Photographs


The top of our hotel - Om Tower - was a revolving restaurant. I don't think I had ever been in one. It offered good Indian food and a nice view of the whole area as we ate.

The top of our hotel - Om Tower - was a revolving restaurant....

ntableman's photo

ntableman's photo

Josh likes to take silly photos and this one was staged by him to show off the hotel room in Jaipur. I think he was amused by the mural on the wall, which actually was quite nice and well do ...

Josh likes to take silly photos and this one was staged by him...

This is the front view of the Palace of Winds or Hawa Mahal - the more traditional and recognized view.

This is the front view of the Palace of Winds or Hawa Mahal...

ntableman's photo

ntableman's photo

ntableman's photo

ntableman's photo

The Chaos That Is Rail Travel.jpg

The Chaos That Is Rail Travel.jpg

Mom and Katie at Castello Di Amorosa

Mom and Katie at Castello Di Amorosa

Maintenance

My normal maintenance activities:

  • Water Change & Filter Cleaning
    1. Open two boxes of
    2. Using a funnel in the opening, top off these two boxes with pure freshwater
    3. Dissolve a teaspoon of kalk into 500 ml of pure freshwater in a glass beaker
    4. Pour half of this kalk mixture into each of the 2 saltwater boxes
    5. Put the cap on and shake the boxes to mix up the kalk
    6. Add a squirt or two of Mg into the two saltwater boxes
    7. Turn off the auto-top-off system
    8. Turn down the eco-techs a little
    9. Syphon off 10 gallons of tank water into the sink
    10. When the sump is low, turn off the pump
    11. Move the lighting fixture back
    12. Put towels in place
    13. Punch a hole in the top of the saltwater boxes
    14. Pour saltwater into tank
    15. Turn up the eco-techs
    16. Turn back on top off and pump
    17. Flush uv and chiller loop
    18. Top off freshwater refill with pure fresh water
    19. Sprinkle a just a dash of alkalinity buffer into the top off water
    20. Change filter materials
    21. Clear skimmer system
    22. Empty skimmer overflow
    23. Top off dosing reseviours
    24. Clean up mess!
  • Filters – Every water change, I replace or wash the various filters to keep the sump flowing properly and remove waste products.
  • pH/Alk/Calc – I test every week for Mg, Ca, Alkalinity, and pH
  • Light Bulb Changes
    1. T5′s are replaced every 10 months or so
    2. ’s are replaced every year or so
    3. Moon lamps have only blown a couple times, but are LED and should last a really long time
  • UV
    1. Flush the system once a week by flowing high pressure water through it.
    2. Take the unit apart and clean off residue on the quartz every 3 months
    3. Replace the bulb once a year
  • Vacuum Sump – I rarely do this because all kinds of fun stuff lives down there! I do sometimes suck it out with a wet/dry vac on a rear occasion if it gets full of junk.
  • Below is a lifted table of the ideal water parameters

Parameter Suggested Level: Reef Suggested Level: FOWLR Aquarium Average Level: Coral Reefs
Specific Gravity 1.023 – 1.025 1.020 – 1.025 1.025
Temperature 72 – 78°F 72 – 78°F 82°F
pH 8.1 – 8.4 8.1 – 8.4 8.0 – 8.5
Alkalinity 8 – 12 dKH 8 – 12 dKH 6 – 8 dKH
Ammonia (NH3) Undetectable Undetectable Near Zero
Nitrite (NO2) Undetectable Undetectable Near Zero
Nitrate – Nitrogen (NO3) < 1.0 ppm < 30 ppm 0.25 ppm
Phosphate (PO4) < 0.2 ppm < 1.0 ppm 0.13 ppm
Calcium 350 – 450 ppm 350 – 450 ppm 380 – 420 ppm
Magnesium 1250 – 1350 ppm 1150 – 1350 ppm 1300 ppm
Iodine 0.06 – 0.10 ppm 0.04 – 0.10 ppm 0.06 ppm
Strontium 8 – 14 ppm 4 – 10 ppm 8 – 10 ppm

Leave a Reply

  

  

  

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>