andy

My Alk buffer will arrive today, along with a new Seio (got sick and tired of futzing with a troublesome MJ mod). I'll bring the hardness into line and hopefully that'll please the Hammer. Thanks!

Not really, the polyps retracted for a day or so then just melted. I didn't see any signed of infection, slime, parasites, etc. It just died. The other head looks a bit better this morning (scratch)

I clipped it off at the first elbow, took maybe 3/4" of an inch off. It had gotten worse just in the few hours I waited, looked infected and rotten. Another polyp on the same branch had started to go bad as well. :( I didn't notice while I was acclimating it, but while doing the out-patient surgery I got a whiff of the Acro -- they're stinky buggers, a real concentrated tide-pool at 2:00pm kind'a smell. Not rotten, just OCEAN. The clippings went right into the garbage can outside... I don't want a reoccurance of the stench I had to deal with with the dead clam that got bagged and left in the fridge for a bit too long. Fortunately I got it out before it nuked the fridge, but that garbage can outside will never be the same (puke)

I'll check at work, I know we have some just don't know if I can borrow one for this. The club is a non-profit, right? That'll make the asking easier...

Peppermint Shrimp it is. How many would you add to a 60gal tank? 2 or 3, maybe? The brittle star is pretty small, legs are about 3/4" long each. I haven't got a look at the disk yet, but I'm guessing maybe 1/8" in diameter. Everything I've read on him so far (them, actually -- I'v noticed a couple of others) labels them Good Guys. Cool.

Ooops, accidentally posted this here instead of the LPS forum. Mod, move please?

So that is an Aiptasia then? I wasn't sure since the ones I've seen are more spindly...

Yesterday, I had to clip one head off my two-head Hammer... it had definitely died, and was going to become skimmer goo so I clipped the head off. Now this morning, the other head is looking a bit under the weather. Tank params are ok (SG 1.026, Ca 450, Alk a bit low at 6.4, NH4/NO3/NO2 all at or near zero, temp 80*F) and the other Euphyllia in the tank (a green and a red Torch) are both looking just fine. Do Hammers have a reputataion for spontaneously croaking? I know they can sometimes button up and shut down for a bit, but the head I clipped yesterday was definitely dead. Here's how the remaining head looked right after weekly maintenance this morning. Any ideas what could be going on?

Some kind of brittle sea star? Ophiocoma alexandri maybe? Assume he's a good guy... Aiptasia? If so, what are people's favorite assasination techniques?

My browned-out Acro colony has got a pretty gross looking polyp (pix below). My params are ok (SG 1.026, Ca 450, Alk a bit low at 6.4, NH4/NO3/NO2 all at or near zero, temp 80*F) so I think it's just sick. I've checked Borneman's book, and I didn't see anything that looked quite like this. Anyways, it needs to be dealt with whatever the problem is. I'm pretty sure I need to clip that off, but I'm not sure how much of the branch to take. Should I just clip off the tip with the end 3 or 4 polyps or take off more? If more, how much more? Thanks!

Andy - 2 .

I fragged it last night, and got 4 decent-looking (but rather small) frags off it. Of course I dropped one of the LR shards with 2 of the frags glued on. Of course, I dropped it down the *back* of a LR pile. Of course, both frags broke off the LR shard and couldn't be seen. And, Of course they were the 2 healthiest-looking ones (censored) Hopefully, the 2 survivors will do well. Man, I can be uncoordinated DOH!

RHO is currently publishing the results of a controlled scientific study of sea salt mixes, headed up by Eric Borneman. The meat will be in Part 2, which isn't out quite yet. I'm looking forward to the second half...

Heh, yeah.. investigative overkill, I know ;-) Could'a just dashed out to the local GeneroPet and bought a glass thermometer, but sometimes the problem is more fun than the solution (laugh) (laugh)

