zotzer's 46G bowfront

[zotzer]

BEAUTIFUL! It's all going to come together so nicely; great job.

 

Thanks so much!! And if you look really close, you'll notice my blenny, Spot, smack dab in the middle of the photo. I swear....he *knows* when I am taking pictures! I'm convinced of it!!!

Tracy

Edited December 11, 2007 by zotzer

[lanman]

Still going great, Tracy. Almost time to get out of the 'new to the hobby' thread! It looks like an experienced reefer's tank!

 

bob

[zotzer]

Still going great, Tracy. Almost time to get out of the 'new to the hobby' thread! It looks like an experienced reefer's tank!

 

It's all smoke and mirrors, Bob. Well, truthfully, it's the amazing resource that is WAMAS, which saved me lots of big mistakes. Still, the tank is only a little over three months old. A newbie I remain....

 

Maybe if they start a "members' tanks" forum, I will move and extract myself from newbdom.

 

Thanks for the kind words though!!

 

T

[treesprite]

see, didn't I say something similar before? Length of experience has to be figured in with quality of experience. I have had sal;twater for like 11 years and didn't really start learning anything until the past year (and still learning!).

[zotzer]

see, didn't I say something similar before? Length of experience has to be figured in with quality of experience.

 

Yes you did, and I think you both are being too kind.

 

I must say a big thank you to WAMAS and all of the supportive, knowledgeable members. If my only source for advice had been the newb forum on Reef Central, I'd still be cycling my tank. ROFL

 

T

[jason the filter freak]

About how long until you styarted seeing groth of a lot of coraline? I don't rember seeing these questions yet butttttt. one are you supplementing any sorty of calcium to get the coraline going and are you using RO/DI or tap, well or some sort of other water?

[zotzer]

Hi Jason,

 

The coraline started spreading on the rocks really quickly. It was all cured rock from another member's system, and was nicely seeded with coraline from the get go. It first started appearing on the glass at the one month mark, and has been growing steadily ever since.

 

I do use RO/DI water (going through about 15 gals per week between water changes and top offs....time to get my own unit. ), and add B-Ionic two part every morning.

 

My calcium was still a little low when I tested it last week, so I've upped my dosing from 10ml each to 15ml each this week to see if that helps.

 

Tracy

[lanman]

Hi Jason,

 

The coraline started spreading on the rocks really quickly. It was all cured rock from another member's system, and was nicely seeded with coraline from the get go. It first started appearing on the glass at the one month mark, and has been growing steadily ever since.

 

I do use RO/DI water (going through about 15 gals per week between water changes and top offs....time to get my own unit. ), and add B-Ionic two part every morning.

 

My calcium was still a little low when I tested it last week, so I've upped my dosing from 10ml each to 15ml each this week to see if that helps.

 

Tracy

As usage increases, you have to keep adding more B-Ionic. When I got to a full measuring cup per day, I bought a kalk stirrer!

 

bob

[zotzer]

Well...I am coming up on the four month anniversary of my very first reef tank. What fun it has been!!! I sit here looking at it with the actinics on, and it looks like a little wonderland. I should have put a better camera on my Christmas wish list, as I just can't seem to take a pic that does it justice. But, I will post one anyway, since I don't have many actinic shots posted in my thread.

 

Will try to get some regular shots in the next few days, but with the holidays, who knows?

 

Tracy

 

[davelin315]

Looking good!

[zotzer]

Well, as of yesterday, the tank is officially four months old. Here's a new FTS I took just a few minutes ago. You'll notice one of the koralias is missing. My red mushrooms didn't like all that flow, so I am trading down from a K3 to a K2. I pulled it out to clean it up and get it ready for trading.

 

Tracy

 

Edited December 26, 2007 by zotzer

[treesprite]

really beautiful. Not so sure how you managed it in just 4 months!

[zotzer]

really beautiful. Not so sure how you managed it in just 4 months!

 

Thanks so much, Forrest! And I'll tell you how I managed it......WAMAS!!!!

 

Tracy

[zotzer]

This afternoon, I realized how cool a splitting mushroom looked under the actinic lights. What a brutal process it is, but the result is a new mushroom!

 

under the actinics:

 

with a flash:

 

Then I realized how far some things have come in such a short time, and decided to snap a few pics of my smallest, thriving frags.

 

Here was the little red monti that lanman gave me in september:

 

And today:

 

A really cool birdsnest frag I got from Dr. Mac at the October meeting. (the coloration on this is really pretty...purplish brown on the bottom, and neon green tips....the pics do it NO justice):

 

And today:

 

Anyway....those are my updates for the day. Nothing too interesting, but I love my little tank, and it's so great to see things growing and splitting and thriving!

 

Tracy

[steveoutlaw]

Tracy - that tank has certainly come a long way since you got it from me. Hope I can get my 65g looking as good.

