Ramblings of a Reef Geek

[H.crispa]

I have decided to start my own thread. But not just any thread. This is where I am going to put my off-the-wall thoughts, wierd ideas, senseless contemplations, goofy contraptions, and everything else that pops into my twisted mind.

The reason for this is twofold:
1) I will comment on threads and questions etc., only the relevant info. The "skinny version" if you will. That way no one has to scroll through my stream of conciousness crapola to get to the point.

2) Those of you, however few there are if any, who are actually interested in my reef geek over-technical anaysis, meditation, contemplation, theories, ideas, prototypes and all other related or unrelated rediculously boring, technical garbage-- can come here for and earfull, or an eyefull or whatever.

For those of you who, like most, find my rambling rhetoric to be excessively long, dry, inflamatory, distasteful, stupid, redundant, politically motivated, or just plain crap, You can now bypass it all by NOT reading this thread.

For those of you who DO choose to read this thread-- for God's sake, GET A LIFE!!!!

By the way, I'd like this to be a stickey. Can you do that Ron?

[H.crispa]

My first rambling. Today I got sick of those numerous, small areas of my tank that escape current. We all have them. They look innocent enough but after a while, they contain so much detritus and other assorted funk that they start to affect overall water quality.

I have tried massive water changes, vacuuming out the offending muck. I have tried stirring it up an filtering it out with a HOT magnum. No success. Today, I decided to try something new. I plugged in an MJ 1200 with a hose on the output. I shoved it in behind every rock I could, I blasted off everything in the tank. When the water started to clear, I did it again. I did this all day today. I do not know where the detritus went. Perhaps the corals and filter feeders ate it. I don't know. All I do know is that there is nothing to blast out of any crevis in the tank now. Also, the water is SPARKLING!

Here is a shot with only the 400 watt 12000k burning:


Here is a shot with all 900 watts beaming:

[firefish2020]

I am pleased to announce a place where everyone can come to hear of our local reef geek and tech-guys latest ramblings and accomplishments.

I remind everyone that Jason tends to think outside the box most of the time and his measures are a bit off the wall but he has many many years of reef keeping experience under his belt and is no simple amateur by any means. I must ask everyone to keep these discussions civil at all times.

So without further interruption I present this space to H.Crispa
Our head of R&D

[H.crispa]

Geez Ron. I hadn't thought about it in those terms but it's kinda cool. Like moving into your own place. I recon I'll cozy up to the fire and have a beer before I unpack...

[mcox33]

Jason only you would have to unpack in order to move into your own little nitche here on RC..

Way to go just make sure you post us ramblings often. They are so much fun to read even if they are techincal at times.

[H.crispa]

You know that frogspawn I'm always talking about? The growth rate and colors of this thing amaze me. Now it has exhibited another interesting behavior. I always suspected that if I stopped pruning it back, it would change direction of growth when it hit the glass. This it did.



As you can see, when it met the glass, it branched out in a radial pattern. This is pretty much what I anticipated. What I didn't count on was the weird deformities that popped up.



Notice how the area circled in red is bulging outward around the parimeter of the polyp (by the way folks, that "bulge" is skeleton, not flesh), while the "tentacles" are growing down inside the "crater" created by the weird skeletal growth. I am thinking about pruning it back and I'm also pondering letting this continue and seeing what happens. There are a couple other strange skeletal deformities that I find difficult to describe. One kind of looks like a clamshell with the tentacles growing out of it. Strange stuff.

Here are some shots to give you an idea of the size this colony has balooned to:





There is also a sort of "secondary colony" that is growing underneath the canopy of the one on top. The colors on the secondary colony are rich and vibrant, while the top colony has become more subdued. My guess is that the top layer is taking the full brunt of 900 MH watts and therefore does not need the zooxanthellae density or the pigment density that the shaded layer does.

I also have another colony about 2/3 this big in my other tank. And the colonies in Project Reeftank, and Mary has one, and Bruce has one, county boy has one bla bla bla......... For a little 2 polyp wild colony on the brink of death that Barry GAVE to me about 7 years ago, this little guy has certainly been a champ! I figure it has given rise to at least 20 other colonies over the years. And still yet it holds surprises! Definitely a good pet.

