03-23-2007
Okay, the new bracket arrived today for the WavySea.
The black one is the standard bracket that comes with the WavySea. The clear acrylic one is the 1.25 inch large bracket.
The standard bracket wouldnt fit over the lip of the tank, so it had to be mounted on the center brace....which put the WavySea lower in the water.
The WavySea attaches to the bracket by a mounting plate...sorry no pics at the moment.
Its tough to see in the pic above, but the large bracket actually has two sets of mounting plate holes, where as the standard bracket only has one set of holes. The large bracket allows you to raise or lower the mounting plate about half an inch. I chose the higher set of mounting plate holes to raise the WavySea as high as possible. In addition, mounting the WavySea to the back of the tank as opposed to the centerbrace raised the WavySea higher also.
I also modified the output of the WavySea by glueing a 3/4 inch Loc-line Y to the end of it.
I didnt want to do this, but trying to use the PVC female adapter I mentioned earlier didnt work out so well. I used PVC glue to attach the Loc-line to the output. Its not the strongest bond in the world, but it will hold as long as I dont really torque on it...
The difference in the flow is amazing. Instead of a jetstream of 750 gph I now have two fans blowing about 375 gph each which disturbs the sand very little. After all was said and done, I went ahead and turned off the return pump to see how much water now backsiphoned into the sump. It wound up siphoning alot less water than before, I can now add 3 more inches of water to my sump and still have 1.5 inches from the top of the sump. So that worked out well.
I moved the sand back to some semblance of normal, (covered up the huge empty open areas of cutting board) and will leave it like that over night to see
how much moves now.
I was also worried about the jet of water coming from the stock output as I will be moving my H.magnifica anemone to this tank. These anemone's really like high flow, but this was a bit much IMO...
While I'm on the subject of the H.magnifica, I want to pass something on to anyone reading this thread...
Sounds stupid, (as in DUH!) but anemone's can pass bacterial infections to each other.
I've had the H.magnifica for a year as of 03-10-07. Late last year, I bought another H.mag from an online vendor and it came in looking like crap. These anemone's ship worse than most other anemones, (which already ship poorly to begin with). I was concerned about it so I hurried up and placed it in the tank, where it started looking better. However, it never really recovered from shipping stress and died. And, as a parting gift, it also infected my healthy H.mag with whatever it had.
I didnt think the sick anemone could infect my healthy anemone in a healthy system...WRONG.
I waited and hoped for a long while, but the H.mag wasnt getting better at all...finally, at the advice of a LFS that dips all its incoming anemones in doxycycline for 8-12 hours before introducing them to the display tanks, I tried a dip. I used 1 pill (100mgs) in a large specimen container, (anemone is smaller), placed that in my main tank for temp control, and added an airstone. (LFS guy uses 1 pill ,100 mgs, in a 5 gallon bucket with a Maxi jet mini behind egg crate to protect the anemones from wandering...)
The anemone slimed pretty badly at first, the airstone turned the slime into a skimmer. After 6 hours, I did a 100% water change in the container, added a new 100mg pill of dox, and let it sit for another 15 hours in the container.
That was almost two weeks ago. The anemone looks better than it has in the last two months, (still not great and still back where it should be), but I have seen it eat a little, its mouth is tightening up, and its tentacles are more inflated and coloring up again.
I debated long and hard before dipping, but looked at it this way...it was definately going to die if I didnt do something, so I really had nothing to lose.
After two weeks, the anemone now looks like it will survive, but its still not back to where it was previously.
I read about using the Doxycycline on RC. On a thread there, Joe Yaiullo posted this:
Used to have bad luck with them and other anemones till we quaranteened them which consisted of the following procedure. Without it, we were 0/8 on new Heteractis magnifica (now the accepted name, until they decide to change it again)
Upon arrival, all bag water is removed so you're left with a bag full of almost only anemone. The anemone is then added directly to a bucket of good quality tank water and aerated. If the water fouls or gets too much mucus, then discard that water. The anemone is then added to a 5 gallon bucket of good quality tank water which has been previously mixed with 10mg/gal of doxycycline. Most capsules available are 50mg, so a 5gal bucket works nicely. Water is gently aerated for 24 hrs mindful of keeping temp acceptable, which is done by floating the bucket in a sump or larger container of heated water, you don't want the heater in with the anemone. After 24 hrs, remove most of the water and refill with another 5 gal of good quality tank water with 10mg/gal of doxycycline. Leave for another 24hr then remove the anemone to a tank that is large enough to keep them for what could be a long time.
With this procedure, we were 6/8 and that was over 2 years ago and they're still here, with the largest now almost 30" in diameter.
As with any medication, especially anti biotics care must be taken not to overuse.
Joe
Hobby Experience: 30 years, Reefs since 1987
Current Tanks: 20,000 gallon 30' x 14' x 6.5' deep
Joe runs the
Atlantis Marine World Reef Aquarium. He has also set up an anemone specific reeftank for Atlantis Marine World...so he's got some experiance with reeftanks and anemones.
After my experiance with the sick H.mag infecting my healthy H.mag...no anemone's will go into my display tank without being dipped in Doxycycline.
Nick