[zotzer]

Thanks, Steve! I love it!! It's a nice manageable size for me. I know people are prone to upgrade, but until I am in a situation when I can do a big fat in-wall with a tank room behind it, I'll stick with this little slice of the reef.

 

All but a few hunks of the live rock came from you as well. The mushroom that split is an offshoot of one single that came on that rock. There are now officially seven of those giant green ones (after this one finishes splitting). The kenya tree and the pom-pom xenia that came on that original rock are two of the four showcase things in my tank, and I love them!! (medusa and the red shrooms are the other two)

 

Thanks for your help in giving me such a great start!!!

Tracy

[zotzer]

Well, I have my first true reefing dilemna today. Until now, I've been purchasing my RO water at a nearby LFS for a very reasonable price. I generally have 5-10g of fresh water on hand, and 5-10g of saltwater mixing in a bin at any given time. It has been very convenient to do things this way...not super expensive, and no floods due to forgetting about an RO unit being left on.

 

Here's the rub....My car is in the shop. I had FW to get me through today, which was fine....until I found out a few minutes ago that my car will not be ready until Monday night (darned british vehicles!!!). Two days topping off with SW probably wouldn't be the end of the world, but I *am* evaporating about a gallon per day.

 

Saturday is usually my water change day. I've decided to hold off, in case I need the 10Gs for an emergency, and I've prepared two gallons of tap with some Prime. This will have to do for top-off over the weekend, and I'll do a big water change Monday night when I have my car back and some new water.

 

Hopefully, my bound-to-happen algae bloom won't be too bad, and I've learned a lesson that investing in some sort of RO/DI is probably called for at this point, in spite of the fact that I have no clue where to install the darned thing that is even remotely convenient. Harumppphhhhh.

 

If anyone has any better ideas for dealing with my temporary issue, be sure to chime in!

Tracy

[Rascal]

If anyone has any better ideas for dealing with my temporary issue, be sure to chime in!

Tracy

 

Top off with bottled water. It may not be perfect, but it's better than tap.

[zotzer]

Top off with bottled water. It may not be perfect, but it's better than tap.

 

Yeah....if only I had some.

T

[YBeNormal]

 

Top off with bottled water. It may not be perfect, but it's better than tap.

 

Not necessarily. Tap water is highly regulated and continuously monitored. Bottled water is only loosely regulated and several independent tests have shown that tap water is actually much cleaner than much of the bottled water sold today. Now if you are referring to bottled distilled water, that might be a different story.

 

I'd offer you some RO/DI if you lived a little closer Tracy.

[Rascal]

Not necessarily. Tap water is highly regulated and continuously monitored. Bottled water is only loosely regulated and several independent tests have shown that tap water is actually much cleaner than much of the bottled water sold today. Now if you are referring to bottled distilled water, that might be a different story.

 

That may be so, but my independent tests (measuring just NH3, NO2, and NO3, and with hobby test kits) showed that there wasn't a whole lot of difference between most major brands of bottled water (although you're right, the distilled was the best, and cheapest), but my tap water registered very high for NH3 and NO3. The NO3 wasn't too surprising, but I was a bit disconcerted by the NH3 reading - I think it was 10 ppm if I remember right. None of the bottled water had any ammonia in it, and none of them registered more than 1-2 nitrates - most were nearly undetectable.

[zotzer]

I'd offer you some RO/DI if you lived a little closer Tracy.

 

Thanks, Bob.

 

Honestly, I think it will be okay. It's not like anything will die (knock wood), but I may have some consequences to deal with. The good news is that my parents are close by in Leesburg and have kindly offered me the use of one of their cars to get back and forth to work on Monday. So at some point tomorrow I can at least go grab some distilled or filtered water from the grocery store.

 

T

[davelin315]

If I am out in the area, which is not very likely today, I will be happy to drop off some water for you. Or, if you borrow the car, you're more than welcome to stop by to pick some up. I know there are at least a few people out in Ashburn, so if you get in a jam, you can always ask them as well.

[zotzer]

Thanks Dave! WAMAS members are the greatest!

 

I'll have a car later today, and there's already a gallon of the treated tap in the tank at this point, so the deed is done. LOL

 

Tracy

[zotzer]

Someone had asked on another thread about LTAs, so I thought I'd post some pics of Medusa. And, since I was at it, a FTS for the record. No huge ill-effects yet from the temporary tap water top-offs. Just got the car back tonight, and too pooped to go get water, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. So far, so good, though.

 

The mushrooms are not in their full glory, but that was the result of dorking around with adding flow (not the recent water issue). Since I've reverted back to just two Koralia 1's, they are on the rebound.

 

 

 

 

Happy Reefing!!!

Tracy