Randy's Redsea Reefer 250 and the rest of the Coral Farm

[RandyC]

A break from all the acro posts. Some torch flow for you all from the Frag Tank.

Watch in HD (1080p)! First is a Dragon Soul torch, second is an Aussie Gold torch, and lastly an Indo gold torch.

 

[RandyC]

Ran into a small snag a couple of weeks ago. I fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 1:30am to find a bunch of alerts on my phone from Apex. Normally, i just chalk them up to false positives, but this time the leak detector was very real. Sump in the Frag/Growout tank was surrounded by a small puddle of water which made it look like a slow leak in my mind. Plus salinity wasn't off by much.

I am a self-professed aficionado of rat's nest style of wiring (which obviously I need to correct), so I spent the next hour and a half cleaning up wires and pulling electronics off the shelf where the was potential for water damage existed. Then I went to sleep. Yes, with a leak, a small, small leak from what I could tell.

Next morning, drop the kids off at school, buy a new 40 breeder to replace what I thought was a leaking silicon seal or cracked sump. And then I had to go to a dentist appointment....talk about the worst day for a dentist appointment. Got home and then I shut everything down. The sump area is very tight because of low clearance from the top of the shelf to the sump, so it was painful. I had to drain the sump, undo all the unions for plumbing, take out the equipment and then slide the sump out.

And then I saw the problem. Two leaky bulkheads that are hard to see with the sump in place. Crisis sort of averted with minimal to no damage. At least no cracked sump or a sump with leaky seals. When I put the tank together, I knew the stand sucked from a sump-area maintenance perspective and that the bulkhead could be a potential problem because they're in an awkward spot with tight access making it very hard to tighten. So I must have bumped them from the top side or algae or vermatids grew and made the seal leak. Suffice to say, I tighten the bulkheads really, really tight this time (I hope). In hindsight, what I should have done is put the bulkheads in "backwards" so that I could tighten them from the top. Too late now though since they're stuck where they are because there are unions and elbows cemented in already.

Well......at least the sump and all equipment got a nice citric acid bath and cleaning.

And of course some pics for you!


BC Aquaticman Table (Sept 1, 2019)

BC Aquaticman Table (Sept 23, 2019 - 22 days later)

BC Cricket Spine (Sept 1, 2019)

BC Cricket Spine (Sept 23, 2019 - 22 days later)

RRC Jawdropper (Sept 1, 2019)

RRC Jawdropper (Sept 23, 2019 - 22 days later)

JF Jolt (Aug 13, 2019)

JF Jolt (Sept 23, 2019 - 41 days later)

WWC Hippie Juice (Aug 13, 2019)

WWC Hippie Juice (Sept 23, 2019 - 41 days later)

RR Pretty in Pink (Aug 13, 2019)

RR Pretty in Pink (Sept 23, 2019 - 41 days)

 

[RandyC]

Here are some new pieces that are cooking.

CB Golden Jaw Dropper

RRC Angry Bird

RRC Rainbow Splice

BC Wet Thumbs Mother of Pearl

 

[Wrangy]

Gorgeous mate!!

 

[Tanggy]

tagging along. Such an awesome tank...

 

[RandyC]

Not everyone loves acros, right? How about a little anemone action?

Some of my CC Supernovas

 

[Wrangy]

Oh dang!!

 

[RandyC]

Here's another one that I hadn't noticed had grown as much as it actually did.

ARC Fireworks (July 4, 2019)

ARC Fireworks (Sep 25, 2019 - 84 days)

 

[Wrangy]

Soooo nice mate

 

[newjack]

awesome tank shots.

 

[RandyC]

Decided to add a couple more Radion XR15w G4 Pros to even out the spread throughout the tank. Felt like the right side of the tank was getting less even spread than the left. Most likely, it was all in my head, but at least I found a decent deal on a couple used ones. Up to eight XR15w now.

And with no flow on so you can actually see what's inside.

 

[rodney]

Nice setup!

 

[RandyC]

Nice setup!

Thanks @rodney!

