Germs WaterBox Frag 105.4 build

[Jgerm]

Soooo I changed up my lighting setting a few weeks back to try for more colors. Last week I noticed one of the higher mounted acros bleaching out. So I got the PAR meter out and whoops is the only word I can use. At 100% AB+ on 2 hydra 64, and 1 Hydra 32 with reefbrite supplemental as well I’m now getting 760 at the top of the rocks and 390 on the sand. Got to back the intensity down to 75%. Crazy!! You can clearly see the right side of my PC rainbow colony going white in this pic.

 

[Jgerm]

Well as you most might know Houston has experienced some less than normal cold situations these past few days. Freezing temps all over Texas has caused massive damage to homes , business, families, and (our love) aquariums. Sadly that impact of the power grid here in Houston has taken power from my tank for far longer than I had prepared for in this situation and I face a young tank fighting for its life. I hope it will make it through and I will never stop fighting for the life that I have taken responsibility for in my habitat. If you have a positive thought in your head after reading this please think of all the others around me that are dealing with the same thing because we need all the positive energy we can get.

 

[CoralDanimal]

I hope it will make it through and I will never stop fighting for the life that I have taken responsibility for in my habitat. If you have a positive thought in your head after reading this please think of all the others around me that are dealing with the same thing because we need all the positive energy we can get.

I live in Northern California and two years ago my tank faced a similar threat when wildfires took out power unexpectedly for days. All generators were sold out and battery back-ups only helped with circulation for the first 12 hours which did help with oxygen availability for the fish, but not heat. Before I was able to get my hands on a generator from a friend of a friend, I spent two days and one night with blankets wrapped around my tank, hand wamers duct taped to the tank underneath the blankets, constantly swapping in hot water bottles, and a big spatula to aid in water movement. It was exhausting and anxiety inducing, but keeping the fish alive made it all worth it because to your point, they're our responsibility as soon as we take them out of the ocean.

All this is to say, you're fighting the good fight, keep fighting, you've got this! Sending positive thoughts and vibes your way.

 

[Jgerm]

All this is to say, you're fighting the good fight, keep fighting, you've got this! Sending positive thoughts and vibes your way.

Appreciate it. Ran out of fuel for the generator and could not get any yesterday. I’ll go into more details later but the fight isn’t over and I’ll never give up. Already been through a 2 week fight with no power on my last tank 13yrs ago so I’m pretty versed in how to help my creatures and corals as it sounds like you are as well. Here’s hoping it ends sooner rather than later.

 

[TheGerm]

stay positive Jgerm!!! i know the feeling of losing power and watching your backups not lasting as long as the outage. Please keep us posted, and once this is over, lets band together to help correct any issues you run into .

 

[Jgerm]

well I got power back. For how long only time will tell but best believe I’m capitalizing on the time I have. I have lost 1 frag so far. Completely RTN.

 

[Jgerm]

I have TN on three other corals and a bad case of cyano now but still trucking along. I was pretty sure 3 days ago it was going to crash but here we are still going.

 

[TheGerm]

That is honestly awesome news!

(compared to expectations of a full out crash)

 

[Jgerm]

Well as I didn’t want to jump the gun and say I dodged a bullet with the freeze, I have been battling to get parameters back to normal. There was a pipe that burst a few floors up and that water leaked into the tank through the ceiling so who knows what it brought with it but I’m battling all kinds of algae and a cyano outbreak. I moved my purple tang back over to the display to try and save it from a freeze in the smaller quarantine tank and in doing so I have interrupted my fallow time. Poor guy had already healed from the bacterial infection and Ich buy now has it all over again. The battling will continue but I had to update this thread if not just for reference later. I have already sent off an ICP test and I’m doing water changes to hopefully help with whatever got in the tank.

 

[mgelb16]

It is important to never miss a step and always go the extra mile when building your tank!

 

[John Bolden]

cool!

 

[Jgerm]

It is important to never miss a step and always go the extra mile when building your tank!

Agreed for sure. In this hobby especially we can learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others.

 

[Jgerm]

cool!

Appreciate it!

 

[Jgerm]

I had to make a change on the UV sterilizer tubing to adjust flow for my issues I have been dealing with and that required me to move it right next to the DT for now. I never got around to posting the last setup quite frankly because it was a rush job and I wasn’t too happy with how it looked but this time around I’m going to redo it properly. For now it will sit like this running at 680GPH.

 

[Jgerm]

well I can say now for sure I have gotten past the worst. Everything is looking much better. I lost some of my favorite SpS but I have already lined up replacements. Oh and my purple tang, sadly the only survivor from everything that happened, is doing great!

 

[Jgerm]

Some shots after cleaning today.

 

[Jgerm]

Well my blue spot sea hare has decided to lay eggs. As an employee I acquired to do a job it only gets a day off for the celebration. I expect to see it back to work no later than tomorrow. Lol ;Hilarious

 

[Jgerm]

Saturday night blues...

 

[Jgerm]

Colors are coming back!

 

[ScottB]

Somehow stopped getting alerts on your thread, but glad to know you made it through that heckofamess in TX. There were a lot of R2R reefers here grinding hard from the outage.