Low vision build

[Bruttall]

Love the concept, and that your doing this to include your kid. Kudo's Sir! I like how you are arranging your scape. I struggle with epoxy also, gel super glue works ok, but sometimes it helps if I grab my 4inch grinder w/masonary wheel and surface the seams a little, give the glue more area to grab onto.

Poor Kitty, lol. I have 3. They are into and on top of everything. Only 1 ever fell into a tank though, so far.....

Congrats!! on Number 3? Think I counted 3!!

 

[fishmandan]

Love the concept, and that your doing this to include your kid. Kudo's Sir! I like how you are arranging your scape. I struggle with epoxy also, gel super glue works ok, but sometimes it helps if I grab my 4inch grinder w/masonary wheel and surface the seams a little, give the glue more area to grab onto.

Poor Kitty, lol. I have 3. They are into and on top of everything. Only 1 ever fell into a tank though, so far.....

Congrats!! on Number 3? Think I counted 3!!

Thank you! This has been a fun journey with Shep! We do in fact have 3. The littlest just turned one a few days ago.
Angle grinder is a great idea! I considered acrylic rods and drilling, but just went with epoxy and glue.

 

[fishmandan]

I’ll do a big update this coming week. Dropping a few shots from the tank while the construction continues around it.

 

[fishmandan]

Well construction is complete! Make a wish built a reef themed therapy room around Shep’s reef tank.
The tank itself is running pretty smoothly. Stocking currently is 9 chrysiptera damsels, 1 purple tang(who might me getting kicked out), 3 red firefish, 1 Bangai cardinal (plan to get more once they are available locally), 1 green goby, and a large cuc.
I’m still working out how to word what we have experienced with Shep using the tank for vision therapy but what I can say is that he loves it! When he is in the therapy room his eyes are always on the tank.

 

[fishmandan]

A pair of squareback anthias and a majestic Foxface added to the tank. Everything is growing nicely and the tank is in a happy spot. Our hair algae issue has resolved and I’ll be dividing up some of the soft corals soon. It still amuses me that the kids love the fish and inverts the most. They completely ignore the corals but that’s ok.

 

[fishmandan]

It’s been a minute on an update and life has sort of matched the chaos on a reef. Photos aren’t from our tank but from the Chattanooga aquarium.

Shep’s low vision reef is running well. We are at a point where we are just enjoying the tank. Maintenance is slowing down and no plans to add anything new for awhile. We are just happy to enjoy our slice of the reef.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

It’s been a minute on an update and life has sort of matched the chaos on a reef. Photos aren’t from our tank but from the Chattanooga aquarium.

Shep’s low vision reef is running well. We are at a point where we are just enjoying the tank. Maintenance is slowing down and no plans to add anything new for awhile. We are just happy to enjoy our slice of the reef.

I love the chatt aquarium, been a hot minute since I've been there, though. I always liked how they had a salt water exhibit and a fresh water one.

 

[MnFish1]

It’s been a minute on an update and life has sort of matched the chaos on a reef. Photos aren’t from our tank but from the Chattanooga aquarium.

Shep’s low vision reef is running well. We are at a point where we are just enjoying the tank. Maintenance is slowing down and no plans to add anything new for awhile. We are just happy to enjoy our slice of the reef.

Can you send a picture of your tank? Glad its working well

 

[fishmandan]

Sorry it’s been a minute, life has been running 100mph lately. Shep’s Reef is running smoothly and the kids are loving it. This is our family happy spot.

 

[fishmandan]

It’s been a minute since I posted. Just needed a break from forums and social media. Posting a few photos and hopefully a longer update in the next few days.

 

[fishmandan]

It’s been way too long but so life goes. A few years in now and we have learned so much! First I just want to say thank you to everyone who helped with equipment, advice, and ideas. Anyone new to the thread should scroll back through to see the process that got us to this point.

We are doing a bit of a reset with the tank. We are now moving towards a fowlr but keeping some of the hardiest softies. We have been keeping records of which fish our son reacts to the most when visiting LFS, our zoo’s aquarium, and public aquariums in a few different states.

His favorite fish are in order

1: porcupine puffers

2: emperor angels

3: yellow dominate butterflyfish



With this in mind I took a majority of the corals and traded them in at a LFS for credit towards fish that are preferred. I am still working on a stocking list and am very open to suggestions for fish that typically have big personalities or good contrast colors.

While it’s sad to me to have to undo the work of the past couple of years we are very thankful to have a direction! We are even more thankful that things have progressed to the point where we can understand our son’s preferences. The entire reason we started this project was to allow him to enjoy fish more as his eyesight deteriorated. I’ll be looking to see if I can edit the original title of the thread or if I’ll just hopefully have more regular updates if life allows. Best wishes and hope your swimming friends are all happy and healthy!