Fish building/man cave build!

[dantimdad]

OK paneling almost all hung. Ran out. Gotta go get three more sheets then put up trim.

I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel! I am so thankful for my friends picking up the slack for me.

Got the last of the driftwood for the angel tank as well.

 

[dantimdad]

What a week. Head gasket blew on the Prius and I junked it. Got the tree out of the neighbors yard and put up the fence, started a bunch of mods on my 3018 pro cnc (now a 3040).

got a little more done on the paneling. Designed and printed vent adapters for the laser engraver and got the vent installed in the wall.

the power supply to the return pump on the 75 went out and almost caused a flood. Fixed that and made the return line higher in the water column.

and finally found a Camry almost identical to my previous one and bought it. I know it’s an almost 20 year old car but I love that gen camry and they are fantastic cars. Price was fair and driving it like putting on a pair shoes that fit just right.

I had a buddy start cutting out the stand parts for the 187/rsr combo stand as well. Forgot that one.

 

[revhtree]

I have been designing more and more in TinkerCAD.

The led spotlights I decided to use for the planted tanks put off one heck of a glare.

So I designed a shroud. Here is the difference:

Loving this!

 

[dantimdad]

Loving this!

Thanks Rev!

 

[dantimdad]

OK, the universe can stop messing around now! I have COVID... again!

Anyway, me having time to kill and not being allowed to do anything outside or on the building, is dangerous.

I had forgotten about the 30x30x10" acrylic frag tanks and not having room for them and it hit me... Why not flank the 187 ray tank with them and turn one into a lagoon/mangrove tank and the the other into an anemone clown tank? I can put them low enough to be lookdown or see from the front and still drain to the central sump.

I am going to switch the 625xxl to being the freshwater angel tank. I just didn't like the idea of them in a 55 after having had them in a 240 and seeing how they behave with a bunch of room. This is a happy medium.

This is my final answer.... I mean it this time... Really... I do...

 

[dantimdad]

Well now, it has to happen. I just ordered the extrusions for the two stands.

 

[dantimdad]

Question: The stands will obviously have a foot print of 30x30". If I run a cross brace like the following: (leave my artwork alone! )

looking down from the top. Would you think 1/2 cabinet grade plywood with yoga matt on top would be sufficient support? I tend to think so. But second opinions help.

EDIT: the tank will be made of 1/2" cast acrylic.

 

[dantimdad]

Hey @Lowell Lemon I just measured the pieces the tanks will have 8” sides not 10”. It’ll still work though.

 

[Sean Clark]

Sounds solid.

 

[dantimdad]

Well, it happened again. I am about to go rescue a few fish. They are apparently healthy but going in a 55 separate from all my other fish to be observed for a while. Along with the corals and inverts from the system as well. I am bringing as much water with me as I can and have 30 gallons mixed up and ready.

I took the fw 55 setup and brought it into the living room (sorry babe!) and slapped a couple kessils on it with a titanium heater and a tunze power head and will dig out the hang on protein skimmer out of storage asap.

I will take pics after they are settled in. I really need to get the room finished!

 

[dantimdad]

Turns out there are some really nice fish in the group. A couple I can't keep.

Here is a list:

Regal Tang
Flame Tang
Yellow Tang
(all about 3")

2 gold nugget clowns
All white clown of some variety
Ocellaris
(all about 1.5")

Striped blenny
bangaii cardinal
yellow watchman
some other sort of blenny can't get him to sit still long enough
and yet another long nose hawk fish

Tons of snails, a brittle star, two tuxedo urchins and a large long tentancle anemone I have yet to ID.

There is also about 8 different corals.

I really gotta stop doing this.

 

[dantimdad]

The other blenny is a mollie miller.

As usual, I suck at taking photos.

I have more water mixing and will add it tomorrow after checking it.

 

[dantimdad]

Found the second kessil power supply and got it and the controller hoooked up and programmed.

Setup an aquamaxx hang on reactor as a canister filter filled with pinky foam and a little carbon. Should clear the water up quickly.

Added 5 more gallons of saltwater and have 5 more made and circulating. That should about do it. Now to clean up the wiring mess from being in a hurry.

Luckily the wife didn't kill me over this.

All the fish are eating and healthy and the corals have all opened up and look really good.

 

[dantimdad]

Stand materials got here early. I should be starting on them tomorrow.

hopefully Saturday I can start dry fitting the tank parts while I wait on Weldon 4 to get here.

 

[dantimdad]

If you want to clear up a tank fast, take an aquamax media reactor, leave the sponges in like your are supposed to but roll up pinky foam and leave enough room for a cup of BRS rox carbon on top then the sponge and seal it up. The 55 was so cloudy I couldn't see the back, in a day, it's like vodka!

Running it off an old school mj900 powerhead.

 

[dantimdad]

I have a question about lighting. Specifically for the shallow mangrove/lagoon tank.

Should I use a FW planted tank light above the mangroves and a different light for the rest or just the planted light or a couple of Tuna blues kessils above the whole thing?

I am torn. I really want to put a few corals in it but, I could just go macros with the mangroves.

Thoughts?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I have a question about lighting. Specifically for the shallow mangrove/lagoon tank.

Should I use a FW planted tank light above the mangroves and a different light for the rest or just the planted light or a couple of Tuna blues kessils above the whole thing?

I am torn. I really want to put a few corals in it but, I could just go macros with the mangroves.

Thoughts?

I used the below lights and they grew acros with no issues. The color on them was like you would see if snorkeling, but they grew just fine and had no issues, until the angels ate all of them lol. For a while, I was running kessils over the tank and it was fine them. Just put them at 100% color and went with it. The only thing I noticed was the mangroves did not grow as quickly. Possibly lack of full spectrum, not sure, but only change was the lights and they took off.

In addition, I did end up adding 2x aliababa special led light bars with a 50/50 mix of white and blue, just to get alittle more pop from all of the florida zoas I had in the tank.

In addition to this, these lights can support upside down jelly fish in 16" of water when hung 32" from the tank. So while they are not high wattage, they do provide a full band of light that everything seemed to enjoy.

6 of the below over a 7' tank.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Utilitech-LED-Grow-Reflector/5000081307

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Forgot, in addition it supported tons of FL gorgs and macros with just the lights alone.

Some pics for ya.

This was those lights only and after angels ate the acro frags I put in there, as I did not want to trash them after trimming my big Steve-a-pora colonies lol.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

And yes, they even grow massive amounts of coralline lol.

 

[dantimdad]

I was hoping you would chime in.

So one of those over a 30x30x8 tank with a couple blue light bars for color? I have a ton of LED parts and could whip up the bars in about 30 minutes.