Neptunes 125 Reef Diary.

posiden

Active Member
Have they opend up? Button polyps is my guess from a closed shot.
I have this coral here. It looks like yours when they close up.
 

king_neptune

Active Member
If thats what I have, they are purple, and dont have the tendrils, only the flat round heads.
But they are close.
Took my water to the LFS, perfect.
8.2 ph
1.025
0 amonia
0 trate
0 trite
4.5 alk
bought 2 emeralds, and 3 blue leg hermits to wet my apatite. Gonna order a dozen snails and maybe an arrow crab.
 

king_neptune

Active Member
its 4.5 meq/l
a tad high. 2.86- 4.29 is ideal.
just finished acclimating my emeralds and hermits. dropped em in and they went to town scarfing away. I got my CuC consisting of nas/astrea/cerith snails ordered, I got 10 each which was over kill IMO, but I also got a 29g nano that will be cycling shortly and that will need a cuc anyways.
Also an arrow crab to deal with the bristle worm population, doesn't hurt that they eat algae as well, I got plenty of that.
I can transfer some to there. Also gonna pick up a sally light-foot in about an hour at the LFS, $8 cant pass that up.
Also ordered some pods to seed the system.
A lawn more Blenny as my first fish.
That will conclude my additions to the tank for at least 4 more weeks. After that Ill probably get a couple Blennies and Goby's.
To work the sand a bit. By winter I want to start on some of the cooler fish, some tangs and wrasses. And spring time next year, the tank should be mature enough for corals and anemones.
 

king_neptune

Active Member
not at all. glad you spoke up. id rather me have to double check, and you be wrong, than you telling me i messed up, and I had no idea. thanks for the concern. dont let this ever stop you from your input.
keep us both on our toes.
picked up the sally light foot just now, also saw a really really large hermit, so I couldn't resist! $17 for the pair, but that is absolutly it! No more till after my snails and blenny have saturated the tank for at least a month ^_^
 

king_neptune

Active Member
Originally Posted by Jas1
http:///forum/post/3122096
Progress is moving along nicely King!!! Without too many glitches I might add, good job!!!

I did come across one a couple hours ago :(
I wired in my scrubber lights, but they only flash on for a split second

I think it was because I modded the day/night sensor by cutting it out and bypassing the circuit. Last time I listen to the electrical guy at home depot.
Although I don't get it, I should have been able to do it by simply cutting the line and skipping the bypass. Makes no sense. After reading the instructions, it says to simply tape the sensor with duct tape...doh! Most likely that's why I catn get it to work.
not sure what I'm going to do. I was thinking I could re-solder the sensor back in...but I lost one already. Or I could just take it back and swap it for another pair of lights tomorrow. Who knows.
 

posiden

Active Member
Are you tring to fire the lights off of a timer? It sounds like the ballasts. I know those things take one heck of a surge to fire off then they coast along.
 

king_neptune

Active Member
I wired them directly into a plug. Black to hot. White to neutral.
I tried them in a socket, and off a power strip.
they are typical yard lights similar to these:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...CUT&lpage=none
Only mine are 65w Florescent.
They blink on for a split second...then cut off. I flip repeatadly back and forth, but all I get is an instant flash of on...then they stay off.
There is a day/night sensor on the light, and I bypassed it. That is where I think the problem lies. Although I don't see how. All I did was cut the sensor out, and splice the two wires together.
 

posiden

Active Member
Your photocell should have three wires on it. A nuetral a constant hot and a output trigger.
Do you have a volt meter?
How many wires does your have?
What color are your wires?
I am assuming you reverse engineered this by going from the ballast. You took the power wire input on the ballast and hooked it to the power source. Right? Maybe a pic?
 

king_neptune

Active Member
The photo cell had 2 wires. in/out. All I did was cut the sensor out, and solder the two wires together directly from the board.
I re-soldered the sensor back in this morning and wrapped them in tape. Fired right up!
Ill show some pics later after the acrylic shield dries.
These lights are really really bright considering they are only 65w!
 

life~reefer

Member
Originally Posted by Coral Keeper
http:///forum/post/3121408
I would stay away from the cleaner wrasse unless you have a but load of fish for it to clean. Get a Neon goby instead, they looks the same, clean fish, and have a million times higher survival rate.
Bang guy told me a long time ago they don't live long in captivity.
 

king_neptune

Active Member
Frustrated with my sally light foot or should I say sally six foot.
One leg fell off yesterday during acclimation.
Now it was in the same tub as the LARGE hermit crab...so i had to suspect him as the culprit. However this morning I see she lost another leg during the night, same side, next digit over.
Now otherwise the crab seems totally fine, healthy eating like a pig. I mean total frenzy all day long! But extremely skittish, scurries back a few inches whenever my hand or head come near, but charges forward to its original spot as soon as i retreat. So health wise I wouldn't be concerned except for that missing leg. I got a 7 day guarantee from the LFS, but an $8 crab is not a big deal, I dont mind keeping it. Any thoughts?
I know inverts can grow new leg, so Im not overly concerned. But what causes legs to spontaneously fall off?
The others seem total fine. One of the emeralds came out today and perched up on a rock to watch me. The other one is hidden somewhere. The hermits have carved a path across the rocks that was totally clean this morning. SWEET! its like a little lawn more went to town. At this rate I wont have algae by the end of next week. They chow down all day long.
 

king_neptune

Active Member
Oh and the crabs have free access to climb out. The sally light foot hangs out near the surface where the light is strongest, do they wander out of the water?
 

king_neptune

Active Member
Scrubber station is active!!
Made a pretty shoddy Acrylic shield, but for its lack in luster...it makes up for in functionality.
I will cut the flow bar and add another 3" to it so It can support the acrylic shield properly. Right now it rests on the baffle below.

These are super bright lights. 65w PC florescent. Simple yard lights found at lowes for around $45. Boast the coverage of a 500w light, and 500sq ft of yard lit up.

I got them set to swivel out for easy access and removal of scrubber:

I scored the plastic with a 3" hole bit, so lets hope it starts seeding with algae. I plan to do bi monthly cleanings. do one side, then wait a week and do the other side. This means each side gets cleaned every two weeks. Its a light bio load right now(jsut a small CuC nothing more), so I dont really expect to see any action just yet.
 

mma-guy

Member
Originally Posted by King_Neptune
http:///forum/post/3123028
I know inverts can grow new leg, so Im not overly concerned. But what causes legs to spontaneously fall off?
My best guess would be stress with most of our crabs lose a leg or two once we move them from enviroment to enviroment. but yeah keep up a positive attitude and wait a couple molts and you'll have a nice looking full legged sally lightfoot. +u get to keep the molts!
 
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