In Amber Clad

jedimasterben · Mar 13, 2016

Found my Kill-a-Watt to measure power consumption of the light.

All off
4.3w

NW only
33.8w

RB only
39.4w

C/L only
19.1w

B only
31.6w

V only
33.2w

Fan only
6.7w

All on
140w

T5 on
50.1w

Totals to 190 watts with everything at full power. Not sure how much PAR the T5 give (I'm using two Giesemann Super Actinic), but I'd imagine that it is not a lot, but the LEDs give 180 PAR at the bottom of the tank (24") at that power level, so if it hits 200 total that would be cool. I won't be running quite at full power, though, just will do probably 80% or so.

jedimasterben · Mar 16, 2016

Tried to get some decent pics, but I am out of practice already with an LED/T5 hybrid lol.

FTS 3/13/2016

My hawkwing conch doesn't like that he doesn't really fit lol

Hermit hitching a ride one one of my other conchs.

Love this leather, but poor photo.

This is the red plating sponge from LA.

Still haven't seen any polyps from this leather from LA.

Sinularia from ORA is looking more and more ******, glad to finally see some good extension and polyps from it! I think it just needed a LOT more light than I was giving it, I think I have it in around 220 PAR right now.

jedimasterben · Mar 16, 2016

And here is a video.

Also an underwater feeding video using my Xiaomi Yi.

revhtree · Mar 16, 2016

Nice job bro!

Bronc · Mar 16, 2016

You have a beautiful tank!!

jedimasterben · Mar 22, 2016

revhtree said:
Nice job bro!

Bronc said:
You have a beautiful tank!!

Thanks! I got some more corals last week, and a starry blenny. The guy I got some zoas and palys and a big nephthea from also sent me a massive chunk of an acro :O

It's still alive, though, so my curse may not be as applicable anymore

jedimasterben · Mar 24, 2016

Haven't been able to see the tank much this week, my wife has had influenza A :/

Went to feed and top off yesterday and everything looked good still, and the acro is still alive

jedimasterben · Apr 24, 2016

Not much has happened over the past month. My starry blenny continues to ham it up, and has ceased his frequent trips to the sump since I FINALLY found some freakin non-metal gutter guard to cover my overflow!

I also got a bunch of GSP that I tried to cover the overflow with, but super glue doesn't really stick well to acrylic lol.

I added that cover a day or two too late, there is something that is clogging my main drain, so my tank has more microbubbles than you can shake a stick at and the Durso backup drain is taking most of the load and is not all that quiet. I plan on eventually cutting it and clearing it. I might do that this week. I should be getting a pair of Tunze 6045 on Wednesday (I might cut it then if my family doesn't have plans for my birthday, which I hope they don't lol, I'm not big into birthdays

), I know that goes against my 'no more A/C pumps' rule, but the price was right and I couldn't justify the jump in price for the 6055 or 6095.

I've also decided to remove the sand from my sump and replace it with a layer of Seachem deNitrate pellets. The deNitrate has been in the tank for about two weeks now, so it should be on its way to being populated with bacteria, so the sand removal will start tonight.

Yesterday I went on a hunt for female guppies for my new planted tank, but literally didn't find a single one at SIX freakin stores. Grrrr. I did, however, find a black and white, sailfin, lyretail molly with some ridiculous anal fins, so for three dollars I decided to give it a shot. It has survived so far as of this morning before I left the house, so it seems like it will be ok. It is large, about 3.5" and will get at least 5", and is a very strong swimmer, so it will do well in the high flow of the tank.

The betta was being photogenic, too.

revhtree · Apr 25, 2016

Beautiful job!

jedimasterben · Apr 28, 2016

revhtree said:
Beautiful job!

Thanks rev!

At least I know she'll never have the money for crack.

hybridazn · Apr 28, 2016

Tank is growing in nicely! Great job!

jedimasterben · Apr 28, 2016

hybridazn said:
Tank is growing in nicely! Great job!

Thanks! It is coming along. The tank looks a little different since I started dosing lanthanum chloride, can't quite put my finger on it. A few corals seem to have started closing up more, but others look good, too.

