Donya's 55-Gallon

[Donya]

Check out the weird scar-like stuff that filled in the gap when the anemones closed (the white wiggly line on the one on the left):

And the crab is back. I did move it to another tank briefly while the nems were healing, but it got into a fight with something and lost a claw. Can't figure out who the fight was with, so back it went.

 

[Donya]

Looks like that one on the right from the picture above has split again. If it did, it will have almost certainly been induced by accidental small pedal laceration that happened a couple weeks back. It was the result of trying to grip onto a nasty sharp bit of rock that eventually just punched straight through the edge of the foot. I snapped off that piece of rock so it won't happen again, but didn't know it was even there until the damage was already done. If it split, it took place in a hard-to-see area (behind the other anemone and rock). I counted 3 very much disjoint clumps of tentacles last nigh and didn't see a way for it to be an illusion caused by the rock or anything, but it's really hard to see now when everything is expanded; too many waving tenacles covering up the rest of the animals.

 

[gregswimm]

Looks like that one on the right from the picture above has split again. If it did, it will have almost certainly been induced by accidental small pedal laceration that happened a couple weeks back. It was the result of trying to grip onto a nasty sharp bit of rock that eventually just punched straight through the edge of the foot. I snapped off that piece of rock so it won't happen again, but didn't know it was even there until the damage was already done. If it split, it took place in a hard-to-see area (behind the other anemone and rock). I counted 3 very much disjoint clumps of tentacles last nigh and didn't see a way for it to be an illusion caused by the rock or anything, but it's really hard to see now when everything is expanded; too many waving tenacles covering up the rest of the animals.

 

[Donya]

Had a pump crud out on me and had to go get a replacement. In the process, I have learned that the aquaclear powerheads have the following progression of sizes: really tiny, tiny, small, medium, la--DINOSAUR. I ended up getting the latter size because:
- The gph rating was the only one in the range of the powerhead that died.
- It seems to be nicely anemone-safe, and with three anemones now that's kind of important! 
- I didn't want a like-for-like replacement (because the dead pump was only 2yrs old at most) and there was nothing else of similar gph rating locally.
- It was only ~$10 more than a like-for-like replacement would have been locally, so I thought why not - how much bigger can it possibly be.
 
What else have I learned? I think my dead pump was screwed up from the get-go and I must have never seen the full gph out of it even when uncovered. I maybe saw 1/2 the gph it was supposed to output, because with the dinosaur pump it looks like I put a water rocket in my tank. Seriously, if I point the end the wrong way, it will shoot a jet of water out the top and onto the floor. So much for a low-flow system.
 
On the plus side, if I ever want to do a sump, this gigantic aquaclear pump can double as a sump pump. That should have perhaps tipped me off that it was a bit on the strong side...oh well. 

 

[gregswimm]

Nice! looks like you are ready to sump that tank .  

PSI is a better indication of what the pump will do.  Why not give your old pump a nice vinegar soak?  Don't forget proper Mg levels will keep calcium, carbonates and phosphates from depositing surfaces.

 

[Donya]

None of the circulation pumps I've gotten to date have had PSI listed; doesn't make sense really since they're such open designs. However, Mr. dinosaur pump probably did have something like that somewhere on the packaging or documentation since it doubles as a sump pump, but I wasn't actively looking for it since I was replacing a circulation pump LOL you'll get a good laugh when I finally get a FTS of it. What can I say...my brain's been destroyed from working day in and day out on a paper draft. 
 
I think the old pump is experiencing some kind of internal problem beyond where any deposits should be happening. What's happening is that the impeller's magnet is not being "grabbed" all the time like it aught to be. I've made sure that the impeller and impeller chamber are squeaky clean, so it's not that it's rubbing on things. When you get the magnet close to the chamber, it should jump right in and stay there while turning (within reason of course). However, it now seems to get half a rotation being "grabbed" and half a rotation being ejected instead. The result is that the impeller rapidly slides in and out as it turns and also periodically shoots mostly out of the chamber - and then it flaps about and makes a horrendous racket. This seems like partly a design flaw since there is room enough to allow that behavior, while other pumps I've had wouldn't allow it and would just keep the impeller jammed in whether it wanted to stay there or not. I might be able to fix that problem with some modding, but the coughing up the impeller behavior tells me something more fundamental is wrong (makes me think that either something slipped out of place internally or that voltage isn't going where it needs to go), so I don't think I want to use it as anything but an emergency backup if another pump in my many tanks gives up the ghost.

 

[Donya]

Finally have proof of the second BTA splitting event (3 clones total):
 

 

[creg]

lovely anemones. wish i could have one in my tank

 

[gregswimm]

Ill trade you some of my nems for your nems lol.

 

[Donya]

Just finished emptying my wallet at the CT frag farmer's market. 

 Awesome event each year, even with the parking situation being a bit dismal this time. It' s a good thing I remembered to bring an insulated bag, since I had to park a 30min walk away from the building because of some sports event and it's not yet warm enough to have gotten rid of the ice on the sidewalks. Picked up another type of tree coral, a nice leather, a hammer, and some other bits. Not sure which ones will go in this tank yet. I think I'll clear out my frag tank a little so that I can get everything fixed to rocks (and thereby do a bit of a QT) before putting any of the bits into my 55gal.
 
The cooler full of goodies sitting in front of me right now makes up for the fact that something in one of my tanks toasted my hand so badly that it actually seems to be leaving a scar. Perhaps worse than the scar, I don't know what did it or even which tank it was  since my hands were in and out of three of them within a minute of the horrendous burning setting in. So, that means I'll probably get it again at some point since I don't know what the culprit is and almost never remember to wear gloves. About the only thing I can rue out are my sea urchins, since it's kind of hard to bash one of them bare-handed and not know what happened. 

 

[gregswimm]

Score!  Sounds like you lucked out.

And pics!

 

[Donya]

Looks like I got some hitchhiker polyps too. I think one of them might even be a ric! If not, it's a very fancy hairy shroom. Everything is acclimating right now; pics are a certainty once they're in the frag tank. 

 

[Donya]

From the frag tank:
 

 
 

 
 
...and then my camera's batteries died. No wonder I couldn't get the hammer in focus lol.

 

[Donya]

So here's the mystery hitchhiker polyp I thought might have been a ric. It was totally invisible at the time of purchase on the old skeleton that the green tree was attached to and slowly unfolded after it had been in the bag for a while, then fully opened once in-tank. The "bare" patches on the disc don't look right for a ric now that it's fully open...almost wondering if it's a Stichodactyla tapetum?? That feels a bit insane though as a random hitchhiker.
 

 
 

 

[gregswimm]

NICE!  Sort of looks like Epicystis crucifer.  See if you can get a pic with the camera parallel to the glass to avoid the distortion.