update more frequently its just that I haven't been home in a while to check things out in person.