LowersMyBP's Latest Tank (1 Viewer)

[LowersMyBP]

What David said.

Add up the bulb hours (I know, not an actual measure but I use it crudely). 2x10 + 6x4 + 2x2 = 48 hours. If you run a 6 bulb for 8 hours, it is "crudely measured" the same.

 

[Neu2Reef]

Hmmm interesting I think I will give something like this a shot to see what kind of new growth I monitor and how things respond after acclimating everything to the new cycle

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

 

[Neu2Reef]

So you don't do this for growth its more of an eye appeal / inspection for the fish and coral or are you attributing this light pattern to the growth rates .. Your corals look fantastic and seems to be very fast growers

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

 

[LowersMyBP]

I do it so I can see what I have in the tank. With two kids, you steal time when you can get it to view the tank. If the lights are only on 8 hours, I have fewer chances.

 

[LowersMyBP]

The carnage continues....

It started as a mission to remove the maroon pavona that was leftover and killing the bases of my acros....turned into a slaughter.
Wiped out sooo much orange monti. Took out the entire orange digitata bridge. Decided to just give up on the rock that was atop the structure...

In the process, dislodged the oregon tort and the big blue staghorn ended up in three pieces. Find out in time how much damage has been done...

I went through half a tube of the jurassic glue and 3 tubes of JB waterweld...

Also in the last week, I ditched the big pink birdsnest colony. Taking up space. Also, any monti etc on the sandbed was removed.

Hopefully, I didn't kill my midas blenny. I was jostling the rocks above his home quite vigorously while chopping away at encrusted monti...

Crappy Cell phone pics...

The carnage, digi bridge etc:

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• LowersMyBP
• Jun 16, 2014

The digi bridge is no more:

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• LowersMyBP
• Jun 16, 2014

This is what it used to look like:

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• LowersMyBP
• Jun 4, 2014

FTS:

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• LowersMyBP
• Jun 16, 2014

 

[NorthSide Reef]

I too am going to have to figure out a way to destroy my "maroon pavona" or can I just call it brown lol. It is huge and my attempts to control where it grows are failing. I tried to put plumbers putty on the edges to make it grow up not out. it grew under it and out the other side. damn thing is a weed. Wish I would have known.

 

[LowersMyBP]

Yes, pavona, monti and digi are the biggest mistakes I have made. Poccillipora is a distant 4th. That is pretty controllable.

I have one or two patches of orange monti to attack. The worst will be the patch near my large Cali tort....I am sure there will be collateral damage.

 

[eschulist]

Did the branching cyphastrea and flashlight get wiped out in the massacre or were they moved somewhere else?

 

[LowersMyBP]

The flashlight got removed earlier this week.

Funny you ask about the cyphastrea...thought I was all done and I went to pour out the water in the buckets. I look down and there is my cyphastrea and my branching psammacora. Yikes.

So far, they look OK.

 

[LowersMyBP]

GRANDPA AND THE VCR

Technology is great, but the older I get, the less I want to deal with it.

Picked up a WXM a week or two ago. I opened it up, got out the directions and read them. 12 pages later, I packed it up, put it all back in the box and set it on the shelf. Felt like I'd rather have blinking 12:00 on the VCR than bother to learn how to set the time...

Last night, I picked it back up. However, in the meantime, I had been shown the virtues of apex fusion, which means I had more steps...gah.

Apex Fusion. Go to the website, sign up for an account, watch the apex interface for a token, plug it in. Wow, that was easy. Nice. Thanks.

On to the WXM.....grrr They tell you that your MP40's will blink green then blue or blue then green to tell you which version of firmware they are on. Well, mine don't. So, I blew all kinds of time trying to update firmware that apparently didn't need to be udpated.

Finally, I attach them to the WXM on the apex lite. That works fine. I can see them as outlets. Hooray. Go to apex fusion to play with the 'graph' to program them....nope. What is going on? Can't tell. I permission the 'expert' to see my fusion, even program it. He can't get it to work. Says, 'update firmware on the apex'.

