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ohaverd

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Posts posted by ohaverd

    Emergency , need a 1" bulkhead. Asap

    in General Discussion

    In the future, If there are no stores open and its an emergency, you can go to HD and get the grey PVC for electrical (must be grey because they are not tapered), and get the male and female 1 1/4 coupling fits the 1" bulkhead I believe, and then just get a shower drain "O" ring (forget what size, I just open the packs and see which one fits...  Ya I'm the guy that opens the packs of stuff at the store and make you say, "who's the jerk that opens all these packs?").  I actually have 4 of these going on my 110gal frag tank because I was too lazy to take the 30+ minute drive to the "nearest" LFS.

    ATO ?

    in General Discussion

    I recently had an "Oh crap!" moment where my ATO switch got stuck, fortunatly I use the kind of ATO with the second switch which really saved my butt.  Lessons learned:   Clean your float switches regularly, and use an ATO with the dual switches. 

     

    Also, my ATO comes from a 20 gal bucket.  If the 2nd switch hadnt activated I would have had only around 5 gals of water on the ground...  and might have had enough time to clean it up before my wife got home :/ 

    White leg hermit

    in General Discussion

    hmm, this brings up a good point.  How would one go about introducing new snails to a DT without getting any possible parisites that may be in their water?  I'm not sure if reefcleaners has fish in their snail tanks.  But I'd like to be sure that I'm not putting ich back into my display with the new snails.  Maybe do the tank exchange method?  Or just wash them off with tank water in a strainer.

    White leg hermit

    in General Discussion

    I tried to go crabless, but there are always a few that hitchhike in my snail orders.  I'm way too lazy to sit there and look through the bag of snails before I put them in the tank.  Besides, what if I get pinched by one of those little serial killers?  I don't need my wife and kids to lose anymore respect for me than they all ready have due to my spider "issues".  No thanks bro...

    Hyposa-what-idy?

    in General Discussion

    Great information, very funnny!! I have my whole 600g display in hypo right now, on week three. I have not seen any ammonia issues so far. Since the skimmer doesn't work well at low SG my nitrate has climbed because of the nutrients the skimmer would normally removes are being biologically taken care of.

    what is your PH ranging in that low gravity?   

    I also think I need to add a light to the QT to help keep my PH up...  It may stress the fish, but probably less then the huge PH swings I'm getting.

    Hyposa-what-idy?

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by ohaverd

         So I thought I’d share with everyone my latest (I’m bored so I thought I’d try this out) adventure.  This is following closely on the heels of the “I’m bored: acrylic tank building”, and the less popular but just as relevant “I’m bored: Learning how to make a quilt” adventures; I’ve had several different “experts” tell me in the past that Ich is ALWAYS PRESENT in our systems, and to just make sure water quality is pristine and to keep the fish well fed and the ich will not be a problem.  Most of you well know there is a lot of research out on the interwebz that refute these claims like this post http://wamas.org/forums/topic/41558-ichy-battle/ on the greatest forum the world has ever known EVER.  So I’m bored and I decided I want to try and rid my system of this son of a gun of a parasite. 

     

         I’m going to go through step by step what I have done so far.  This way first time hypo’ers can see exactly what NOT to do.

     

         First, I’d like to point out that I am and always have been a big believer in QT.  But mostly I used it as a stress reliever and feeding trainer than anything else.  My goal is to be able to A: rid the fish I currently have of Ich, and B: allow my DT to go without fish for 8 weeks to kill any parasites in it.  If I go through this long process that will take around 10 weeks, and my fish still pop ich, I will yell and scream like a little girl, and then go back to not caring about ich and just stuffing my fish full of Jan’s food and join the ranks of the “ich is always present in our systems” zombies.

     

    What I done Firstly:  A fisher of… Fish.

         Why didn’t anyone tell me what a pain in the butt getting your fish out of the display tank is?  Holy crap that was absolutely a terrible experience and anyone that asks me about hypo-ing the fish they all ready have…  ima say “don’t do it just let them swim around with big ol crusty friggin salt looking pebbles all over their butts, because getting them out is a huge PITA! 

     

         So after a few minutes of trying to get the buggers out, I decided to research “fish traps”.  There is one trap that looked like it would work (think it’s called “the cage” or “the box” or something like that), but I didn’t think it was big enough.  So I did what anyone else would do…  Built one myself right!?  So I used some scrap 1/8” acrylic and made basically a box with a rubber band powered trap door.  The trick however was to leave it in the display for a few days and feed ALL FOODS directly inside the trap.  Also, go for the hard to get fish first…  For me it was the sixline wrasse… what a little A-hole he is. It took him 3 days before he would go in it for food.  But once he did I pulled the fishing line and trapped the little booger; I must tell you all…  A more glories victory cry has never been echoed throughout the history of mankind, I assure you.  The other fish like my chromis and tangs were very, very stupid and continued going in and out of the trap even after they saw their friends gathered by the hands of their all mighty overlord (that’s me).

     

         So…  I have currently one 5” foxface Lo, one 4” powder blue tang, one 2” scopas tang, two .5” chromis, two 1” Oce clowns, and one 1” 6line wrasse (that I am thinking of feeding to my cat).  That equates to around 15” of fishes.  So I decided to go with a 30gal frag tank I made out of scrap acrylic. 

     

    What I done secondly:  THE AMMONIAGEDDON!!!

