Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[Paul B]

Last week during a snow storm I took my wife to my favorite restaurant on Long Island, where we ate while watching the snow fall on the sea and the beach. This beach is not far from where I will be collecting in a few weeks. Hopefully, it won't be snowing then.

 

[mrehfeld]

How and what do you use to collect the amphipods? Are you looking in mud flats of a creek? This sounds like something I can have the kids do when the temps get a little warmer. Maybe they'll even learn something.

 

[Paul B]

I go to a tidepool at low tide and lift rocks or pieces of wood, then swirl them in a bucket. Here is a video. You need the sound all the way up because it was a SCUBA diving camera.


This is the tide pool

 

[Paul B]

Getting the boat ready, changing oil and painting outdrives. Collecting season is almost here. If anyone wants to go collecting grass shrimp or amphipods (during the week) let me know. But not for a month or so. Of course, if you are in Montana, it may not be worth it

 

[Paul B]

I checked my tank a little while ago and noticed it was almost overflowing. I see that a float switch is stuck open. That float is many years old and I don't think I cleaned it in over a year so it was good that I was home. Now of course from all the fresh water going in there I could keep kissing gouramies if I like.

 

[Paul B]

My car rattles were the stabilizer links (stupid, stupid, stupid) I tightened them and didn't think they were the problem, but I was stupid. I don't know how I let that go by. Some people even suggested that to me. But sometimes I am just stupid. The stabilizer bar links are the easiest and cheapest thing you can change, especially if you have a sawzall because you normally just cut them off which is what I did with the other one. This one I fought with because I wanted to match the new one up to it. Now it rides like a new Cadillac. This is the old one.

I finished so fast that I had time to grind some barnacles off of my propellers. This one is still dirty. Collecting season is coming up fast and I need those amphipods. Thousands of them

 

[Paul B]

That new 5' LED strip I built with the 12 LEDs on it gets hot so I don't leave it on all day. I temporarily mounted it to my existing LED fixture but still need to remove the entire fixture and make a new fan housing which incorporates this new strip into it. Right now, there is no air flow through it and it makes a big difference. The new strip is about twice as hot as the ones where the fan pulls air through it. I just need some time which is in short supply. I also need an operation on my right hand as one of my fingers gets "stuck" if I grab something. It probably happened from waving at Supermodels, even though they don't wave back. I have had that operation before on a different finger and it is not that bad, it is almost a Sissy operation but you can't use that hand for a month or so and I won't be able to salute or anything like that. I am not sure how I will prep my boat for the water but I may have to ask someone for a little help with mundane things. Anyway, that is neither here nor there and my tank is doing well. My book is finished and I can't wait to get myself a signed copy. I need 2 of them for each of my Grand Kids even though they probably won't care one bit about fish but they certainly get an education about them weather they want to or not. I already started when they are on the boat.
I took a picture. I just love bluestripe pipefish, razor shrimpfish, ruby red dragonettes and mandarins which were camera shy but still hang out at the feeder. I actually don't know how anyone can keep these types of fish without having a feeder such as this one. These are my types of fish and I hope to find some more oddballs but they rarely come on the market as many people can't seem to keep them and if I don't buy them the day they come into the store, they croak

 

[Paul B]

I wasn't crazy about my DIY light fixture because I bought a staghorn coral and it croaked. I needed more light. So I took the thing apart, as shown here

I built another strip of LEDs on an aluminum square and bolted it on.
I also built a new fan housing to accommodate the new wiring

And it's good to go. I can raise the fixture as it is on counterweights and it tilts front and back for maintenance in case I have to change an LED or scrape a dead fish off that decided to fly up on top of it to check out the scenery.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Using my fingers and toes and then some, I'm only counting 48 LEDs. Assuming they are the common three watt variety, and that's a six foot tank, that's still not enough light (for sps anyway). Are you supplementing with some other light source?

 

[Paul B]

No, that's it. There is quite a bit of SPS already in there and it has been a few years since I built that fixture. It seems like only the elkhorn was complaining about not having enough light. The acropora's montipora's and 5 or 6 others have no problems. I realize they are easy corals which is why I added 25% more light. This is just the 12 new LEDs without the rest of the lights on.

 

[Paul B]

This acro grew from a 1/2" piece to a foot across ion a couple of years. The dead parts are where the clown gobies spawn on it. They have no compassion or care what things cost.

 

[Paul B]

This week my bluestripe pipefish and ruby red dragonette are pregnant.

 

[Paul B]

Feeder video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsGrL9nxJPs&feature=youtu.be

 

[Paul B]

The new, or I should say, re modeled fixture worked out well. It added 25% more light and a staghorn coral that was croaking, stopped croaking and seems to be recovering slowly. I only had about 100 watts of LED lighting over a 6' tank which is way under lit. Now I have 136 watts of light which is still way under lit but it will stay like that until I see how that works out. I can always add another 36 watts on another strip but it seems fine so far. I probably can't keep certain corals but there are a lot of things I can't keep. like Claudia Schiffer so I will deal with it. More lighting is easy to add. I still have my old snow blower in my yard and I was hoping someone would steal it because I doubt I will have time to fix it which is why I bought a new one. <y bluestripe pipefish is still pregnant and will probably give birth tonight or tomorrow. The same with the ruby red who is also very pregnant. My female mandarin is slightly pregnant but the large male is not getting enough food so he lost some weight. He is very large and there are so many pod eaters and so many fish at the feeder that he is having a hard time getting enough. I have 7 fish that just eat pods so not enough to go around and it is hard to hatch enough brine shrimp. I may have to build a second feeder just for him. I just need time because it is almost boating season and it is also planting season. Not enough hours in the day and I get up at 5:30

 

[Paul B]

These guys spawned last night which I am happy about, but she still looks pregnant so I assume they will spawn again. Or it could be that they just look like they are spawning and she is not ready. It's hard to tell because they are much smaller than mandarins and I never had these spawn before. I actually thought they were to young as I didn't know they stay this small. Ruby Red dragonets haven't been in the hobby very long. I can't get a picture of them spawning as it only takes them a few seconds and by the time I get the camera, they are back to eating pods. I will try again tonight. They spawn just before the lights go off, but I am not sure how they know the lights are going off because they can't see the clock. The bluestripe pipefish is still pregnant but he will have his babies live.

 

[Paul B]

I also built a white worm feeder for my mandarin so after he gets full on the baby brine shrimp feeder, he goes into the worm feeder for desert. The ruby reds also go in there when the much larger mandarin leaves.

 

[JRWOHLER]

That copperband looks pissed that he is not allowed in.

 

[Paul B]

He is pissed and I am surprised he didn't break his jaw trying to eat the worms through the plastic. I always feed him before I fill that thing with worms, but he is a hog and can't leave it alone.

 

[Paul B]

One of my experiments didn't go as I planned and I lost some nice, very old corals. I hope the rest don't croak but it is what it is and even a bad experiment teaches us something. My tank is and always has been an experiment and was never meant to be a part of my house decoration. Most of my experiments do fine but some go south. That's why I love this hobby. If nothing went wrong, how boring it would be and anyone could do it.


But on the bright side. The fish are still spawning Dance

 

[saltkreep88]

What caused the issue?