dave w

Coral Hind and Piper27 (and my other WAMAS friends), Sorry it's been so long since I checked in. Around January a couple of friends who are commercial beekeepers convinced me to become one. I wanted to continue with fish breeding at the same time as beekeeping, but found that I am best when I be single minded with one business, not two. And beekeeping took up all my time for the past 6 months, along with my regular job and being a dad. I hope to have time to get back to fish breeding sometime soon, but I really don't know when that will happen. I'm only up to 200 beehives and you need to get at least 500 to be a serious beekeeper. That could be a few years. Also, I was getting tired of re-inventing the wheel so many times. My advice to anyone building a large system is to be prepared to build many things from scratch because the tank size precludes many "off the shelf" solutions. It was exhausting. Winter heating and summer cooling of a greenhouse are still problems that I haven't fully solved yet, and there's not much stability in a system without good water temps. My geothermal cooling isn't hooked up and my solar hot water collector isn't past the framing stage. Just too many other things to do. Thanks to all for your encouragement and I hope to reciprocate with some fish news in the next year or so. But for a while, the tank continues to grow lots of nice algae and nothing else. I hope to get back in the hobby again soon.

Are they Bangaii, or another type?

Great looking build. I especially like the way your red pvc runs around the back wall to the sump. white pvc there would have looked tacky. I also like the way you tiled your basement floor so there won't be spill issues in the long term. Very smart.

That's a great looking stand and tank. Very clean look. No wonder your wife said yes.

I'm sure he had a happy life in your tank, and much longer than it would have been in the wild. And that makes you a great fishkeeper.

We could always do what the Japanese do. Find one rock above sea level and build a concrete mountain around it so we can claim more sea ownership. Why stop there, just hook a buoy to the point closest to the surface, and claim ownership.

Home Depot has the stuff for around $15 per sheet. The sheets are roughly 2' x 4'.

Josh, I agree that the owner of Quantum Reefs is a good guy and it was very nice of him to let you come in after hours. Keep having fun with the hobby.

Josh, everyone here is happy to help you. We have all been through a dozen tanks and want to share our experiences with others. We don't want them to repeat our mistakes and kill a lot of fish by learning the hard way. Please be open to the help everyone wants to give you. Sometimes we may sound too abrupt or harsh, but it is with good intent. If you don't like the tone of a member, just brush it off and keep reading and asking more questions. I think you'll enjoy your time here.

I've never been lucky enough to have anyone let me in their store after closing. If I tried, they'd probably call the cops on me.

The thing I like about small tanks is that you can get right up on a colorful little animal and watch it in detail. That's fascinating. In a big tank that's hard to do.

Six gallons!!! Can I make some playful jokes at you?? Does the six gallon volume include the volume of your pipes and tubes, (i.e. did you start out with 2 gallons)? Are you sure two clowns can fit in 6 gallons? Oh, yeah... you said you've got a very small hole at the top, so you'll be okay there. Why not just use your 6 gallon tank as a quarantine tank for your 65? One neon goby at a time. What do you use for topoff, A shot glass? Are you going to add two part by the drop? Oh, no, you can just do a 100% daily water change. It'll cost about 50 cents. In addition to the clowns, I'd think you could add enough invertebrates to double the bio load. Like maybe half a dozen rotifers. OK, this is getting a little silly and not so funny. I just have a hard time imagining what it takes to maintain a 6 gallon tank. Good luck, I'm sure it will turn out to be beautiful. All this was meant tongue in cheek, please don't take it wrong.

Inversely proportional? The more expensive the clown, the stupider?

To poke fun at the writer, I'd just like to see what the "special machines" are that take the stress off the fish!

Those are beautiful, fat fish. You should be a proud daddy.