Timing is Everything

4/18/04
This week I didn’t buy any fish, but I did get some more invertebrates and had some more misadventures. Talked to the dealer about my worries that the current is too strong, or too weak, or just not right. She made some suggestions for how to aim the powerheads (that's the device on the upper-right side of the tank in the picture, with some still-attached mushrooms below), and then we talked about the mushroom that you may recall fell off its rock and got buried by the pearly jawfish last weekend. It’s been lying on the sand ever since, seemingly happy, but not very pretty looking in among the algae. I wanted to get it reattached to rock. So the dealer went over the steps for doing this with superglue, and I came home fired up to try it. I placed my new invertebrates ( a green striped zooanthid and a new feather duster), then puttered around with the current until I had an arrangement that seemed to not blast the worm tendrils.

Then I moved on to my next mission, reattaching the mushroom.....except, where’d he go?? Ah, timing is everything. If you’re going to play around with blasts of current, best to nail down moveable objects FIRST. I hunted all over for that thing, even got out the ladder so I could feel around behind the rocks. No luck. That night, I had the idea to use the flashlight, and with that method, finally found the thing inside one of the rock caves. Today I dug it out and successfully glued it to rock! Six hrs later, it is still attached.

Came in from gardening today to find the entire tank powerless--no lights, pumps, heat, nothing. A little airline filter that we had jerry-rigged had come undone, spitting water down the power line, shorting out, and the ground fault protector once again kicked in and saved the day. Not more than a few drops on the floor this time (but another reminder that we really should move those books out of the basement). Anyway, we got it all working again (first rule of marine fishkeeping is have a husband who understands equipment) except for the heater, which would turn on but gave wild temperature readings. We tried drying it with the hairdryer, to no avail. But after dinner, he took it apart and restored it to working order. You are supposed to have a “drip loop” in all equipment so that the water, if it flows down the cord, won’t get to the electrical end. But you should try doing this with 15 cords plugged into two power strips!