chucelli

I will be at the house tomorrow morning for anyone interested in stopping by. Pretty much everything is left. Anything that is left after tomorrow is going to the LFS. oh, forgot to mention, I also have a 1000W generator, used twice. One summer it saved my entire reef when we lost power for a week during the storm. That one save paid for the generator. Anyone interested can come take a look and make an offer. -Robert

going through all the stuff, I realized I have gathered many things over the years. I also have a refractometer, unused test kits for the big three ALK, CAL, and MAG, icecap electronic 250w MH ballast, MP40 battery backup, dried food, fragging supplies, etc... if anyone is looking for something not listed, it may be worth checking.. -Robert

the rocks are a mixture of stuff acquired over many years including Pukani, Tonga branch, Fiji, etc.. message sent.

thanks Tom. Once we're all settled in, I'm pretty sure I will get the itch to start something. I'm keeping one set of lights and my doser for that day. -Robert

Leishman, I will be back and forth between Gaithersburg and Alexandria for the next few days. I should be in Gaithersburg in the evening tomorrow and Saturday afternoon/evening. I will be here until around 12PM on Sunday. Alan, I will give you a special discount if you want the cube -Robert

Hunter, I do not have any PMs from you. The RM is yours provided I can find buyers for all the rock. Leishman, the clowns are yours. LMK when you want to pickup. Hey Alan, we have no more chickens. Two more were taken by the hawk and the last one went to a local dog walker who has a barn of 25+ chickens. I have the chicken coop if anyone wants to buy it We lived out here for 12 years and loved it, but the commute is getting worse every year. For some reason all of our jobs end up in DC... The new house is smaller and has no basement. I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to have a non-intrusive reef tank (something that works without disturbing the harmony of the living space) without a sump or large volume of water... -Robert

Things have been hectic with our search for a home closer to work (DC). After almost a year of on and off searching, we are finally moving from Gaithersburg MD to Alexandria VA. To all the MD members I've met over the years, sorry for my lack of presence! I am selling the 25G cube I started, but never stocked, along with most of all the original equipment from the original system. There are too many things to list, but I will list most of the major items here. - 25G Mr. Aqua Starfire low iron glass (drilled with dual 1.5" ID bulkheads) Tank only no stand $100 - 100G Rubbermaid stock tank. $35 Drilled for return pump and skimmer pump as seen below: - ETSS 800 dual downdraft skimmer (seen above) rated for 400 gallons $50 this skimmer is about 15 years old and has been a workhorse. Ideal for processing large volumes of water very fast with moderate level organic removal. Will require powerful external pump (ie. 150-PS) to run. - Pan World 150PS 1100 GPH (for downdraft skimmer) $100 -Pan World 100PX 790 GPH rated for 21' of head pressure $75 designed for lifting water to higher locations or to operate in-tank eductors. this was used as a basement return pump -Pan World 50PX 590 GPH rated for 16.5' of head pressure $50 this was used as a basement return pump -Ecotech MP40 first Gen (x2). $50 each These come with additional unused wetside I had purchased as backups -LED lighting $300 this are the lights used in the original SPS tank. They have been in storage for the past few years. These come with remote drivers that are controlled by an Arduino controller using PWM. These can be connected to the lights using standard DB9 connectors, or the existing 20ft cables that are in use now for the current lights. Livestock -Mated pink skunks $20 -approx 150 pounds of live rock (make offer) There are some other things that can be seen at the house. thanks for looking! -Robert

the problem with using filters is that you are reducing the total amount of light hitting the sensor, which means you will have to use a wider aperture. A wider aperture results in less clarity and you may also need to decrease the shutter speed, which also makes it harder to get sharp pictures. You could probably find a used Nikon D90 for around $300. Add a fast (f1.8) manual 50mm prime lens ($50 used) and I think you will be much happier with the results. oh and use post processing to remove the excessive blue and you're golden!

I was going to say perpendicular to the glass as probably one of the top three. If you're off even a little, the pictures will be blurry. You won't be able to tell until you open it and view it at full resolution. I'm afraid there's no getting around having a good DSLR. The sensor size and quality makes all the difference. The point and shoots usually don't have a big enough sensor. To be honest, I bought my DSLR just to shoot tank pics. I haven't used it since the last tank pic. For gatherings, everyday moments, the cell phone has pretty much taken over those tasks. Really though, those pics are pretty good for phone pics.

keep all sumps, growouts, tubs, etc... covered. This will make your humidity management much easier. It's best to eliminate humidity rather than to attempt to displace with fans, ducts, dehumidifiers, etc...

"D-day acro"? REALLY? I would boycott this company just for that alone. It was not that long ago. Did we already forget what D-day was about?

