This page
is for anything and everything.
I'll post here anything that cannot be classified in the existing
sections, anything that I want to post fast, and all the rest...
Here we go !
March 2nd, 2000
 |
I
finally have a decent picture of that @#%*~ crab! This
hideous beast is responsible for so many deaths that I
stopped counting... Last victims: my 2 very cute baby Anthias sp. I'm usually against cruelty, but if I ever catch it, it won't know a quiet retirement in the sump... It will have the most painfuly slow death I can imagine, that is a sure thing. In two years, I tried so many methods to remove it: I tried to net it, to stab it with a knife, to trap it, to stab it with a seringe full of kalk paste, to wall him in his hole, I filled his hole full of kalk... This 2+" crab is the marine version of TERMINATOR!!!!!! |
February 26th, 2000
The cuke is back! At last, I found a Sea Cucomber, big, black and ugly! And most efficient at cleaning sand.
  That beast is long and fat! After 24 hours, it had already cleaned 15% of my sand area, justifying his cost |
|
February 1st, 2000
  Metal Halides - Actinic The brain coral, that nearly died during the "dark ages", is getting way better and is growing; it's creating new polyps. It now reacts very well to food, a real hunter |
  Two examples of macro-algae growing on the rocks. The amazing thing is that I never saw anything looking like those, enven though the rocks are now more than 2-years old! I'm not removing the last patches of hair very thoroughly here, I don't want to hurt anything by mistake... By the way, If you can put a name on those... |
 Caulastrea furcata under the actinic lights |
 One of my green Turbinaria peltata under actinic lights |
 One of my locally collected Stylophora sp. I will try to make shots at regular intervals to show how it's growing |
| This
picture shouldn't be considered as a very good one. But I love it! The coral should be a pink Goniopora sp., because of the 24 tentacles |
 |
January 28th, 2000
 Left side view |
 Center view |
 Right Side View |
Movie (473 KB)
 Caulastrea furcata |
 Escenius bicolor |
January 27th, 2000
I have a new job! The cool thing is that I won't be travelling that much anymore: I spent about 6 months out of my place in 1999, that's not good at all if you own a reef...
Now I have time to spent on my aquarium, and it shows! It doesn't look like a giant green hair-ball anymore, with all kind of algae (hair, cyano, dino, etc...). It's not perfect yet, but the trend is reversed.
 Left side view |
 Center view |
 Right Side View |
What did I do?
The results? Quick disparition of the algae, rapid groth of the coraline and corals.
Why use a vacuum cleaner? It has risks, like removing all the rock criters, and it's not as good as doing a water change for the water quality. I could have also created a huge blast with a power head and use quick-filters.
The key words in the answer is: "No maintenance for more than a year". Wow... This implies that the amount of sediments, dirt, and an amazing amount of crazy stuff was quite huge.
Even with 2 huge Tunze filter bells and fixed to 4000L/H / 1000G/H pumps and 2 Hagen quickfilters on 802 power heads, there is no way to get it all. Moreover, a powerhead will never get all the dirt out of the small cracks in the rocks. Finally, all the dirt put in suspension and not cought by the filters will sediment back on the rocks.
If most of the dirt is still on/in the rocks, food is still here, algae grows back, trapping more dirt. A vicious cycle.
At least the vacuum cleaner is able to get dirt deeply in the rocks and the tooth brush finishes the job. All that without bringing the sediments in suspention in the water column. That way the nutriments source is gone and coraline can grow back before the hair has any chance. I'm doing 1/3 of the rocks per week-end, as I don't want to remove too many criters in one go. It seems to work as I'm seeing an amazing amount of live crowling everywhere.
 |
The Vacuum'O'Reef(R) is in fact an
old canister filter that was a bit modified... The media
holders are gone, I plugged a hose that I drilled and
fitted with perlon in the output hole. The whole system
is boosted by an external Eheim 1250 pump. It is quite efficient! |
I'm amazed by the amount of stuff that is growing back from the rocks, even after more than 2 years after they were imported. I must have like 5 types of superior algae and the same number of differently colored coraline. Add to that a few unknown softies and hydroids...
| An example of the different coraline algae growing so fast on my rocks |
 |
I even started to add fish! A watchman gobie and 2 anthias. Those last are not the best idea, but I couldn't resist, especially since you normally never find any in shops in Dubai. I hope they get more, 2 is not sufficient. I'm feeding them twice a day, in a very careful manner, as I don't want to polute water too much yet. Target-feeding Anthias is not easy!
 An unidentified Anthias sp. |
 The Escenius bicolor in its favourite watch-tower |
Now what?
What else ?
May 20th, 1999
I took a few pictures of my passport. Plenty of exotic stamps and visas !
 |
 Oman, U.A.E |
 Bangladesh, Qatar |
 Saudi Arabia |
 U.A.E visa |
 Pakistan visa |
 Bahrain |
 Egypt |
Soon to come : Syria and Kuwait
May 3rd, 1999
I finally moved the skimmer project in its own section. I also moved the animal pics in the animals section.
Finally, I used thumbnails in all new or modified sections.
That's what you get when you brush your arm against big (>5-cm)
Aiptasias that you let grow in your sump. It burns a lot and last
at least 3 days !
A view inside the tank's stand
April 30th, 1999
I'm stuck with my skimmer by lack of correctly sized PVC. I'm going to get it from France.
In the meanwhile, I made a comb for my overflow. I got tired of having to get everything out of my sump because fish fell over. Last to visit the sump : a lawnmower goby (banded goby Salarias fasciatus).
April 23rd, 1999
Web construction machine...
April 11th, 1999
Water change time... I take the opportunity to get rid of
sediments.
Picture by Gaelle
Local "wild" camel and the Dubai World trade Center. If
you look at the 16th floor, you may see me waving.
This hotel is HUGE. It's luxury will be impressive. Its aquariums
will be huge, the same for the equipment to run them. Watch-out
for the future article I'm preparing on this...
Anti-sediments war in progress... Wear a hard hat !
Last modification: March 2, 2000
