Flashy Fins

Great photos, Dodge! Fun party, as always, and holy delicious tacos! Mmmm. 

On 4/25/2019 at 10:42 PM, Derbird said:

Not to change the subject, but I can't find Golden basket on Ebay anymore.  Have they moved?

His username is goldenbasket8 with nothing listed at the moment. Nice seeing you around here again!

I’m not quite sure I understand. Do you mean separate it the way we have sponsor topics separated? I either don’t remember or perhaps wasn’t around when it was different, so I have nothing to go on there. I do agree it gets lost in the mix. 

Thanks to @CuttleFishandCoral for gifting the Boys & Girls Club some new fish! They had trouble getting the feeding right and lost their previous two, so the goal this time was to make sure we added enough fish to use the auto feeder. From Jeff, we added a McCosker’s wrasse and an aurora goby, and purchased from Seahorse were a long-nosed hawkfish and red firefish. The kids voted on these fish from a list of choices that would work well together and be easy to care for; it’s funny noticing all four choices are red. They have a few more selections to be added soon, but it’s always best to get the more peaceful specimens in first. 

Safety Stop dip has been working well! 

McCosker’s at the top left, just seconds after being added to the tank.

Bottom center/left, you can see the wrasse on his way into hiding, as well as the aurora goby.

Aptasia getting a nudge from Jim’s kalkwasser syringe. Adding peppermint shrimp to the list of tank needs!

Overall, coming along nicely! Photo taken during maintenance, so forgive the low water level and slightly open cabinet doors. 

Looking great! I see the corals settled in nicely, and the boys chose well with their fish. Lots of color in there now! 

To clarify, this tank is new, since the old one mentioned was drilled, and this setup is without a sump. Easier knowing we’re not relying on 10-year-old silicone seams, as well, although plenty of tanks are older. The stand, canopy, and a few other things did make it over from the Boys & Girls club.

Love seeing your progress! 

Thanks for thinking of Tanks for Teachers! We don’t have an immediate need for it, but I could store it for future use with another school. Any chance you’ll be at this month’s club meeting at Paradise Coral?

Big thanks to @lewisriverfisherman for taking over the par meter duties.

Pinned! Weird putting the Washington label on myself again. I miss Oregon, despite only living there a couple of years. 

Come at me, stalkers. 😛 

Closing the thread so you don’t keep getting offers. Condolences on your loss, and good luck with the move. 

With nitrates showing up and a lack of nitrite, the ammonia reading may be a false positive. The test strips aren’t the best; they were just the only thing the fish store had the day before we came out. I think you said you have a Petco near? I would bring in a small container of your water for them to test for ammonia. If they can’t or won’t, they’ll at least sell a liquid ammonia test that’s more likely to show you’re at 0. 

The hair algae can get out of control fast, so I would rip off and pull out what you can. Nothing to stress over trying to get it all, but it’ll help. A water change to lower nitrates will assist in controlling the growth, as well. Definitely time to get your RODI hooked up! I’ll check with @Gumby and see when we can get out there to help.

Princeton, my nearly 15-year-old pup. ❤️ Photo taken last spring at the coast.

Thanks to Travis & his crew for having us! I agree, the new growout tank at the back of the store is a lovely sight! 

I snapped just a few pictures, forgetting (as usual) to take any till we were wrapping things up. 

President and club meeting photographer, Bert/badxgillen, discussing with fellow club members what else but corals?!

Jeremyevans eyeing the goods with newer forum member, Snappy. 

Albertareef & his wife, Darcy, considering which fishies to take home. All of ‘em, guys! Adopt away!

The maxima that made it home with me! Already a gorgeous turquoise blue under standard household bulbs here, this is sure to look even prettier once it’s in my reef! QT first, of course. 

Would love to see what everyone scored! I snagged the pink and red lobo here and a couple of nice fish, currently going through QT bucket transfers.

That looks great for just being set up a few days ago! Nice job on the rockwork.

The guys being fascinated by the feather dusters is exactly the kind of thing we love to hear! Definitely shows they’ll be interested in caring for the corals and taking pride in the tank. Can’t wait to see how it progresses!

I think the level of wealth required to leave a coral shop with enough money to tip strippers is beyond our demographics here.

Can you even claim to be in this hobby if you don’t empty your account every visit to the LFS?

Exciting news! Over the weekend, Tanks for Teachers set up Klahre House Alternative School in Hood River with a 40 gallon tank! Some of you might recognize the stand and canopy, as it came from a previous TFT build.

Deborah, aka @scissortail, teaches marine biology there to teenage boys grades 8-12. I’ll let her tell you more about that, as she has some cool plans for educational use of the tank, and I’ll share with you some pictures I took:

Feeling thirsty? These collapsible water bags were new to me, but they worked really well! Jim, aka @Gumby mixed up all the saltwater the day before, as well as extra gallons for the first water change once the tank is through the initial cycle. We advised covering over the leftover water with a dark tarp or similar to avoid any algae growth.

