Brew's 187g slice of the ocean

[Victoria M]

@Brew12 I am going to MACNA! I am only going to 1 speaker and 1 day on the exhibit. Just too much fun to be had at WDW. I hope I dont regret not going to the banquet! Is your wife going?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looking good my friend !!!!!!
Im not into big tanks but this looks real nice. ( ok- Bigger is better.. . Gotta love Big tanks)

 

[Brew12]

@Brew12 I am going to MACNA! I am only going to 1 speaker and 1 day on the exhibit. Just too much fun to be had at WDW. I hope I dont regret not going to the banquet! Is your wife going?

It's fantastic that you get to go!

My wife isn't going. We just went to WDW for a week last Christmas so it is still fairly fresh in our minds. I do plan on taking at least a few hours to see the new Star Wars exhibit. I'm even going to cut MACNA a little short and will be leaving late Sunday morning.

Which speaker are you going to catch?

 

[Victoria M]

It's fantastic that you get to go!

My wife isn't going. We just went to WDW for a week last Christmas so it is still fairly fresh in our minds. I do plan on taking at least a few hours to see the new Star Wars exhibit. I'm even going to cut MACNA a little short and will be leaving late Sunday morning.

Which speaker are you going to catch?

The Saturday 2:30 speaker talking about disease treatment. I can not remember his name off hand but he is a veterinarian.

 

[Brew12]

The Saturday 2:30 speaker talking about disease treatment. I can not remember his name off hand but he is a veterinarian.

That one caught my eye, too. I had no idea there were veterinarians that specialized in coral health. Very curious to see what he has to say about the different nudi's and flat worms.

 

[Brew12]

This has been another incredibly busy week. Monday wasn't too bad, but that rotisserie chicken I posted took way longer than normal to cook. My old grill was dying. Tuesday night was spent assembling a new grill because we were hosting a meeting some friends of ours could discuss work topics. One couple own a warehousing company and the other friend is the President of a software company that offers inventory management solutions. Seemed natural to get them together. The request was for ribs, not smoked, so I needed a good working propane grill to pull it off.
Last night I had a business dinner with a rep from Siemens to discuss a few big projects I am working on them with. I'm ready for a quiet night at home!

I may go fishing again this weekend but I'm going to try and dedicate a good amount of time to the tank. Last weekend was all about getting water parameters right and the inside of the tank clean. This weekend I want to get back to working on the trim for the tank stand and I want to do some wiring work on the Maxpect Gyres. I've had the new breakout box for months now and haven't installed it.

I think she will stay at home if I do go fishing, I've had her out with me each of the last two weekends.

 

[truetricia]

Quick cell phone pics

@Brew12 Beautiful tank! I had a couple of questions for you regarding the convict and yellow tangs. How many total do you have of each? What behavior differences have you seen in your tank? And do you like the mix of them that you have?

I'm looking ahead to future fish, and specifically tangs for algae control. I really love the look of schooling yellows, but also think convicts have interesting color patterns. I want to get 2 or three tangs, and my current considerations are yellow, convict, and sail. I noticed your avatar is your convict tang, so I thought you'd be a good person to ask about them.

Also, see you at MACNA! I'm going on Friday for the day only, and can't wait! My BF has been laughing at how much I'm geeking out watching old MACNA videos.

 

[Brew12]

@Brew12 Beautiful tank! I had a couple of questions for you regarding the convict and yellow tangs. How many total do you have of each? What behavior differences have you seen in your tank? And do you like the mix of them that you have?

I'm looking ahead to future fish, and specifically tangs for algae control. I really love the look of schooling yellows, but also think convicts have interesting color patterns. I want to get 2 or three tangs, and my current considerations are yellow, convict, and sail. I noticed your avatar is your convict tang, so I thought you'd be a good person to ask about them.

Also, see you at MACNA! I'm going on Friday for the day only, and can't wait! My BF has been laughing at how much I'm geeking out watching old MACNA videos.

Thank you!

