icebear's blog

[icebear]

hitchhikers were a pistol shrimp- which i put in the below tank that was curing the LiveBrineShrimp.com rock, but i have not seen him since


and this weird critter- which turned out to be some sort of cucumber, i also have not seen since.


in that shipment, i had bought a blue tux urchin. we were sure Todd would leave it alone, but i think it was 3 days later, he bit it at least once and popped it open.

so this shipment there are two urchins coming, the baserock has been curing forever so Todd is now the Sumpmonster and the main tank will house two tuxes and a LMB. If algae becomes scarce i have LFS that can take them.

Yesterday i plumbed in my sump and all i have to do is hook up my Coralife SS. i have MH lighting that i bought a while ago, but hubby wants to look over the wiring cause it looks rather old and just a bit dry-rotted- he's just making sure nothing overheats or shorts, so it has not been hooked up yet... its been months since i bought it, but we have been busy with baby stuff. (i'm not worried about it, but i'm letting him inspect it to ease his mind. salt creep freaks him out!)

today's expected order contains some half-price 'common, assorted' mushrooms and zoanthids and some turbo snails, a LMB, blue-green and purple shrooms, some ultra colored zoas, 2 tux urchins, and a green toadstool.


it is supposed to be here by noon today, but my FedEx tracking still says it is in transit in Tennesee since 4:29 am.
i have done enough livestock and dry goods order tracking now that i can say usually at this time, if delivery will happen today, it should say that the package is "in delivery vehicle" by now. it is 11:05 am... so i'm preparing for disappointment. i hope little LMB can handle the delay.

[icebear]

so, yeah.... FedEx is late. so i may get a shipping refund. hope all the critters survive.

[icebear]

hopefully FedEx comes through today. i had planned the delivery day on the warmest expected weather of the week- which was yesterday- 45-49F.
today it is 39F and wet snow is falling.
according to tracking, the shipment has just made it to Portland. I will not be driving the hour (one way) to go get it. the weather is not great and i have a newborn... i got about 4 hours of sleep last night.

i emailed BZA last night so they can get a head start on filing a shipping claim. they were great last time this happened- their secure packing kept all the livestock safe and i had no losses due to the delay- but i did get refunded the shipping fee.

my only real worry is the lawnmower blenny, fish don't do so hot in delayed shipping and this is the first time i have bought fish online outside of work. the urchins and snails should have a pretty good shot i think- as long as the snails were packed in wet paper in a big enough bag, and the urchins as long as temps don't fluxuate too much.

so, i'm just going to be waiting. yesterday was the perfect day for the delivery , so i'm still sore about that. of the 3 BZA orders i have done, this is the second one FedEx has dropped the ball on.

......we just had a power surge too. the wet snow is probably causing issues with tree branches and powerlines.
wouldn't it be just dandy to lose power on the day i get my shipment?

[icebear]

goodie!

the box got here at about 10:30 am. i unpacked and finished acclimating just a bit ago. i took a few pics, but not many. the LMB looks fine so far. the only thing that looks iffy are the urchins- they dropped a lot of spines.... and the green umbrella leather smelled nasty and looks torn up a bit, and the water was just horrible looking and smelling. i'm running carbon and the skimmer is on full blast.
i caught two tiny hitchhiker crabs, i'll try and ID them later, they were too small to photo.

one of the urchins started "smoking" shortly after i put him in... i think it was sowing some wild oats, but i thought they only did that when they were happy so i'm worried that it is because of severe stress. these urchins are huge compared to the tiny one i got last time. if i had one of these then, Todd would not have been able to eat it. i don't think my size request got through on that order, i'd had a hard time with the online form- so i bet my "larger than" request got misread as "no larger than"... oh well.

lights are off, so i won't know what zoanthid colors i got until later.

[icebear]

The leather was almost completely disintegrated (and sprinkled mushy bits all over) by this morning and the purple shroom rock is mostly snotty polyps, which means they are not going to come back. I emailed BZA and they are being great about it, they want me to observe for a bit longer and then report any further losses so i can be credited if needed. They are so good about this.
Everything else looks great. I love the ultra zoanthid rock i got, it is loaded with tightly packed zoas and there are three of them that are this cool neon minty green color, i want to frag them and see if i can get them to grow out separately.
Even the common assorted zoas have interesting colors, one section of them reminds me of those Andes chocolate candy things.
Th lawnmower blenny is active and really cute to watch, it likes to hang out in the back, so i don't see much of it, but when i do it is pretty neat. Their mouths get huge when they eat and it is amusing to watch them chomp film algae off the glass.

the common shroom polyps are cool looking too, interesting textures and the blue-green shrooms are nice and bright looking.

the urchins haven't moved much, but if i remember right, that is not unusual. The snails look happy enough also.