[mcox33]

Jason I know this is suppose to be for your post only,

But do you recognize(sp I'm braindead) this.

Here is the link I can't get it sized here so I'll just link it.


http://webpages.charter.net/mcox33/PIC00333.JPG

[H.crispa]

Yes, Mary, I do. Lookin' good! Glad to see your blasto is happy and healthy. Hey folks, I don't mind a post here or there. You guys are welcome in here. As a matter of fact, if I can figure out a way to manage this thread to keep the content in some kind of order, I welcome it! Come on in, have a seat-- there's beer in the fridge and the remote control is on the end table!

You may have noticed that I have not put much in here as yet. The reason is this: I'm afraid this will turn into a disorganized mess, going from one topic to another, then back to some other topic with no way to follow any one topic. That would make it unusable and defeat it's intended purpose. So, I'm trying to noodle this out. What I'm thinking is to post a regular thread on a given topic and post an introduction to the topic and a link to the thread. That way my junk will be archived and still allow some organization to this thing. I don't know just yet but I'll keep you posted.

[H.crispa]

Hey look! I'm actually using this thread for its intended purose!

Continuation of the anemone spewing white funk thread:

If it is spawning then fantastic! If aquarium inhabitants are out looking for a one night stand, then you can bet the farm that all of their other needs are more than met. After all, these animals live in the real world and in the real world your needs go something like this: Safety, food and water, shelter, sex. You don't want to have kids that you can't raise, can't afford, and have a low chance of living to adulthood and almost zero chance of making it on their own and creating an abundance enough to procreate themselves and ensure the survival of the species. Therefore if your livestock is trying to "get some", you know with absolute certainty, that it is "fat and happy!"

What is wrong with **** sapiens that we don't follow the same model? Can we really dumb down the gene pool and expect to survive as a species? We punish success by stealing money from high achievers at a higher rate than we steal money from low achievers. Then we take the money we stole from the high achievers and give it to the low achievers! Charity at the point of a gun is not charity. Boy I sure am tempted to go off on a full-blown Libertarian rant but I really need to get back to the subject.

If it isn't spawning, then it is most likely some other normal biological event. Perhaps the reason we don't witness it more often is because it normally occurs at 3 AM and for some reason you happened to witness it one day because the animal for some freak reason, decided to do it at 5 PM right after you got home from work.

In any case, your stuff is fat and happy

[H.crispa]

And, if my aquarium itself is actually growing, do I need to feed the tank silicone for the glass and seals?

Is the stand going to grow with the tank? If so, will they grow at the same rate?

What about the 'fuge? the skimmer?

Dude! This could get a lot more expensive than I thought!


Just kidding. Havin'n a little fun clowning around.

[H.crispa]

But then again, government does not work that way. Instead of fixing the source of a problem, they go after unrelated tangent issues. If the gov't found a hole in a dam, instead of fixing the hole, they would call in multiple teams of "experts" to determine the feasability of lowering the water level in the lake to below the level of the hole by creating another dam further upstream and another team to try and figure out how to reduce the rainfall around the dam, and another team to assess the economic impact of lowering the water level and reducing rainfall, and another team to assess the possible environmental imact and.... in the end spend a couple million dollars on some high-brow tail chasing and still have a hole in the stupid dam!

Likewise, instead of trying to fix the root cause of coral bleaching, the government would most likely ban the trade of coral, which accounts for a microscopic impact on reefs, and ignore the main problem altogether. To make matters worse, a typical government thing to do would be to ban all coral trade-- even home grown stuff!!!! How stupid is that??? I'll wager it is something so stupid that Robert "KKK" Byrd and Ted "Chappaquidick" Kennedy would support it, and those two buffoons couldn't find their rectal sphincters with a flashlight and two mirrors!

Why am I saying all this?
Because I know that the world's reefs are in trouble. I'm just not at all ready to blame it on mankind's activities. At this point we have the ability to set up captive reefs without taking anything at all from the ocean. Yet we still have the LUXURY of being able to do so at this point in time. Although the aquarium trade's impact on the reefs of the world is inconsequential, that WILL be the first thing targeted by the morons who make our laws. I'm sure scuba diving will be right up there too.

