novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Gotcha. That makes sense.
Novahobbies official 110g rebuild thread
- Thread starter novahobbies
- Start date
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
I took some more fish pictures for another site, and I thought y'all might like to see them as well. I've been getting pretty wrasse-happy here I think....
C. Pylei:
C. naokoae:
C. rubrisquamis (In QT tank #1, coming out this weekend I hope!)
Combo shot:
Chevron tang in QT # 2. He's only 1.5 weeks old in my system, so he has a few more weeks to go.
C. Pylei:
C. naokoae:
C. rubrisquamis (In QT tank #1, coming out this weekend I hope!)
Combo shot:
Chevron tang in QT # 2. He's only 1.5 weeks old in my system, so he has a few more weeks to go.
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Thanks. I'm glad that things are finally balancing out and growing.
BUT..........
I have to report that after just a little over 2 years (October 2012), my Chinese light fixtures are in the process of biting the bullet. The one I bought last is, naturally, the one that died first. The blues have been getting dimmer and dimmer on that side, and this morning when I turned them on they barely lit up at all. I think it's a driver problem since they are all dying at the same rate. Probably heat related, since we all knew that these don't have great heat dissipation abilities. My "first" fixture is still doing moderately well, but it flickers when it turns on in the morning. So I'm not expecting much more time out of it, either.
Fortunately we saw this coming a week ago, and we ordered two of the new ONYX dimmable light units last Tuesday. They should be in sometime soon either during the weekend or early next week. I've got my fingers crossed for a Saturday delivery, but there's no guarantee on that.
I'll post some pics when I get the new lights in.
The holiday time is always crazy for us. We're trying to whip the house together for the upcoming Hanukkah / Christmas / Joyous Saturnalia party. Meanwhile we've had builders completely destroy and rebuild our back porch with new screens and most of the new cement floor, I got the fun task of demolishing old tile and re-laying new porch tile, and the association is busy repainting our condo unit. It's been a blast.
BUT..........
I have to report that after just a little over 2 years (October 2012), my Chinese light fixtures are in the process of biting the bullet. The one I bought last is, naturally, the one that died first. The blues have been getting dimmer and dimmer on that side, and this morning when I turned them on they barely lit up at all. I think it's a driver problem since they are all dying at the same rate. Probably heat related, since we all knew that these don't have great heat dissipation abilities. My "first" fixture is still doing moderately well, but it flickers when it turns on in the morning. So I'm not expecting much more time out of it, either.
Fortunately we saw this coming a week ago, and we ordered two of the new ONYX dimmable light units last Tuesday. They should be in sometime soon either during the weekend or early next week. I've got my fingers crossed for a Saturday delivery, but there's no guarantee on that.
I'll post some pics when I get the new lights in.The holiday time is always crazy for us. We're trying to whip the house together for the upcoming Hanukkah / Christmas / Joyous Saturnalia party. Meanwhile we've had builders completely destroy and rebuild our back porch with new screens and most of the new cement floor, I got the fun task of demolishing old tile and re-laying new porch tile, and the association is busy repainting our condo unit. It's been a blast.
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Some coral shots since the new lights have been installed....
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
And here are some top-down shots. Sometimes it pays to have a waterproof camera. ;-)
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candaceswf
Administrator
Everything looks great!!
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Just picked up a new coral, also.....a nice piece of blue & purple stylo.
snakeblitz33
Well-Known Member
Sweet man! How you been???
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
I've had a roller coaster trip lately, buddy. Nothing bad, but you know.....Plain Old Life. My job at Model Expo (which I LOVED) got downsized as they tried to reorganize to stay afloat.....translation, I got a small severance and was put out on the street. Thankfully I had seen the writing on the wall prior to that, so I had another job lined up. Not as enjoyable, and the pay is less.....but it's a job and will do until I can get where I really want to be. Even sadder......the crazy old guy I USED to work with prior to Model Expo passed away in his sleep a couple weeks ago. He and I butted heads often, but I still will miss his irascible nature. I have stories about that wild man, I tell you. Stories. ;-)
Meanwhile, a few odd medical issues are being dealt with. My BP was skyrocketing for a few days....160/100 is no bueno. We're not sure what that was about, but I'm monitoring it daily. I'm changing my diet a lot as well, since I'm tired of being referred to as the "funny guy....you know, the big one!" My cholesterol and triglycerides have always been high, and it's just time to get a handle on that before my age makes it harder to do. Heart disease does not run in my family, but both high cholesterol and stroke does. I'd much rather keep an eye on those little warning signs now if ya know what I mean.
