The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[OLS]

I had an interesting theory pop into me head last night. I have one of the OOOOld style Berlin skimmers,
in which you hook up a 'jet engine' to it and it makes some bubbles and maybe skims. However, all these years
I was getting bigger and bigger water pumps cause I thought with the type of venturi it had, it would only
make sufficient bubbles if it was flowing mad water. But when I re-purposed it this week, I used a comparably
tiny pump on it, and I opened up the air hose flow wide open and I was barely gettin foam. I think in
the years past, I had max flow, but I had to stop down the air injection to near zero to keep it from
overfoaming. I think once this one tunes up a bit I am gonna get good foam from max air and less than
max water flow. Sad part is although I have three different pump sizes, on a 20 gallon tank, there is not
much room for pumps. So I am sticking with lil junior.

[shilala]

Good luck, my man.
Let us know how the experiment goes.

[shilala]

Today my hammer sent out a sweeper tentacle or something and got snagged up by the Gonapora. The Gonapora hung on for the best part of the day until it finally cut the hammer loose just a little while ago.
It managed to unmoor the hammer, now I have to get some more glue and stick it down good. I might just move it if I can find someplace to put it.

[shilala]

I ordered an aiptaser from the same place Steve did. It seems like that one is the real deal, and it looks to be made well. I saw a couple knockoffs for a few bucks less, but I didn't think that was a good idea. It'd be months before I have time to make my own, and want to kill these few freeloaders I have in my tank before they catch hold and give me a real problem.

Lance, I even thought to bug you into building one for me, but with everything you have going on I figured it'd be rude, even though I know yours would work better.
If you get bored this winter and get all your refinements finalized, keep me in mind, will ya? I imagine I'm going to want something customized so I can reach all the places where this one can't reach if this critter invasion gets hold.

[shilala]

I should also mention that I moved stuff around a bit and buried a really good rock for the maxima to moor himself on.
By moving things just a little bit, I gave myself lots more places to put the frags I had that fell off, etc. I also was able to turn the gonapora around a bit so it was more viewable. I got a good look at my hammer coral, and it has ten or twelve new starts going on. That thing is going to be HUGE in no time.
Everything is growing real well. If there was one thing that I think made a difference, it's the phyto. I finally switched to DT's and I'm much happier. I'm not sure if the Cyclopeeze made a difference, but all the different foods certainly are helping.
My pods are exploding, and everything that died back from the move is coming back way better than before.
Can you tell I'm excited?

[shilala]

I just noticed some new pulsing Xenia babies today.
I made a nighttime soup of frozen coral food, frozen Cyclopeeze, and a couple tablespoons of DT's phyto. The stink was glorious.
I seriously considering a second more bigger water making machine, something with a larger bladder or series of bladders so I can crank out 20 or 30 gallons at a clip. This 3 gallons at a time thing is ridiculous.
Maybe I'll just hook up a regular well bladder tank and let some air out from behind the bladder tank and just use what I have?
Thoughts?

I use a plastic barrel with a float valve to collect my RO/DI water. You can get those at any hardware store. You can double up the barrel if you can't find a sturdy enough one.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

I use a plastic barrel with a float valve to collect my RO/DI water. You can get those at any hardware store. You can double up the barrel if you can't find a sturdy enough one.

I gave that some thought before, Lance. Even thought about a giant tub sump in the basement. I just don't want barrels, and I sure don't want to take a chance on a float valve malfunctioning and flooding the basement once it's finished. I wanted a closed system that's point of use.
I could even do that with a 10" or 12" pvc tube up in the joists, using the airgap for backpressure.
At any rate, it's a winter project. I'm way too busy to even be thinking about this right now.

[shilala]

Oh yeah, got my aiptasia nuker today. I played with it for five minutes and put it away. I nuked a couple and they sucked in their holes. I'll go after them later tonight and get what I didn't already kill.

Yeah, Scott, I have found that the ones that hide back in holes are very hard to kill. You just singe them and they grow back. I like to jab the electrode in them and just let it sit there for about 30 seconds. Bwahahahaha! Nhya-ah-ah!

[shilala]

I drill right in the hole after them. As a result, I knocked a couple frags off and I'll have to find them and reglue them. It was worth it, though.

[SteveH]

Any new pics ?

[shilala]

Originally Posted by SteveH

Any new pics ?

I'll get some for ya if iever get done working outside. My babies are growing like crazy. In the morning I gotta get in there are get a couple that fell down.

[shilala]

The Aiptasia Zapper kills bristle worms. That is all.

[shilala]

After watching these corals for a good while now, I see that it's pretty obvious both when they're happy and when they're hungry. They're pretty damned amazing. I need to go swimming in there soon to move and separate a few things. The yellow coral isn't doing well up close to the lights, I want to move it down a bit. It seems everything but the xenia and cup coral wants to be down away from the lights a bit.

[OLS]

I wonder if by 'yellow coral" you mean those yellow polyps? I warned you when you first mentioned them that they
tend to die off with no explanation. Most would say they are not hard to keep, and they have a rock COVERED
in them to prove it. But just as many report they just died off slowly, one by one. Sad really. I liked mine til they
were a bare rock.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by OLS

I wonder if by 'yellow coral" you mean those yellow polyps? I warned you when you first mentioned them that they
tend to die off with no explanation. Most would say they are not hard to keep, and they have a rock COVERED
in them to prove it. But just as many report they just died off slowly, one by one. Sad really. I liked mine til they
were a bare rock.

Yup, that's what I meant, yellow polyps. I'm going to start a big water change today, and I'll move them, see what happens. I like them, too. It's worth trying to save them. I lost my starfish and I think I lost my sea hare, both to the urchin.

[shilala]

Here's a new thing...
I have these little critters on my glass all over the place. They amount to tens of them, not hundreds or something like that. I've been watching them grow steadily, and they grow fast. I haven't been cleaning the glass so they have lots to eat as they grow.
My guess is that they're offspring of my red starfish that recntly died, or they're urchin babies. The kicker is that they have six legs, my red star had five. They could be brittle stars that came in on new stuff.
Will you guys let me know what you think?
Here's a pic from my phone, hope it turns out...

[OLS]

NO, they are not urchins...they are a kind of a pest starfish that eates certain types of coral. Maybe if you have none
it would be OK to let em grow, but they will never be like full size starfish and they are considered relatively bad...
Lemme do some poking around and I will link you some threads. Their pest-worthiness is apparently in the eye of the
reefer. You'll have to decide what you want to do. You can search from here, there is the basic nomenclature in the
thread below.

---------------

http://www.livingreefs.com/pest-starfish-t16171.html

[shilala]

I poked around a bit, Brad. There's plenty of bad stories to go with the good, but I'm 100% ready to start picking them. No need to wait for a problem. I have to kill some other crap, so I need to go swimming soon anyways.
Right now these guys are hardcore grazers, they're just eating algae film off the walls. They'd probably be okay because I only ever clean the front wall. It seems they're opportunists though. As soon as they've run out of algae, they'll become a problem. Dammit.