Labor of Love. I hope.

[goldenmean]

Not everyone ate veggie burgers last night.
Alonzo had a Tuna Nicoise sandwich with Mac & Cheese while i has Southern Fried Chicken Breast with Mashed tater & gravy.

What is that, Jeff, a leather?

Yes, A toadstool leather. Mine had fragged itself.

Here is the 2+ duncan frag that John brought me.
The + looked like an empty skeleton last night but there is something going on there.

[fishnu]

Veggieburgers are great, particularly with the correct application of pepperjack and or habanero salsa. Veggiedogs, on the otherhand, are the embodiment of evil.

[fishnu]

Originally Posted by goldenmean

Here is the 2+ duncan frag that John brought me.
The + looked like an empty skeleton last night but there is something going on there.

They're looking happy. I know you can bring the color level up!

[fishnu]

OK

My tank is officially up this weekend.

Friday and Saturday I added 7 different types of coral. Also on Saturday, I decided to go ahead and adopt a true percula, a spotted cardinal and a coral banded shrimp from a teacher who my sister knows who wante to shut down her tank. Also, my mantis shrimp is in the refugium.

When I called her I said I would come over and test her water, get the parameters, bag them, and bring them home; she said "Oh, I already took them out of the tank for you this morning. I have them in a bucket" I drove over there at 20 over the speed limit and brought them back to my apartment. I spent saturday afternoon drip acclimating them and raising the temperature in the bucket she had them in.

I am going to fight hard to save them. I am concerned that this mode of transition may have been less than I would have hoped. They seemed to have acclimated well and are eating.

I know I am going too fast with the fish/shrimp, but I also know I have been incredibly diligent in getting this tank up and running. Rock has been curing for 6 months now, whith the occasional deli shrimp to keep it active. Water Parameters have been stable for months, and I am being diligent about testing.

After 24 hours, my parameters are fine. 0-0-0, SG 1.026, pH about 8.3-8.4Calcium around 375-380. I have to buy phosphate and Mag test kits, but I am using RO/DI so these should be good for now.

I have set up a direct top off straight from my RO/DI (with two shut offs to be safe,one mechanical and one electric) so water is replaced as it evaporates. I still have a bubble problem at high pump levels, so I need to continue to work on this.

I finally replaced all the bulbs in the light fixture I got from Scott, so my lights are new. I probably should have broken them in, but I didn't want to waste the new bulbs.

I will need to start thinking about CUC since I only have a few snails in addition to 8 hermits. Snails will be next.

Tonight I put the doors and brass hardware on the cabinet. It's nice to look at the lunar lights in the tank without being blinded by the sump light.

So, as of today, it's a tank. Wish me luck.

[goldenmean]

Whoo Hooooooo!


Fishnu, the Lord of the Fishes needs no luck.
He has RS!

Come on John - Give us a cell phone pic to tide us over til you get a digital cmaera.

[BarbMazz]

Originally Posted by goldenmean

Whoo Hooooooo!


Fishnu, the Lord of the Fishes needs no luck.
He has RS!

Come on John - Give us a cell phone pic to tide us over til you get a digital cmaera.

I agree with Jeff; CELL PHONE PIC!

Wow, you had a busy day, John. Hope your perculas are okay, but it sounds as though you were very careful with them.

[Dentoid]

Sounds good John! I would say looks good, but you know the drill!

[fishnu]

Ask for bad pictures and you will receive.

My tank. I need to do some housecleaning and move the wires to the right side. I am shopping for a small shelf or CD shelf I can place ballasts etc on. I may change the brass fixtures...they look a little too bright. However I was trying to do nautical, and that fits...



What you can't see here is my Euphylllia hammer and my coral banded shrimp..


All you can see here is blue, but this is my shroom rock on the left and my zoas on the right.

[BarbMazz]

I like your rock scape a lot!

[goldenmean]

Cool!
Your rocks look even more ominous under the moon lights!
very nice!

[fishnu]

Thanks Barb, Jeff.

I am trying to do something different with the scaping...The two things I noticed with my rock was 1) A large, beautiful rock with dead plate of some kind of small coral ...zoas?...which I wanted to use as a show piece and 2) a lot of rocks with curves, look like broken pieces which were 4-5 inch holes.

So, what I am trying to do is use the curved pieces to build a series of arches which draw your eye to the right, and the larger more showey rock as a visual endpoint.

I will post new pics when I get my camera.

[BarbMazz]

Sounds like a plan.

Way back when, I noticed Jeff said he sat down and looked at his rock in his tank and tried to become one with his rock, or something like that.

I remembered that, and it really helps if you sit and look at it for awhile. Then when you are in the tank you'll notice the rocks will lock together when you have it 'right'. It's weird but true!

Have fun!

[fishnu]

I will leave it this way for a while and see how it grows on me.

Question for all:

Has anyone tried using epoxy putty to connect rocks and make your structure more stable? I have heard it is safe but makes the skimmer go nuts for 24 hours.

Does anyone else have any experience with this?

[fishnu]

Does anyone have any guidelines for depth / height of diffferent types of coral under lights? I have two 10000k 150w HQIs over my 75G, and I am unsure who likes to be up top and who wants to be down by the bottom. I don't want to burn anyone out.

John

[fishnu]

OK. Got a camera. Pics of my limited variety of Coral, "Omen" the clownfish, "Cody" the Cardinal, "Herman 1-8", "Demonangel", and "Pimp the Shrimp" to follow tonight.