I originally had 1 yellow tang with the convict and they got along great. When the yellow passed I replaced him with a group of 3. They did fine in QT together but once in the display the other 2 yellows harassed the 3rd and I had to remove him. There is some relatively minor aggression between the tangs now but never more than the occasional tail pushing. I'm pleased with it considering I have 5 adult tangs in a 5' tank.

My convict tang is one of the most confident fish in my system so he displays the most personality. I'd have to say he is the favorite in my system. I've never had a sailfin but my tank is really too small for one so I didn't consider them an option.

 

[truetricia]

Thank you!

I originally had 1 yellow tang with the convict and they got along great. When the yellow passed I replaced him with a group of 3. They did fine in QT together but once in the display the other 2 yellows harassed the 3rd and I had to remove him. There is some relatively minor aggression between the tangs now but never more than the occasional tail pushing. I'm pleased with it considering I have 5 adult tangs in a 5' tank.

My convict tang is one of the most confident fish in my system so he displays the most personality. I'd have to say he is the favorite in my system. I've never had a sailfin but my tank is really too small for one so I didn't consider them an option.

Thank you! My tank is a 120g, and I love sailsfins...but I also know I'd be rehoming in the future if I went that route. And while that shouldn't be a problem given the DC reefing community, I also don't want to try to add another random tang later in the system. I'll probably just stick to three tangs, and some combination of yellow and convict. Thanks for the feedback. I haven't seen them in anyone's tank before in person, so it's good to hear that you really like him.

 

[Brew12]

More tank maintenance.

This is how I clean my gyres. I lined the shipping container with a vacuum seal bag. Slide the gyre in, fill it with 100% vinegar and let it soak for an hour.

 

[Brew12]

#honestyinreefing

So I ran into another problem with the tank yesterday. For those keeping up, my intent has always been to run my gyres off of my Profilux controller. The two on the left have been on the regular Maxspect controller and the two on the right have been on my Profilux since last year. I finally decided to spend a few hours and get the two left ones on the Profilux while I was cycling through the cleaning.
What a pain. The wiring that came with the Icecap interface was 22AWG so it is very thin and hard to work with. I will also admit that the wiring inputs on the GHL break out box were less than ideal. I'm connecting this to 2 L-ports

Normally I would expect a 1-10V + and a 1-10V - but in this case there was only one marked. Fortunately, I guess correctly that Relay 1 was the correct it was where the 2nd wire goes for the 10V control signal. So, pump one on terminal 2 and 4, pump 2 on terminals 5 and 6.

In between wiring I was also doing my programming changes. I realized that I didn't get my overlaps correct so that took another hour to redo. Finally got it all done and the last pump was finished soaking in vinegar. Put it in the tank, connected it to the icecap for the first time... and nothing. :mad:

3 of 4 gyres are currently working and I'm either going to have to put the two left ones back on the old controller or order a new icecap rush and use the warranty fix as a spare. After 4 frustrating hours climbing around and under the tank I had enough. Made a boat drink, put on a swimsuit, and spent the rest of the afternoon in and out of the pool while watching the Cubs game.

 

[crusso1993]

#honestyinreefing

So I ran into another problem with the tank yesterday. For those keeping up, my intent has always been to run my gyres off of my Profilux controller. The two on the left have been on the regular Maxspect controller and the two on the right have been on my Profilux since last year. I finally decided to spend a few hours and get the two left ones on the Profilux while I was cycling through the cleaning.
What a pain. The wiring that came with the Icecap interface was 22AWG so it is very thin and hard to work with. I will also admit that the wiring inputs on the GHL break out box were less than ideal. I'm connecting this to 2 L-ports

Normally I would expect a 1-10V + and a 1-10V - but in this case there was only one marked. Fortunately, I guess correctly that Relay 1 was the correct it was where the 2nd wire goes for the 10V control signal. So, pump one on terminal 2 and 4, pump 2 on terminals 5 and 6.

In between wiring I was also doing my programming changes. I realized that I didn't get my overlaps correct so that took another hour to redo. Finally got it all done and the last pump was finished soaking in vinegar. Put it in the tank, connected it to the icecap for the first time... and nothing. :mad:

3 of 4 gyres are currently working and I'm either going to have to put the two left ones back on the old controller or order a new icecap rush and use the warranty fix as a spare. After 4 frustrating hours climbing around and under the tank I had enough. Made a boat drink, put on a swimsuit, and spent the rest of the afternoon in and out of the pool while watching the Cubs game.

