darrellw

That would be epic!

OK, and to top it off, last night one of the hermits was rolling a pebble back and forth, like they do when checking out a new shell. Took him at least 5 minutes before he gave up looking for the hole!

I don't know (scratch), maybe it is his way of celebrating Chinese New Year?!? (laugh)(laugh)(laugh)(laugh)

Thanks for the offer, I'll keep it in mind if I can't find any black. -Darrell

Thanks for the lead, I'll check with him. -Darrell

Man, today is really the day for my livestock to act up! First the trochus that decides to block my drain, the the acrobat hermits that discovered they can climb the silicone bead in the corner of the tank, now I just heard a vibration/clicking sound coming from the tank. Went to investigate, and found a trochus (not sure if it was the drain clogger or my other one) trying to get inside my VorTech! The prop was hitting his shell. Finally I think he got the clue and gave up. But he sure did a good job of cleaning the diatoms of the outside of the pump! The good news is that my additions to the clean up crew (the ones that are not making trouble) are making a noticeable dent in my green hair algae. -Darrell

Can you post a picture of the tubs blue, if it is still available? Thanks, Darrell

Certainly could have been worse!

Hmm, good idea, I could put a "grate" across the top, which I could check pretty easily. Right now I have some plastic screen inside under the baffle, but I have to remove it to check that it isn't getting junked up. Thanks for the idea! Does anyone know of a local source for black eggcrate? It isn't all that visible, but it black would be better than white. -Darrell

Well, got home early and tore my drain apart, found a trochus snail just inside the elbow off the bulkhead. He seemed none the worse for the experience. I put a mesh barrier inside, but I'm worried that may plug eventually, so I'll keep an eye on it. I'm also contacting glass-holes to see about getting a custom overflow bow with teeth instead of the "toothless" one I have now. When I came home, I found three of the hermits climbing the silicone seams, so I think the one I found in the overflow got there on his own.

So I went down to look at my tank early this morning under the moon lights. The first thing I wondered was why my return was spraying bubbles, followed shortly by wondering why my feet were getting damp... It appears that something (a snail, I'm guessing) is clogging up my drain line. Of course, this would happen the day after I decide to run my sump a bit higher, and to make it worse, my ATO container was just filled up (luckily it only holds a gallon). So I turned off the return pump, and cleaned up the spill as best I could before I had to get off to work. The good news (if there is any) is that I think by running my sump at the lowest possible level I can avoid this in the future. I hope I don't have to pull my drain apart to get the snail out (assuming that is what it is). I figured out how to rig up a screen, which I was hoping to avoid since that might clog with other things. I also found a little hermit in the overflow box, I can only assume it hitchhiked on the snail, since I don't see any way it could have got in there on its own. Man, and everything was going so well! -Darrell

I was there this morning, picked up some more hermits and snails, and a couple of ricordia frags. Was hoping to get a pair of ocellaris, or a clown goby, but they didn't have any. Could have easily dropped a bunch more $$$$ on some nice corals, but I'm making myself wait.

Hey Jason, Looking good! I like your rock work. Having just put my rock in 3 weeks ago, I can tell you that Tom Petty is right, "waiting is the hardest part"! -Darrell

OK, I mixed up a new batch of water and tested the dKH, I got 9, which seems reasonable. So I think my test kit/method is OK. Tested the tank water again, and got 12/13. The only thing I can think of is that the original fill was using some old IO salt, but I would suspect that in a low dKH problem (not dissolving) over being too high. At this level, should I worry about trying to lower the dKH? The sheet that Soutas gave me suggested the range should be 11-13, which is higher than others here are recommending. If I should lower it, is carbonated water the best way? Other than that, all of the new livestock seems happy. The crabs and snails are busy cleaning up the diatoms and GHA, though I wish they would do it in a more systematic fashion, rather than randomly here and there . pH is staying steady at 8.2, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate continue to be undetectable. If everything remains steady, I may add a fish or two this weekend. -Darrell

OK, I re-tested, and my dKH is 12 (or 13, 12 was mostly yellow, but some hint of green, 13 was clearly yellow). I'll either mix up a fresh batch of water to test, or pick up a new test kit. My calcium has also dropped from 360 to 340. I added a small amount of calcium on Sunday, and added twice the amount today, so we will see where that goes.

I'll check it again today. The target range is 11-13, right? So I was surprised to see it over, but didn't think it was that out of whack. I did have to use my toes to count the drops, so maybe I mis-counted . -Darrell

Quick update. Went to Soutas on Saturday, and picked up some livestock: 2 hermits 3 nassarius snails 4 trochus snails (2 banded, 2 others) 1 emerald crab 2 zoa colonies Also ended up with two micro-star hitchhikers. The crabs got immediately busy, the nassarius dug into the sand and have not been seen since. The trochus are cruising around and cleaning up as well. One of the zoas is, I believe "nuclear green", the other is some kind of orange. They really glow under the moonlights. All parameters continue to be stable. Rick @ Soutas said I should be testing calcium and hardness. My calcium was a bit low (350 or so), but my dKH was a bit high (15). I dosed some calcium, I assume the hardness will come down on its own? Anyway, a few pics.

I didn't. The "wet" stuff isn't supposed to be as bad as dry, but it did cloud my water pretty good for a couple of hours. I have a pretty fine filter sock, so it cleaned up pretty quickly. But I don't think a quick rinse in saltwater would hurt it, either.

That's the same sand I put in my cube. Aside from a few bits of driftwood, it seems fine. It ends up looking more of a dark gray rather than pure black. The Tahitian Moon sand (which is dry) may be a truer black, but it look way to abrasive to me.

No, they are going to start transmitting channels 31 and up (extended basic) in digital format over the cable. Nothing to do with DTV, other than happening about the same time.

Man, I'm glad I have TiVo, with Lost starting again, a new season of 24, and my newest favorite, Burn Notice. But I'm pissed that #$%@#*@ Comcast is switching to digital, so I'll have to get a bunch of cable boxes, which will screw up my TiVo....