Zibba's Reefs -- ADA 90P & Envision 100g
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zibba
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Sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been crazy-crazy busy. I went to St. Louis last Thursday-Sunday for a wedding. It was the first time I've left without someone staying at the house to watch the tank and report back. Thankfully my neighbors are awesome and they came over two times per day to feed and dose while I was away. Life savers! I didn't ask them to fill up the ATO or perform any crazy tasks, just feed 2x/day and dose once. I left everything out in pre-portioned amounts and came home to a tank that was looking really good....except that now all of the polyps on the SPS were retracted. So I went into hyper-drive in catching that Flame Angel. I tried using the bottle trap and a few other methods, but nothing worked. We finally got it out on Thursday this week -- it was definitely a two person job -- after chasing him out into the open and using a net/acclimation box and the bottle trap to corner it. Lol. All said and done, he's currently residing in the refugium while I try to find him a new home.
I had a minor crisis on Tuesday night this week. I woke up at 2:00 am to dead silence except for a gurgling sound that my tank makes when it's back-siphoning when the return pump turns off. I knew right away that the power was out. I immediately called the power company to figure out what was going on and they said I was the first to report it (go figure...who else is paranoid enough to wake up and worry about a power outage in the middle of the night when it's 68-degrees outside and there's no other reason to be awake). But I was really freaking out because I had no idea how long the power was going to be out and, more importantly, I was completely unprepared -- I don't have a generator, a battery back up, a batter operated air pump, or anything like that. Thanks to advice from my better half, I quickly ran to Walmart (I've never been more thankful for them being open 24/7) and bought a converter for my car battery. I jetted home and started running the tank from the car battery. The power company came knocking about 2-hours later and asked if they could access the transformer. I turned out that it was an isolated power-outage due to the transformer in my backyard going bad and about half of the block was without power. About an hour after they showed up (3-hours total), the power came back on. It really opened my eyes to how unprepared I am for a power outage. No clue how much damage there would have been had I not woken up to the power outage and, worse yet, had I been out of town. In this instance, everything would have liklely been alright but I need to do some planning to figure out a good, cost-conscious method.
In other news, I re-programmed my Apex and got all set up with reeftronics.net! Really excited about the new variable programming on the Tunzes. If you want to check out the programming, it's all here, however, I won't take credit for coming up with the program. I pilfered almost all of it from different threads. In addition to the reeftronics access, I reconfigured the dyn.com service for a little redundancy to make sure I have access while I'm away.
I'm heading to London for work for 7-days on Sunday so I have a super busy weekend ahead in preparation for the trip, but I'm going to find time to get in a water change, do all of the routine maintenance and snap some pics for an update. Thankfully, K will be at the house watching over things and I know there are local reefers willing to help out if an emergency comes up.
I had a minor crisis on Tuesday night this week. I woke up at 2:00 am to dead silence except for a gurgling sound that my tank makes when it's back-siphoning when the return pump turns off. I knew right away that the power was out. I immediately called the power company to figure out what was going on and they said I was the first to report it (go figure...who else is paranoid enough to wake up and worry about a power outage in the middle of the night when it's 68-degrees outside and there's no other reason to be awake). But I was really freaking out because I had no idea how long the power was going to be out and, more importantly, I was completely unprepared -- I don't have a generator, a battery back up, a batter operated air pump, or anything like that. Thanks to advice from my better half, I quickly ran to Walmart (I've never been more thankful for them being open 24/7) and bought a converter for my car battery. I jetted home and started running the tank from the car battery. The power company came knocking about 2-hours later and asked if they could access the transformer. I turned out that it was an isolated power-outage due to the transformer in my backyard going bad and about half of the block was without power. About an hour after they showed up (3-hours total), the power came back on. It really opened my eyes to how unprepared I am for a power outage. No clue how much damage there would have been had I not woken up to the power outage and, worse yet, had I been out of town. In this instance, everything would have liklely been alright but I need to do some planning to figure out a good, cost-conscious method.
In other news, I re-programmed my Apex and got all set up with reeftronics.net! Really excited about the new variable programming on the Tunzes. If you want to check out the programming, it's all here, however, I won't take credit for coming up with the program. I pilfered almost all of it from different threads. In addition to the reeftronics access, I reconfigured the dyn.com service for a little redundancy to make sure I have access while I'm away.
I'm heading to London for work for 7-days on Sunday so I have a super busy weekend ahead in preparation for the trip, but I'm going to find time to get in a water change, do all of the routine maintenance and snap some pics for an update. Thankfully, K will be at the house watching over things and I know there are local reefers willing to help out if an emergency comes up.
Aquaph8
Love The Fish
I had a similar scare last year, now I run two battery powered pumps that plug in and automatically turn on in the event of a power outage. They work pretty good but I'm still not completely at ease until I come up with something a bit more long term. I'm working on it though.
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zibba
Valuable Member
I'll likely get the ecotech backup for the mp10 on the ADA and a UPS for the Tunzes in the main tank. That should buy me several hours and give me enough time to get home to run the tank from a car battery. I'd like to get a nice, auto-starting generator, but it's not in the cards right now. And, evolved made a good point, power outages in AZ are *usually* pretty short lived.
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zibba
Valuable Member
Some bad news to report. I'm out of the country traveling for business and I just got a call that the blue spotted jawfish ("mr. x-man") jumped last night. Apparently K heard it jumping/splashing the surface late at night after the lights were out. It must have jumped several times because it knocked the screen net to the side about .5-1" and the gap was just enough for it to fit through. She looked all over last night after she heard the jumping but didn't see him so she assumed it was hiding within his normal cave. She woke up again and found him on the floor near the back of the tank. We're both really sad to see that guy go -- definitely both of our favorites and was so fun to watch. I have taken some videos of him that I haven't posted yet. When I get back I'll throw together a little something. RIP x-man.
Mirelyght
Community Member
wow he was really determined to end it wasn't he? to not only jump enough to push aside the screen but to then fling himself at the gap. does this happen often with jawfish? i've seen others post about their jawfish carpet surfing.
Dowtish
5000 Club Member
I hear this happening all the time. It makes me think this is a temperature issue. I never hear stories of real success with the bsj. Unless you run your tank colder than normal, it seems they can only handle the warmer temp for so long.
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bknapp
Has been left unattended
Agreed, everything I've read about BSJ is that they prefer cooler temps than what reef tanks are generally kept, which is one big reason why I've never gotten one.
Sorry about the loss of a beautiful fish.
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zibba
Valuable Member
Sorry to hear, bro.
Send from my Droid RAZR using Tapatalk2... Please excuse any typos...
Thanks for the condolences everyone. I just got back last night from my trip. I also lost a clam and my 30k lokani that wasn't doing so hot finally bit the dust. Need to do some tooling around to figure out what happened while I was away. Apparently the security alarm on the house went off the night that the jawfish jumped so I'm guessing the really loud noises spooked it...not sure what else it could have been except maybe the temperature issues y'all noted. Gotta keep my head up moving forward though. All of the other corals were looking great last night -- I took some pictures before I left and I'll try to get those posted up here soon.
Thanks for the compliments Dowtish! Still a young system and I'm hoping I can continue moving in the right direction, even while experiencing a few bumps in the road along the way.
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zibba
Valuable Member
More bad news: found some bryopsis and blue/green cyano in the ADA. Going to do a bigger w/c tomorrow night and try to physically remove some of the cyano. I'm not sure if I should make an effort to physically remove the bryopsis or if I should just leave it be and raise the magnesium levels. Any suggestions?
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zibba
Valuable Member
No doubt about that! I did a 20 gallon wc yesterday to clear out the diatoms and cyano that was showing up in the ADA. I'm certain it's in part due to overfeeding and in part due to the clam dying and staying in the tank too long while I was out. Changes the filter socks too. Gearing up to do another 10-15 gal wc this weekend and I'll pull the filter socks at that time too. I'm going to get some GFO going and closely monitor everything. I'm not going to mess around with the bryopsis and try the brs mag...I'll go straight to tech m since it has worked for a lot of people.
Things were looking pretty good this morning when I took off. Hopefully with some tlc, everything will be in good shape in a few weeks.
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Things were looking pretty good this morning when I took off. Hopefully with some tlc, everything will be in good shape in a few weeks.
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Flipside
Well-Known Member
I'm sure you're right bro. 
And BRS mag is weak, so you got you a good plan rite chaw! 
It'll be gone before you know it.
Send from my Droid RAZR using Tapatalk2... Please excuse any typos...
And BRS mag is weak, so you got you a good plan rite chaw! It'll be gone before you know it.
Send from my Droid RAZR using Tapatalk2... Please excuse any typos...
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zibba
Valuable Member
Picture update!!!
Note to viewers: my tank isn't this dimly lit!
Note to self: calibrate computer monitor!
WWC Red Dragon (looking better than the original)
Strawberry Shortcake
Vivid Rainbow/Tricolor
Joe the Coral (polyps are starting to come back post-flame angel Apocalypse)
Battle Corals Pearly Cadaver
ORA Pearlberry
Zibba's Saguaro
Flashlight Acro
Tyree Setosa
Note to viewers: my tank isn't this dimly lit!
Note to self: calibrate computer monitor!
WWC Red Dragon (looking better than the original)
Strawberry Shortcake
Vivid Rainbow/Tricolor
Joe the Coral (polyps are starting to come back post-flame angel Apocalypse)
Battle Corals Pearly Cadaver
ORA Pearlberry
Zibba's Saguaro
Flashlight Acro
Tyree Setosa
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zibba
Valuable Member
Fireshrimp
Orchid Dottyback
Green Chromis
Royal Gramma (aka "Wilber" aka "gimp") [this is the dude that had major fin damage during transport]
Bunch of Random Fish Shots:
Crappy full tank shot:
Orchid Dottyback
Green Chromis
Royal Gramma (aka "Wilber" aka "gimp") [this is the dude that had major fin damage during transport]
Bunch of Random Fish Shots:
Crappy full tank shot:
