Maggie's 7 gallon hex build

[OldRed1]

What a cool build! I am envious of how creative you are and your ability to bring this vision to life!

 

[Mhamilton0911]

What a cool build! I am envious of how creative you are and your ability to bring this vision to life!

Thanks a lot! I hope the fish think the same!

 

[Mhamilton0911]

So I'm trying to complete the lights, and honestly, they're trash.

Several problems, one being quality. The seller explained how superior theirs was over the competitor, yada yada, but these are crap. 2 of 4 LEDs strips are yellow, 2 strips have several cuts in the protective silicone covering, the uv strip keeps flickering, the blue strip already has failing led clusters.

I was about to silicone them into place, but given the growing issues I'm just going forward as these are temporary and I'll be looking for a better solution. I'm still leaning hard to wanting to keep the hood on, which limits what I can do.

But basically I should be able to start assembling in the house and filling with water today. Im supposed to be going with the hubs to town later so I might stop by lfs for the rest of my CUC, I can keep them in the main tank until the new one is ready for them.

 

[kevgib67]

Waiting patiently to see your tank full with fish, corals and inverts. Please pick up the pace! Ha

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Waiting patiently to see your tank full with fish, corals and inverts. Please pick up the pace! Ha

This is taking forever, isn't it?

I seem to find a snag in my plans daily, so that's holding things up. But it's in my living room now, so that's good!!

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Got the tank in the house, thankfully the floor is level enough so no adjustments needed. But with having a terror toddler in the house I need to add a bracket of some sort on the back to attach to the wall. I know not the prettiest of features but peace of mind knowing the tank will not topple over is worth it. Since the tank is only 12" wide, that's a lot of weight on a 12" footprint. I did this already to my 29g tank, because if the terror runs into it, it would show in waves in the water, after I added the bracket it no longer does that.

I love it so far! Happy I did it in blue, there's so much grey walls and black furniture I wanted this to be a show piece of sorts.

Weenie dog approved, lol.

 

[Piscans]

it would be really cool if you got a big long tentacle anenome and the pair of clowns, no scape or anything just the clowns and the anenome

 

[OldRed1]

Got the tank in the house, thankfully the floor is level enough so no adjustments needed. But with having a terror toddler in the house I need to add a bracket of some sort on the back to attach to the wall. I know not the prettiest of features but peace of mind knowing the tank will not topple over is worth it. Since the tank is only 12" wide, that's a lot of weight on a 12" footprint. I did this already to my 29g tank, because if the terror runs into it, it would show in waves in the water, after I added the bracket it no longer does that.

I love it so far! Happy I did it in blue, there's so much grey walls and black furniture I wanted this to be a show piece of sorts.

Weenie dog approved, lol.

Maybe you feel differently, but that stand is screaming to have some stenciling added to it for an additional pop of color.

 

[OldRed1]

it would be really cool if you got a big long tentacle anenome and the pair of clowns, no scape or anything just the clowns and the anenome

The essentials

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Maybe you feel differently, but that stand is screaming to have some stenciling added to it for an additional pop of color.

Possibly? Definitely something I can do in-place down the road once I figure out what I wanted. My daughter originally asked me to make an ocean scene so I've definitely thought about something artsy.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

I've just put in the sand, tossed the whole 10lbs in and now feel like it's too much. It's a good 4". I don't plan on having any sand diggers like pistol shrimp or fish so I really don't need this deep of sand. Other than the above suggested anemone, I really don't need this much sand. I think I'll take out some. To bad I poured in a couple gallons of saltwater so now this job is messier.

 

[OldRed1]

I've just put in the sand, tossed the whole 10lbs in and now feel like it's too much. It's a good 4". I don't plan on having any sand diggers like pistol shrimp or fish so I really don't need this deep of sand. Other than the above suggested anemone, I really don't need this much sand. I think I'll take out some. To bad I poured in a couple gallons of saltwater so now this job is messier.

Could you syphon it out?

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Could you syphon it out?

It wasn't as bad as I thought, I used a measuring cup and only took it about 4 cups worth of sand and I think it looks better now.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

The sand I got has chunks of crushed shell or something pink. Kinda cool. Bag said bimini pink

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Water in and circulating, and waiting for things to clear before I add the fish. I added all the larger live rocks I had in the temp tank holding the fish to the canister filter and I'll add the remaining seeded rock rubble to the sand to help seed the new white rocks. I have bacteria to add as well. No rush to get them into the tank though.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Moving day!

 

[OldRed1]

I remember now why this tank felt so familiar. When I was younger, I worked at an LFS on the weekends to earn store credit. The owner had a tank that looked just like this, and he kept some kind of long macro algae and Sea Horses in it. The length of the tank looked so good with the vertical algae and sea horses—it all just worked.

Talk about a memory blast from the past!

 

[Mhamilton0911]

When I first saw it I thought of doing seahorses!! But my kids really wanted this tank to end up in their room and if I do seahorses it's sure not going to be tucked in a kids room!!

I love the tall footprint, I tried to keep my rockscape mindful of space and not too overbearing for the size tank.

 

[OldRed1]

When I first saw it I thought of doing seahorses!! But my kids really wanted this tank to end up in their room and if I do seahorses it's sure not going to be tucked in a kids room!!

I love the tall footprint, I tried to keep my rockscape mindful of space and not too overbearing for the size tank.

It looks so good. You’ve brought a creative vision to life; your kids are very lucky!

 

[Mhamilton0911]

I harvested my copepods and phyto cultures this morning so I added a whole bunch of pods to this tank. The clowns loved the food, and the neon cleaner goby and court jester goby got a nice feast as well. I also splashed some phyto for food for the pods.

I plan on adding pods and phyto frequently since this tank is so new and sterile looking.