Now, there isn't much I hate more than working through that....remember, grandpa would rather see blinking 12:00 than bother to program the time.

Out come the wires. (75 footer to get from the router to the apex). Turn off the wifi on the laptop, wire it to the router etc. Time to party. Somehow, I got through all that.

Back to fusion, graphs show up. Nice. Now we are done, with that.


Meanwhile, I picked up a used AC3 to put on the 120G because the NET module on my RKL had pissed me off for the last time (this is where grandpa gets out the shotgun to shoot the VCR because it is blinking 12:00). Plug that all in, work through the head unit that I know zip about, find the IP, set it. Find the port, set it. Boom, I have access both inside and outside. From there, it is a snap. Is the AC3 now like a rotary phone? I love it.

Meanwhile, Tank side. Neighbor wanted to reduce fish load, so did another friend of mine...so in went a regal angel (woo), two flames and a yellow tang. Convict tang looked like he was strutting around like a peacock after the regal went in, figured he was marking his territory. Turns out, he was not happy. He seemed to have 'stroked out'. I also rehomed a filefish that was excessively nippy. Oh, and I moved a long nose hawk from the 120 to the 180 to see if I could get my banggai's spawning again. They spawned, but he only held for a week...we will see.

After all that, I saw the flame angels exhibiting spawn behavior last night in the moonlights...2nd day in the tank. Nice.

Last point of note: The new BRS reactor canisters are garbage, in my opinion. They seem to clog on me. I went back to the old style. Hoping that improves my GFO effectiveness and helps me get over the hump with the nuisance algae I have popping up. The red slime is gone, so the goby seems to sift more...or is it the other way around? Hard to tell. I siphoned out about an inch of sand everywhere and he started sifting all over again. He had been staying to one spot. I thought he might be dying (over 4 years old) but he seems to be rejuvenated. Who knows.

Pics some other time. It was a long night with technology. Grandpa didn't get to bed till 1am and now the little one is waking up.

 

[jlanger]

Technology is great, but the older I get, the less I want to deal with it.

Right there with you!
Wireless is great, but plug-and-play is so much easier.
And when did society assume everything written as acronyms was acceptable. Now I need to look up the definitions of most technical terms; and to which I usually don't understand those either.

Brooks Hatlen was right… "The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry."

Great score on the new fish!
I've always had a crush on the flame angelfish, but I've never tried one based on their nipping reputation.
Keep us posted on their behavior and activities.

 

[marty9876]

When is grandpa dropping in that 240?

 

[LowersMyBP]

240 became less of a need once I got ok with throwing corals away...

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

THE 120:

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

Bubble Algae extravaganza

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• LowersMyBP
• Jul 11, 2014

 

[jlanger]

 

[eschulist]

Ya that Oregon is turning into a fast grower for you. I will be looking for a frag sometime in Aug, grow me a nice one

Was the Blue Girdled Angel always in your tank or is that new recently as well?

 

[LowersMyBP]

Was the Bird Girdled Angel always in your tank or is that new recently as well?

Since october 2013. I have been tinkering with fish stock for a while. Hopefully, what I have now will keep me content for a while....

The tort looks so much bigger because during the demolition, it got knocked loose. I turned it 90 degrees or so in order to see more of it. It had always been growing towards the front, so it looked biggest from the side....not anymore!

 

[.Marshall]

I actually love the contrast that green algae covering your rocks has with the SPS, looks 'healthy' and natural Tank looks great, James!

 

[LowersMyBP]

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• LowersMyBP
• Aug 30, 2014

 

[jlanger]

NICE!!! :greenguy:

 

[marty9876]

James, what are you going to do with that much glue? Your tank is already overflowing with corals to the point you've been throwing them away. When will you listen to me and just get a bigger tank. Something like a 300 would do you well. I know you don't want to take anyone's advice but come on man, this is getting silly. Just think of the build thread you could do- 180G transfered to 300G or something like that.

Grow up, be a man and at least get something bigger than Frank's DT, even if it's just this >< much bigger. Pretty soon Angie and her 8g will be passing you up. Think of the children James, think of the children.