Despite the layoff, I still managed to take a week long trip out to California to see family. Amazing vistas out there.....completely new scenery for a born-and-bred Floridian like me. Got some beautiful pictures if you ever get around to using Facebook! Heheheh.....
So.......the tank. The big tank is doing great (knock on wood). I'll post a few pictures of that in a mo'. The bedroom tank, on the other hand, has been a rotten little bitch that is going to be completely broken down and started over with 100% new sand, rock, the works. I don't know what's going on in there, but I had a massive velvet infection that swept through the system and killed everything in a couple days. I let it go fallow for 8 weeks, did a huge water change, tried a new fish....and dead within 2 days. So screw it. We'll start from scratch, get rid of that rock structure, and this time I'm going to go with Bimini gold sand and a bonsai style rock bommie for coral. I recently updated my QT tank with one of my old chinese LED light boxes and a piece of bent 3/4 inch conduit to hang it from....it looks pretty sweet, and it will do well if I decide to switch over to a frag growout system after the last fish are QT'd.
Anyway, enough chatter. New pics and hopefully a video coming up soon.
Meanwhile, a few odd medical issues are being dealt with. My BP was skyrocketing for a few days....160/100 is no bueno. We're not sure what that was about, but I'm monitoring it daily. I'm changing my diet a lot as well, since I'm tired of being referred to as the "funny guy....you know, the big one!" My cholesterol and triglycerides have always been high, and it's just time to get a handle on that before my age makes it harder to do. Heart disease does not run in my family, but both high cholesterol and stroke does. I'd much rather keep an eye on those little warning signs now if ya know what I mean.
Despite the layoff, I still managed to take a week long trip out to California to see family. Amazing vistas out there.....completely new scenery for a born-and-bred Floridian like me. Got some beautiful pictures if you ever get around to using Facebook! Heheheh.....
So.......the tank. The big tank is doing great (knock on wood). I'll post a few pictures of that in a mo'. The bedroom tank, on the other hand, has been a rotten little bitch that is going to be completely broken down and started over with 100% new sand, rock, the works. I don't know what's going on in there, but I had a massive velvet infection that swept through the system and killed everything in a couple days. I let it go fallow for 8 weeks, did a huge water change, tried a new fish....and dead within 2 days. So screw it. We'll start from scratch, get rid of that rock structure, and this time I'm going to go with Bimini gold sand and a bonsai style rock bommie for coral. I recently updated my QT tank with one of my old chinese LED light boxes and a piece of bent 3/4 inch conduit to hang it from....it looks pretty sweet, and it will do well if I decide to switch over to a frag growout system after the last fish are QT'd.
Anyway, enough chatter. New pics and hopefully a video coming up soon.
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
This rock needed to be removed so I could blast a dozen or so aptasias. This was the "roof" of the home for my blue spotted jawfish, by the way...
So when I removed the rock.....I found a LOT of little things the jawfish had been hoarding. Including a couple zoa frags that had disappeared!
This is the black sand that I decided needed to go. It's pretty, but just too dark overall for a tank this size. Just my opinion of course.
So when I removed the rock.....I found a LOT of little things the jawfish had been hoarding. Including a couple zoa frags that had disappeared!
This is the black sand that I decided needed to go. It's pretty, but just too dark overall for a tank this size. Just my opinion of course.
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
The job of taking out the black sand was a PIA. I did it in 2 "batches" so I didn't screw up the biological filter too much. Basically I used a big diameter siphon tube to suck out the sand during a water change, then used a scoop to carefully add the new rinsed sand to the tank.
Cloudy....
Getting clearer...sort of.
Batch one left the tank looking like this:
I kept it like this for a couple weeks. I wanted the old stuff to have a chance to "seed" the new stuff. Finally, I did another 20g water change and took out the sand on the left. Thus, the Big Reveal:
To me, this is much, MUCH brighter and cleaner looking. Plus, since it's a natural sea sand bed, I'll have a little more carbonate buffering capabilities that I didn't have with the black sand.
