Taylorhardy1

In the last few weeks I've added quite a few more acros. Up to 26 different acros, and a few other pieces have been added now. I got the colpmenia under control by reducing my nutrients to the point it stopped growing so my urchin could mow it down. Well that worked pretty good! Until I accidentally bottomed everything out and fueled a dino outbreak😑 trying to add bacteria, and feeding super heavy to get something else to counteract it, but I'm approaching the blackout stage.anyone here have advice for battling dinos?

I really need a reactor setup- pm'd

The look of some of those acros kinda reminds me of when I caught acro eating flat worms. Especially considering the lack of polyp extension. Any little bite marks on the tissue?

I'd go with 2 rw8s

This whole virus thing has been a difficult process to find a transition into. I decided to quit my full time job working on cars back in February in order to pursue my own business with my friend Matt. Luckily we chose to stick with automotive and have been able to stay open. However all of our big projects are on hold, and works been spotty so I've had a little extra time for the tank.

Since the last update, I've had a few more interesting pests start showing their faces from what I had believed was pest free rock. (that ones always too good to be true) anyways, I had this fun invasive algae that rarely makes an appearance in the hobby. I've identified it as colpmenia sinuosa. Unfortunately it really got a hold before my urchin developed a taste for it. I got 2 emerald crabs to address it thinking it was some sort of valonia. Luckily my urchin is going to town on it and has been making a huge dent in it finally.

I got a couple peppermint shrimp to start taking care of my ever growing aiptasia issue, but haven't seen any progress. I also added them 2 days ago so not much to be expected. I also found a little red convolutriloba flatworm on my glass and had to get a wrasse to start keeping them in check. Unfortunately Jeff didnt have the radiant wrasse I was hoping to find, so I ended up getting a blue sided fairy wrasse instead. He just popped up today and I tried to get a photo. But here's the best I could get.

All of the others my other fish wanted to be in the photo for😂

I also happened to pickup a few mariculture tenuis frags so hopefully they color up to something cool. This ones my favorite, but stop by @CuttleFishandCoral and check out all the sweet pieces they've got. The shop is loaded up.

So I bought a new phone today and learned it has a kickass camera. Samsung galaxy A50 on pro mode with the white balance cranked to 10k, under 100% blues with no gel filter or post editing. 

16 minutes ago, Trailermann said:

You are welcome to use my 220V Lincoln mig welder.  I live in SW Portland not far from Washington Square.

I appreciate the offer! Ended up getting it taken care of. Also, I desperately need to clear my PM's, inbox is full.

I've started running kalkwasser since I've gotten a few sps In my 120, and everything seems to be starting to take off. I've been shocked at how stable my parameters have been, a consistent 7.9-8.1dkh 450cal, which has been super nice and virtually effortless. But realistically how much demand can kalk keep up with? Can I keep slowly adding frags while I save up the investment for a calcium reactor setup, with an alkatronic, running a peristaltic pump?

Anyone in PDX have a welder I could borrow to weld a nut to a broken turbo stud? Would take less than 5 minutes of run time, and 1" of wire. My welder is at my shop in Silverton and I'm trying to do a turbo back exhaust that was supposed to be straight forward, but rust has bested me.

Tanks doing nice! Ive kept myself from getting too many corals before I've worked out the remaining equipment situations. Still trying to figure out a way to setup a calcium reactor remotely in a cabinet next to my stand. I think I've decided on going with the VarioS CR200 8" DC reactor, with an apex monitoring pH in the reactor body, pH of the display, and pH of the sump as well. I've been contemplating the idea of running a trident or alkatronic to run a peristaltic pump and keep things even more stable and have a few fail-safes. Once taxes come back I'll be making the final decisions. Anyways, added a couple more acros. 1 is supposedly a Walt Disney- not sure, seems to have yellow polyps, blue tips, pink coralites but it's not looking super hot as he had recently caught aefw. (Told me tank was crashing for an unknown reason, sold em off for pennies. Found aefw in Bayer dip.) The other is PC rainbow. After sitting in Bayer for 25 mins, I let em hangout in some revive for 20 minutes. Nothing fell off during the revive dip, both were fresh cuts showing no skeleton. I really need to QT, but no space, but I think after 2 dips they're safe. Hoping they start picking color back up and turn around for me. Right now I'm blasting my Oregon tort with 550par at peak, and a bright green/yellow I think tort? They have a nice contrast from each other, hopefully they'll take off and make some very interesting contrasting colonies

