Dawn's 56 gallon natural nutrient garden

[kevinl]

Have a great time!

 

[vlangel]

Have a great time!

Thanks Kevin!

 

[vlangel]

The last tank cleaning before the trip. This is how much ulva, red titan and red grape caulerpa I removed! I am going to come home to a jungle. As long as it's a functioning jungle, I am ok with that.

 

[vlangel]

We got home from our Alaskan motorcycle trip this afternoon. It was an epic trip and we loved everything. The odometer read 7648.2 miles and we are to glad to be home.

I am writing to report that the fish tank is fine. All the fish are accounted for and everything else looks good, except about 4 heads of my trumpet that are now receded to skeleton. I will try to cut that part away since the other heads look healthy.

 

[kevinl]

GREAT!
You have some pictures to show us of your amazing adventure?

 

[vlangel]

GREAT!
You have some pictures to show us of your amazing adventure?

I do have some amazing pics! Here is one of the tank and all I did was clean the glass and prune macroalgae.
I will embed motorcycle trip pics in the next post.

 

[vlangel]

Most of the scenery is from the Canadian portion of the the Alaskan hwy. We really only saw a small portion of Alaska but we saw a lot of Canada having gone through the provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Yukon. It is impossible to capture the majesty of the mountains or the beauty of the pristine, unspoiled lakes and streams. We could ride a 100 miles and not see a single building!
PS The pic of Dave in what looks like at dusk, is actually at 4:30 ish in the afternoon but we were very heavy smoke from a wildfire. In the northern most regions, it wasn't getting dark until after 11pm and it was light again by 4am. From riding 400 miles a day we were in bed by 8:30pm so we did not get to see any midnight sun, LOL.

 

[kevinl]

Did you drive over that bridge?? Looks like a large section of it is missing!
The pic of that lake, the water is so blue, beautiful pic's.
God surly blessed you both to drive bikes 8k miles, I didn't think that could be physically done.
Kudos to you both!

 

[vlangel]

Did you drive over that bridge?? Looks like a large section of it is missing!
The pic of that lake, the water is so blue, beautiful pic's.
God surly blessed you both to drive bikes 8k miles, I didn't think that could be physically done.
Kudos to you both!

Yes we did. We don't love driving on grated bridges but there are quite a few on the Alaskan hwy. What is really scary is a wet wooden bridge and the back end of my bike went squirrelly on one of those. We also learned if a road sign said, "Extreme dust", that meant slow down drastically because it meant our paved road was about to become a gravel road.
Yes, most of the lakes in Canada are that amazing blue, and even the streams are a pretty blue. They are so crystal clear too.
God surely did bless us and we felt His care, both on our health and the bikes that ran well. We knew it was remote in places but really had no idea just how difficult it would be if one of our bikes broke down in one of those remote areas. The berm in most places is about 3 feet and usually it sloped down steeply from the berm. Not ideal for parking a broke down bike. And cell/internet service could be spotty in those areas as well. Anyway, God had mercy on us through all that.

 

[vlangel]

Did you drive over that bridge?? Looks like a large section of it is missing!
The pic of that lake, the water is so blue, beautiful pic's.
God surly blessed you both to drive bikes 8k miles, I didn't think that could be physically done.
Kudos to you both!

Oops wrong bridge, I thought I had posted the pic of the stream next to the grated bridge. But no, we definitely did not go across that railroad bridge that had a huge section missing, LOL.

 

[vlangel]

Today I tidied up my tank and did a water change. This summer has been busier than normal, (I guess Dave's retirement has something to do with that). Anyway, I am struggling to do my weekly water changes and I am doing a water change about once every 2 weeks. I try to change out a little more water to offset things.

I decided to do nitrate and phosphate tests today while I was at it. My phosphates were high as always but my nitrates were undetectable. This is a new test kit and I used it a few months ago and they were 25-30 ppm. Most of my macroalgae are growing like weeds so all I can figure is that they are sucking up the nitrates. I have a nitrate additive so I added a small amount and will see how that effects the tank, if at all. Everything looks great.