If congress were asked to find a solution to dirty toilets, they would ban sitting on them but still allow you some mechanism of getting your waste into the bowl and flushing. That way the seat would be clean and shiney for all the world to see! Look what we did!! Yet the bowl and the water therein, just as dirty as ever.

[H.crispa]

Well gang, its been a long time coming but here at last is the skimmer re-circ mods how-to thingy. Most of the pictures are not working right now but we will sort that out later. Although I will say that the picture of my stunning new look came through wonderfully. Some would say the haircut is a bit over the top, but I think it goes well with the overall theme.
http://chemicalvalleyreefclub.com/

[H.crispa]

Ahh........ Tomorrow I go to Snowshoe. Even though times are tough right now, I saw one day, a snowshoe poster in the window of an exxon station. I read it and discovered that, with 5 fill ups and 5 reciepts for the afore mentioned fill ups, and 5 coupons given out with those fill ups, I can get a FREE LIFT TICKET! Hey, I buy gas anyway. If I get a free lift pass for the best ski resort in the state for doing what I already do???? Man, I must have been a GOOD BOY lately! This is as close to a gift from God as I can envision right now. Maybe it IS a gift from God. I don't know and I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth! I have my suspicions, but this ain't a religeous club!

The reason I'm posting this is that, well, I have to get up at 4 AM, get on the road by 5, to arrive at the Shoe when the lifts open. There I will stay until they kick me out! I do not know if there are any other "Zen Skiers" out there but as many who know me will attest, I will ski in the rain. I will throw on my "crud skis" and ski in the rain when the snow is so patchy that I have to ski over some gravel now and then. When you truely love something, there is no adversity that can keep you away. If I died skiing, I would be totally fine with that. To die doing what you love is to live forever!

Likewise, if I were to take the "eternal celestial dirt-nap" from an electrical shock I got while doing a water change???? That would be an OK way to go too.

Of course, the best way to go would be making the beast with two backs while riding a motocross bike through the woods, but instead of wheels, the bike has skis.... and some really good Greatful Dead bootleg is playing on a really good soundsystem-- just like you were really there-- or even a good Allman Brothers show-- or String Cheese Incident.... All the while driving a Subaru WRX on a snowy, twisty road in southern California drinking a really good Pale Ale straight from the cask. If I can die like that, where do I sign up???? Oh yeah, Heather Christensen has to be in there somewhere or NO DEAL!

Anyway, I have to do my traditional ski season ritual, which involves drinking Coors beer while watching "Hot Dog. The Movie"-- the best B rated ski movie ever made! The reason for the Coors is that is what beer one of the characters pulls out during one scene.

Anyway, yesterday we went to the dog pound. A more depressing place I have never been. Every single funeral home I have been to is infinitely more cheerful. Before you jump to conclusions here let me say this: The folks that work in those places must be the some of the finest people on earth. Their dilemma as I see it, is this: We take in strays, mental cases, and "unwanteds" and when we have them past a certain time, we gas them. We don't want to but we only have so much space. We work as hard as we can to get them adopted, but, sadly way too many are gassed.

However, a humane gassing is far better for the animal than a life of starvation, disease, parasites, attention starvation, abuse, pellet gun shots from people trying to keep them out of his garbage.... how deeply sad it makes me to see this underside of our society. Make no mistake! I am NOT bashing America or Dubbya or anything like that.. I am, if anything, bashing US!

I saw many dogs there that truely touched my heart in a big way. If you dare, dear reader, read on. What I have to say is NOT pleasant. At the end of this ridiculously huge rant I will actually tie this into reef keeping. I promise.

The first dog I noticed was a Skipperkee (or how the hell ever you spell it). I recognized this breed bc a dear friend of mine had a skipper. He was such a cool dog! He was a bit of a naghty boy but it was just part of his personality. I have an old-fart L.H. dachsund named "Pink Floyd the Grateful Dog"-- Floyd for short.