Well, that sucks about 4th Icecap. At least you were able to recover with drinks, your pool and the Cubs!

 

[crusso1993]

BTW - @NY_Caveman just discovered he has an extra 1K gyre... hhmmmm... how coincidental!

 

[Victoria M]

More tank maintenance.

This is how I clean my gyres. I lined the shipping container with a vacuum seal bag. Slide the gyre in, fill it with 100% vinegar and let it soak for an hour.

Very cool.

 

[Brew12]

Well, I got all 4 pumps up and running last night so my tank flow is finally where I've wanted when I bought the equipment 9 months ago.
I'll have to do some tweaking with the flow settings, and I may relocate a coral, but I'm curious to see if I get a noticeable increase in alk consumption like the last time I made a major flow improvement. Assuming, of course, that this actually is an improvement.

#honestyinreefing
I don't think I ever mentioned it, but my remaining 3 anthias died around a month ago while everything was going nuts. They looked great for awhile. In fact, I think 2 were doing a spawning dance, but then 2 days after I saw that those same 2 went into hiding. 2 or 3 days later the 3rd one went into hiding and they stopped coming out to eat. At least one of them hung on for another 2 weeks but they are gone.

No signs of disease, and I don't think they were being picked on. Very odd.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Well, I got all 4 pumps up and running last night so my tank flow is finally where I've wanted when I bought the equipment 9 months ago.
I'll have to do some tweaking with the flow settings, and I may relocate a coral, but I'm curious to see if I get a noticeable increase in alk consumption like the last time I made a major flow improvement. Assuming, of course, that this actually is an improvement.

#honestyinreefing
I don't think I ever mentioned it, but my remaining 3 anthias died around a month ago while everything was going nuts. They looked great for awhile. In fact, I think 2 were doing a spawning dance, but then 2 days after I saw that those same 2 went into hiding. 2 or 3 days later the 3rd one went into hiding and they stopped coming out to eat. At least one of them hung on for another 2 weeks but they are gone.

No signs of disease, and I don't think they were being picked on. Very odd.

Sorry, Brew. Hate fish mysteries. Fishsteries?

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Well, I got all 4 pumps up and running last night so my tank flow is finally where I've wanted when I bought the equipment 9 months ago.
I'll have to do some tweaking with the flow settings, and I may relocate a coral, but I'm curious to see if I get a noticeable increase in alk consumption like the last time I made a major flow improvement. Assuming, of course, that this actually is an improvement.

#honestyinreefing
I don't think I ever mentioned it, but my remaining 3 anthias died around a month ago while everything was going nuts. They looked great for awhile. In fact, I think 2 were doing a spawning dance, but then 2 days after I saw that those same 2 went into hiding. 2 or 3 days later the 3rd one went into hiding and they stopped coming out to eat. At least one of them hung on for another 2 weeks but they are gone.

No signs of disease, and I don't think they were being picked on. Very odd.

It is mystery deaths that remind me of cyanide collection practices. The fish lose the ability to uptake nutrition as they feed and just waste away. Who knows without a decropsy.

 

[Brew12]

It is mystery deaths that remind me of cyanide collection practices. The fish lose the ability to uptake nutrition as they feed and just waste away. Who knows without a decropsy.

The crazy thing is up until they started hiding they looked very healthy. Not thin at all. Not saying it wasn't a problem with collection but there were no signs until they started hiding to indicate a problem, and I had them for a few months.

 

[Victoria M]

It is mystery deaths that remind me of cyanide collection practices. The fish lose the ability to uptake nutrition as they feed and just waste away. Who knows without a decropsy.

When I first started that is what WWM often warned about. It is hard to tell.

 

[Victoria M]

The crazy thing is up until they started hiding they looked very healthy. Not thin at all. Not saying it wasn't a problem with collection but there were no signs until they started hiding to indicate a problem, and I had them for a few months.

So hard to tell.