The Integration Room

[Integral9]

Well, it looks like I'm going to be staying in the hobby for a while longer yet. WOOHOO! I finally got the top frame off the tank on Sunday, but had to stop due to rain. I should be able to clean off all the old silicon and slap on the new frame next weekend; provided the Avast / F&F party doesn't keep me occupied for too long.

 

I will say this. Everyone who said taking it off was going to be in a PITA was 100% right. I doubt I will ever do that again. I got plastic in my eye, cut myself at least twice as did my helper and I'm pretty sure I gave myself a mild chemical burn with all the alcohol I used.... some good times, let me tell you what....

 

Anyways, here's what I tried and the order I tried it in.

 

Method 1: Dremel

Total fail. Started out with this method as I was hoping to get it done durring the week, which for me offers precious little free time except between the hours of 9pm and 11pm. Unfortunately, the plastic melts if you set the speed to high and you can easily scratch the glass with the cutting blade. Also, you can get plastic in your eye... that sucked.

 

Method 2: Use alcohol to disolve the silicon to make it easy to peal off frame.

This works, but unless you can get into the tank and get the alcohol down into the frame on both inside and outside edges, it didn't seem to help much other making it easier to slide the knife in between the frame and glass on the side applicated to seperate the two. All though I was able to remove another 2' section with this method, I had been working on this section with the dremel for a while.

 

Mothod 3: Use alcohol and a "persuader" (and stay in the hobby / out of the dog house)

This works especially well if your persuader is a pair of pliers. I don't recommend the other persuaders. I used the pliers to literally tear the plastic off. I would grab the inside edge of the top and break off a piece; usually a small piece. And repeated all the way around the tank. Sharp edges abound. After that I could use my fingers to reach under the outside edge (no sharp edges there) and pull off the remaining plastic frame around the outside and top.

Edited May 16, 2011 by Integral9

[HDReef]

Glad to hear that you were able to get it off. After taking the trim off of my tank I was as the same point that you are. I will never do that again. It sucks!

[Integral9]

Well, I finally got the new frame onto the tank and test filled with water. looks good, if not for a little over use of silicon. Moved the tank back onto its stand and placed a peice of luwan (sp) under it to block out the light. But that raised teh tank up a bit too much which caused a bit of trouble with the trim around the stand. I will have re-attach that piece one day, but it's next to a wall and moving the tank isn't something I want to do again.

 

Now for the sump: I picked up some acrylic and cut and siliconed it in place as baffles for my sump. I also attached my bulk heads with a bit of silicone and was about to start plumbing the tank when I had to start cleaning up as my boy woke up from his nap. Play time over, back to being a dad.

 

After dry fitting some of the plumbing for the pump, I am having serious doubts as to whether my old fuge is going to fit under the tank as I had planned. I will know for sure once I get the iwaki plumbed in. As an alternative, I might be setting my fuge on a short table behind the tank and plumbing it in that way. As a last resort, I have an medium sized Aquafuge + PS on my 30g that I could hang onto my sump and use as a fuge.

[Integral9]

I hope to get my plumbing done this weekend, but since I haven't anything else to say about the tank build and it seems that installing baffles is a recurring topic on forums all over, I'd like to share how I installed the baffles on my sump. With this method I was able to produce what I would call a near professional looking install. This was my first time installing baffles, but not my first time dealing with painters tape or caulking.

 

After some debate I decided to go with the 1/8" acryllic as that is what is used in my acrylic sump for the baffles. Which there is some flexing, but the sump has been in use for years so I am not worried or even concerned. So I picked up some acryllic from HD and cut it down to size and sanded it until it had a good tight fit. Since this is going into a glass tank, I nipped the corners off at the bottom of the two outside baffles for a better fit. Next I put a line of tape around the sides of the baffles on both sides, leave about 3/8" of room on the edges for the silicon to hold on to.

 

I then took a dry erase marker and a carpenters triangle (for a perfectly straight up and down line) and marked the sides of the tank where the baffles would go. Then I taped everywhere around those lines, above, below, around, and the bottom and about 6 inches on either side. There was a lot of tape on that tank when I was done. I left about 3/8" of room on both sides of the lines for the silicon.

 

I then positioned the center baffle and put a couple of pieces of left over hardwood flooring under it for support. I also put a few small pieces of tape on the top of the baffles to help hold it in place (not very effective, but better than nothing). I then carefully applied the silicon down one side of the center baffle. After applying I ran my finger down down the silicon to smooth it out for a clean look. Once the silicon began to harden I pulled the tape off. I started with the tape on the baffles which was the most difficult as the baffles really want to move around. So with one hand I held the baffle in place and with my other hand holding a razor blade, I carefully pulled the tape up. Once I got enough up to grab a hold of, I used my hand to carefully pull the rest of it up. Patience is key. After that I did the other side of the center baffle in the same manner.

 

Once the center baffle hardened, the tube said 1 hour to harden, but I was outside and it was sunny so the silicon hardened much faster, but I still waited the full hour as I knew I would be putting some pressure on the center baffle trying to reach the inside edges of the outside baffles.