Jim’s son came along to help with the install, and he was able to share opinions about what he enjoys in his own tank and make some livestock suggestions with teenage boys like himself in mind. 

Ocean life textbooks were stacked in the classroom, a sure sign of interest in marine aquariums! The rock you see is just some of what went into the tank, donated by @IntoTheMystic at Hatfield Science Center. Some of it was kept in Jim’s sump for a couple of months to pick up good bacteria, so the dry rock mixed in will soon be live. 

Jim giving instruction for the HOB skimmer, donated by @Mchums. We also added a HOB filter to the tank, an AquaClear model that allows for some customization of filter media.

Since the school is so far out from Portland, making emergency aid nearly impossible, we decided against a sump. TFT did have on hand some very nice canister filters from @IntoTheMystic, so we left one with her and gave her instructions on keeping it clean to avoid it becoming a nitrate factory. The tank doesn’t need it this early, but it will be nice to have once there is a good amount of livestock producing waste in the tank. 

Lights! LEDs will allow the kids to grow just about any coral they like. 

Too cloudy to see the rocks in there, but you can giggle at the Do Not Touch sign left on from the Boys & Girls Club. We mentioned taking it off, and the teacher advised we leave it on. 😆 Teenagers!

There is a sink in the classroom, so RO/DI setup is possible, but it’ll take another trip out to fully set it up. We didn’t know what her sink setup was like going in, so we brought what we had and ended up needing a few extra items.

More to come!

THANK YOU to @scissortail for your patience with the setup and your interest in teaching young minds about coral reefs! Your students are old enough that it might only be a few years before they’re setting up their own tanks and trading corals on our forum here!

Thanks to @kknight for trusting and recommending me as the new Tanks for Teachers Director and @badxgillen for making it official - I’m delighted to take on the position!

Shout outs to @albertareef and @lewisriverfisherman for storing rock and equipment till it was needed - much appreciated!

Thank you to @IntoTheMystic & @Mchums for your generous donations!

And, of course, big thanks to @Gumby and his son for doing the heavy lifting and traveling out on a Saturday to get this going. 

I like whichever shop space leases for an amount that allows the store to stay in business.  

Can’t say I’ve ever thought much about the type of building any of our local shops are in; if you’ve got the goods, I’ll show up and figure out where to put my car.

It's on my calendar not to miss! 

Thanks so much for documenting, Bert! I attempted this time, but remembering to put fresh batteries in the camera flash was apparently not on my radar, so not much to see there.

Great seeing everyone! I try to never miss a pizza party or a white elephant gift exchange, no matter the crowd, but add in saltwater friends, and we’re in for a sweet time! 

3 hours ago, Mandinga said:

That stuff builds up on pretty much anything that gets hot, and the more carbonate available in the system, the more buildup overtime.

Tank hadn’t been set up long, but the heater definitely would’ve been super hot to touch, b/c it’s having to work hard to heat the water in the cold garage space it’s in. I set up a new tank with a new heater and used water and rock from my display, so hopefully it’s smoother going this time. 

Thanks, everyone. I don’t do any sort of dosing, so I can really only shrug and hope I don’t have more problems coming. 

4 hours ago, Blue Z Reef said:

Have you checked the heater itself? I had one crack and almost nuke my tank, something leached out of it (not the temp change). Just something to double check. I don’t think the calcium carbonate is an issue.

I looked it over and couldn’t see anything amiss, aside from the calcium carbonate on it. I’m nervous to use it in another tank, though, so I plan on tossing it. 

Colby, former owner of Pacific Island Aquatics, swears by Dr. Tim’s as above and beyond the rest. I’ve had mixed results with the Petco stuff and ordered Dr. Tim’s from Marine Depot. Haven’t seen it locally, but give Seahorse a call and check. They seem to stock a few things other places don’t. 

On 12/11/2018 at 7:41 AM, TheClark said:

Could be calcium carbonate?  Did you hit it with vinegar?  RHF article looks good on this topic:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/index.php#3

 

Whoa, information overload in that article! 😅  It mentions that it can clog pumps, but I don’t think that was an issue in this case. Would this have otherwise caused the tank to crash as it did? 

I don’t have any of the precipitate blob left, but I’ll clean the heater with vinegar. I’m assuming that’s what you meant?

New mystery. Was breaking down the crashed QT tonight and found this white chunk on the heater. It popped right off and crumbled easily. Too opaque to be salt creep; I confirmed by stirring into a glass of water and getting a 0 reading on the refractometer. WTH is this? Looks like a soap sliver, but it wasn’t slimy and did not cause suds when wet, so that’s a no.