Rabbut's Marine Jurnal

[TigerIssey]

Tiger, it's great to hear you have a good shop round your way. They are few and far between

They certainly are Rabbut, that is why I go back again and again. The local MA is diabolical for advice and tries to sell you stuff you do not need, other than that I would have a very long drive, I feel I have dropped very lucky.

Keep up the good work, it really is looking good and your corals are stunning, especially the Cataphyllia and Trumpet.

Love it

 

[rabbut]

^^Thanks

nice corals mate. Hope you find the clown!

Thanks again. I'm not hopeful about the Clown TBH. The skimmer went mental yesterday and the day before, and I have not seen him for just over three days now. There is no point in stripping out the rock looking for a body, with 12 hermit crabs, there will be nothing to find now Fingers crossed though still

 

[rabbut]

OK, not been updated for a while, so I figured that I would do some photos and come back again. Got some new livestock since last time too Nothing too exciting, just a Malu Anemone. Oh, and I've felt confident enough to remove the guards from the Tunze Nanostreams.... after removing the nanostreams themselves... They weren't pulling against the increased resistance of the sponges, so all flow had virtually stopped. They have been replaced with a Maxijet MP1200 and a MP600, making for just over 20 times an hour turnover. No longer enough for the SPS corals, so I will likely need to replace the MP600 with another MP1200, but we'll see how it goes first... The Maxijets of course have sponge guards on them to prevent a suicide

OK, enough twittering on, time for some Photos

The Torch Coral

My remaining Clown with the Torch Coral. I haven't seen the other one again as yet, but then I lost track of my Pink Scooter Blenny for about a week, but that was out and about yesterday, looking OK, if a little skinny. I think I'm going to need to order some more Copepod cultures of Reefworks to keep it going while my own culture picks up again...

Trumpet Polyps

Elegance Coral

Open Brain Coral

Purple Montipora

The Other Brain Coral

The Bubble Coral. A bit of a naff pick, it's looking good in real life but appears sickly there...

Green Star Polyps, not looking too bad considering they'd virtually melted earlier. The Malu is encroaching on them though, and they may get stung, but hey... Such is life, I won't move them until the end of the week, as it would upset the nem who has attached itself to their rock My own stupid fault for placing it in that cave I suppose, but I wasn't expecting it to actually stay where it was put

Now, the Malu Anemone. Photo's don't really show the Cream flesh or purple tips to the tentacles...

And just to finish off, a Full Tank Shot.

That should be 12 different photos, now lets see if they are all different this time

All the best
Rabbut

 

[bagu]

FRIGGIN FANTASTIC!

i love the clownfish, he looks stunning, i love the nem!

wow, just wow

 

[seffieuk]

That nem looks amazing - can you get a picture of the purple tips and the creamy colour pleaseeeee - he looks very healthy so hope as talked about in the other thread he isn't bleached. I don't know much about Malu, think i will nip off and have a read-up

Rabbut, iv'e decided to go the wavebox route and put a guard over the ph - apparently you can make it using the netting they put in greenhouses plus some thin air tube to strengthen, anyway, going to give it a try in my new tank was also thinking, that if we could find something like eggcrate, but with smaller openings then could make a cage to fit over the whole powerhead

Seffie x

 

[rabbut]

Thanks for that guys.

The Nem looked like it was moving earlier, it's foot moved about a bit, but it appears to have stopped moving now, and it is still in the same spot...

I had a small panic earlier, when it mouth was really wide open. shortly after noticing though, some rather horrid stuff came out of the mouth and it closed again It hasn't quite fully inflated yet, but does not look too bad, certainly not showing intense signs of stress, no wandering, gaping or bleaching, just not "puffing up" quite fully...

I can try for a few more pic's tomorrow if I remember while the lights are still on... I need to sus how to change the cameras settings to get to colour balance right

All the best
Rabbut

 

[TigerIssey]

That nem looks beautiful, even as you say the purple tips are not showing on the photos. I have seen them in my lfs, I have always been drawn to those purple tips too.

What camera are you using Rabbut, may be able to give a pointer on the settings. Do you have a macro mode, have you been using that so far? Do you have an aperture priority mode at all?

You may need to try a combination of adjusting the camera and adjusting which lights are on over the tank if you can.

 

[SkiFletch]

Looks pretty good there rabbut

 

[ben1987]

Looks good to me mate, like the purple monti

 

[rabbut]

^^Thanks guys

What camera are you using Rabbut, may be able to give a pointer on the settings. Do you have a macro mode, have you been using that so far? Do you have an aperture priority mode at all?

You may need to try a combination of adjusting the camera and adjusting which lights are on over the tank if you can.

I haven't used it in Macro mode yet for the nem. I can't remember the make or model, I'll post that with another round of photos later (hopefully), as I've got to go hand in some Uni Coursework in a few minutes, as I have to show the program working...

Nem is looking good still. Still in the same spot, mouth isn't open as much (but still is) and it's plumped up a bit more. I plan on leaving it a week to settle before offering some form of food (probibly muscle) and seeing if it will take it, but if is stays put for a couple more days and does not go into a strop, I may feed it sooner that Saturday/Sunday to see if it will take something (and if Mrs. Clownfish will come bite me while offering the food)...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[ben1987]

did you put a guard over your pumps...sorry if ive missed it. Just interested as i want another nem

 

[TigerIssey]

You missed it Ben , he changed the pumps to Maxi jet MJ 1200 and a smaller one but wants to replace the smaller one with another 1200. These already have sponges in them as the sponges were seriously reducing the flow.

 

[rabbut]

^^As Tiger says, I switched to Maxijets. They have sponge guards on them to avoid any suicides

The Tunze pumps are low torque, meaning low pressure in either the positive or negative direction. By covering them with sponge you loose virtually all flow from them. The only way I have as yet had full flow from them was when I left them unguarded, as I have found the hard way that they are not nem safe pumps when unguarded... This is kind of why I'm forced to use MJ's ATM to keep my flow up and the Anemone safe

Anyhow, I've played with the high-ISO and Macro modes on the camera. It's a Nicon Coolpix P60. Here is what I came up with in High-ISO, the best for the colours at least...

And while I had the camera out, here is a Macro mode photo of the larger tube worm. I swear the tube worms are camera shy. Always out unless you have a camera with you

All the best
Rabbut

 

[ben1987]

can deffinatly see the purple on the nem.
Argh crap, if you replaced the pumps then its a nem off my list for a bit

 

[rabbut]

lol, sorry to disappoint Ben

I am on the look out for a guard to cover the Tunze pumps, as the MJ's may lead to heat issues for me in summer, higher wattage for less flow must mean more heat output, under a 150W halide in a room that gets rather warm through June, July and August...

I think I may have found an idea I can lift from a user of the normal Tunze streams. If it weren't for the fact that changing the flow by changing pumps would likely make the nem walk off, I'd swap the pumps again and run without guards, as it appear to have settled. The chances of it waling on a flow change are too high for me to feel comfortable risking it though...

All the best
Rabbut