This skipper was an old dog. 10 years old or so I'm guessing. He did not understand how he got there. Labled as a "stray", this poor old fellow, a purebred, was undobtedly at some point, someone's pet... for a long time. He was abandonned or got lost and now he is basically waiting for death. No one is going to adopt this old dog. Where are his owners? Who knows. This poor old guy deserves better. I'd love to take him home but I already have 4 dogs in a small house.

Then there's the one in cage B-19. This dog I feel so sorry for. She came in as a stray puppy, she was adopted, her adopted family (I'm guessing) tried paper training or some other method besides crate training (the sure-fire best) and was unable to get her to stop peeing in the house. So they RETURNED HER!!! Now she is nervous around people and does not exhibit "cuddly" traits that people want. This poor dog so badly needs love. If she had that she would be so appreciative and cuddly. It would just take a little effort to bring her out of her shell. I want to take her home with me. Like I said, 4 dogs, small house.

Then there is "obsidian" or"ebony" or something like that-- it is a wood or rock that is black... whatever. The tag reads something like, "Elderly couple unable to care for. 9 years old. Housebroken...etc. etc. etc. If that does not make you want to cry, then you have no soul. Some poor doggie who had a loving family, all the sudden is faced with mom and dad advancing in age and unable to care for "midnight" or whatever. This poor pooch, having known only comfort and love her entire LIFE! is now faced with a cold, concrete pen, no hope of experiencing the love and appriciation she once knew, and in a month or two, the sweet release of death.

Then there are dozens of dogs who were obviously cared for by SOMEONE for several years who are now "strays". You can tell they love people and crave attention and just can't figure out why they are now some sort of canine "leper". I hate going to the shelter.

Bright side is that I said a few times that we have 4 dogs. We used to have 3. Adam, my kid, expressed that he wanted a dog. I think it is a CRIME to NOT allow a kid to have a dog. I have always had a dog. There is always a good by. That is a sad day but the good times are the ones you remember the most. So we went to the pound.

I'm still saddened by the experience. Even though we are bringing one home I feel somehow guilty for the countless ones I left behind.

[H.crispa]

OK I said I was going to tie this bac into reef keeping. I will do that now. The reason I did not is that I love to write and I am actually pretty good at it. I have had articles published in several magazines etc. The stuff I post on RC I will edit a little bit but I really don't polish it. But I have to say, it would have been a crime to add anything to that last statement in my previous post. That ending was just too good to go on...if I do say so myself.

Back to the topic-- Stray dogs are there because of unwanted breeding, owner unpreparedness, changes in the health of the owner etc. We can do so much to alleviate this problem by simply neutering our mammals!

The issue with SW fish and corals goes much deeper. They don't reproduce out of control like rabbits, dogs and cats! The opposite is true. Reproduction in captivity is a challange with many of these species! Should work continue to try and get these organisms to reproduce in captivity?? Of course!!!! Obviously one should build up a knowledge base and some experience before moving into advanced propagation techniques but people who succeed at this actually provide vital information to the folks in the field trying to save species in the wild!!!

When you go to a LFS and buy an animal bc it looks cool and then you get it home and find out that you can't support it in your tank for whatever reason, you have done a disservice to the reef keeping community as well as the animal you have purchased. This kind of behavior is actually on the decline in a big way bc people are unwilling to pay big bucks for a coral and then have it die. Funny how the free market system has so many GOOD unintended consequences. Of course, all you hear about are the bad ones... my mistake.

Anyway, where I was going with all this was: Do your due dilligence with livestock. Do NOT be one of those people who put a 10 year old skipperkee in the damned animal shelter. Shame on you. I wish I could take them all myself. God, I HATE going to the pound.

[H.crispa]

I was "in to" herps long before I was into reef stuff and I have always held onto the belief that reptiles and anphibians merely "tolerate" handling and do not actually enjoy human contact. Tonight I have been forced to call that into question. A couple months ago someone gave me a ball python and tonight I actually think I 'connected" with the snake! It seemed to actually enjoy my "petting". I have never witnessed this before but I am dumbfounded by this. This snake actually seemed to enjoy my caresses! What is up with that??? This animal has a brain the size of a pea!!! In addition I have dealt with more reptiles too numerous to count with no result such as this. Honestly, I do not know what to think. I am absolutely blown away. There is no mistaking this animal's pleasure with my interaction. I have never seen it before...weird.