The tenuis in this photo is what I was given as a "Walt Disney" the mother colony looked nice in photos, but who knows what it'll really turn out to be. Thankfully it was cheap enough I wouldn't even be hurt if I lost it. 

My pink tip seems to be taking off, encrusting the frag plug crazy fast. My OG Garf is also taking off, but in the back corner and hard to get photos. Currently maintaining stability with 2tbsp/gal of kalkwasser in my ATO. 

Aaand last is my leather that I'm pretty sure is being blasted with way too much light and flow. But seems to put out more pe everyday so I guess it's adjusting. So far things have been going pretty good! The other day I found my peppermint shrimp dead for an unknown reason. Cleaner shrimp is fine, maybe some Territorial issues? But since my peppermint shrimp died, Ive had 3 aiptasia pop up in the display. I think I'm gonna inject em with some kalk paste and hopefully take care of em today. Or the other option is let em run a little rampant then pick up a CBB or some berghias.

5 minutes ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

Sorry to hear that Taylor.  I will keep my eyes out. 

Thanks man. Its been a rough week. Oh well, now Ill be the only one I have to convince to build my own 600g. Well, when I recover from this and am back on track to buying a house again.

Does anyone know of any 3-4 bedroom pet friendly homes for rent in the Vancouver area? Unfortunately me and my significant other have come to the hard conclusion that things aren't working, and that leaves me to finding a new place to live. Me, my brother, and best friend have decided we want to all move into a house together. However we've had some difficulties due to all 3 of us having our own, medium-large dog, and my aquarium. We're not super picky, just as long as it's 3-4 bedrooms and under $2200/month would be awesome. Ideally something by owner. We can pay a pet deposit and everything. Looking to move in at the end of the month.

47 minutes ago, albertareef said:

Cool.  Want to get that sorted before the weather warms up and I start overheating again!  Do you still have the same number?  Sent a couple texts recently but not sure you got them.  Fans runs with DC direct but haven't tested the relay or the the possible control unit - S4 seems like some weird mix between the A6 and A4 of the period so hard to get accurate data.

I did get a new #, old phone service provider merged with another company and I didn't want to continue their service. I'll pm the new one.

They're exactly that- a mix between the a6 and a4, body electronics are the same a4 vs s4, but the s4 got slightly modified a6 engine electrical. But your next step would be checking for power at the control unit, there's no relay on them. The control unit is located next to the driver side intercooler on the underside of the frame rail. 

16 minutes ago, Cobalt said:

That is really good to hear Taylor. As an owner of a 9mo old husky mix puppy I could only imagine the terror and heartache you’ve been through the last 24 hrs. Will keep you in mind regarding work.

The biggest piece of advice I can give is always assume your husky is smarter than you. Ours knows how to open his kennel without damaging it, he's figured out how to open doors with round door knobs, and is quite possibly one of the most mischievous animals alive. It's been extremely stressful, but I'm doing what I can to learn from it. Starting with getting him a new kennel he can't escape, and moving all of my automotive fluids and chemicals to the top shelf. 

2 minutes ago, albertareef said:

BTW - I do still need to sort out the aux fan on the S4 so if you want to help out on that would be happy for the extra set of eyes/hands - let me know.

I could definitely give you a hand with that one man!

11 hours ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

My buddy Steve is going to call you... he has a 2006 mini cooper.. mechanic looking for work dream!!

Also.. I spoke to dawn about your dog. If that happens in the future, get the dog sh%$t faced drunk. The alcohol binds to the neuro receptors so the antifreeze does not.

I said what? You give them bottles of beer? No she said, IV everclear. She was a vet tech for a long time.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

The vet actually told me this one too. Actually that was one of the things the vet did after Simba threw up a couple times. Today he seems to be recovering from the hangover of yesterday, and going back to normal behavior thankfully.

Generally what kinda par do you guys keep your deep water/ smooth skin stuff at?

6 minutes ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

I'm sorry to hear that Taylor!  I can vouch that Taylor is a solid guy and I would not hesitate to have him help you with anything you need done.  He put new struts on my wifes Lexus for a FRACTION of what it would have cost me at a repair facility.. like 1/3 of what it would have cost.  Taylor, I will put some feelers out on facebook and see if I can't drum up some auto work for you. 

 

 

I really appreciate it Brian, thank you!

*mods delete if not allowed*

So late last night I was awoken to some noises in my garage, only to find that my 9 month old husky puppy that's figured out how to open doors broke into our garage and got into some antifreeze (less than a pint, but still a poison) Spent all night at the vet, getting various tests, making him throw up, and praying he only consumed a small amount to avoid kidney damage. I just left with a $2400 bill that completely obliterated my checking account, and took a chunk out of savings. The biggest issue is my husky is still at risk, and may need to go back to the vet. After the 1st bill I'm already questioning how I'm gonna feed ourselves, and keep the lights on till my next check comes. Anyone have any advice? Already planning on Uber/Uber eats in the evenings but that will barely cover my food and gas.

I'm also an ASE certified mechanic and can fix your car properly for significantly less than your standard shop rates. If anyone has anyone work they need done let me know and we can work something out.

@pdxmonkeyboy made me a little acrylic stand for my ATO and now I've got a little extra space for storage underneath my ATO. Added 2 rw15s for flow, have them turned all the way down and flow is just about right. Seeing better PE from my sps already, my lps seem to be adjusting to the extra flow pretty nicely. I also shifted my scape a bit because it was too symmetrical, and I felt it wasnt quite right. Much happier with the new one. Hopefully the epoxy holds till some sps start welding the rocks together. But now it's time to decide between dosing and running a CARX. I like the idea of a CARX, but with atleast a $1400 up front cost for a quality setup I'm not quite sure if I wanna just stick with a doser. Especially considering I don't plan on running this tank long term, and want to be upgrading to a significantly larger setup. But I'm also not sure where I could fit anything aside from the chamber between my fuge and return. I could build a shelf to mount a doser, or fit a compact CARX in the chamber before my return, but im not sure which way is the smartest financially and for my limited space. Any advice?

I'll take it, pm'd

The 1/4" flow sensors look really nice. Would have saved me thousands running those on my dosing lines. I wonder why there's 4 usb ports on the power strip though. Can't think of any reason I would ever need that around an aquarium.

23 minutes ago, albertareef said:

I have a larger one of those I use for a return pump and it has been rock solid, no fuss going on 4 years.  Probably just jinxed myself...

They're pretty nice pumps, super quiet for an AC pump, and they come apart to clean really easily too. 

12 minutes ago, Teramelos said:

What’s the max head?

1.8m, 130gph@3ft

I've got like 15 of these pumps sitting bnib, 4 or 5 of which are needlewheel skimmer pumps. I've been using a couple for mixing water, but don't have a need to have so many sitting on the shelf. Got them when I bought out all the equipment from a guy that used to breed clownfish around here before he moved out of state. They move 1000l/h or about 270gph. I would let em go for a frag in trade, or $10/each? 

14 minutes ago, albertareef said:

Calculated a weight for just the tank yet?  Wondering how many bodies you will need to move it 😁  I'm sure you come up with some ingenious way to reinforce those floors...

It's a hefty tank, but honestly Id be surprised if it weighs more than 350lbs dry. My own calculations based on dreaming of identical dimensions would be about 5800-6000lbs filled but because of the surface area its really not that much pressure once distributed.