Fish World

FullSend · Dec 5, 2021

In March my favorite caulerpa went sexual.

This is the last picture of it. (And the candy cane)

New Fish

I ordered the following in March:
2x - Green Clown Goby
1x - Hi Fin Goby
2x - Redhead Goby
2x Orangetail Damselfish (1M, 1F)

I lost 1 clown goby and the hi fin shortly after receiving them. I'm claiming it was the shipping stress. I finished copper treatment 5/11. Then took a break and didn't start prazi and metro for a while. The remaining fish all completed treatment on 11/22. Just today (12/5) I noticed the male orangetail was missing.

Redid the QT plumbing

At some point, I finally redid the QT plumbing. I had also become more and more worried about the amount of weight hanging off of the back of a 20L. I had all of the plumbing and the external box fully supported by the aquarium glass. To fix this I mounted the plumbing to the stand using an isolating mount. I ended up using a paste to seal threaded fittings into the bulkheads. This ended up absorbing copper and leaking.

This is a picture from October before I re-redid the plumbing to fix the leaking. I can't be trusted with .75" threaded fittings and bulkheads.

Reredid the Plumbing

While shopping around I found slip x barb fittings on BRS. This inspired yet another redo of the QT plumbing. I still wanted the return plumbing to be fully modular. This was very difficult to do with a 90 degree turn right before the return bulkhead. I was able to get around this problem by using a reducer from .75" to .5" plumbing. I was able to get the bulkhead ring to slip around the fitting by sanding down parts of a street elbow and the reducer. This allows the bulkhead to be removed if needed.

You can see the return bulkhead on the left. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

Rereredid the Plumbing

I was constantly tormented by the idea of improving the return bulkhead. I was confident I could get the street elbow inserted farther into the reducer and make the reducer smaller. I purchased new fittings and went to work. Using a dremel I cut the collar off of a reducer, saving 1/4" length. I also ended up cutting the ring down to make it easier to slip around the elbow.

Before:

After:

The keen eyed among you may spot a problem with the photo above. Don't worry I fixed it.

This is how the plumbing sits today. I used a foam insulation to keep algae from growing in the pipes and covered the external box to keep light out.

Still to be continued...

FullSend · Jan 1, 2022

I can officially wrap up 2021 now. Happy New Year!

The 2021 winter changes how the sun was coming through the window in the QT room. This caused a green water bloom. I couldn't see 6 inches into the aquarium. I tried to black out the aquarium for a few days, no dice. I ended up ordering the green killing machine, a small UV. It worked as advertised. Three days later the water was crystal clear. I really should have done a water change right away to pull whatever out of the water, but I had to travel. I did the water change when I returned. The damage was already done and the orangetail damsel passed. Now I have 3 chrysiptera damsels with no partners, 2 Starki's that do not get along and 1 F orangetail. The green water also put me behind on keeping weight on the green clown goby. I just couldn't see it. In the end, I severely underestimated the difficulty keeping the little guy fed.

I also purchased a 3d printer. Here is my first print with ABS.

But wait! There's 4 probe brackets. I've got more surprises in the future. I just haven't started yet. Eventually I will print a overflow cover to keep small fish in. So far I'm a month and half deep into this project with a probe mount to show for it.

I'm contemplating removing the sand from the 40B. I think the rock wall will start sagging. I ordered some magnets to keep the top of the wall against the glass. The ended up being 1"x1"x.5" to have enough force through the .75" of plastic rim, glass and rock wall. Worked like a charm.

I had my lights serviced by reefbreeders. Half of the white diodes stopped powering on. No cost to me they paid of the shipping, fixed the lights, and sent them back. Service was 10/10.

I've some plans already in motion for 2022. I'm excited for the next few months.

Happy New Year!

FullSend · Jan 4, 2022

This will be my new canopy, but it's very warped at the moment. I've had it pressed down flat on this table for 2 weeks now. It still holds an impressive 1" warp from end to end. Don't miss treat your plywood people.

2022 I want to start collecting more corals. Of course the first logical step is to collect for equipment. I choose to switch to GHL, but I've got a good thing going with my apex so I'm taking my time to build a cabinet and install everything cleanly.

FullSend · Jan 15, 2022

I spent a few hours last week putting this "cabinet" together. Everything went great! It may be the most square wooden project I've ever assembled. Then I put the unit in....

If you don't know, there is a probe that needs to be inserted into the KH Director on right side in the image. So close to one and done. I had to rip out the shelf and move it to the other side. Now it looks like this:

The final layout will look something like this. I'm skeptical about being able to comfortably fit all of the dosing reagents in the bottom. Even if they all fit, I will have to build a custom container.

Here is the other big update I'm working on:

DD really gave me the run around. They cancelled an order claiming it was "out of stock". Then offered a similar item that day. Which I ordered instead. I suppose LA & DD handled everything exactly how they should have, it still ended up costing a bit more than the original order. *shrug*

I also pulled most of the palm caulerpa out of the 40B. I'm strongly considering taking the black sand out. It just feels like time for a change. I'm thinking bb with more rockwork instead of sand.

FullSend · Jan 26, 2022

After 3 months I have finally redone the evo overflow lids. First I had to get the 3D printer. Then the printer needed an enclosure to print with ABS. Even with the enclosure it took a few weeks to dial in all of the settings. The right settings didn't matter at all when the design was bad. Finally, I've arrived here:

Old lid on left. New lid on right.

New lid on top
Old lid on bottom

Here's a picture of them in action:

I started with primer on the new GHL cabinet. It's freezing outside so I'm doing the painting in a spare room with a tarp down. Hopefully, I can start installing them this weekend.

Now to redo the 20L overflow lid. Hopefully I can finish it before March....

FullSend · Feb 23, 2022

I managed to print a new overflow lid for the 20L. Working so so right now. It's causing the water to sit higher than I want, but it is keeping the orchid contained.

More Pictures from painting the new cabinet.