Amphibious

Its looking good Dick. Is those lights on top the new LED lights?

welcome to the blogging generation. Dont worry, im new to, so your not alone old timer.

Ampage, i say this with love bud, the top shot wasn't the best from you. It makes your tank look old & tired. Ive seen you capture some real quality bud. How bout treating us.

Ray, no, those are the Nova T5s. The new LEDs will be put to use out in the aquaculture facility, when I can afford to buy two more.


V, I know. That upper shot is washed out for some reason. It’s me that should look “old and tired”!

I’m working in too many directions right now. Mostly on the aquaculture set-up but other pressing things get in the way. Want to get water flowing ASAP before life deals me a low blow. At my age that could be anytime. Got to keep busy, keep the mind sharp, need to stay healthy by being active. You never know when a Mermaid will swim up to the boat and say, “Hey old man, want to play? Jump in, the water is warm.” LMAO!

The blog was down for a few days. I do have more to add. Here’s a few...



Blastomussa wellsi, a coral that has given me headaches finding just the right place to thrive. It seems to like lower light levels. Here it is on the bottom looking it’s best. I’ve had it at least two years, a gift from Russell the owner of Ocean’s Blend additives.



The much sought after Purple People Eater Palythoa. First “discovered” by Blane Perun in 2001, the PPE became an instant hit among Zoanthid/Palythoa lovers. They command a high price even today, nine years later. They are slow to mature and propagate. Mature PPEs get about the size of dime or larger. BEWARE of E-Bay sellers passing off something other than PPEs as the real thing. I just did a search on PPEs and there’s a knot-head selling something other as PPEs. Know what your buying before you bid. I sent him an e-mail challenging his product ID.



I’m soooo bad. Bought this a couple of months ago and forgot what it is.

More to come later. Got to get out to the aquaculture building and get gluing.

Dick

Dick, The corals are looking awesome as always. The last coral looks almost like a Horn coral. Horn Coral, Fluorescent

Love the new Blogging Dick!!!

That doesn't sound right - you know what I mean

LOL that's funny right there.

LMAO! That is funny, saltaddict. I’m glad you love it.

Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. AND, who, on TR, thought I was wise beyond my years. Now there’s an oxymoron or maybe more aptly, it is just moronic (what I did). WOW, Ampage gets lax and almost has a reef melt down. This is a confession. Hopefully you will learn from my mistake!

We all get lax from time to time and it can cost us plenty. Have you ever walked by your tank, glanced at it, become aware you’ve neglected it, maybe for months? Well, I’m guilty of that and it nearly cost me big time. For the last few weeks there were subtle changes happening in my tank. Then disaster happened!!! My large Monte Cap simply melted away, bleached. It was not the Monte eating nudibranchs. The tissue turned into a stringy mush. In three days it was gone.

Testing the water I found my nitrates OFF THE CHART, 160 ppm. Did two 15 gal water changes in two days but it was too late. This is what it looks like today...



Pretty ugly! Then I tested my Phosphates, they were 5 ppm. Higher than I’d ever had them. I should have seen the warning signs, green algae kind of out of control and red slim algae covering much of the rock and DSB surface. I began realizing just how lax I’d gotten. Too many distractions I guess.

I attribute the high numbers to my feeding regimen, heavy feedings with a multitude of ingredients both for the Tangs, clowns, Marine Betas, Gobies and all the corals. I’d toyed with the idea of getting a Denitrator but thought they were a nuisance to control. Then I was introduced to the DTI Sulphur Denitrator (SD). A rather simple device that comes complete with media and pump. I installed on Tuesday evening. I did another water change of 15 gallons before installing the SD. Now what I’m going to tell you is truly mazing and literally unbelievable. Following the SD instructions, I ran the flow wide open through the SD for twenty-four hours. The next evening, Wednesday, I slowed the flow down to a fast drip, about 120 drips per minute. Then I tested the water for Nitrates. Much to my surprise they had dropped from off the chart to about 80 ppm. That was unbelievable to me. I called the designer/manufacturer and he agreed that was incredible. Thursday evening the test looked to be between the 80 and 40 ppm color bars. Tonight I took a picture of the test because it dropped further...



It appears to be between 20 and 40 ppm. This drop is in 72 hours of running the SD. Here is the device...



You can see it’s a dual chamber SD with pelletized Sulphur in the left chamber and Aragonite gravel in the other. Still learning about this device but have a positive feeling about it. The results are showing up already not only in lower Nitrate but my Zoanthids are opening wider, coral polyps are coming out on corals that haven’t opened in months and my 2 pieces of Atlantis Meteor Shower are looking the best they ever have. This in 3 days (72 hours).

We are putting the DTI Sulphur Denitrator on our web site for those interested.

So, an old dog learns another of life’s lessons, don’t get lax about water testing. I have some further thoughts on why this happened and why the DSB didn’t handle the rise in Nitrates. That’s for another day.

Dick

I am sorry to hear about the loss of your coral. I am glad you found the problem and are fixing it.

long time no hear. hows everything in the tank going? hows the aqua culture building coming along? my move went well and good news! got the wife talked into a bigger tank! i am super excited. so open to any suggestions. i am thinking a 90 gal drilled.

I am sorry about the coral Dick but I am curious why you only did a total of 30g water change?
So glad you are getting it pulled down. I will not tell you how often I test but I do a 30g water change every 10th day, run a sock to catch food debris that is changed daily and observe daily.
Best of luck.

i did mention your tank looked abit tired my old friend, just a pitty it slipped off the edge & took something out - although laxed can be forgiven bud, you DO have alot going at the moment.

so 45gal water change on a 135, with a denitrator install in between. i still dont see how you can go from 160 to 20 in that time. the maths & bacterial populations dont add up.

You have a massive bed, you have more rockwork you can poke a stick at, & you also still have that section in the sump dont you?

Im interested in your theory bud, cause this blip by normal standards doesn't make a huge amount of sence unless your simplyly introducing more than can be converted via max populations.

im asuming a massive overkill on bed cleaning wasn't an issue as youve already admitted you droped the ball & someone else got the call.

You been dosing anything that can cause the bacterial populations to degrade?

Do you have burrowing animals (including fish) that expose the bed more often?

Is your sand smothered to the point where bed diffusion is limited?

alot of varibles you old goat, your the person most qualified to answer them so indulge me