I got a few fish from LiveAquaria today. They literally sent me a blue stripe pipefish with half its tail missing. SMH

jedimasterben · May 1, 2016

FTS 5/1/2015

Bronc · May 1, 2016

Great pics!!

jedimasterben · May 2, 2016

Thanks! The FTS is still a little wonky, getting the higher DoF with the blue wall behind the tank is a little difficult still, which makes the tank image look wonky. Wonky all around

jedimasterben · May 3, 2016

Lots of work in the reef yesterday. I removed the sand from the fuge - boy that was an endeavor. It also made the biggest cloud of poo ever. I figured since I was cleaning that part of the sump I'd get to the rest of it, there was a ton of poo that had compacted and had hair algae growing on it in the return chamber, got rid of all of that and put a Cobalt MJ900 in with it to keep things stirred up.

My big pile of Seachem deNitrate that is in the skimmer chamber was absolutely slam full of detritus, as well, so I may need to rethink that idea. I didn't want to get a 4" MarinePure block for two reasons, one because it is 4" and I couldn't set my skimmer on it and still be at the optimum water level, and two they can leach aluminum, and in a tank full of leathers I don't want to give them any more reasons to be mad at me lol.

I have four liters of it, though, so it's a bit unwieldy. After some googling, I stumbled across this post from MFK http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/matrix-vs-pond-matrix.389222/page-4#post-6298837

DERP! Cross stitch mesh is dirt cheap, as are zip ties, and will work well. I also have the plastic gutter guard that I got a couple weeks back that I can possibly use, I think the holes are small enough to keep the deNitrate pellets in (they are pretty small). If that's the case, then tonight I'll get to working on building a box out of it that is the same size as my skimmer compartment so that it can still hold my skimmer up lol.

I put in a teaspoon of calcium carbonate powder, the tank took nearly six hours to clear up. The skimmer has a layer of THICK sludge at the bottom of the cup, and I had just cleaned it before starting all of this!

Also, I finally decided it was time to clear the ball valve on the main drain of whatever was clogging it and to remove the full siphon standpipe and replace it with a simple snap-on bulkhead strainer. I was determined to get it all fixed and get the tank silent again! I got out my PVC primer and glue, found my cutters, and was about to snip the line when I first decided to remove the standpipe and get the strainer installed. Well, once I did that, I kinda found the clog.

Oops. That was a turbo snail and SEVEN cerith snails. Guess that's what I get for not having a strainer or an overflow cover! But now I have both, so should prevent this from happening again. Now the full siphon is back to being a full siphon and the tank is quieter and hopefully will have less bubbles in it

revhtree · May 3, 2016

Wow were any of them alive still?

jedimasterben · May 3, 2016

No, all were empty shells.

jedimasterben · May 8, 2016

Yesterday I replaced all of the drain plumbing under my kitchen sink and put my RO/DI in there with a 3 gallon pressure tank and an AquaticLife Smart Buddie booster pump. I plumbed it so that for drinking water, it all goes after a check valve into the pressure tank, then splits and goes to the faucet I installed on the sink and down under the house across the kitchen to the fridge for cold water and ice. For tank water, it is all before that check valve going to the pressure tank, with a three way valve to go through the DI resins or just straight out to a ball valve for fresh RO that I use for topoff (I only use DI water for water changes).

I still need to figure out how to get some bleach into the water/ice system in the fridge. My parents gave me this fridge, we used it with water/ice hookup about a decade ago, then they used it for a few years without it, and then I've used it for a year or so without it, so it's probably a little funky in there lol.

In tank news, everything is going pretty smoothly. The fish from LA all have settled down and transitioned well to eating not only my seafood mix but also NLS pellets. Even then tiny fish all go apey for 1mm pellets lol. A couple of my leathers have been very droopy for about three or four weeks now, I have no clue what's going on with them. I still see polyps from them every day, but they're completely slumped over and not inflated. I don't think they're getting too much light, I haven't upped my light intensity any that I'm aware of.

Now that I think about it, they started slumping after I added the Seachem deNitrate to the system. I wonder if, since it is also a ceramic, possibly an alumina ceramic, if it also leaches aluminum just like Marinepure media does?