 

[vlangel]

I didn't take a pic the day I cleaned my tank but it's still pretty good so here is how the tank looks today. I need to test the nitrates regularly to determine how much nitrate is being utilized. Uhhg, that is not my strong suit, ha ha!

 

[vlangel]

I did a major pruning of the macroalgae in my display this past week. I was able to pass them on to other aquarists. The macros were beginning to smother some of my coral and inverts, so now they can breathe again. Other than that the tank is doing great and does not require much work other than water changes every other week or so, and cleaning the glass. I enjoy watching the tank grow and change. It's still a fun hobby for me.

 

[vlangel]

I removed a lot of macroalgae again today. Mostly cheato and gracilaria hayi but last week I took a large handful of ulva out. The macros are really flourishing. The caulerpa cupressoides seem to finally be getting established. They had not grown as fast as other macros and I wondered if they would ever really settle in the tank. It appears that they are doing much better. I like them because they are green and do not seem to go crazy like other caulerpa.

The coral are all doing well too, both the softies and LPS. Their colors are great and look nice with the red and green macroalgae.

As always the fish are happy. So I am happy with the tank. Here is a pic I took last week before I pruned the seaweed.

 

[vlangel]

I once again removed a large amount of macroalgae after a water change. I also started cleaning some of the areas of the tank that have a little hair algae. I bought a magnitized frag rack that looks like rock and the only thing on it was hair algae!!! It was easily cleaned. The other place hair algae is growing is on my return nozzle so I plan to remove it and clean as well.

I am guessing the reason I have some hair algae is because I am really struggling to do even bi-weekly water changes. Fortunately the tank still looks very good. Dave and I are busy together in projects, (we volunteer at a horse ranch that ministers to troubled youth) and buddying around but also part of the problem is my pump died that I pump premade saltwater into the tanks, so I am making saltwater 5 gallons at a time and pouring that into the tank. Its more labor intensive and time consuming so I really just need to buy another pump for that job but have been lazy about it. Now that I have confessed this to you'll I hope next time I post I can say I bought a pump and am back on track. Accountability can go a long way to motivate.

 

[vlangel]

Ok, I did even more clean up of my tank and it looks pretty nice. I decided that I should take a pic.

 

[kevinl]

Isn't it a great feeling to volunteer, you and Dave rock!
Tank looks great as always.

 

[vlangel]

Isn't it a great feeling to volunteer, you and Dave rock!
Tank looks great as always.

I am sorry that I am just seeing this now but yes it does feel great Kevin. This particular youth ranch is amazing in so many ways! What they want to instill in the kids who come is such a worthy goal and then the care they take of their horses. Some of the horses are rescues that no one wanted and this ranch is willing to take the time to rehabilitate them and lovingly give them the best care possible to bring them back to good health. The Lord has blessed the ranch with great people to help run it and a good group of volunteers. Its definitely something Dave and I are excited to be a part of. It helps that we both use to work on a farm, (thats where we met) and I had horses growing up. We like that kind of work and for me its great to be around horses again. Right now we are only doing barn chores and horse care but we may eventually move into mentoring children as they work with the horses. The ranch is RYYR, (Ready Yourselves Youth Ranch) if you want to just check it out online. There are great pics of the ranch and the horses.

Thanks for the kind words about the tank. It is doing really well even with me giving it less attention.

 

[vlangel]

I took a few pics so figured that I would post them. First pic is my white flame scallop. The 2nd pic is purple sponge. The 3rd pic is corky finger gorgonian. The 4th pic is palys grandis. Then is the sinularia that has grown recently and finally the pillar of bubble tip rainbow nems.

 

[kevinl]

I took a few pics so figured that I would post them. First pic is my white flame scallop. The 2nd pic is purple sponge. The 3rd pic is corky finger gorgonian. The 4th pic is palys grandis. Then is the sinularia that has grown recently and finally the pillar of bubble tip rainbow nems.

Beautiful Dawn!
Great camera skills too.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.