Our Tbs - Page 30

patsan · #**726** 01/30/2006, 12:30 PM

Nice pictures!
Dave, in that first picture....is that a green brain that came with your TBS?
I also noticed such a nice bunch of tube corals....nice and alive! Just about ever single one of ours has died.

The urchin does look awesome. Have any shots of your Christmas Tree worm?

How come you disappear for months on end?

ratherbediving · #**727** 01/30/2006, 03:55 PM

Cool octopus! I hope you keep us posted on how it fares in the new tank. I'd like to hear about your tube corals as well--- most of mine are gone, and the rest seem to be just hanging on.

dwculp · #**728** 01/30/2006, 04:01 PM

1. That brain was given to me by a friend, it outgrew his 20 gallon tank. My TBS brains are doing well.
2. My tube corals rock and to tell you the truth, I dont do a whole a lot to them. Guess I am just lucky. All my clams are alive also.
3. Will keep you posted on the octo.

BrianPlankis · #**729** 01/30/2006, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dwculp
1. That brain was given to me by a friend, it outgrew his 20 gallon tank. My TBS brains are doing well.
2. My tube corals rock and to tell you the truth, I dont do a whole a lot to them. Guess I am just lucky. All my clams are alive also.
3. Will keep you posted on the octo.

How much and how often do you feed phyto? My clams are slowly starving with twice weekly phyto feedings.

Brian

lossman · #**730** 01/30/2006, 04:34 PM

That's odd about some having problems keeping the tube corals and clams alive. We have only lost two clams that I am aware of. We have a lot of tube corals and some are a nice deep brown and others are pale beige looking. It does not seem to matter where in the tank they are located but two of the colonies that are in lower light areas are browner and one in higher light is pale. However we have dark colored ones in high light and light colored ones in darker areas. The best colony of tube corals we have is on the shell of a turkey wing.

He is currently sitting down in the refugium and seems to be doing fine. We feed Reef Chili about once a week to the tank.

We do have a serpent star that is not doing well. Last night he got himself wedged in the Terminator crab trap (found some small gorillas we are trying to remove). It took a bit of doing to get him out of there and I think I hurt him when taking him out. There is no way that thing could have gotten himself back out as the door had sprung closed and only one leg was left to dangle out. This was after we had fed all the stars and other inverts some scallops!! He must have still been hungry and went after the tiny piece of silverside in the trap. He's moving about the tank a bit but his body is really swollen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he just got really roughed up getting him out of the trap and he will soon make a full recovery. Stupid stars!!!!

bigbenji · #**731** 01/30/2006, 04:50 PM

Keep that octopus's tank sealed. Those guys can fit through the smallest holes. Having no bones will do that. I read an article about one getting out of its own tank, feeding in another tank, and returning to its own before morning.

They're also supposed to be smart enough to figure out how to unscrew a cap to get to food. We'll need more pics.

lunner · #**732** 01/31/2006, 01:14 AM

dwculp, are those TBS rocks in those pics?

patsan · #**733** 01/31/2006, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by lunner
dwculp, are those TBS rocks in those pics?

Yes, his is a TBS tank.

dwculp · #**734** 01/31/2006, 08:49 AM

Yeah, I was like the second or third guy to statr a "Hey, follow mjy TBS tank progress" type of thread. It is all TBS rock with just a few added corals.

bobt2 · #**735** 01/31/2006, 08:57 AM

all my tube corals that are still dark are at the bottom in low light, they are doing great and growing. the ones high up are alive but bleached. all clams and most sponges are still alive. i feed phyto every other day

patsan · #**736** 01/31/2006, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bobt2
all my tube corals that are still dark are at the bottom in low light, they are doing great and growing. the ones high up are alive but bleached. all clams and most sponges are still alive. i feed phyto every other day

I know you have different lighting in your tanks. Have you found any that they have survived better with any particular lighting or just as long as they're low in the tank?

patsan · #**737** 01/31/2006, 09:33 AM

Speaking of lights.....Bob just showed me that 2 of the bulbs are out in the tank. Now I need to order new bulbs.
For the life of me, I can't remember what bulb combination I had in my tank....but I liked it. I might have only gotten rid of one more of the 6500k daylight bulbs and used one more of the blue or blue plus.

Whoever has T-5's, what combo of lights are you using?

Also, what is the name of the bulbs that are really blue when they're on? I always get confused with blue and blue plus.
I want to make sure I don't order too many of the ones that are really blue.

drk70 · #**738** 01/31/2006, 09:49 AM

Two of my bulbs are out too. Right now I have 2 blue plus and 2 11k aquablues on and I kind of like the look so I haven't bothered to replace the 2 that are out.

The ones that are really blue are blue plus. The actinic ones look purple and the 11k aquablues are white.

Keep in mind only one bulb may be burnt out. Usually when one goes the other bulb on that ballast doesn't light either.

patsan · #**739** 01/31/2006, 10:00 AM

Thanks for letting me know which bulbs are which.

The bulbs that are out are 2 of the inside ones, which 4 run off. And I believe there is only 2 ballasts on the tec hood. (you have the retro kit), so it probably is the bulbs.
Some of the other bulbs have some black near the ends. So, we'll just get all new bulbs rather than mixing new and old.
Maybe this has something to do with the retarded growth I've noticed in the tank.