[icebear]

i need to look into "gurgle busters" overflow gets really loud at times... mostly it is quiet, but when it is loud... yeep!

it is still better than the sound of HOB filters and old fluvals

[icebear]

uggh, i want to get my MH lighting up soon. i was going to bug hubby to help me mount the ceiling chains today, but i have this baby shower my family is throwing for me ( yanno, for the baby i had a month early- tomorrow is the day she was due ) it had to be rescheduled since we were still in the hospital on the original date of the shower. soooo.... maybe i can get him to do his little "inspection" on things and i'll see what i can accomplish myself. or i'll wait till next weekend...
but it might not be a bad thing to wait, i did get some new corals and messing with the lighting this soon after getting them might be too much for them... considering the meltaway of some of the purple and blue-green shrooms... the blue-green ones looked like they'd be ok, but the polyps that stayed squinched longer ended up going to snot like some of the purple ones. the common shrooms of course are looking great- expanding most impressive, its funny (and slightly annoying) the way the prettiest things tend to be the most delicate.

i love BZA, but darn FedEx!

[icebear]

Awesome! BZA was nice to me about the snotty shrooms and the leather gone bad, so i made another order...smaller than the last tho- i'm running out of room


i also finally installed the Coralife skimmer so i can finally ditch the POS Seaclown

i know the CL isn't said to be the best, but when i was looking to find a replacement for the SC, the CL was what i was advised to get, so about 9 months later i bought one....and THEN found out that the new favorites were the Octopus skimmers .... too late by then!

anyway, finally making progress on the tank and actually getting it together. there are actually cool things to see in there now

[icebear]

i'm going to have to figure out how to tune the CSS. i got nothing in it overnight and the waterlevel in the neck is too high..so i'm not sure what i have that is not balanced right...


not sure what is up with my fed ex tracking for today's order....



from CA to TN, then to ME, then back to TN after being tracked onto a delivery truck in Portland, ME?

maybe it is too early in the am and i'm missing how FedEx can get a package back from ME in less than 12 minutes....

this is going to really be annoying if it gets delivered late... it will be 3 out of 5 livestock orders that FedEx has bungled on me.

i'm trying to be nice and give benefit of the doubt- maybe there is some computer glitch in their system today?

[icebear]

ok, whatever the online glitch was with the tracking page...it did not affect the shipment. it arrived safe and sound at about 10:30am. I unpacked everything and just finished up settling everything in. things look pretty good... the hairy shrooms look a bit rough, but the rest of the order looks nice. i bet the shrooms will be fine.
can't wait to see what zoa colors i got, lights are off so i don't know yet.

i did find a sundial snail on one piece so i really looked closely at all the rest and i found a little pistol shrimp again. this one is tiger striped and was very small, maybe a half inch long and smaller around than a bamboo skewer. i don't remember them being bad, so i let him go into the tank. FW dipped to get out and ZENs. i may take some pics later. maybe. taking pics with my camera is so disappointing, it makes the tank look bad and dim when it really isn't. i can't get rid of the green cast it puts in, yes i have algae, but the camera makes it look like i have a green film all over everything but it does not pick up the bright greens that the corals give off.
look what it does to my purple/blue Ric

makes it look bluegreen

this is supposed to look purple/blue also.... not dingy



and it does not do justice to these decent colored zoas



this one of Mulcher came out ok, but not very sharp

[icebear]

urchin at work






candycane

[icebear]

oh, and i was going to update my tank specs so i can just post a link in my sig instead of listing everything.... i looked up my original tank spec thread from like 2002, but i really don't want to update that and bump it... it seems so weird! like the beginning of this thread when i was thinking about the 110. i'm glad i didn't get the 110... when my leg was broken i would not have been able to do anything with it and if i'd had a trigger and all that i wanted in it, they would have gotten the tank dirty and all #3!! would have broke loose,, so anyway...

[icebear]

Current Tank Specs as of March 18, 2009

30 gallon long
30 gallon long as a sump/fuge, about 25 gallons filled
Eshopps 300 overflow box
Oceanrunner 2500 return pump

Overdriven NO lighting-
2 30watt bulbs, one 20k and one 50/50

Shallow sand bottom; less than one inch of old Southdown sand

SG- 1.024
76*-78*F

livestock:
one 7" Toadfish named Todd (Batrachomoeus trispinosus)
lawnmower blenny named Mulcher
2 tuxedo urchins
turbo snails
lettered snail
mushrooms
blue/purple ricordea
brains
zoanthids
button polyps
toadstool leather
flower leather
green star polyps
braireum
candy cane

[icebear]

i think what is left of the purple shrooms are about to melt away. i know my lighting isn't super intense, but i know it has been too much for some stuff before (that is the problem with DIY lighting, unless i can get a meter, intensity comparisons are a guess), i put the purples under the overflow box where there is mild circulation and it is shaded, but the 3 remaining polyps are all squinched up and are getting that transparent look around the edges... would really stink if i lost those... i was really excited to get them. i was not sure if i should order anymore, so i didn't- but i think most of the damage to them was from being in the cold shipping box that extra 24 hours.
what is left of the blue/green look ok, there was one big polyp and 3 tiny ones. they are all extending like they should.

[icebear]

i got the CSS tuned in and that thing does work! it has pulled out more crap in just 24 hours than the Clown does in a week. the Clown is ready to be re-boxed and placed in the Tote of Shame, where all the other crappy equipment goes.
only prob with the CSS is that you have to shut it off and unscrew the collection cup to empty it... it won't just slip off... i had to install it externally because there wasn't enough clearance between the tanks to keep the sump as full as i want it and to keep the pump at the correct water level to function properly. but i actually have it on the side of the sump instead of the back, so it is easier to access.