New 180 Build - Mini Coop's Dream Tank

[Mini Coop]

Do next couple water changes with lower salinity check after each if needed add top off
You have your ATO hookup yet?

Yes. ATO is hooked up. Just using a 5 Gallon bucket until I get my 55 gallon drum hooked up.

I changed the water - 12 gallons with salinity at 1.020

 

[Victoria M]

too funny about the pjs. The thing of concern on a large ATO is if the pump stayed on and emptied the ATO resevoir ... could your tank handle the changes? I do not have any redundancy built into my ATO system so I am sure to limit how much water could go into the tank due to a failure.

 

[Diesel]

You made a valid point on if the pump stays on.
That can happen with the cheap stand alone ATO's out their or installed improperly.
I believe Coop has it hooked up through the APEX which give you the option in case of a failure on the pump or most cases the electronic float valve that you can set a max of on time on the pump.
In that case if that happens you have to reset it manually.
I myself run a Tunze and they can be set for a max time on aswell.
My ATO doesn't run for longer than 30sec to keep the level as set.
If my ATO due to some reason runs longer than 3 min it will shut down by it self.
By having it on my APEX just with a on/off program I can reset it after one of the water level switches alert me of a low water level in the sump.
By turning it off and on again it reset it self.
This I had to do only one time in the 8 years I have this ATO.

 

[Mini Coop]

You made a valid point on if the pump stays on.
That can happen with the cheap stand alone ATO's out their or installed improperly.
I believe Coop has it hooked up through the APEX which give you the option in case of a failure on the pump or most cases the electronic float valve that you can set a max of on time on the pump.
In that case if that happens you have to reset it manually.
I myself run a Tunze and they can be set for a max time on aswell.
My ATO doesn't run for longer than 30sec to keep the level as set.
If my ATO due to some reason runs longer than 3 min it will shut down by it self.
By having it on my APEX just with a on/off program I can reset it after one of the water level switches alert me of a low water level in the sump.
By turning it off and on again it reset it self.
This I had to do only one time in the 8 years I have this ATO.

@Victoria M - yes. I have an ATO. I have the tunze. So it has a timer and it’s plugged into the apex.
This was just me catching up and ran the RO water directly in - a dumb mistake. But luckily my system stayed stable. I was shocked.

 

[Mini Coop]

I am absolutely and completely devastated. Last night the gobies graduated out of quarantine after six weeks and a clean bill of health! I was so excited to put them back with their shrimp in the tank. They went in last night and we’re happy as could be. I went to feed them tonight, and on the right on top of the screen, you can see what I found. One of them had jumped out of the tank. We had to make the screens to go around the brackets for the kessil lights. But we figured a quarter inch gap would not be a problem. Apparently it was. Something must’ve spooked her to jump her out of the tank. Yes, I cried like a baby. I’m still pretty upset about it. You spend so much time and energy making them healthy, So excited to see them in your tank, and then something like this. I am going to be figuring out what I can do to close that gap so this doesn’t happen in the future. Most of my other fish are not jumpers, I didn’t think a goby was either. Even if my other fish jumped, most of them are too big to get through there, but this sucks. They were great pair. I know Fish are not like people, but I swear the other one is swimming around kind of lost wondering where his friend went. Having our first real discussion about death with my four-year-old and watching him sob over the fishy with me was awful.

I was all set and ready to order my next set of fish. But a very wise friend told me to slow down. Thank you @Diesel.
You get so excited about seeing the life in your tank, sometimes it’s easy to rush things.
My fish that were in the 10 gallon quarantine tank are in their new home at my sister-in-law‘s house and her tank, so I have torn it down, bleached it, and it is air drying.
Stubby is still in quarantine and will remain in the 20 gallon tank for three or four more days just so that I can make sure he doesn’t have some kind of bacterial infection from the little rip he put in his Gill.
The bully went to my sister-in-law‘s tank and is doing very well there.

Once Stubby is out I am going to take the next three or four weeks to try and correct my noisy drains, reset the quarantine station, and make a Cover for my overflows and fill the gap on the net covering on the tank. That should keep me pretty busy for a while. I’ll also be adding my Cora’s that have been in QT for about a month and dipped 3x.

Now it’s time for wine.

 

[Big G]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Mini Coop]

I’m thinking she might have come right through the mesh.

In case it was the back - tonight’s solution is press-n-seal

 

[Mini Coop]

Sorry for your loss.

Thanks. It certainly sucks. But I learn every single time something happens. I just prefer it to not be at the loss of a fish.

I just hate cleaning glass tops! And they don’t look as sleek.

 

[Victoria M]

How do they do that! One tiny gap and they aim for it! Sorry you lost a fish. We cry about that stuff too.

 

[Mini Coop]

How do they do that! One tiny gap and they aim for it! Sorry you lost a fish. We cry about that stuff too.

Thanks. Yeah. I have no idea. But live and learn.
I have a bowl of wine now.

 

[Victoria M]

lol!

 

[Zonly1]

Dang, that does suck, sorry that happened. In one of my old tanks, I had an eel break out and carpet surf. One of my kids almost stepped on him and screamed. Luckily we found him in time and saved him, but it is amazing how the end up on the floor after all we do to protect them.

 

[Mini Coop]

After losing one of the gobys, my mom actually named “mr goby”. His name is tigger!! He’s striped and he jumps! Lol.

Everyone is in and doing great!!
Last night for the first time, I transferred corals to new “plugs” - I use rubble rocks because I don’t like plugs. And those are doing great too! An orange acan and black torch.

 

[Mini Coop]

The 10 gallon QT and the 20 gallon QT are both torn down and sterilized. I’m working on getting some nice wire management set up for the QT area.

Also - getting ready to empty the coral QT and clean it and get ready for round 2 later. I made a nice little frag rack as my project tonight.

 

[Mini Coop]

Hi everyone! Just wanted to touch base and let you know that things are going great! The tank is settling in with its 6 inhabitants. I traded a leather for some xenia that isn't looking too hot - so hopefully it comes back to soon. I have it on its own rock at the back of the "valley" in the tank. It will look cool and bring lots of dimension if I can get it to do ok!

I have a new member of the family! Mr. Flash. (You guessed it - a McCosker Flasher Wrasse)! I am so excited! He is eating well!! I have had pretty bad luck with QT for McCoskers, so I am hoping it goes ok! I am out of town - for his second night, but my husband said he came out and ate really well and then went back and hid .

I have ordered 3 female blue star leopard wrasses. I have 2 LFS's trying to order them, but I will only get them when I have 3 that are eating at the LFS, and 3 together. If it takes a few weeks, it is no big deal. I am so glad I went ahead and started trying to get them now. It may take a while. But I will be so excited when I get them!

 

[Victoria M]

Cool. That will be a beautiful trio.

 

[Mini Coop]

2 very exciting updates tonight!!!
Presented to you via video!!!

#1:

 

[Mini Coop]

#2 - after 2 weeks and no sign of the shrimp - they found each other and have paired up right in the front of the tank where I can watch!!

 

[iced98lx]

How lucky! They have such a great interaction to watch.

 

[Vicki Marcue]

Very nice tank..