hello from Florida

[Aquaman]

Hello, Thought I would finally introduce myself, I've lurked on this board since it started. Here is a picture of my GreenWing, Bling Bling his almost 5 years old now and I've had him since he was 1 1/2 years old. Bling is very lovable and enjoys taking naps with me. When he's out he likes to tease my 3 persian cats with his tail feathers.
http://www.outer-reef.com/images/bling-bling.jpg

[vmtwriter]

Welcome to the bird forum, Aquaman. Glad you came out of lurkdom and said hello. Love the picture of Bling Bling. He's gorgeous. Hope you continue to be active.

[Shirley]

http://shirleymorgan.com/misc/BF/em/4aniwelcome1a.gif

So glad you joined up!

Does your username indicate reeftanks? or something else..?

Bling Bling is GORGEOUS! And, as you know, we have another beautiful Greenwing in the flock here!

:dance: :dance:

[Jean]

Hi Aquaman and Bling Bling!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v387/jeanaskins/welcome%20-%20friendship/welcome-to-the-group.gif

It's great to meet you and Bling Bling. He is Gorgeous! :heart: I look forward to getting to know you and your beautiful Bling Bling. :emot-danc :)

[Flock Mom]

Welcome to BoF :)
Lots of good people and info here...glad ya decided to join in :D

[parrotgirl]

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/parrotgirl/parrotgirlgifs/macawwelcome1.gif

Glad you came out of lurking and joined us. Bling Bling is beautiful. Can't wait to hear all about you and Bling Bling. He is beautiful.

[Sue]

Hi and WELCOME:wavey:


Glad you decided to join in:agree:

Bling Bling is gorgeous:wub:

[jimleasure]

as with the rest i welcome you to the forum.:wavey: nice green wing, hope to see more pictures and learn more about you.

[Aquaman]

Shirly, Yes the nickname indicates I have another addiction, err Hobby. I am a member of TBF's sister board although I don't post much there. I've got about 9 years of saltwater aquarium experience and started a reef club here in Orlando almost 8 years ago.

I've been considering another Macaw to keep Blingers company. I recently moved and I'm now 40 miles from work which equates to 1 1/4 hour travel time. Blingers is a great bird and has no bad habits, but I feel real bad that he's alone for so long during the day. When I get home each day he comes out of the cage and hangs out with me while I fix dinner or watch TV. He will nap with me on the bed when I am lazy on a weekend. I've been thinking about a small Hans macaw since I don't have alot of space for another big cage. I've also been thinking about replacing Blingers current cage with something a little bigger. Not that his current cage is small it's a large macaw cage but since he's in the cage more I want more room for him.

I was at a bird show this past weekend and there is a very nice monster sized cage for macaws http://www.qualitydiscountcages.com/proddetail.asp?prod=lc-18040&cat=20 (http://http://www.qualitydiscountcages.com/proddetail.asp?prod=lc-18040&cat=20)


John

[Shirley]

Hi John!
I'm so glad to meet you... you know Danielle is in Orlando now -- aka Mrs. Smith from TRT...
Well, I recently got Sammy as you probably know, and Holly has really become more playful, active, you name it with Sammy around! It's turned out to be an awesome thing for Holly as well as for me. (CAG's)

I gotta ask you a question... do you run a DI along with your RO unit? Do you recommend I add that now that I have three little maxima clams and a couple lps/sps corals? I'm getting conflicting feedback -- the tank is BB w/starboard.
:thanx:

Oh, and your link doesn't go to cages... :confused:

Have a great day! :D

[Aquaman]

Danielle? Mrs Smith?? is she a Dr? Did she move from out Tenn? somewhere? If so I believe I sold her a 125 gallon tank last year when she moved to town, heh I helped her unload her truck. I didn't know she had birds though.

I use 2 Prefilters, 2 carbons, and 2 DI's in my RO/DI system. The water here in florida is crappy so I take no chances. Without a DI in your system you are only removing 90% of the impurieties in the water, the DI removes the last 9.9% RO water is great as water for drinking but don't drink it after its been pushed through a DI filter. At that point the water is so pure it will actively remove minerals from your body.

I've had a 125 gallon reef crash and die from stuff getting through the filters.
You need to tell me your whole tank setup before I could recommend your next coral/fish.

Not sure why the link broke but its the "Goliath" cage on the front page of the site.
http://www.qualitydiscountcages.com/


Noblesville huh! The company I work for owns a manufacturing plant in Robinson Ill, so I fly into Indy now and then, You have a nice selection of fish stores around you. I stop at Inland Aquatics every time I'm up that way.

[Shirley]

Yes! Dr. Danielle Christiano-Smith - she's an ER doc in Orlando. She stayed with us for a month while working ER at Methodist hospital before she graduated, and she's from the Kansas City area. No, she doesn't have birds. I know her b/c of reefing... met her in person the day she showed up to stay for a month, and it was like we'd always known each other (well, we had on TRT for a few years!) She's an awesome cook, btw!!

