obrien.david.j

1 hour ago, Emerald525 said:

I don’t know of any jawbreaker songs but I am a big fan of Pat Benatar so I can make up a song for you on the spot .

• You’re a jawbreaker
• Dream maker money taker 
• don’t you mess around with me 

Will you sing us this song, at the club meeting Sunday?   

When I did my stand, I took the painted approach - but I wanted the Smooth Only look.  No wood grain.    Sealed/Hardened the wood, Primer, Sand, Paint, Sand, Paint, Sand, Paint.

You can see the products here:

20 hours ago, Brittany said:

Unfortunately I had a pump issue/overflow that led to salinity falling to 1.022.    I corrected it over 12 hours (fast down so fast up).   My dosers kept dosing and my corals weren’t growing so my alk went to 12.5 over the following 3 days…. I normally check alkalinity daily, but with power outages, freezing rain, pump failure, and fixing salinity I just didn’t check alk.  My alk is normally so stable I wasn’t worried…. But alk spike and salinity drop is what stressed things out.

 

its funny how one problem often leads to another.

Thanks for the reminder.  Hadn't checked my salinity in a month, and it was High.   Just pulled some water out, and replaced with straight RO water.   Will check again tomrrow.

48 minutes ago, Krux said:

Please enjoy Pepper.

Great job on the plumbing.   I love a clean setup.

Is Pepper in the same genus as a Dr Seuss Fish?  They look similarly shaped.

Love the Ricordea.  I'll bet they're going to do fantastic in this tank.   

9 minutes ago, Deuce00 said:

Lesson learned. My tank got down to 60 degrees in 24 hours. Lost 8 of 12 fish and most my coral besides a Duncan. The sea urchins lost all their spikes but are alive. 

Your tank got cold, but did you have circulation in the tank?

#1 thing a tank needs is Oxygen, and gas exchange.  That happens at the air-water interface at the top of your tank.   The simplest way to enable this, is Circulation.   battery powered air pump... is just circulating the water.   Smallest of small pump, on backup power... circulates the water.   With my the MP10/40/60 backup 12v supply situation, all power heads drop to something like 20% (or 10%?) and just run low and slow, for as long as possible. ... circulation.

Temp on the other hand, CAN do bad things.  But I wouldn't have expected that much of a fish loss from 20 degrees down.   That's what my tank did, with zero fish loss.

Sorry to hear about your losses.  Heartbreaking.

I'm bringing FREE frags for those who've lost corals in this storm as well.   I have mini colonies/large frags I can break off of;

• German Blue Montipora Digitata
• Cali-Tort
• Miyagi Tort
• Green Goblin Anacropora

1) PM to make your choice(s), a statement you had losses during the storm (honor system here), and confirm I have some for you.

2) Others have asked if they can purchase.   Also PM me, asking price is $15/each.    First priority goes to those who've had losses.

I will bring my full backup system I build for Echotech MP10/40/60's.   I'll do a demonstration of how to wire the cabling, and a parts list for anyone who wants to build their own.  This was easy.  I wired it by head lamp, after the power went out. (I already had the parts, and the battery was charged and ready to go)   

I'm not familiar with backup solutions for any other products, but happy to talk with anyone about what they're thinking.

The #1 thing our tanks need when power goes out is Oxygen and Gas Exchange.  This all happens by Water Motion.   Keep some form of flow, and your chances of survival go WAY up.

12 hours ago, Krux said:

WHY ME!?!??!

Wind was back last night at our house.   Power outages reported around us, withing 1-2mile radius... but ours stayed on.   

Lost two more big fir trees, but it was expected.  They were holding up half the weight of two other big fir trees that had fallen.   They're now resting on the neighbors roof.     We have a row of smallish cedar trees.   I expect to lose 2-3 of them.   The ground has heaved, roots visible, and the wind was bending them over 40%-ish.  Will they need to come out, or just learn to continue growing - but at an angle.   Waiting for clear morning light to assess what the world really looks like.

Sorry to hear you're out again.

1 hour ago, Krux said:

Thank you.  As it turn out, one of my neighbors must have taken a photo this morning in the light - my front yard made it on the Portland subreddit!

Are you SURE this is the same bus?   In your photo last night, the back tires (with the chains) are in the air, sticking out in the road.   In this photo, the front tires (without the chains) are in the air, sticking into the road.      Both good photos.

9 hours ago, Krux said:

whelp, it is icy in my front yard…

Great photo.

This morning, our front yard is an ice lake and the trees are coated.

It's here!   (at my place)

Not as much fun, but if you can wait until the end of April... The Farmers Market will be back in town.   Just contact some of the sellers ahead of time and confirm someone will bring it in.

And by that logic, you could also talk to any of our local fish stores and ask how long it would take to bring in.  Should be earlier than Apr. 

http://www.coralfarmersmarket.com/cfmprotour_portland_2024.htm

1 hour ago, cjmdh said:

They usually ship with a bottle of oil in the box.