When I got home last night, I was really surprised to find out that my tank temp had risen disturbingly high while I was at work. I have a Hagen Marina Aqua-Minder digital thermometer hooked up, and it was set to signal an alarm if the tank temp rose to 85.7° F or higher (yes, far too high – during our recent heatwave I raised it way up so it wouldn’t beep all the time. I was babysitting the tank and wasn’t worried about the temp since I was watching it closely. I just never set it back to 84° F). The alarm went off at about 3pm that afternoon, and my daughter (bless her heart) opened up the hood and connected the two clip-on fans I use to blow over the surface of the water to cool things down. The tank temp was still hovering above 85° F when I got home at 6pm. The ambient room temp was 73° F, which didn’t strike me as odd at the time but would seem odd a bit later. I cut the metal halides and opened up the hood more, fully expecting the tank to drop back to it’s usual 78° F temp overnight. So I got up this morning, and what did I find? 85° F. Room temp was still 73° F. What the hell was going on? I got worried… something was putting a lot of heat into the tank. The heater (Finnex Titanium with remote control) didn’t show as being on, and the pumps were all working normally. Thinking my heater thermostat had stuck somehow, and that the breakdown included one half of the bi-color LED (yeah, right…) I installed my backup heater. I know some people dislike the Finnex heaters, and it felt like I was starting to understand why. Then, something rather unexpected happened – the heater’s ‘active’ light ticked on. I double-checked the setting, and it was right on 78° F. Hmmm… One of two things was going on. Either my backup heater had also failed (in a completely different way than the primary!) or… the tank really *wasn’t* at 85° F. Since I don’t have a backup thermometer, I had to come up with some other way of checking the accuracy of the Hagen. I *did* have a digital room thermometer, and I did have a bottle of water at room temperature. Good enough. First, I pulled the Hagen thermometer out of the tank, and used it to check the ambient room temperature. It read 75.7° F. The room thermometer read 72.9° F – a 2.8° F difference; not great, but not a *huge* difference. Next, I checked the Hagen vs a liquid sample. Since the bottle of water had been sitting in the room for days, I knew it’s temp would be the same as the ambient room temp, 72.9° F. I put the Hagen’s probe into the bottle of water, and what did I read? 79.3° F, or a whopping 6.4° F difference! So at that point, things were certainly pointing towards the Hagen as being the problem. My primary and backup heaters, plus the room thermometer all agreed. Still, I wasn’t sure how much I really trusted the Finnex heater thermostats and the room thermometer *could* have been off. Fortunately, I have a digital candy-making thermometer I use when making fudge; it is really accurate and precise, and I trust it completely. My fudge turns out awful, but that’s my fault not the thermometer’s I dipped the candy thermometer into the bottled water. 72.9° F. I used it to test the tank. 76.8° F! Crap, my temp was LOW! When I bought the Hagen, I believed that digital thermometers were all reasonably accurate and precise. The electronics inside are pretty-much standard off-the-shelf items and I figured if/when it had problems it’d look more like a complete failure than as inaccuracy. Clearly, I was wrong. I still think the electronics are likely reliable, the fact that the error is greater when the probe is submersed (2.8° F in the air vs 6.4° F in water) makes me think the problem is with the probe itself or the connecting wire. Nothing bad happened to the thermometer to cause it to fail. It wasn’t hit, dropped, dunked, dripped-on or otherwise mishandled. It just broke. Fortunately, it broke such that it was reading high. If it was reading *low* during the recent heatwave, my tank could easily have been reduced to a 60 gallon bowl of chowder. In the end, I guess this really isn’t that big a deal. I’ll contact Hagen and see what they say – I didn’t keep a receipt, so I’m not expecting much from them but we’ll see. However, it was a really good reminder of how important it is for us to keep our eyes open, to think critically and to have backups of all important equipment… even thermometers. Pictures follow Here's the Hagen showing the incorrect ambient air temp: Here's the Hagen showing the incorrect ambient water temp: The candy thermometer showing the actual ambient water temp: The candy thermometer showing the actual tank water temp, fortunately well below the Soft Crack stage (laugh) :

Yeah, like *I* practice what I preach (whistle) (laugh)

Just for giggles, I took a few shots with a Sony Cybershot DSC-T5 and a Canon Powershot S50. Both cameras captured the scratches on my 2nd-hand acrylic tank, something I could easily avoid with my D70. Also, neither could get closer than about 2 feet -- Macro is a Nikon strength so check out the WAVES site for examples. Here's what I got: The image from the Sony, after cropping, processing for exposure, sharpening and resampling to web-friendly resolution: The image from the Canon, after cropping, processing for exposure, sharpening and resampling to web-friendly resolution: The image from the Sony, after cropping, processing for exposure and sharpening: The image from the Canon, after cropping, processing for exposure and sharpening: The image from the Sony, as it came out of the camera: The image from the Sony, as it came out of the camera:

Drinking out of anger or other strong emotions is a bad habit to start. Strenuous exercise is pretty widely viewed as a great way to deal with stress, not only does it help dispose of all that energy it also gives time to think through the situation that caused the problem in the first place. I hear it is also good for you, makes you sleep better and improves the water quality in your tanks I used to do a lot of Martial Arts. Kicking the stuffing out of a heavy bag was my favorite way to blow off steam. Hitting balls at the batting cages or driving range might work if you are so inclined.. they'd just tick me off more as I'm not very good when thinking straight -- when angry, I'd shank them all and end up tossing the club/bat through a window

While I love my D70 to death, I don't think it's what impur is looking for. It has advantages (flexibility, control, expandability) but also has some serious disadvantages (cost, size, learning curve). Something like a Canon S80 might fit better (though it's macro performance isn't awesome). The Nikon P3/P4 might be a good fit, with it's better macro

Are you sure you didn't drink the suntan lotion and rub the beer on your body? It's a common mistake

I currently shoot with a Nikon D70, a digital SLR. In the past, I've used Nikon, Canon, and Olympus point'n'shoots. I'm partial to Canon's point'n'shoots, followed closely by Nikons. I'll shoot a few shots with a Canon and post them up for you tonight.

Well, the other (as in, non-brownout) frags I got at the July meeting are doing pretty well. Here are a few pics... (oh yeah, ignore the algae on the substrate; I still need to clean up a bit after being away camping for a few days) Bob (Lowman) passed this fantastic Red Torch on to me. It is looking great, with healthy color and activity: Mike (Michael7979) sold me this cool looking "Licorice Leather." It's been rubber-banded to this litle bit of rock since I got it and it looks like it is putting down roots: I also got this Zoa colony from Mike. Those front polyps are closed up because I got too close to them with the Mag Float when cleaning the front of the tank. Anyways, they're looking pretty good.

Wow, that's fantastic! I'd love to have a setup half as impressive. My wife is to never, EVER see these photos -- if she gets a whiff of what's possible... what I'm working towards in the long-term... she'll cut me off right now

If I shed a few pounds, I could fit in your luggage next time you go...

Sure thing!