Makena95GT Posted November 16, 2014 Author Share Posted November 16, 2014 Thats what i was thinking. It drove straight and fine into the gas station and i think i only hopped the curb at 30mph. I hit the brakes hard but it was wet so i slid. But thankfully i was able to avoid the pole so im super happy about that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 Oh forgot to tell yall i came back home on Wednesday and im not dead. Yay! Picture shows the only damage to the car. Not too bad i guess. New wheel is only $140 so ill be in the market for one. Updates on the tank: i got home and my corals looked kinda starved for light. But I also left the blues off and just ran the whites on a timer so thats probably why. Everyone is alive. Last nighy GG the goby was acting weird. He was swimming all over the front glass and made a little dent/nest in the front corner of the sand. He also looked like he was having issues in the middle of a poop. It was kinda orangey brown. I havent seen him yet today so im kinda freaking out. We got some minor coral growth since my last tank update and everything looks good. Even found a pretty big asterna starfish (sp?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 Update: found grumpy gills. Hes in his cave. Whew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted November 30, 2014 Author Share Posted November 30, 2014 I offer a picture of a turtle for not updating you guys in so long with other pics. Thats Barney. He was getting his shell waxed. Once weekly at the most but typically bi-weekly. He's been being a butt lately. Just turned 1 year old about a month ago. Ill add photos to this post after I get off my bed and take some. Props to Bigsby for giving me a good deal on a 5g quarantine tank and a HOB skimmer. I have it running in a bucket of a mixture of nasty SW and nasty FW from water changes throughout the week. Took a bit to figure it out and I was being impatient but after letting it run through the night I finally have bubbles reaching up into the neck. When first setting it up it just looked like a fizzy soda can. Before getting it on the tank ill be ordering a new pump for it and making a lid for the cup. I have a makeshift cup that fits pretty well but I want my cereal cup back lol With the 5g QT tank I'll be of course QT'ing all new additions. Possibly including corals. But I do plan on getting another Bangaii Cardinal. I just really need to find somewhere that has captive bred ones that are already eating well. The last large female refused to eat and ended up starving. Fish Gallery had some ORA Cardinals but after a super fun heated discussion with someone there and a bit of kidnapping my associates from PetSmart as well as personal past things.. I'd rather not go unless I absolutely have to. Tank is doing well. I ALMOST had another cyano and hair algae outbreak but took care of it in the nick of time. I dont really see any new growth on anything. But nothing is dying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted November 30, 2014 Author Share Posted November 30, 2014 Skimmer. An Odyssea PS75. Nothing fancy. As you can see there arent a ton of bubbles in the reaction chamber. So a NW pump will be ordered on Friday blacked out QT tank. I think ill keep it as is for any new fishy arrivals to not get spooked. current FTS. And my baby hookah monti is looking decent. And the leather. Woooo polyps I did snip off most of the tips on the birds nest due to hair algae getting caught up in it and not coming off. Clearly that did not help. But after taking Bigsbys suggestion of higher light it seems to be slowly gaining back some color Grumpy Gills is as grumpy as ever my small BTA. Semi-bubbly. Eats well when I do decide to feed it. Hasnt walked since putting it where it is. Working on slowly raising the LED intensity for the nems and last.. my super happy Curly Cue Nem. Eats like a champ. Its actually kinda scary. Its tried to eat my fingers a few times. (Grabbing at them and pulling) but I love it and my shrimp. They make a super cool pair. The shrimp protects the nem from intruders such as myself 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 Mailmailmail Got in the stock pump for the Skimmer. Annnnnnd it takes up tons of space but hey.. I think its cool. Im all about function over form so.. whatever. Ill be upgrading eventually anyways. So.. here's my problem. One.. the amount of micro bubbles coming from the output is too darn high! It makes the ST look like the skimmers chamber.. seriously. Insane. So okay.. I toss on some sponge on the output. Fixed the bubbles.. but that impeded the flow so much water basically shot out the top of the skimmer.. even with the output wide open. So.. I'm thinking I may trim the impeller of the pump..? Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 We have bubbles. I trimmed the impeller.. a bin too much. The venturi stopped working. Not enough pull anymore to draw air? Oh well. For now I went the ghetto route and hooked up an air pump with a valve. A whole new skimmer pump is $8 shipped so I may get a few.. for mixing SW and just to have. I has micro bubbles leaking from this connection. It looks crooked almost like I may have cross threaded it.. but I know I didn't. Oh well. Ill play with it more tomorrow. I solved almost all my initial micro bubble issue with this homemade filter sock made out of unused reptile carpet. Ignore the cords everywhere. Just testing the skimmer out and didnt feel like running the cords if I was going to be moving it and turning it on and off As always.. a picture of Grumpy. Pistol Shrimp peeping out. He was trying super hard to move the hermit on the rock in front of him. Hermit: 1 Pistol Pete:0 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted December 11, 2014 Author Share Posted December 11, 2014 Emerald Crab wwhoooooooooooooot. His name as of now is Mr. Crabs. It may change in the near future. Plenty of algae for him to munch on. Hopefully he will do a good job teaming up with me for the manual removal of all this algae. These past few weeks have equaled zero tank maintenance so I'm a bit behind on water changes and scrubbing. But hopefully once I get this skimmer dialed in and my water changes back on track coupled with Mr. Crabs and I manually removing it.. it'll clear up in a few weeks. Just with my own personal manual removal the past few days it looks a ton better. I need to make another baggie of Phosguard and find somewhere to put it to help as well. I removed the Aquaclear filter to make space for the skimmer. Gah having such a small tank is becoming a pain. I can't decide if I want this tank to be my "forever tank" and deck it out with a mini-sump (I can either do a 5g or a 10g sideways) or just not do any more upgrades on this tank and save up for a larger tank. Once the big turtle tank is set up ill have a 40 breeder just sitting around. But it'll be quite a few months till that happens. (Possibly not till June) Or I can keep buying upgrades for the 10 that I can eventually use for the 40 (like my "huge" skimmer, my lights, a controller, etc etc) Opinions would be greatly appreciated. I love my nano a ton as it was my first tank and I'm proud to say its never crashed.. but the things I could do with the 40b... and is it wor worth it to continue decking out my nano if I'm just going to upgrade any who? