Christy's 180 build

[Lance]

Let me know how the second nuking goes. I'm getting annoyed at those little bastards myself, and may give it a try. Where do you get it from?

[christyf5]

I, um, "appropriated" it from work

[Lance]

Originally Posted by christyf5

I, um, "appropriated" it from work

[christyf5]

Ok so second nuking was Monday. I hit all the majanos I could see (at the time, I see more today that I didn't hit). I think I had about a 60-75% success rate. Those majanos that are facing upwards are much easier to nail than the sideways ones. I did miss a large patch in the back forty (at least I think I did) and one rock I actually took out of the tank and nuked as almost all of the majanos on it were sticking out the side of the rock (and frankly the rock was small and easier to take out). I nuked a couple of aiptasia which I have a 100% success rate for so far. I thought I tested a mushroom but sadly I can't remember where the damned thing was, it was a single mushroom and I can't find any singles anywhere nor any leftover bits so we can maybe call that one a tentative success. I also hit a few odd shaped polyps that are like a cross between a short tentacled majano and a rust colored zoanthid. Easy peasy, they're gonzo and so is the algae they were mixed in with on one of my powerhead brackets

I'm not sure I'd be so worried about doing a water change right afterwards, although I'm sure its a good idea. I turkey basted up the precipitate after each "treatment". The waterchange (20%) did perk up the tank though, everything is looking fabulous a few days later.

I'm also happy to report that nothing croaked that wasn't supposed to during the treatment. There were a couple of close calls as you can see the sodium hydroxide in the water column sort of like you can see a hypersaline solution in regular water or lower salinity (kind of looks like a heat wave under water) and you really need to give that a quick stir so it precipitates before it hits anything. At one point I thought it landed on one of my acans but it precipitated at the last second and all was ok. Its definitely soemthing you need to be careful with or you could end up with dead spots on any corals that are underneath treatment areas.

[Lance]

Wow! Sounds like you're having fun you little "nuker". And it also looks to me like I need this stuff. Anybody know where to get sodium hydroxide?

[christyf5]

Seriously, this stuff is the shiznit, I'm also using it on the eleventy billion tiny pocillipora colonies that have popped up all over the place

[boots]

That pic of the receptical scares me. Aluminum wire that stuff is scary. FYI becarefull mixing disssimaliare metals ie. The copper and alum. There are special marets and dielectric grease to do it properly. And don't nick the aluminum wire a little nick and the curent will start to arc and the nick will get bigger and create heat. I had aluminum wire in my last house.

[christyf5]

New year, new photos!



So the sodium hydroxide does an excellent job of killing majanos and aiptasia but they're still popping up all over the place. I killed another 20 or so yesterday and still see more. Some are very tiny and easy to miss, others are in completely unaccessible areas. For some reason aiptasia seem to really like growing on my clams, which makes them fairly easy to remove.

Other than that not much new, stuff is growing. I replaced the MH bulbs the other day with Ushio 10K (same as before). Its amazing the color temperature difference. These ones are so nice and white, I didn't realize how yellowy the old ones were and they were only at 10 months.

The fish are all doing well, surprising as I've neglected the tank fairly badly and sometimes they only get fed every other day. They're all pretty fat though so its not like they can't skip a feeding but I feel guilty and my new years resolution is to not forget about them so often.

More pics

[PoonTang]

Wow what a difference a few months can make, the tank looks fabulous.

[fishoholic]

looks great