Randy's 180G Reef-Photo Journal - Page 33

rdmpe · #**801** 06/06/2007, 07:12 AM

Keith, do you think those are redbugs in the picture above? I really thought they were. I guess I could take another photo and see if they have moved.

Stile2 · #**802** 06/06/2007, 07:38 AM

Really hard to tell from the picture.

Here is a Link to Melev's Red Bug info.

Plus a picture

When I had them I didn't have a Macro Lens so the only way I could tell is them moving around. They move like ants, pretty quickly.

HTH
Keith

cham · #**803** 06/06/2007, 07:40 AM

Randy, after doing some reading I see these guys are supposed to be about 1/2 mm in size. Not big by any means, but I would think you could see them with the naked eye if your looking closely for them.

rdmpe · #**804** 06/06/2007, 03:46 PM

Hmmmmmmmmmm
Maybe they aren't redbugs after all. I'll see if I can get a better photo but that's probably about the best I can do. We'll see.

rdmpe · #**805** 06/30/2007, 04:41 PM

I have had some other people tell me that they are sure these are redbugs. I picked up a tablet of intercepter so will be doing that treatment some time soon. Aside from the redbugs, the coral seems to be doing fine. It looks great, not sliming, I think it's growing.

But before I do the intercepter, I'm going to try to deal with whatever it is growing on my sand. I think it may be dino's. I've been reading about some people's experiences here
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=988473
and I think I'm going to do a tank blackout for 6 days and see what happens. Hopefully the corals will be OK.

I bought another Sequence Dart. I got a refurb for $115. I wanted it for a spare since I have two of them running on my tank. So I swapped the closed loop pump out for cleaning and just stuck the new one on there. That way I was able to soak the dirty pump in vinegar over night - worked like a charm and now that crusty pump looks like almost new with minimal down time. Now it becomes the spare.

Went on vacation for 4 days and had my sister-in-law watch it. Gave her a checklist to go over every day

Things went fine except that I had accidentally left my dosing pump off and didn't realize until the day AFTER I got back. So my CA was at 370 and ALK was at 7.0 dKH. Not an emergency but lower than I want them to be. I dose kalk at night too and that probably helped a little bit.

Just today I noticed that my 5" sailfin has lost his title of king 'o the tank. My 4" powder brown has been chasing the sailfin into the caves repeatedly. I haven't seen this behavior until today. If it becomes a real problem I may have a great looking powder brown for sale soon but I sure would hate to have to get rid if him.

rdmpe · #**806** 07/07/2007, 10:35 AM

Here's my tank for the last 6 days LOL

I took the towels off and let the actinics come on today. Everything seems to be doing fine so far. Hopefully the dinoflagellates will be gone for a long time if not permanently.

jnarowe · #**807** 07/07/2007, 10:45 AM

I wonder how the corals will fare?

stevedola · #**808** 07/07/2007, 11:50 AM

6 days huh. I just did a blackout for 3 days to help with my cyano and it work rather well. All corals but 1 acro (that I was given to rescue) survived. It was in rough shape to start and dont think the black out helped. 6 days I would think you will have some stn. Good luck and try a waterchange the day the lights come on. seems to help.

rdmpe · #**809** 07/07/2007, 08:21 PM

So far everything is looking fine. I decided to start the halides on for only one hour today, then increase one hour each day up to 7 hours. Actinics on for 12 hrs...

tgunn · #**810** 09/28/2007, 02:27 PM

So how's the tank going?

rdmpe · #**811** 09/28/2007, 05:31 PM

Whoah! Wake up! Someone posted to my thread!

Hey Tyler, the tank is going great. Things are growing and nothing is dying! I've been distracted a lot lately with things like this:

I'll be doing some more of that tomorrow

rdmpe · #**812** 09/28/2007, 05:39 PM

So Tyler, do you have anything set up on battery backups? We've lost power twice this week for a couple of hours each time. I recently bought a 1500 VA UPS which I only have hooked to my sump return pump (sequence dart, 160 watts or so).

It has worked well so far. I don't know how long it will run the pump. I haven't needed it for more than about 2 hours so far. Usually by that time I'm ready to go get the generator going.

One thing though - the pump runs slower when on the battery power. I guess this is because the inverter doesn't create a true sine wave. I have to adjust my "herbie's drain system" when the pump is running on the battery, then adjust it back to normal when the city power comes back online. The gas powered generator on the other hand does create a true sine wave power and runs everything as if it was city power.

20 20 · #**813** 09/28/2007, 05:57 PM

Dino's still gone? I just took blankets off of mine after 6 days, looks like some survived. Corals need a break from the blackout, they are looking a bit stressed.

tgunn · #**814** 09/29/2007, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rdmpe

Whoah! Wake up! Someone posted to my thread!