 

[RandyC]

So I wanted to see for myself how much faster "micro-fragging" helps the growth rate of a new piece grow into a mini-colony. So I chopped up a frag I recently got.

I picked up this RR Ultimate Orange Passion on Sept 14 (pic under blues from a day later 9/15).

I let the original piece encrust a little before I chopped it into 3 pieces on Sept 30. Here's a picture of it from today (Oct 4). I'll update where it's at in a few weeks.

 

[Wrangy]

So I wanted to see for myself how much faster "micro-fragging" helps the growth rate of a new piece grow into a mini-colony. So I chopped up a frag I recently got.

I picked up this RR Ultimate Orange Passion on Sept 14 (pic under blues from a day later 9/15).

I let the original piece encrust a little before I chopped it into 3 pieces on Sept 30. Here's a picture of it from today (Oct 4). I'll update where it's at in a few weeks.

Definitely interested to hear how this turns out!! I've heard good things about micro fragging

 

[RandyC]

So.....California Power woes. Not sure how much of the rest of the country is aware of our PG&E problems, but suffice to say, up to 800,000 people in Northern and Central California will be without power today with it expected to start coming back online tomorrow with some users having to wait 5-7 days.

Utility Giant PG&E Voluntarily Shuts Off Power, Could Impact 800,000 Californians

So me being dumb, I've been mulling over which power generator I should get for a few weeks now and I almost placed the order on Sunday (which I didn't). Ended up getting the email notification from PG&E on Monday and placed an order for one Monday morning. I'm keeping my finger crossed that the Amazon tracking updates are correct and my generator really is 8 stops away. Thank gawd for Amazon Prime!

This is the one I purchased:

Champion 3400-Watt Dual Fuel RV Ready Portable Inverter Generator with Electric Start

I'm also fortunate to have a solar panel system that has a inverter that provides an optional module that allows a 1500W dedicated outlet to be installed. So in the event the inverter gets disconnected from the grid, I can flip a switch and it can provide up to 1500W of power (provided I have enough sun).

Outside of that, I have a couple of Cyberpower UPC batteries that can keep some power heads going (not all of them), but I also have around 9 Cobalt Aquatics USB air pumps and Penn Plax Battery air pumps.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this is a short lived planned outage and that every stays safe. Don't drive CRAZY out there Cali folks - alot of street lights will be out.

And of course, some pictures for you.

RRC Jawdropper (September 23, 2019)

RRC Jawdropper (Oct 9, 2019 - 17 days later) - encrusting a little more on the side, but really starting to go vertical

BC Cricket Spine (Sept 23, 2019)

BC Cricket Spine (Oct 9, 2019 - 17 days later) - still in encrusting mode

BC Bohemian Table (Sept 1, 2019)

BC Boehmian Table (Oct 9, 2019 - 39 days later) - looks a little bleached out

TSA Optimus Prime (Sept 1, 2019)

TSA Optimus Prime (Oct 9, 2019 - 39 days later)

ASD Freak Machine (Aug 7, 2019)

ASD Freak Machine (Oct 9, 2019 - 67 days later)

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Gorgeous grow !!!

 

[Flameback Pair]

@RandyC let us know how everything comes through with the power outage.

 

[RandyC]

@RandyC let us know how everything comes through with the power outage.

I still have power!

Amazon Prime did deliver the goods FTW. A generator I ordered on Monday morning showed up today around noon. Delivery people that delivered mine said they delivered 8 generators today. Fired it up and got it running on propane. Little louder than I expected, but this is my first generator, so my expectations may not have been aligned to reality.

Also, the wind that PG&E was so scared of hasn’t materialized so far, so my 12 o’clock shutdown time was pushed back to 8pm, to who knows when or if power will go out. For the record, I’m not complaining!

 

[Flameback Pair]

@RandyC wow that's great to know you're holding up the fort!! I've thought about the little Honda 1000i generator. It's tiny, quiet, extra lightweight and it backed up by great customer service and a warranty you can't beat. But for such a low-powered generator it comes with a price tag of around $700. Keep us posted about your valiant effort to endure this hardship.