Cloudy....
Getting clearer...sort of.
Batch one left the tank looking like this:
I kept it like this for a couple weeks. I wanted the old stuff to have a chance to "seed" the new stuff. Finally, I did another 20g water change and took out the sand on the left. Thus, the Big Reveal:
To me, this is much, MUCH brighter and cleaner looking. Plus, since it's a natural sea sand bed, I'll have a little more carbonate buffering capabilities that I didn't have with the black sand.
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Here are a few random recent coral pictures. Some of these are taken with an orange filter....you'll be able to tell.
My Dragon Soul Favia:
A nice gold torch:
This is a multicolor Stylo that's been growing really well. I need to try to get the colors to show up better on him, but he's awesome. Red hues on the tissue, and blues and greens on the polyps.
I'm having a hard time with this chalice, and I think it might be light related. It was deep red & blue when I got it, and now it's lighter in color and a couple of edges have been lost. I think I need to find a more shaded place for it. :-\
This acro was nice and brown when I got it. Pink & green now. Slow grower, it's starting to get some tabling branches now!
Love this acro. Purple with green polyps. I accidentally roasted the tip when I switched to new lights, so I cut the dead tip off....and now I'm getting mini branches from the cut bit!
Just yer standard awesome red monti plate.
A "Generic" Pocillopora. I love this guy, great PE on him.
This is the other coral I almost killed when I swapped lights. A pink Seriatopora birdsnest. It was MUCH bigger, but I roasted a lot of it during the light switch. It got a lot of algae on the dead skeleton, and it was close to a goner. I pulled the coral, removed all but the main core of the structure, and relocated it down lower. The result? BOOM. It sulked for a couple weeks, then a lot of new growth in a short amount of time.
Couple fish pics. Here's my moderate troublemaker, the blue spot.....
......and a decent shot of my Red Velvet fairy wrasse.
And here's that new QT Light I was telling you about....
OK! Video should be processing soon!
My Dragon Soul Favia:
A nice gold torch:
This is a multicolor Stylo that's been growing really well. I need to try to get the colors to show up better on him, but he's awesome. Red hues on the tissue, and blues and greens on the polyps.
I'm having a hard time with this chalice, and I think it might be light related. It was deep red & blue when I got it, and now it's lighter in color and a couple of edges have been lost. I think I need to find a more shaded place for it. :-\
This acro was nice and brown when I got it. Pink & green now. Slow grower, it's starting to get some tabling branches now!
Love this acro. Purple with green polyps. I accidentally roasted the tip when I switched to new lights, so I cut the dead tip off....and now I'm getting mini branches from the cut bit!
Just yer standard awesome red monti plate.
A "Generic" Pocillopora. I love this guy, great PE on him.
This is the other coral I almost killed when I swapped lights. A pink Seriatopora birdsnest. It was MUCH bigger, but I roasted a lot of it during the light switch. It got a lot of algae on the dead skeleton, and it was close to a goner. I pulled the coral, removed all but the main core of the structure, and relocated it down lower. The result? BOOM. It sulked for a couple weeks, then a lot of new growth in a short amount of time.
Couple fish pics. Here's my moderate troublemaker, the blue spot.....
......and a decent shot of my Red Velvet fairy wrasse.
And here's that new QT Light I was telling you about....
OK! Video should be processing soon!
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Booyah. Video's up.
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
A little bit if here, there, and everywhere.
Check out post 1433....that pretty much sums it up. I was going to do a little coral placement tonight, but seeing as how I've been up since 2am with a sick dog (PS, all night vet clinics are ridiculously priced) I am going to bed instead. LOL
flower
Well-Known Member
Sick dog??? Hope your pooch is okay, nothing worse then needing an emergency vetA little bit if here, there, and everywhere.
I was going to do a little coral placement tonight, but seeing as how I've been up since 2am with a sick dog (PS, all night vet clinics are ridiculously priced) I am going to bed instead. LOL
What can you do about a fish that takes frags to it's den? I have never heard of a fish doing that.