Makes me wonder if our reef inhabitants are capable of a lot more than we give them credit for. Primitive animals--YES!--devoid of emotion?? possibly not. I'm not suggesting that your prized acropora is watching you and planning an escape or anything as ridiculous as that.... but those clownfish you have in the corner???? Don't be so sure they are not watching you as much as you are watching them.

Just a thought.

[LtPiper]

You can't convince me that mine aren't watching me. I can stand across the room from them and they will be milling around not doing anything and as soon as I approach the tank my percs are front and center to make sure they get my attention. My Ocels. are out of their hiding places and looking at me and my fresh water especially my fry all congregate in a corner of the tank looking my direction.

[Reef4Fun]

Actually, my fish know me...and no I am not crazy (I don't think...hmmm) anyway, they do greet me and stay busy when I am standing there beside the tank, but when a stanger goes to look at them as soon as the fish see them they dart into hiding! Now, I tried an expierment with it and they did it each time, I swear!

[firefish2020]

Actually, my fish know me...and no I am not crazy (I don't think...hmmm) anyway, they do greet me and stay busy when I am standing there beside the tank, but when a stanger goes to look at them as soon as the fish see them they dart into hiding!

That's because you are the bringer or food and the sustainer or life in their world, and yes they know who makes the food fall from the surface. If they were smarter I would expect a monument to the overseers built of stone and shells lol. But make no mistake about it they will just as quickly bite the hand that feeds them as well as praise it.

[coralreefer]

Originally posted by firefish2020
If they were smarter I would expect a monument to the overseers built of stone and shells lol.

Hmmm maybe that's what mine are trying to do when they knock corals to the bottom during night.

[H.crispa]

Ok. Here is an update on the boat. The engine room is painted and in place. Not too shabby. Now all I have left is the rest of the superstructure, the motor, the servos, the rudders, the paddle wheel........................

Original boat:


Model boat:

[Salty Bginners]

Love the bedspread...cool model too.

[H.crispa]

Well, I keep steadily plugging away at the Rufus B II jr. As you can tell, I have pretty much finished the superstructure and I'm now working on the detail and the drivetrain. Anyway, here is a shot of the boat as it is now, with a Photoshopped Vincent Van Gogh backdrop. Really, I suck at Photoshop compared to what Ron can do but I don't think this is too shabby for 15 minutes' work.

[mcox33]

Quote : H. Crispa

____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Really, I suck at Photoshop compared to what Ron can do but I don't think this is too shabby for 15 minutes' work.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hey I would settle for that in 15 minutes with photoshop. Give me 15 hours and maybe it would look that good. LOL I doubt it.

[H.crispa]

I have decided that I want a pet lobster. A common Florida lobster, AKA rock lobster, AKA spiny lobster, AKA carribean lobster etc. One of those big bugs we used to catch down in the Keys scuba diving when I was in high school and save up throughout the week and dine on lavishly on the weekend. They are not pretty. They are not cuddly. They get big. I have seen these guys in Pennycamp (where you are not allowed to catch them) that looked to be 10 lbs or more. Why???? Well, I can't keep it in my reef-- even if it didn't dine on something I did not want it to, it would certainly undermine the rockwork and screw up the tank in countless other ways. It will need a home of its own. I will name it Larry... Larry the Lobster just like on that old episode of SNL where Eddy Murphy did the "call in and vote" to save or boil Larry the lobster. Only this time, no one gets to vote. I will feed it massive quantities of food and give it pristine water and grow it up to a huge size and then... boil it and feast like a king! Then start all over again.

I know, I'm either a pragmatic genious who loves to eat lobster or an insensitive bass turd who is willing to kill his "pet" when it gets big enough to eat and replace it with a smaller one. Either way, I don't care. I look at this as a farming project where I get the spoils! Question is... where do I get a small, live healthy rock lob????

Any ideas?

[mcox33]

Got any buds in Florida?