Blue Throat Trigger

Okay. Without further delay, here are a few snapshots of the Blue Throat Trigger Fish.

I had to take these pics from several feet away.

He's looking all "blue throat" lately.

Camera Shy: Blue Throat Trigger Fish

I've had the Blue Throat Trigger Fish in my 26 gallon quarantine tank for a week, so far. He was purchased at Fountains in San Diego. I noticed him there the previous 2 weeks before with about 5 Niger triggers. His species is listed as one of the few "reef safe" triggers. Although, I'm nervous about him nipping the T. crocea and T. derasa clams when I introduce him to the main tank. I think the Coral Banded Shrimp and Skunk Shrimp will be able to defend themselves; they're kinda large.

He's gained back some color and scarfing down some food pellets.

When the camera comes out, he goes for a hide.

It took me a while to figure out where he's hiding in the sparsely populated QT.

Instead of a fish pic, here's a doctored up pic of the macro algae in the QT called "Dragon's Tongue"!

DIY Fish Food

This is my third batch of fish food in about a year or so. I started out with the recommendations in Robert Fenner's older edition of "The Conscientious Marine Aquarists" which worked well enough. I think I added too much seaweed in one batch and it reeked so badly that I got tired of handling it. Also, I didn't like adding gelatin because you had to heat it up and the stuff was always sticky at that high consistency which you were never sure of having attained.

For this batch, I make a few modifications like subtracting the gelatin and the veggies.

I figure that the resulting proteinaceous muck will hold itself together (after all, gelatin is just another protein. Why add more?).

Also, I like feeding seaweed separately on a clip.

Finally, I'm trying to see if this batch will have less "floaties". I don't know what contributes to floating food in the other batches, which ends up going into the overflows when the main pumps turn back on, but I'll reduce the recipe to see if that helps out.

I just threw in a Bay Scallop and it sunk. So, there's one ingredient that I'm going to keep including. The Timor Wrasse went wild with it once he figured that it wasn't a (sinking) marshmallow.

I forgot to take a picture of the scallops. They just looked like miniature marshmallows.

I was unsure about the treated and cooked imitation crab, so I removed them all.

INGREDIENTS:

1) 16 oz (454 g) Seafood Combo (squid, octopus, monkfish, crab, pollock, etc.)
2) 0.3 lbs Bay Scallops
3) Dashes of Freeze Dried Cyclop-eeze®
4) Pictured, but not used: Marine Gro pellets. If I'm in a hurry to feed, I'll just feed the fish flakes or pellets. So, adding these things to the mix is not necessary.

STEPS:

1) Thaw and rinse Seafood Combo in colander over the sink. I wasn't sure about the imitation crab; it was listed with sodium pyrophosphate, cooked and treated with sugars, so I removed them all. (I couldn't find the seafood combo I bought last time and I forgot to even read the ingredients with this one.)
2) In small batches, place enough Seafood Combo in Cuisinart food processor.
3) Add a handful of Bay Scallops.
4) Sprinkle on some Freeze Dried Cyclop-eeze® until you're about to sneeze.
5) Process on lowest settings until chunks are small enough to fit in your pets' mouths.
6) Using a large, 1 gallon Zip-Loc bag, combine all batches (I processed about 3 batches).
7) Press down and evenly distribute the food.
8) Place on a support and freeze overnight, preferably in a frost freezer.

Don't overfill! Sprinkle Cyclop-eeze® in the processor. That'll get them sinkin'!

Place all batch mixes into 1 gallon Zip-Loc bag. I picked up this trick watching an old episode of Reefcast.

Nice and squared for the little OCD in you. After freezing, you can break off stamp-sized chunks for thawing and feeding.

Full Tank Shot (FTS)

Here's my attempt at an FTS dated 9/20/2008.

At least you get a full perspective on what I'm managing (to keep alive).


Click for an in-depth display

Sump Cooling Fan DIY

I finally got around to modifying the egg crate that was holding a fan on top of my sump. The fan was being controlled by the RKE to help cool down the water instead of using a chiller. When temperatures got really high, the chiller would then take over. I'm not sure how effective the fan was at this point, but when the RKE allows for data download, I may analyze it in the future.

I cut the egg crate down to the exact size that would fit on top of the sump by using wire cutters.

Then, black plastic mounting ties were used to fasten an extra piece to prevent the egg crate from sliding out of position and falling into the sump water.

Here's the open top of the LifeReef sump.

And, now it has the modified egg crate with a simple cooling fan on top. The air blows downward to help chill the water by evaporation.

Pre-Halloween 2008

Spiders are starting to spin their webs at our place.

This spider is attached to a pulley. I'd like to drop it down on visitors, but it'd be a lot of work being on standby!

This one spun a web under the pergola. It's waiting for its next meal to come for a visit.

How many fish and corals does this tomb represent?

Aye, scurvy dogs, we're going hunting for corals!!

RKE v1.07 - Graphing

After updating the firmware to v1.07 for the 3 different types of modules in the RKE system, I wasn't able to reset graphs. I even tried the "work around" solution with no success. Finally, as I navigated around the menu items, I tried out the "factory reset" option. Was that there before? I had to re-enter the few settings that I keep (two fans, some heaters, custom display). Then, wait for the data to come in.

This seems to have emptied out the memory successfully as I now can see new data appearing. And, the graphs are appearing properly.

Here's what happens to the temperature (with temp. probe measuring in the sump) during the day. I had sharper peaks yesterday since it was much hotter than today. The drop in peak shows the activity of the 1/5 horse power chiller.

Here is what happens to the pH (with probe measuring in the sump) over the day. In the morning, the pH starts around 8.0 and works up to 8.2 after the lighting intensifies.

Here you can see the pH fluctuation for several days. There's a small trend toward a lower pH which seems to level off near the end. I can't remember when I added a little Marine Buffer to help minimize the pH swing. I doubt that I'll be able to flatten this data with more buffer, but it's good to see that it's within acceptable range (pH 8.0 to 8.3).

I guess I can give the RKE v1.07 at least one thumb up for finally delivering (or bringing back) what was initially promised. Another thumb up will go after I move over my main pump, skimmer pump, more heaters and chiller control over to the RKE without failures.

Berghia Nudibranch Rock Test II

It was only a day later that I captured this wandering, daytime Nudi devouring the Aiptasia on the acrylic wall of the refugium.

I've noticed that small Aiptasia on the sand bed have also disappeared. Most of the adult Nudis remain hidden, away from the light. So, I've turned off the light in the refugium to encourage them to crawl about at night time.