I don't think anyone thinks you're crazy for complaining about your fish loss, be it a $5 or $30 chomis/damsel. If you had a bad experience, by all means, you should complain. I think we are just a bit confused as to why you were credited for only 2, out of your 3 losses. Like Tom said, it is uncharacteristic, and would be something we would all like to know should we buy from them again in the future. -Robert

I personally have had only good experiences with LA&DD. However, I've learned that I can't wait for the delivery and instead must have them hold the box at the local distribution center for pickup first thing in the morning. The one time I had it delievered to my door, I did have unreasonable losses. Those losses can't really be attributed to the lack of livestock quality or poor packaging. Not many places will offer their live guarantee either. -Robert

Thanks Rik I think at this point, most people at WAMAS already have a frag of all my corals! I recently cleared a lot of space on the frag rack to grow out some larger pieces, since I have no more room in the display. Will try to get some frags posted soon. -Robert

Thanks s2nhle, The tank is almost 6 years old. -Robert

Tank crash?? Are you referring to the heater explosion that caused some color loss and fish deaths? The tank never crashed as far as I can tell. The top down pictures as well as the two most overgrown FTS were taken last week to be submitted for September. -Robert

wow, thanks everyone! WAMAS represents! YHSublime, I take it you've had experiences were house guests walk right past your tank as if they don't notice? Happens to me all the time! At this point I'm used to it... Anyone who does notice either has a tank or has plans to build one! -Robert

my tank is doing well thanks... not much to remark about.. working on getting those red spot cardinals to survive long term. Started with 9 two months ago and despite having spawned multiple times, I'm down to 6. dunno why. -Robert

to be more exact, the PAR numbers represented for your typical blue/white LED combo is under-represented since the PAR meter is not as sensitive to the blue spectrum, so your actual numbers may be quite a bit higher. If you want it look brighter to your eyes, you need to use more lower kalvin LEDs such as neutral or warm whites and less blues. Additionally, you could also incorporate more green LEDs since that is what the human eye is most sensitive to. Just FYI though, green has not been shown as an effective spectrum for photosynthesis. -Robert

I'm not so sure they are worms... they could be gonads or part of the coral animal that is getting fortified in preperation for spawning. The fact that you saw no reaction from them when dipped in a solution that is highly irritating to polychaetes and other forms of non-coral life supports this as well. Also, if indeed it is a burrowing organism, there should be evidence on the outer fleshy layer (at least in certain "freshly burrowed" areas). -Robert

thanks Jack. Things are looking better. The Acros are gaining color faster than I expected. The fact that almost all SPS are showing growth tips makes me think I'm over the worst part. Knock on wood, I don't think I will lose any corals. The fish did not fare so well however. Up until two days ago, I was losing about one fish per night since this event. I can't pinpoint what it is they were sensitive to, but I'm guessing it was due to an amonia spike after the first fish died but was not found. I had to break one of the larger branches to reach a dead cardinal that had already started decomposing. Again thanks for the offers. I think I'm in the clear now. Will post some pics a bit later. -Robert

honestly, from what I've noticed, the stray voltage in the water alone seems to have caused the bleaching. Within an hour of removing the heater, the shrivled up anemone started expanding. It took me a day to make enough water to enable a substantial enough water change. By that time, the polyps on the sps had already started to come out. However, the picture really doesn't show how different the corals look now. They still have pigment, but no zooxanthellae at all in the body. What is interesting is that the growth tips which were previously very light blue to white are the only parts of any of the colonies that have zooanthellae in them now. Almost seems like they moved to the tips before they got expelled. Regarding not using a heater... This is not an option for me in the winter time. Our thermostat is set to 68 in the winter time. Without a heater the tank doesn't break 70. Adding enough pumps in the tank to raise temps to my desired 78 seems like a silly method. What about summers? Am I to take out all the extra pumps in the summer time? Some run titanium heaters hooked up to a seperate temp controller. However, this method is a bit shady as well, since a controller failure can result in either a cooked tank or a cold dead one. If, the cause of bleaching is indeed related to stray voltage, a CFGI should prevent that from happening. Has anyone who has experienced a heater related bleaching noticed otherwise? Did anyone experience bleaching with just a broken heater (ie. no stray voltage/or voltage was stopped by a CFGI outlet)? Again, thanks for all the kind words and offers. You guys are awesome! -Robert

First off, thanks for the words of sympathy and those who have offered to help me restart should it be needed. WAMAS is awesome! The picture is of the display. The frag tank resides in the sump which is where the heaters were located. The heaters were connected to the circut breaker portion of a battery backup/surge device. Don't know why the circut on the UPS didn't trip. I will look into installing a couple GFCI just for the heaters... thanks -Robert

Well, never thought this would do me in... especially after surviving 2 hurricanes. I try to make sure I've thought about all possible disasters, but I never thought a heater would shatter without evidence of any physical trauma to the heater body. I have two heaters for redundency and both are located well away from anything that could fall on them and deep enough never to be out of water in any scenerio. Woke up and saw this: Fish are still a bit freaked out and hiding. for reference, here's the last FTS from a few months ago. got a nice little shock when I stuck my hand in the sump this morning. This was how I discovered the cause of this mass bleaching. I have to say in the 20+ years I've been running aquariums, this is only the second heater failure I've experienced. Both were made by Marineland. The first was the plastic kind, touted to be more shatter resistent. Don't mean to point fingers, but my personal experience with Marineland seems to be echoed by many others in the hobby. Anyways, figured I document this event in case this the last time anyone will see this tank! The culprit has been identified and hopefully rectified. Fingers crossed, but if the corals make it out of this over-night change, it will take at least a few months. -Robert