And since I bought it "lightly used"... I didn't get the box, the bottle, nor even the manual.    (once power and internet came back on, googled the manual)

16 hours ago, LavenderTi said:

I just grabbed a generator from BiMart in Oregon City. 

See my other post.   Fire it up and prove it runs just fine before the ice comes...   I needed Oil, which wasn't prepared for.

12 hours ago, LavenderTi said:

My heart goes out to you @Eatfrenchfries not only the losses but also the stress of going through that 52 hours. Sorry you went through that and for your losses.  
 

I’d love to support a fundraiser. 

@Eatfrenchfries  Sorry to hear about the devastation.  Tell us how we can help.    And feel free to PM me if I can personally help in any way.

An update on my side... Do you know that new generators don't ship with Oil, and some have low oil detectors and will refuse to start without out any...    I bought my generator "lightly used."   Turns out, it was Never used - still completely dry.  And of course, I'd never tried it before.     Added oil yesterday, started on first pull.   I'm now set for whatever today's ice storm brings.

When I planned my power outage situation, I think I calculated he 100Ah 12v car battery would run my 4 MP40's and 2 MP60's for 24-36hrs.  (longer if I unplug a couple of the pumps).   But the only way I think I can keep temp is a generator.  I run about 1000W+ of heaters.   Two frag tanks and sump are in the un-insulated garage...  So I'm in your situation of Water Gets Cold.  (on the plus side, display tank is in the house, next to the gas fireplace).

Hope your electricity is on already.

9 hours ago, Krux said:

Hour 26 with no power and no time estimate.  Two colonies have started to STN, hopefully PGE decides to send a truck today.

Hope your power comes back soon.  My tank seems to have suffered minor impact.  Power has been on since 1am today, so at the 19hr-ish hour point with power now.

1 hour ago, Eatfrenchfries said:

Close to 30 hours without power.

Main marine battery is keeping my reptile/invert collection alive. 

Ran out of backup batteries to keep the aquariums heated and aerated. Been manually shaking the phytoplankton cultures every hour.

30hrs, Crazy!   Sorry to hear it.    

On my side, I'd planned my main backup being car battery feeding MP40/60's.   It's really nice they already have a secondary plug, they switch to when main power goes out.  And with a little research, it was SUPER easy to connect to a car battery I'd pre-planned and have running on a trickle charger.   I actually made the wiring harnesses by headlamp, after the power had gone out.   Bought all the parts, but was a little lazy putting the wire together.

Parts are

• 12v deep cycle "car battery" - 100aH
• Trickle charger, plugged into the wall permanently
• inline pigtail fuse holders, with 2A fuse
• barrel plug for the 2nd power port of the MP controllers
• Spool of "lamp wire" to feed from the battery to the controllers

Hope everyone out there woke up safe and sound.   Yesterday was not Snow-Mageddon, it was Tree-Down-Mageddon!    Six trees down just beyond our fence, into our neghbors heard.  (watched #6 fall)  Four trees down onto a different neighbors roof, still visible from our back yard.  And most impactful... We lost power.

Our power was out 2:30pm Sat to 1:10am Sun.    

Setup the backup battery to power the MP 40's&60's.  Ran fine the whole time.   Couldn't get the generator started to feed the heaters, so had to rely on the gas fireplaces in the house to keep the deepest chill away.  Tank is currently warming back up, slowly.   Found one of my heaters isn't heating any more (I have three, so only two work).  Replaced #3 when I woke up.  Tank looks fine so far, but will be monitoring.

How'd your tank do?

The glow of fireplace, reflected off the back up battery keeping the tank circulating.

This morning, warming back up.

15 hours ago, Krux said:

There are a few things that would break your wallet if they made it this far.

Okay, my challenge.   Watch the video.  Screen Capt a coral or two (or fish) that caught your eye. 

Here's an SPS that looks interesting to me.

Thanks for sharing the video.

Love it!   What a fun way to celebrate this storm.  At our place its cold and windy, but only the lightest of lightest overnight dusting blowing around.   The dump hasn't started yet.

Nothing beats a good DIY project, when they work out.  When I started this hobby, I had more tanks and time than anything e$le.   Almost everything I did was DIY.

@Flash21   - still have one?

14 hours ago, Reefsakes said:

I use brs thick super glue and quick set to initially bond pieces together. Then once I know I'm done with the piece. I go over all the bonded joints with emarco mortar. It holds together super well. 

This is how I did my rockwork.  Cost me about $80 in supplies.  Bought some from BRS, some from Amazon.  (based on cost and availability)  

• Insta-set Super Glue Accelerator

• Extra Thick Gel Super Glue (8 or 10oz bottle)

• E-Marco-400 Aquascaping Mortar 

Bump again.

A January meeting at someone's house will likely have a dozen or two people.   I hosted January last year, and it was really nice.  A bit more quality time with the people who attended.

I recommend it, if someone is willing.