SuncrestReef

Here’s my mushroom doing its best impression of a clam: Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, I'm being VERY careful. I wear the protective glasses that are specific to this laser's wavelength, I put my dog outside, I close the doors to the room so I'm the only person present. I also keep an eye out for fish swimming nearby and turn off the laser if they get close. When not in use, I remove the batteries so it can't be turned on by anyone unaware of what it is. Definitely don't want to mess around with this thing. When I was first testing how to focus it, I was pointing it at a sheet of white paper. It caught on fire very quickly!

For months I’ve been battling air bubbles in my Neptune DOS tubing for my 2-part dosing. I’ve tried re-seating the tubes, tightening the connectors, and even heating up the tubing for a better fit. Today I replaced the stock connectors on the DOS with push-connect fittings. Once in place and holding the priming button for a minute, the air bubbles were gone. I’ll probably need to monitor and adjust my dosing volumes over the next week to get it dialed in now that it’s only pushing fluid. Here’s what I used:

The laser can be focused. It only burns at the point where the laser beam converges to a tiny dot. If you look at the photo I posted above, the beam is about 1/8" diameter where it passes through the glass, but the end touching the rock is where it's focused. The unfocused part of the beam is harmless (except to your eyes). I wouldn't attempt positioning the focused point right onto the glass to see what happens, but it's perfectly safe to pass the wider beam through the glass. I even used my Avast top-down portal to shine the beam down onto one aiptasia I couldn't get to from the side. It didn't harm the acrylic.

I didn't even know I was on the walt disney list, so I guess I'm no worse off.

I got it on Ebay. The seller is a reefer. https://www.ebay.com/itm/264033285686

Try again...I already have a PAR meter.🤣

It will kill anything in your tank that you aim it at! You can actually hear the crackling and sizzling as it burns its target. I even used it on a patch of wire algae in a rock crevice my emerald crabs can't reach.

I don't think I'd be comfortable renting it out due to liability issues. This thing can cause permanent blindness and can start fires. I'd need to consult with my lawyer and that would cost more than I'd collect from rental fees. But believe me, if you have aiptasia and want a very cool toy, you should buy one!

A couple months ago I found an aiptasia growing from below a scoly in my tank. I removed the scoly and injected the aiptasia with lemon juice, but a week later I saw it came back. I repeated this a couple more times, but the lemon juice wasn't killing it. Last week I discovered 3 more aiptasia, but this time on rocks I can't remove or easily get to. I just bought a 4 watt laser and burned them all within 5 minutes. It worked easily and quickly, and gratifying to hear them crackling and sizzling. I'm sure there are others that I can't see, but for now the unsightly ones are gone. If they continue to spread I might invest in some berghia nudibranchs, but the laser it a lot more fun!

What lenses did it come with? (hard to see in that box photo you posted) Let me know if you want any tips. I've really been getting into coral photography with my Nikon DSLR, but the concepts are pretty much the same across camera brands. See:

I'll miss out on this meeting, but for a good reason. I'm flying to New York with the wife to visit her family for Xmas, then flying to Paris for a 6 day river cruise over New Year's Day. This will be the first time I'll be away from my tank for more than a day so I'm a bit worried, but our house sitter/dog sitter/aquarium sitter will be briefed on the basics and I hope to have enough documentation in place for her to keep things running. Fingers crossed!

Someone on Reef2Reef just ID'd it as a munnid isopod, a harmless algae eater.

I know! It's mind boggling when looking a something that's only 1mm long at 800x, and suddenly you see things that are too small to make out moving around it.

I'm really enjoying exploring the tiny inhabitants of my aquarium with my new microscope. Here's a video showing some sort of pod under 80x, 200x, and 800x magnification.

I got one of @CuttleFishandCoral's crazy gonioporas in my mystery box last week. The first few days in my tank it opened up about 1/4", but in recent days it has completely retracted. Is anyone else having luck with theirs, and what lighting/flow placement is yours in? My other goni's and alveoporas are happy and healthy under similar light and flow. My frag: Jeff's colony: Here is my other goni and alveopora:

My mystery box contained a sun coral which was a new one to me. It's interesting how it stays retracted all day, then really opens up at night for feeding: Day: Night: I'm target feeding Reef Roids and it seems really happy.

You should have said you bought a new T5/LED hybrid light fixture. You don't want to seem cheap about the ring.

There are a few videos online that show how to touch up aquarium photos. Here's one to get you started:

There's a Neptune WAV on the left back wall, you just can't see it in the recent video. In the first video above I described and showed every component in my setup including the WAV.

I spend a lot of time just staring at my aquarium. It's so peaceful and relaxing. Here's a 5 minute video of tranquility:

Looks good. Does that Apex mounting board have some sort of hinge to allow you to access the cables behind it?

Clownfish shaking or quivering is a normal behavior. Mine do it all the time. Google it and you'll find lots of videos showing the behavior.

Wow, huge improvement! Looks great. I still don't see any water, though...😂

Mr. Microphone is another one to really show your age: