Hemmdog’s 90gal Seaciety and 40gal Vale of Shadows

[cmaxwell39]

Scrambles ate my Lubbocks wrasse! ;Drowning

Aw sorry to hear that man. I try to not get too attached to the fish these day’s. I’ve had so many losses with territorial disputes, the power outage, the velvet back in the day; I’m kind of numb to fish death as sad as that may sound
I’m mainly frustrated with myself for forgetting to put the screen top back on. I was in the rush to go trade some monti’s for a JF flame you see... lubbocks jumped while I was gone, I come home to a wet spot on the ground, a missing wrasse, and a happy lookin’ cat.
I really loved that fishes coloring, I hope I can find another one sometime soon. The supply chain of fish seems to be a little squirrelly these days.

Sorry to hear about your wrasse. I love fairy wrasses myself, and losing any fish is always a kick in the gut.

I know what you mean about the supply chain right now. I have been looking around online this weekend to try to source a batch of fish to put through QT and there is very little available right now. I hope you are able to source a lubbucks wrasse soon.

 

[Hemmdog]

Finished the vivarium today! Waiting for cuc and plants!

repurposed my old custom biocube 32 light for the time being. Waiting for my vivarium light to come.

false bottom is in, this layer helps the substrate not get over saturated with water.

mesh screen over the false bottom so the substrate doesn’t mix in with the hydroponics rocks.

TerraFlora as my substrate, similar to ABG mix.

layer of RODI soaked spag moss

topped with RODI soaked leaf litter and a couple monkey pods.

I’m pretty happy with it for my first vivarium! Can’t wait for plants and my clean up crew!

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Finished the vivarium today! Waiting for cuc and plants!

repurposed my old custom biocube 32 light for the time being. Waiting for my vivarium light to come.

false bottom is in, this layer helps the substrate not get over saturated with water.

mesh screen over the false bottom so the substrate doesn’t mix in with the hydroponics rocks.

TerraFlora as my substrate, similar to ABG mix.

layer of RODI soaked spag moss

topped with RODI soaked leaf litter and a couple monkey pods.

I’m pretty happy with it for my first vivarium! Can’t wait for plants and my clean up crew!

Looks good! Did you set up an access point to get under the substrate and siphon water if needed? It can be as simple a popping a piece of pvc pipe in that you cover up with a rock or something so the frogs can’t get in it. It’ll let you get a turkey baster or something in there to pull water out from the false bottom if needed without having mess the tank up.

 

[Hemmdog]

Looks good! Did you set up an access point to get under the substrate and siphon water if needed? It can be as simple a popping a piece of pvc pipe in that you cover up with a rock or something so the frogs can’t get in it. It’ll let you get a turkey baster or something in there to pull water out from the false bottom if needed without having mess the tank up.

Thank you! Yep, I did! It’s hiding in the first pic.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Thank you! Yep, I did! It’s hiding in the first pic.

Awesome. I made the mistake of not doing that on my first tank and it was a PITA to get water out having to move everything, rip the screening, then force the baster down through the hydro balls. Did you order springtails? If so, start a culture with some of them and dump the rest in the tank. It’s super easy. Get a Tupperware container, some of that royal oak lump charcoal (not the pressed bricks, it’s the big red bag). Rinse the fines off the charcoal and toss it in the container with about .5” - 1” of water. Sprinkle some bakers yeast on there and drop a piece of charcoal covered in springtails from the culture you ordered in there, close the lid, then wait a week. You’ll have tons. Feeding them into the tank is super easy. You can either pull out charcoal pieces and shake them off, or open the tank door, tilt the container to the side so the water moves to one end (the springtails float) and blow on the waters surface. They’ll jump into the tank.

 

[Hemmdog]

Awesome. I made the mistake of not doing that on my first tank and it was a PITA to get water out having to move everything, rip the screening, then force the baster down through the hydro balls. Did you order springtails? If so, start a culture with some of them and dump the rest in the tank. It’s super easy. Get a Tupperware container, some of that royal oak lump charcoal (not the pressed bricks, it’s the big red bag). Rinse the fines off the charcoal and toss it in the container with about .5” - 1” of water. Sprinkle some bakers yeast on there and drop a piece of charcoal covered in springtails from the culture you ordered in there, close the lid, then wait a week. You’ll have tons. Feeding them into the tank is super easy. You can either pull out charcoal pieces and shake them off, or open the tank door, tilt the container to the side so the water moves to one end (the springtails float) and blow on the waters surface. They’ll jump into the tank.

Oh wow very cool. Yeah I ordered springtails and dwarf white isopods. I was going to toss them all in and let the tank cycle for a month before adding the Tinc’s. I was hoping their population would be decent sized by then. Do you think it will or do I need to do cultures of them as well as the fruit flies?
Did any of my substrate layers look too thick to you? It came out much thicker than I had imagined, I think the soil will go down a bit over time though.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Oh wow very cool. Yeah I ordered springtails and dwarf white isopods. I was going to toss them all in and let the tank cycle for a month before adding the Tinc’s. I was hoping their population would be decent sized by then. Do you think it will or do I need to do cultures of them as well as the fruit flies?
Did any of my substrate layers look too thick to you? It came out much thicker than I had imagined, I think the soil will go down a bit over time though.

It’ll settle in once you get everything in there. The ISO’s and springs will help to break things down and processed fines will run down into the false bottom with watering the plants.

cultivating ISO’s and springtails is easy and I’d set one of each up. The frogs will smash through them. They spend all day foraging, like a mandarin. The ISO’s just needbit of substrate, a piece of cardboard, and a slice of cucumber or something all in aTupperware container. With PDFs, just get used to growing bugs. It’s much better to have them on hand than to have to wait for something in the mail. I used to keep 2 ff cultures per tank I’d feed, with two more per tank started and rotate them out every 2-4 weeks. That way if any of them crashed (which they definitely will) I still had enough to feed everything.

Btw when you start making fly cultures If you make the diy fly media with powdered mashed potatoes, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and bakers yeast it makes the area you have them in smell like baking cinnamon bread instead of rotting fly media.

 

[Hemmdog]

It’ll settle in once you get everything in there. The ISO’s and springs will help to break things down and processed fines will run down into the false bottom with watering the plants.

cultivating ISO’s and springtails is easy and I’d set one of each up. The frogs will smash through them. They spend all day foraging, like a mandarin. The ISO’s just needbit of substrate, a piece of cardboard, and a slice of cucumber or something all in aTupperware container. With PDFs, just get used to growing bugs. It’s much better to have them on hand than to have to wait for something in the mail. I used to keep 2 ff cultures per tank I’d feed, with two more per tank started and rotate them out every 2-4 weeks. That way if any of them crashed (which they definitely will) I still had enough to feed everything.

Btw when you start making fly cultures If you make the diy fly media with powdered mashed potatoes, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and bakers yeast it makes the area you have them in smell like baking cinnamon bread instead of rotting fly media.

Sounds like a plan! Thank you for the detailed response. I’ll have to get that fly culture recipe from you once I get to that stage! Cinnamon bread sounds a lot better than rotting bug food, lol.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Scrambles ate my Lubbocks wrasse! ;Drowning

Look at that kitty, not the least bit ashamed

This old lady scarfed down a diamond goby and didn’t give a crap.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Sounds like a plan! Thank you for the detailed response. I’ll have to get that fly culture recipe from you once I get to that stage! Cinnamon bread sounds a lot better than rotting bug food, lol.

1qt powdered potato flakes
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tsp cinnamon

get a tall deli cup (I’d buy packs of them at dollar tree) and cut a large hole in the lid. Use a glue stick and glue a coffee filter to the underside of the lid to cover the hole.

put a small handful of media in the bottom of the cup and add enough warm water to just cover the media. Let it sit for a few mins and absorb the water. You want it wet, but not a runny soup.