Bob was surprised they were out, and said, "I thought they were supposed to last 2 years".
We've been running them for a full 13 months now, starting on the 14th month.

dwculp · #**740** 01/31/2006, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by lossman
That's odd about some having problems keeping the tube corals and clams alive. We have only lost two clams that I am aware of. We have a lot of tube corals and some are a nice deep brown and others are pale beige looking. It does not seem to matter where in the tank they are located but two of the colonies that are in lower light areas are browner and one in higher light is pale. However we have dark colored ones in high light and light colored ones in darker areas. The best colony of tube corals we have is on the shell of a turkey wing. He is currently sitting down in the refugium and seems to be doing fine. We feed Reef Chili about once a week to the tank.

We do have a serpent star that is not doing well. Last night he got himself wedged in the Terminator crab trap (found some small gorillas we are trying to remove). It took a bit of doing to get him out of there and I think I hurt him when taking him out. There is no way that thing could have gotten himself back out as the door had sprung closed and only one leg was left to dangle out. This was after we had fed all the stars and other inverts some scallops!! He must have still been hungry and went after the tiny piece of silverside in the trap. He's moving about the tank a bit but his body is really swollen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he just got really roughed up getting him out of the trap and he will soon make a full recovery. Stupid stars!!!!

I feel really bad about this, but I dont really do much for the tune corals, I may feed them once every now and then, but far less than I should and they are doing great. I dont add phyto to the tank and the clams are doing great. Maybe I just hit on the perfect balance of things, I dont know, but I dont really work at it at all.

skippy2 · #**741** 01/31/2006, 10:33 AM

Do any of you use Marine Snow to feed your corals? If so, how often do you use it and are you happy with the results?

lossman · #**742** 01/31/2006, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by patsan
I know you have different lighting in your tanks. Have you found any that they have survived better with any particular lighting or just as long as they're low in the tank?

We don't have mh's, only pc's and vho's. Much lower light than some of you. Maybe that's why most of our tube corals are doing well.

BTW, do any of you get coralline algae growing in your skimmer? I just had to take our skimmer out and clean it and it was caked with coralline on the inside!! Sheesh!!!

dwculp · #**743** 01/31/2006, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by lossman
We don't have mh's, only pc's and vho's. Much lower light than some of you. Maybe that's why most of our tube corals are doing well.

BTW, do any of you get coralline algae growing in your skimmer? I just had to take our skimmer out and clean it and it was caked with coralline on the inside!! Sheesh!!!

Yeah, the outtake of my skimmer is encrusted with coraline along with spots on the inside. I also get tons of tiny hard worms that encrust the inside of the skimmer.

bobt2 · #**744** 01/31/2006, 12:09 PM

pat, i,m only talking about my 1 yr old tank that has 260 watts of pc. i wouldn't be fair to include my 3 mo. old tank. my t-5 bulbs are 2 x 6500, 3 blue + and 1 11k aquablue. the output of my hob skimmer is loaded with algea and pods

patsan · #**745** 01/31/2006, 12:36 PM

I ordered 3 11k and 2 blue+ bulbs. I have a brand new daylight bulb here that we haven't used yet....so we'll see how that works out.

Peggy, I've never used the marine snow, so I can't help you with that one.

I don't think we have any coralline in the skimmer. We don't get much on the walls of the tank either. A little bit here and there, but nothing like some of the pictures I've seen here on RC.

jnb · #**746** 01/31/2006, 12:44 PM

keep in mind that probably only one of the two bulbs out are burned out - they are wired in tek hoods that one bulb out causes the rest on the transformer to be out. I asked and they said it is safer this way or ask reefgeek

patsan · #**747** 01/31/2006, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jnb
keep in mind that probably only one of the two bulbs out are burned out - they are wired in tek hoods that one bulb out causes the rest on the transformer to be out. I asked and they said it is safer this way or ask reefgeek

It's a 6 bulb fixture. The two outside lights that work off of one switch are lit and working.
The 2 inside lights from the front looking back are the ones not lit. The 4 inside lights run off the other switch.
So, are you saying that the transformer controls 2 of the lights? That there would be 3 transformers total in this hood?

jnb · #**748** 01/31/2006, 12:52 PM

hmmm sorry for confusion - now I am not sure - just know that one burned out bulb causes others on same circuit not to light - give reeggeek a call as your situation sounds funny based on what I was told - and I thought there were only 2 transformers
Toll Free Number: 866-295-9230

Quote:

Originally posted by patsan
It's a 6 bulb fixture. The two outside lights that work off of one switch are lit and working.
The 2 inside lights from the front looking back are the ones not lit. The 4 inside lights run off the other switch.
So, are you saying that the transformer controls 2 of the lights? That there would be 3 transformers total in this hood?

ratherbediving · #**749** 01/31/2006, 12:59 PM

I've got 2 blue plus, one aquablue and one daylight. I really like the color combination.

I'm surprised (and worried) so many people are having bulbs burn out. I always thought we would be replacing the bulbs due to lost intensity, and that it would take 18-24 months. No one around here seems to sell T5 bulbs, so I need a bit of advance warning so I can place an online order.

If you do replace the bulbs, I think it might be a good idea to do a couple at a time, and let the corals adjust to the greater light intensity.

I thought the actinic phosphors (blue plus and actinic bulbs) will go before the 'higher temperature' phosphors in the aquablue and daylight bulbs-- is that true?

My skimmer is coated with coralline-- tried cleaning it a couple times but didn't get all of it off each time.

bobt2 · #**750** 01/31/2006, 01:59 PM

my t-5s are running 7 months now and the ends are black already. should i be worried, i was told 18 months till change