Lance's 225 gal tank

Lance · #1 02-15-2011, 12:35 AM

Got back today from vacation and after 17 days away from the tanks I was a little bit worried as I have a new tank-sitter. He did a good job but there are a few issues, (none of which are his doing).
The 225g is in pretty good shape, other than the skimmer needed a good cleaning and the GBTA decided to move and sting the hell out of a large Pocci colony. Damn thing! The Pocci is salvageable though.
The 90g didn't fair so well.

Firstly, the timer for one of the dosing pumps packed it in at some time while I was away and alk is at 4. Stupid POS timer! Dosing manually for now until I get another timer.
More worrisome though, my large pink Monti Cap is in bad shape. About half of it, from the center out, has no flesh and the edges of the bleached areas are sloughing off when blown with a turkey baster. All other corals look fine, including Acros. Monti-eating Nudis? The Cap is in the center of the tank so I can't get a close enough look at it. Tomorrow after work I'm going to break off the entire 12" colony, have a good look-see, frag the good parts, dip them, and put them in the frag tank for observation.

As for the vacation, we had a great time except for the fact that I ended up in a Mexican hospital for a brief stay.

We took some snorkling/diving pics and will post them in a few days when I have time. (a few were taken specially for you Tony)

Oh yeah. I had an interesting incident with a large Barracuda. I swam around a large rock structure and came face to face with a large mouth full of teeth. I'm guessing he was about 5' long and as big around as my thigh. It wasn't the least bit afraid of me. As I swam around him he turned with me so as to always face me. I turned and swam slowly away; looking back I saw it following me, staying about 15 feet behind. That was pretty unnerving so I headed for shallow water. I'm guessing it followed me for about 5 minutes. I didn't hit the beach running and screaming like a little girl but I do admit to thinking the beach wasn't getting closer fast enough for my liking. I went back to the same area several times later (just to prove to myself I could) but never saw it again......... (thank Christ for that!)

lastlight · #2 02-15-2011, 01:46 AM

Glad to hear you still got in the water after your ordeal over there! Too bad about the monti but hopefully you can salvage anything. After that it's only time =)

That is freaky about the cuda...brings me back to my last trip to mexico and I stumbled upon a school of large tarpons. Not being an ID whiz I just saw a bunch of 5 - 6 foot fish maybe 20 feet away and I seriously almost shat myself.

muck · #3 02-15-2011, 02:00 AM

Welcome back Lance!
Hows your ear doing? Hope the plane ride didn't aggravate it too much.

Those barracudas are scared of nothing. I had a similar experience while snorkeling one trip out there. I was definitely not too thrilled when the cuda gave me the stare down without flinching. Lucky for me he didn't feel like following though..

Lance · #4 02-15-2011, 02:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muck

Welcome back Lance!
Hows your ear doing? Hope the plane ride didn't aggravate it too much.

Those barracudas are scared of nothing. I had a similar experience while snorkeling one trip out there. I was definitely not too thrilled when the cuda gave me the stare down without flinching. Lucky for me he didn't feel like following though..

Glad to be back. The ear's pretty good.
Yeah, no fear in those fishies. I wish I had the camera with me but the wife had it at the time. Of course, I probably wouldn't have thought to get any pics. More interested in getting the hell away from it.

PoonTang · #5 02-15-2011, 03:38 AM

Welcome back buddy, I thought it had been kinda quiet around here lately. Next time your over I will show you my picture of the school of barricuda that my son and I swam through when I was in the Bahamas last summer. Must have been a thousand of them and then when we came out the other side we wound up right in the lap of a 5' reef shark. Whoo Hooo fun times!

Lance · #6 02-15-2011, 03:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PoonTang

Welcome back buddy, I thought it had been kinda quiet around here lately. Next time your over I will show you my picture of the school of barricuda that my son and I swam through when I was in the Bahamas last summer. Must have been a thousand of them and then when we came out the other side we wound up right in the lap of a 5' reef shark. Whoo Hooo fun times!

Wow! Sounds scary......... I mean exciting!

Lance · #7 02-15-2011, 03:54 AM

I forgot to mention how many Lionfish I saw. I knew they were getting to be a real problem in the Atlantic, but I didn't realize just how many there are. In some areas I snorkeled in there was literally a Lionfish under every other rock ledge. As a reasonable guess I would say I counted over thirty of them in an area no larger than 1500 sq ft.

hillegom · #8 02-15-2011, 02:06 AM

Glad the affair with the cuda turned out alright. They are scary when that big.
What part of Mexico?

Lance · #9 02-15-2011, 02:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hillegom

Glad the affair with the cuda turned out alright. They are scary when that big.
What part of Mexico?

Caribbean side. Near Akumal.

Lance · #10 02-15-2011, 02:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lastlight

Glad to hear you still got in the water after your ordeal over there! Too bad about the monti but hopefully you can salvage anything. After that it's only time =)

That is freaky about the cuda...brings me back to my last trip to mexico and I stumbled upon a school of large tarpons. Not being an ID whiz I just saw a bunch of 5 - 6 foot fish maybe 20 feet away and I seriously almost shat myself.

Ear seems to be pretty good now Brett. Flight home kinda hurt though.
As for the Cap, it was getting too big and I was thinking of fragging some good sized chunks from it. Guess I have to now.

I'm not exactly the most experienced underwater guy and I always wondered what I'd do if I ran into something scary down there. Would I be brave or a chicken ****? I guess I fall somewhere in between Rocky Balboa and Richard Simmons.