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 I say keep going with addons that will scale up for you later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Definitely keep purchasing add ons that will facilitate better water quality and ease of maintenance on any size system and upgrade tank size when one falls in your lap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted December 12, 2014 Author Share Posted December 12, 2014 I love it when tanks fall in my lap. So far the only tanks I've ever bought have been gifts to my brother lol but that 40b I bought for him in January back when he only had one turtle. Now his new gift will be a 100+ gallon tank. Spoiled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted December 14, 2014 Author Share Posted December 14, 2014 Did a good glass cleaning on the two viewing sides. Also pulled two rocks for a mild peroxide scrub as they had way too much algae on them. Algae free As seen in the above photo my curly cue nem is super happy. He ate a rosy red minnow yesterday that I was trying to get my geckos to eat. Didnt want to waste it. But my little BTA for the past few days has been looking pretty shabby. For the first time in a while I tested my water as well. Yay for markers. Calcium 390 Alk was 11.6 ish Magnesium 1540 if I'm remembering correctly what the picture says. Nitrate was around 2.5ppm not quite 5 but not quite 0 (API kit.. gag) Skimmer is finally breaking in. I have it running pretty wet. Took off the prefilter from the intake and wouldn't you know.. now it works. As always a complimentary photo of the Grumps. He looks like he's scraped his back on some rocks or maybe gotten into a tussle. One of his pectoral fins looks a little beaten up and there's a small tear in his tail. But he's eating and active so I haven't worried about it. Just assume its from squeezing through rock tunnels. So that's today's update. Cleaned up some cords from the skimmer as well. Going to get some Velcro to mount the thermometer display and the switch for the blue lights in a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 my view of the tank today. A much needed break. finally ordered a new powerhead. Super stoked! Also about to pop off and dip some frags that havent been so happy lately Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted December 16, 2014 Author Share Posted December 16, 2014 Dosed the tank with Chemi-Clean yesterday. Maybe a 75% dose. Some zoas were looking kinda MEH and there were the beginnings of a cyano outbreak again. I hadnt been keeping up with maintenance so thats my fault >.> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted December 23, 2014 Author Share Posted December 23, 2014 Im so happy. I have a powerhead i can actually move and aim. This little thing only pushes 240gph but man it feels like its doing a hell of a job. Pretty happy with it and ive only had it for 10 minutes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted December 23, 2014 Author Share Posted December 23, 2014 Todays parameters. Im on the verge of just getting hanna checkers for everything because this is weird and annoying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 What tests do you currently use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted December 23, 2014 Author Share Posted December 23, 2014 Red sea coral pro kit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 That's interesting. Myself and several others have used the Red Sea pro kits with very good consistency and precision. Have you been rinsing all test vials and syringes with rodi real well and drying them, especially the syringe tips? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 I think very highly of the Red Sea pro kits and use them myself for any parameters that are not covered by the Hanna meters, minus the Ca Hanna meter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted December 24, 2014 Author Share Posted December 24, 2014 Probably just me then. I know when i first got the kit i was terrible about rinsing everything but now im pretty good at remembering. Ill try again tomorrow night after xmas eve dinner when im in a food coma. Maybe thatll work better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 (edited) As some members experiments have recently snowed, if you don't perfectly rinse your Hana tubes with rodi and wipe perfectly clean, mix the perfect and same amount of time, every time, and use the one vial test method, with the vial facing the same direction every time...your test results will be about as consistent as your Red Sea results have been. They're great testers, but to me, they take longer to test with if you want precise readings, as opposed to the titration tests. Edit: definitely not deterring anyone from Hanna meters. They're just finicky. I tend to think also if you're not Acropora obsessed, chasing test numbers will just be a source of stress. Either way you've got quality tests in your hands as is...unless you happen to have the recall calcium test Red Sea put out about a year ago Edited December 24, 2014 by Bpb 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 +1 for the red sea pro test kit. I use both Hana and red sea. I bought the hana because I wanted to be lazy and get a digital reading. I am finding that I still like red sea more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 I promise that I'm not dead. Just.. Busy. Tank had been neglected. I removed all but the biggest rock to manually remove algae. But at this point until I can get the nem to move im fighting an uphill battle with that algae covered rock. Lost a few corals but nothing major. All fish are alive but the pistol shrimp has vanished. Pics to come soon 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Glad you're still with the club Makena. [emoji106] Looking forward to the update. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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