afboundguy's 35 cube/display fuge/mangrove build thread!!!

[afboundguy]

Was planning on possibly going to one of our sponsors tomorrow to grab some things but they're not free so I think I might try and plumb in a 10 gallon rimless tank into my setup and make it a mangrove only tank as the two in the remote refugium I got at last year's Fragsgiving have started to take off and are growing too high!

The ones I bought that have been in a freshwater bucket with some freshwater plant substrate have been growing even faster and think it'll be time for them to get under a real light! I just need to find the spare overflow I have kicking around and drill the holes...

 

[afboundguy]

Oh boy!!!

 

[afboundguy]

Plumbing was a disaster as I stupidly made the mistake of plumbing the emergency overflow into the gate valve main line of the display fuge thinking it was easier. Issue was it was loud as all hell and was so low I had to come up to get it to drain into what will now be a mangrove only tank with threadfin cardinals.

This caused lots of bubbles and noise at first...

 

[afboundguy]

I re-plumbed everything yesterday correctly and ended up T'ing the two emergency overflow lines to save space. But it's nice and quiet now and bubble free!

 

[afboundguy]

This morning I transplanted the two mangroves that were in the display fuge into the Mangrove tank and suspended them. I also caught the lone threadfin cardinal that was getting picked on in the main tank into the Mangrove tank and added a few temporary pieces of rock into the tank until I can add a lot more mangroves that I am currently acclimating to full strength 1.025 that I started growing in freshwater to get them to grow faster.

 

[afboundguy]

Finally got around to adding the mangroves I was growing out in FW and slowly acclimated to SW. I used egg crate zip tied to clear acrylic rods to let the roots grow out!

Still need to tidy up the desk area though!

 

[afboundguy]

I also started back up with copepods and besides Tisbe, Apo and "tigger" pods I started Parvo, acartia and Tigriopus Sirindhornae (warm water "tigger" pods.

The Acartia pods never took off so I made it into a second Parvo culture. Plan to create a few shelves to tidy it up!

 

[afboundguy]

Added a second shelf under the phyto shelf to do some 1 gallon food grade jugs with a nozzle. Think it'll look pretty good once I finish it up.

 

[afboundguy]

Also snapped a few more pictures of the mangrove tank with the threadfin cardinal fish schooling a little bit...

 

[BoaConservationist]

nice mangrove tank and those "dosing jugs" are probably a lifesaver, im in the process of organizing as well and have found various containers at thrift stores , some of them good, some unusable etc, I do like your "sweet tea dispenser" style here , props for drilling your own glass that pickup is classy

 

[afboundguy]

nice mangrove tank and those "dosing jugs" are probably a lifesaver, im in the process of organizing as well and have found various containers at thrift stores , some of them good, some unusable etc, I do like your "sweet tea dispenser" style here , props for drilling your own glass that pickup is classy

Thanks! I've drilled three tanks and first one didn't make it (think it was tempered glass) but I'm 2 for 2 since!

I am hoping the beverage dispensers will work well and I ordered some more 2020 extrusion and corner brackets and might add another small shelf below for the rest of the 1 gallon glass jar cultures just to tidy it up. I was thinking of doing pegboard but on the fence about that and thinking the next shelf won't leave much for pegboard.

 

[afboundguy]

Doubled up my copepod cultures (tripled up on the Parvo cultures) using the one gallon plastic beverage jugs. I ended up putting two airlines in since they were longer than high.

Should make it super easy to harvest by simply opening the valve to pour out! If it works well I will probably replace all the glass jars with them and add another shelf!

 

[afboundguy]

Stopped by one of my local club's sponsor today as wife got several Starbucks gift cards from her students this year and she doesn't drink Starbucks and this vendor takes them as payment for his kids!

Picked up a rainbow hammer, rose gold hammer, goldenrod variant acro, duncan, electric Myagi Tort and a pocilopora

 

[afboundguy]

Also busted out the cell phone camera clip kit and a top down kit I recently bought real quick while I spent a few minutes actually sitting down and looking at the tank to enjoy it!

 

[afboundguy]

Also bottled up a few tisbe pods for a local member today and love all my pod cultures!!!

 

[afboundguy]

Goodies came today! I ordered an Icecap K3-160 OVP pump as it was on super sale! Also ordered a backup skimmer pump, three dosing containers that have float switches in them and another testing stirrer that were all on sale!

Unfortunately I never got around to measuring the sump area even though I said I was going to so I need to move around a few things to get it to fit!

 

[afboundguy]

Spent a little time tidying up the desk area and moved the six 1 gallon glass jar pod cultures out from the corner and put the rotifer culture in the corner. I also added some led strip lights under the phyto shelf for ambient lighting.

I also added labels that looks much better than just writing it on the jars and containers.

 

[afboundguy]

New K3-160 OVP skimmer is working quite well so far! Nice thick foam head!

 

[Sam7]

Also snapped a few more pictures of the mangrove tank with the threadfin cardinal fish schooling a little bit...

Thats cool with those mangroves

 

[afboundguy]

Thats cool with those mangroves

Thanks! I need to tweak it a bit more as they have started to get pushed from the powerhead so they're not standing up straight...