Well, I learned this about my salt and high alk - posted this over on the gen discussion forum at TRT:

I think I might have fround out what's going on. Went to PA today to get new filters/membrane/DI etc. My membrane was old -- well over 2 yrs old.

they checked my water - got the same readings I did.

They suspected the last load of salt I bought... IO 50lbs from them. Just started using it with this tank change-over -

They said check the RO alk and see what it reads... if it's way low then the salt is the culprit.

It starts to read right away... REALLY low.

The water from the tank is 14.7 dKH and is part old water from previous salt and probably over 1/2 new water (2 wks ago) from the new salt. (120gal sg1.024)

So... I checked the alk on sg 1.024 made up yesterday in a sep container with powerhead running... it's off the charts high and was for PA as well. Thus they suspect the salt.

Just for the heck of it, I checked the new water w/new salt again... to see when I'd get a reading. All of the 1mil plus .5 more and it finally started to turn pale pink...

How can bad salt do that?

So do I make up water w/what I have and add turbo calc (calcium chloride) to bring the alk down, watching the ca readings? or do I just wait til I get can get the salt replaced (tomorrow or Thurs) and then another day or two before I can do the water change?

In other words, is this salt useless?
Here's the link if you want to see pics and the entire thread...
HERE (http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80713)

I was told since I have no algae problems what so ever, that I didn't need a DI unit...

Anyhow... I switched from aragonite/plenum to bb w/starboard about two weeks ago... love the barebottom so far!

Tank is 120 w/20gal sump, overflow on both ends, and there's pics of it in the barebottom forum as well as the gen discussion forum...
Also two videos of it...

Next time you fly into Indy... call us up! We're 40 min from the airport on a good day, and would love to have you up... maybe you could take a leather frag home with you :)
My phone number is on my website listed below.

email: halstatt@gmail.com

Glad you finally spoke up on the forum! :wavey:
Show us pics of your tank over in the All Creatures forum... :dance:

[Aquaman]

Bad salt does happen now and then. I've seen it happen before where the process used to clean the salts were not done to spec or the grade of minerals added in the salt were not the greatest. I've only seen this happen with IO salt though, I switched from IO to Tropic Marin long ago after fighting with low calc and alk in fresh made saltwater.

If your freshly made saltwater is turning color then I would not use it in the tank. I'd wait and get new salt.

I've had BB and DSB's and actually prefer a DSB. I just don't like the look of glass and would rather have some sand incase a fish decides to re-decorate my aquascape. not sure what starboard is though. I kinda became a hermit from the online reefing world for the past couple years. One divorce, Two moves, 3 Tank disasters and a few other reef related issue in the last 3 years wears you out.

As far as not needing a DI unit, that really suprises me you must have some really clean city water and Yes 2 years for a TDS is very old. Since your not using a DI the TDS membrane is the last step in your RO system. But as the old saying goes, If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Sorry I don't have any current pictures of my tanks. My 120gallon starphire crashed after my move in March, I lost everything and for now it sits with the water and rock in it with no lights. I'll be tearing it down and rebuilding it sometime this fall. I have some older pictures which if I find I'll toss up for people to see.

I do have a 37 gallon with a pair of breeding clarke clowns, 5 rose anemone's and what coral I saved from the other tank but lost a prize 2' female toadstool and green scarophyten(sp) finger leather

[Shirley]

The water isn't turning color at all... it's just too high in alkalinity.

Starboard is a white cutting board material, marine quality, cut to fit the entire bottom of the tank... it looks like white beach sand from a distance. It protects the glass bottom from heavy rocks hitting it, and looks better imo than plain glass.

[gary&chloe]

We are over in Palm Bay, so we aren't far from you. Your bird is beautiful.

I had salt water tanks since back in 1968, but when Francis blew through and we had no power for two weeks, I decided to go to a planted, fresh water. I love it.

Glad to have you on board.

[Shirley]

Gary! Post an updated photo of your beautiful aquarium! I haven't seen it since you first set it up... :dance:

[gary&chloe]

It isn't so pretty anymore. I haven't changed the light bulbs since I set it up. SLACKER !!!

At lunch today, I got my new bulbs and a new substrate that I saw in a magazine that I want to try, sooooo... In a couple of weeks.

The fish are great. The plants ....???? They are still there but just not as pretty. And I found out that Rosy and Cherry Barbs will graze on plants.

[gary&chloe]

PLUS.... If I knew how to post pictures....

[Shirley]

Send me your pics, Gary!!!! :cool:

[Islandzoo]

Hi and welcome to BoF Bling Bling is very beautiful indeed!