Now take 3 coffee filters, stick your finger in the middle of them, and press the center into the media. Once it’s sitting in there, fan out the filters like a flower.

now dump in 50-100 flies, close the lid, and place in an area out of directsunlight that stays between 70-80 degrees. The cooler the temp, the slower the production.
you’ll start seeing larva climbing up the sides and onto the coffee filter to do their thing.

 

[Hemmdog]

1qt powdered potato flakes
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tsp cinnamon

get a tall deli cup (I’d buy packs of them at dollar tree) and cut a large hole in the lid. Use a glue stick and glue a coffee filter to the underside of the lid to cover the hole.

put a small handful of media in the bottom of the cup and add enough warm water to just cover the media. Let it sit for a few mins and absorb the water. You want it wet, but not a runny soup.

Now take 3 coffee filters, stick your finger in the middle of them, and press the center into the media. Once it’s sitting in there, fan out the filters like a flower.

now dump in 50-100 flies, close the lid, and place in an area out of directsunlight that stays between 70-80 degrees. The cooler the temp, the slower the production.
you’ll start seeing larva climbing up the sides and onto the coffee filter to do their thing.

Awesome! Thanks dude!

 

[crusso1993]

Finished the vivarium today! Waiting for cuc and plants!

repurposed my old custom biocube 32 light for the time being. Waiting for my vivarium light to come.

false bottom is in, this layer helps the substrate not get over saturated with water.

mesh screen over the false bottom so the substrate doesn’t mix in with the hydroponics rocks.

TerraFlora as my substrate, similar to ABG mix.

layer of RODI soaked spag moss

topped with RODI soaked leaf litter and a couple monkey pods.

I’m pretty happy with it for my first vivarium! Can’t wait for plants and my clean up crew!

Great job, Chris! It's looking very slick.

 

[fishguy242]

cool cool cool ,moved pretty quick on that ,what are we crazy taking on a whole new reef..i mean frog ecosystem..lol
i'm doing same have four types frogs so far ,working on 12x12x48 systembe checking in stealing info lol ,thanks,maybe some of that monti too.. looking good,be safe......

 

[nickkohrn]

Nice work! That environment looks beautiful.

 

[Hemmdog]

Great job, Chris! It's looking very slick.

Thank you brother!

Nice work! That environment looks beautiful.

Thanks man!

 

[Hemmdog]

cool cool cool ,moved pretty quick on that ,what are we crazy taking on a whole new reef..i mean frog ecosystem..lol
i'm doing same have four types frogs so far ,working on 12x12x48 systembe checking in stealing info lol ,thanks,maybe some of that monti too.. looking good,be safe......

Haha yeah it did move pretty quick, I’ve had a lot of spare time with this shelter in place stuff. I could of done it quicker! This was me being patient! Haha.
What kind of frogs are you doing? Have you started building it yet?

 

[fishguy242]

Haha yeah it did move pretty quick, I’ve had a lot of spare time with this shelter in place stuff. I could of done it quicker! This was me being patient! Haha.
What kind of frogs are you doing? Have you started building it yet?

Have 4 types tree frogs,wild,and think "peeps" tiny ,must be separate ,kidna on habitat,rt now in good habitat feeding outdoor natural and manually

 

[najer]

View from my desk chair across the kitchen diner, my daughter bought me this about 10 years ago, I am completely failing to ignore this thread, love the habitat!

 

[Hemmdog]

View from my desk chair across the kitchen diner, my daughter bought me this about 10 years ago, I am completely failing to ignore this thread, love the habitat!

That’s a good picture! Red-eyed tree frogs are so cool.
Thank you for the compliments!

 

[Hemmdog]

Ordered the new v5 MistKing! So excited! I upgraded a few things on the order by ordering direct from mistking. This tank will have two double misters installed(4 nozzles total),that will be nice for it’s wider footprint. Each Nozzle is individually adjustable so you can hit the entire vivarium or not mist certain spots on purpose. 50 micron droplet size... Ah, it’s gonna be awesome.
My plants and cuc also shipped today so I will for sure be getting them Wednesday! Woohoo!