Hey Tyler, the tank is going great. Things are growing and nothing is dying! I've been distracted a lot lately with things like this:

So Tyler, do you have anything set up on battery backups? We've lost power twice this week for a couple of hours each time. I recently bought a 1500 VA UPS which I only have hooked to my sump return pump (sequence dart, 160 watts or so).

It has worked well so far. I don't know how long it will run the pump. I haven't needed it for more than about 2 hours so far. Usually by that time I'm ready to go get the generator going.

One thing though - the pump runs slower when on the battery power. I guess this is because the inverter doesn't create a true sine wave. I have to adjust my "herbie's drain system" when the pump is running on the battery, then adjust it back to normal when the city power comes back online. The gas powered generator on the other hand does create a true sine wave power and runs everything as if it was city power.

Glad to hear the tank is going well! Wow, you're a brave man to be doing that! I am sure I'd break something if I tried!

I was actually about to switch my APC Smartups 650 VA from my computer to the tank to run my Tunze Streams in the case of a power failure. Unfortunately when I went to change the batteries in the UPS I must've mucked something up because the UPS is completely dead now. Go figure.

I really should look into some kind of backup power scheme like a UPS though. This summer has been the worst summer for losing power.. We've had countless power interruptions lasting less than a minute. Enough time to stop my Octopus skimmer (which means I have to go and blow on the venturi line to get it going again; it always does this after a power failure for some reason).. We had one long power failure lasting 1 1/2 hours though. At the time my UPS was working so I just used a Maxijet 1200 for some water movement.

Luckily the power is actually quite reliable here though. I'm glad because 2 hours without electricity in the middle of winter would mean the house would get cold awfully fast!

I don't think I can practically keep my sump return going in an outage. The 400w my return pump takes would be pretty tough to supply for any amount of time.

When you get a chance you should post some tank pics.
Tyler

GoldStripe · #**815** 09/29/2007, 06:48 AM

Wow, haven't seen or heard from Randy or Tyler in ages!! Almost forgot I was subscribed to this thread (and yours Tyler). Let's see some updated pics, both of you.

I've actually been off the boards for a while until recently. Finally got my new tank up and running 100%. Not sure if you two ever jump to any other sites but if you do check it out .

rdmpe · #**816** 09/29/2007, 03:23 PM

Hey Goldstripe, your new tank looks great! You recognize that skateboard ramp? It's Kona in Jax...

tgunn · #**817** 09/30/2007, 12:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by GoldStripe
Wow, haven't seen or heard from Randy or Tyler in ages!! Almost forgot I was subscribed to this thread (and yours Tyler). Let's see some updated pics, both of you.

I've actually been off the boards for a while until recently. Finally got my new tank up and running 100%. Not sure if you two ever jump to any other sites but if you do check it out .

I will have to take some pics this week and post an update in my thread.

The new setup looks great! At first the coast-to-coast overflow gave an illusion that the water level was low in the tank.

Guess not! I'd love to have an overflow like that. The traditional ones like mine waste so much room in the tank.

Tyler

GoldStripe · #**818** 10/01/2007, 05:35 AM

Thanks you guys! I've heard all about Kona but never actually been to it. I don't even know where it is. Me + skateboard = emergency room. The glass for the overflow is tinted although it doesn't really look like it in that pic, the plumbing isn't as visible as it looks.

rdmpe · #**819** 11/03/2007, 04:36 PM

Well, it's about time I posted some photos and stuff.
Low bandwidth beware

Here's the first "full tank animation" that I made in Feb. 2006 and
today's animation, Nov. 2007...

Feb. 2006:

Nov. 2007:

rdmpe · #**820** 11/03/2007, 04:51 PM

In case those are making you dizzy, here are some full tank shots

jnarowe · #**821** 11/03/2007, 04:58 PM

They sure were!

Looking great. Excellent progress.

gkarshens · #**822** 11/03/2007, 05:03 PM

Wow! Looks fantastic! Excellent growth.

rdmpe · #**823** 11/03/2007, 05:10 PM

Thanks guys. It's been really nice to sort of sit back and enjoy the tank so much now. I have done some work on it lately, swapped out the closed loop pump for cleaning, recently did an oh-so-rare water change, etc. More pics coming...

rdmpe · #**824** 11/03/2007, 07:25 PM

A few fish pictures...

rdmpe · #**825** 11/03/2007, 07:30 PM

Some other stuff...

The anemone and clownfish are doing really well. I've had the anemone now for over a year and it has never moved from it's crevice that I initially put it in!

Coral Coral Coral