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NightOwl

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Posts posted by NightOwl

    In wall tanks in the club in VA area?

    in New to the Hobby

    Thanks all who have responded via PM and in the thread. I will be contacting each of you to set up a time that is convient for you to let me stop by to "pick your brains" and take some pictures. I will be trying to put a 180 in a wall so my summer project will be starting soon and wanted to avoid any bumps in the road thay you all may have already faced.

     

    Thanks again,

     

    Henry

     

     

    Power Outages

    in General Discussion

    We lost power early this morning in Ashburn. I had slept in and was late saving some of my fish :(. When I woke up around 11:30 AM my wife was like the power has been off since around 5:30 AM. I ended up losing two Glass Cardinals, a Cleaner shrimp, two Peppermint Shrimp ,and my most expensive fish the Chevron Tang. The other fish were breathing hard and my Yellow Tang was actually upside down still fighting for his life. I managed to save the two Clowns who just laid eggs on the earlier this week (4th) and my Yellow Tang. I know my neighbors must have been why is this fool running to his car with an extension cord in over two feet of snow. I managed to plug in my power inverter and run the return pump until the power came on at 2:00PM. It was a sad day, but so far the remaining fish are looking good. Oh and if anyone doubts how efficient a clean up crew can be tell that to my clean up crew who have completely removed all evidence of my Glass Cardinals except the spines. The Shrimp have been disposed of as well and they are currently doing a number on the Chevron Tang who was over 5" long. Hope no one else experienced a loss like me. With that said anyone have any suggestions on a generator? This is the first and the last time I will loose fish in this manner.

     

    Henry

    suitable t5 lighting for 90 gallon sps & lps

    in General Discussion

    Hey Mark,

    I run 4 T5's (individual reflectors) and 2 T12's for my actinic lighting. I think i tried about three or four brands of T5 actinic and in my opinion they do not look as good as the T12 actinics. I have not taken any pictures lately but a few people have seen my tank and the colors you can achieve from the combination. I run Ice Cap ballasts so that my make a difference as well as my T5's are being over driven.

     

    Hope that helps,

    Henry

    Need to borrow drill bit for 1" bulkhead

    in Do It Yourself

    All Done with the holes now :). I had to get it done last night as my tank was overflowing every so often since last Friday. I found the root cause to be two snails (shells) has gotten stuck in the return pipes :). Francis I sent you a PM on the bit thanks.

     

    droyal1110,

    For some reason I thought they did not open till Thursday...either way I could not wait. The wife was growing tired of the being on tank watch and the sound of the wet-vac :).

    How to remove mushrooms?

    in General Discussion

    Brian,

    I have found a nice solution of kalk paste works on the mushrooms. Make sure to try to inject in the mouth and also cover the the mushroom itself. It will shrivel up. the next day I pull shriveled up mushroom off the rock with my forceps if it tears I cover the remaining stem with more kalk paste. If you are going to be using a strong solution be sure to cut off all pumps! You don't want it touching anything you want to keep.

     

    Henry

    Anyone been to BAVARO BEACH, PUNTA CANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

    in General Discussion

    I have been trying to find my map that I have been making of my trips to the area and I seem to have misplaced it. What I have found is that most of the resorts have areas with markers where the snorkeling is OK. If you go just beyond those areas you can see some really cool fish. My last trip I stayed at the Majestic Elegance and found a nice spot on their sister Resort Majestic Colonial near the snorkel gear rental place. There use to be an excursion called Kon Tiki Raft that had some great snorkeling. One trick you probably know is carry some bread in the water with you and the fish will come to you. I usually spend some time scouting with that technique. I did not get a chance to dive to the last trip due to weather. Try to avoid the excursions offered on the beach...they tend to be cheaper but they also tend to suck. Not sure who you booked your vacation through but I have found that Apple excursions tend to be the best excursions. There are some excursions to Saona islands and Catalinita islands that are pretty cool. I was going to use Dressel Divers for booking my SCUBA excursions and they seemed pretty reasonable in price. So far I have had the best shore snorkeling in Puerto Plata.