         So at this point my new quarantine tank has been sitting with DT water and a HOB filter for 3 weeks.  I am using the HOB filter that has a carbon and bio bag in it, an air stone, and a heater.  So why didn’t anyone tell me that taking all of my fish and plopping them into an aquarium that doesn’t have enough room for them would cause a huge ammonia spike!  I thought I was going to just put the fish in, drop the salinity and call it a month…  Not really but ya, I knew I was going to try to control ammonia with frequent water changes.  So for one week I was doing two 25% water changes a day, one in the morning before work, and one after work when I got home.  Words cannot describe the lack of patience that I have, so doing this was like pure friggin torture.  Week two was a little better with the ammonia spikes, but I still couldn’t get it all the way to 0 for very long, so I decided to add Amquel plus to the daily dosage.  Of course I didn’t research what this would do during the hypo salinity treatment because I’m a big ol dipstick, so watch what happens next…

     

    Nextly: PH, what the H-E-double hockey sticks is that?

         So after two weeks, it was time to do the DEED!  I mixed up some salt water using my handy dandy hydrometer thing, but what in the crap man!  Why won’t this stupid plastic arm stop moving up and down? What the heck bro?  Why didn’t anyone tell me I needed a refractometer for this?  Oh wait, just about every hyposalinity guide in the history of Al Gore’s interwebz has said you need a refractometer, I am ashamed once more…

         So now I’ve got my new tool in hand and I successfully get my salt down to 1.009.  We are in business, the fish look like they are doing well, the ammonia looks good, nitrites are good, nitrates undetectable, PH looks… it looks…  what in the crap… I’ve never seen orange in my PH test tube before.  Must have been something in the tube, let me try that again…  Nope it’s friggin ORANGE.  Holy crap!  My fish are going to die of PH shock!  Quickly, to the google machine! Ah, I find THE ANSWER!  Apparently if I’d done my research before, I would have realized that adding Amquel Plus to Hyposalinity will make your PH drop like a (insert prostitute joke).  So Mr Google… what is the answer to this PH Conundrum?  Ah ha!  I’ve found it!  I am such a great google’r!  Apparently the answer lies with an arm and a hammer!  So I went to the garage and picked up the hammer… (And ok; now we are getting a little lame).  So I went and got the ol trusty half part of the 2 part solution that is BAKING SODA… So I had to deal with the weird looks from my wife as I spread her baking soda on a cooky sheet and inserted in the oven at 350 degrees…  Apparently baking soda is not only used to bring PH up in our reef systems, but it can also be used for baking...  thats good to know...

     

    So now: 

         (Deep breath) So now I’ve got a slow drip baking soda to keep the PH up that the Amquel Plus is driving down because the salt level is too low but is keeping the ammonia down that is up because I have too many fish in a small space because I’m an idiot.  Got it? 

     

          My fish have 3 weeks left of their (4 weeks after the last white spot has been seen), and I think I will take this time to write hate mail to anyone on the world wide web that said Hyposalinity is EASY.

     

         I shall update ya’ll in the not too distant future.  If anyone actually took the time to read all of this nonsense, I leave you with these words of wisdom.  "Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does."

     

    (mic drop) I'm out...

     

     

    ohaverd's 125 rebuild

    in Dedicated Tank (Build) Forum

    · Edited by ohaverd

    quick question for any tang experts...  My new frag tank is 12"Hx20"Wx96"L.  its approx 100 gal.  but with that extremely long length of tank, could I have larger tangs than the 100gal rule states?  whaddyathink?

     

    images of my new frag tank and QT tank coming soon.

    Low ph?

    in General Discussion

    so the options are to A) run an airline outside or B) add a co2 scrubber? 

     

    or does the co2 scrubber need to be fed from outside as well?

    Low ph?

    in General Discussion

    Nevermind I just noticed the two intakes behind the two reactor ports.... when you cover them the foam stops... thanks for the heads up. Now to find a way to run an air line up and out of the basement some how.

    Low ph?

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by ohaverd

    Hm... I thought the nozzles on top of the ev400 where just connectors for adding a reactor. I didn't know one was actually pulling in air...

    Low ph?

    in General Discussion

    I've been looking to find a way to help out the co2 in my basement tank, but I use a AquaC EV400 skimmer with a mag 24 pump.  There is no air intake, so how would one go about hooking up a co2 scrubber to a system like that?

    fittings for Reeflo Blowhole

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by ohaverd

    ohaverd, I'm not understanding how you ended up doing what Richard said above if you didn't use the 1" female thread that came with the pump.

     

    You mean that the black union type fitting with the 1" NPT female thread that came with the Blowhole snapped?

     

    I emailed them to ask if I could just thread a 1-1/2" NPT onto the thread on the pump body and get rid of the 1" female NPT part since the thread is very close to 1-1/2" NPT. They said "please don't" because the seal is intended to be made using a gasket with that union fitting and the thread is a parallel one, not NPT, so I'd just wreck the pump body if I did that. Is that what you did?

     

    ya I didnt read thoroughly when I replied... but ya, after the black union that came with it broke, I went to home depot and was able to use PVC fittings to replace it. I dont know the names of all the fittings, I just kind of stand there with a confused look on my face and try to fit pieces together until I get what I need. Just take the pump with you to HD. I think its a 1-1/2" female then an adapter that takes it down to 1" and then the 1" male. Something like that.

    fittings for Reeflo Blowhole

    in General Discussion

    To easily make it work you could use a 1" male thread x 1" female slip adapter then get a 1" x 1 1/2" Bushing Lowes has both of these fittings

     

    this is how I ended up plumbing mine. the fitting that came with it snapped when barely tightened. this imo is the most secure and easiest way of doing it.

    Newest little reefer

    in General Discussion

    Congrats!!

    Our first is due next week!

    woo boy... get ready for a crazy couple of nights at the hospital. if you have any questions, feel free to PM me while its still fresh in my "tired as H-E-double hockey sticks" head.

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