     

    Hope that helps,

     

    Henry

    T5 Bulb Recommendations

    in General Discussion

    One thing to note if you are going to use T5 actinics they do not make your corals "pop". They do not even come close to the look of a T12 bulb! I started off with a 6 bulb set up and switched to a four bulb set up supplemented by two ULV Super R Actincs (T12). Even over-driven on Icecap ballasts the T5 actinics just don't cut it. Grim is the man over on RC with recommendations and has tested just about every combo. If you are concerned with how much PAR you will be getting from a suggested bulb he even has the information on which bulbs put out the most PAR.

     

    As shawns mentioned what ever combination you choose order extra bulbs. You may get the bulbs fire them up and not like the color depending on the ballast you are using. It is good to have some extra ones on hand to tweak the color to just the way you want it.

     

    Grim's Website

    Fins and Feathers

    in Vendor Experience

    Yea his price on those were insane as well they get two big for my tank. I watched him feed them tonight as I wanted to see them eat then walked up the counter and paid my money...lol. Its bad when you start thinking you need to upgrade your tank to buy more fish and coral...lol.

     

     

    Nice Henry! They are already eating mysis btw. I can't wait to take them home. I can't believe the prices Sean is selling them for. I am also getting one of the Borbonius Anthias once they make it out of QT.

    Fins and Feathers

    in Vendor Experience

    So I stopped by Fins and Feathers based on Francis's post since I have been pricing Helfrichi Firefish for a while and its been hard to justify the amount for one fish to my wife. I think she believes all fish should be cheap no matter how pretty they are. Well needless to say the price was so low that I ended up buying a pair. Pick up in the next week or so once they come out of QT...woo hoo.

    spawning worms?!

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by NightOwl

    Just run some carbon for a while and you will be fine. The tank will be cloudy for a while and then clear up. It just food for your corals and other critters. I had this happen to me last Feb around 10 PM or so and freaked out. I was told everything would be fine and once the water cleared up it went back to normal. The cool thing is you can see how big your bristle worms are. I found I have one that is at least 8" long and just over 1/4" wide. The other worms were poofs of smoke his looked rather gross to say the least.

     

    If it looked like this you are fine...

     

    2068286630048177406S600x600Q85.jpg

     

    2794005860048177406S600x600Q85.jpg

     

    Hope that helps,

     

    Henry

    Filters from Bulk Reef Supply????

    in New to the Hobby

    Problem is now solved...I just ran the water for about another hour or so. Normally new filters flush out in about 15 mins or so.

     

    Buucca - I have a flush kit but lost the instructions for it so I don't flush the membrane.

     

    kngfisher - No new membrane this time. I replaced it earlier this year. TDS in the unit is over 200 and it was producing nine for a while today. I usually run new filters till I see zero then I make new water.

     

    I realize nine is not bad when the water coming in is 200+ plus but I like seeing all zeros :). I just hope the second batch of filters does not take that long to produce a zero TDS reading.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Henry

    Filters from Bulk Reef Supply????

    in New to the Hobby

    Hi Brian,

    That is what seem strange to me. I change all three at the same time. Once my meter starts showing one to two for a reading I change all three filters no matter how they look or if the RO/DI resin starts to look brown I change. My water is terrible it shows a TDS reading of 200+ coming in on average so I don't take any chances.

     

    Henry

    Filters from Bulk Reef Supply????

    in New to the Hobby

    I recently purchased some filters from Bulk Reef Supply for my RODI machine. I purchased the sediment, carbon block, and nuclear grade RO/DI resin. The carbon and sediment are 1 micron which I have not had any issues with in the past. For some reason even after running my machine for over an hour and a half the TDS reading is saying 9. Has anyone had any issues with their filters in the past? Should I throw them out and get some new ones?

     

     

    Thanks,

     

    Henry

    sally lightfoot crab?

    in General Discussion

    They are very opportunistic and like Jason said and will go for easy meals but also help clean up. The one I have in my tank now once ate my sick mandarin fish. The poor thing was still alive but did not have the energy to escape. I would never buy a mandarin on-line again. They help clean up after feedings and are pretty fun to watch as they scurry along the tank. Mine is pretty big now but I do not have any problems from it.

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