 

Since I was using a caulk gun and my hands are fairly large I had to leave about 3-4 inches of spacing between the baffles to reach the bottom. Even so, I couldn't reach the bottom on the insides of the baffles with my caulk gun so I had to put a glob of silicon on my finger and wipe it in place to reach the bottom of the baffles. Not the cleanest method, but a little rubbing alcohol is great for cleaning the silicon off your hands. Just remember to moisturize when you are done as the alcohol will dry your hands up pretty bad. Once all the silcon was in place on a side of each baffle, I ran my finger down the full length for a final smoothing. Then I pulled the tape off leaving a nice clean edge. Repeated that for each side of the outside baffles.

 

I have to pull my couch out to snap a picture of my sump, so I will try to get one this weekend when I get into the plumbing.

 

My only mistake was when I was pulling the tape off, I let some of the silicon covered tape touch the outside of the tank and that left a good mark. I'll have to get my razor blade out and clean that off.

 

edit: 500th post!

Edited July 7, 2011 by Integral9

[jason the filter freak]

[Integral9]

lol.

 

[Integral9]

Tanks Shot

 

Baffles in Sump

 

 

Back of tank:

 

[Integral9]

more pics are coming.

 

I've got the tank plumbed and filled now and the pumps are circulating the RO water I filled it with. I'm working on silencing the over flows now. That's a lot of flow coming off my iwaki (It's like tsunami coming over that last baffle) and stopping the slurp is proving time consuming. Also, man that pump is loud. If I can't quiet that thing down, I'm going to have to get rid of it and find a submersible one. Any ideas?

 

But while I am working on that I am in need of salt. I have been using Crystal Sea Bio Assay, but I am considering switching to Brightwell's NeoMarine as I use their chemicals for the rest of my additives with much success. Good, bad, opinions on that?

[FearTheTerps]

IT'S WET!!!!!!

 

[Integral9]

A long over due update. At this point I have the tank up and running now. Water is in, salt is in, sand is in, and 90% of the rock is in the tank. I still have a couple of peices left from my 30g I'm going to put in this tank.

 

So this was done about a month ago and so if you've been following allong, you should know pics come late. But anyways, here goes.

 

Fill'er UP!

"Hey, what's that under the skimmer?"

"what? Oh... ooops. I guess I'll have to pull that out before I fire up the pumps."

 

1/8" Acryllic... Will it Hold?

 

First Baffel is HOLDING!

 

 

Will the 3rd Baffel hold?

Do NOT look at the HYPNO-TOAD!

 

Yup!

Forgot to pull the envelope out before firing up the pumps. "oops." The MD-55 made quick work of it. Fortunately, my media reactor and power heads filtered it out nicely.

 

And now for some plumbing pics starting with the sump pump:

Iwaki MD55-RLT w/ full flow unions, one-way valve, and ball valves. The line w/ the double-union ball valve will be connected to the fuge.

 

going through the cabinetry. Hole saws are nice.

 

 

Awesome distributor I found at FlexPVC.com. I just wish the outlets were 1/8" further apart so the fittings would fit better. Does a great job equally diverting the flow evenly to each of the 4 outlets.

 

Back of tank shot: My Rube Goldberg design.

 

I hope 2 of these is enough to skim the surface:

 

Who knows what mysteries lie in this deep?

 

You can't quite see it in my rear tank shot pic (just out of frame), but I have a ball valve (closed now) set to release water to my fuge once I get it plumbed and installed. Unfortunately, the sump is 1/4" larger (or sump area is 1/4" smalller) than I thought and I'm going to have to build a stand to hold the fuge up over the sump pump. This is going to raise the height of the fuge by about 6" and it creates a bit of an issue with a power outage as the fuge will drain into the sump now.... arg.. Ah well though, if it's not one thing, it's another.

 

I don't have any pics of the power center / wiring job I've done; and that's probably a good thing as when I was setting up the power heads I noticed pretty quickly that their power cords won't reach as far as I want them to. Also, I didn't leave enough room around the wiring to run a 3" pipe through it (fuge drain line). So I am going to add a PC4 / power strip closer to the back right side of the tank so I can mount the power heads on the ends of the tank.

 

To Do's:

build fuge stand

install / plumb fuge

finish build / install / plumb kalk stirrer

Re-do the wiring.

[Integral9]

lots has happened since my last post. lets see, i got the fuge plumbed in a going along with my kalk reactor, ato, and probes. and I have taken down my 55 gallon. I will be selling off the pieces soon. Also, I couldn't find my SLR and I didn't want to commit to hunting it down, so I took these pics with my point-n-shoot.

 

The tank has cleared up and I moved all my corals into the new tank:

 

 

 

more shots of the plumbing and sump:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I need at least 3 more wires....

 

Edited October 5, 2011 by Integral9

[Integral9]

Wow, I didn't realize I had let this go almost 9 months w/out an update. If any of you have seen my other posts you know that I am dealing with a couple of problems. The biggest atm is a couple of tangs w/ ich. A hippo and a powder brown. No shocking result there though. I kind of expected it to be honest. I caught the hippo, no problem. However the powder brown is proving to be quite evasive. I am going to have to take some rocks out and get serious about cornering it for capture. Fortunately, I have not seen any signs of the infection my other fish. I keep checking them though. I really hope I don't have to capture my firefish, assessor or randal's goby. I would probably have to take out all my rock to do that.

 

My CBB, which wasn't eating in QT is still not eating prepared foods. However, it has eliminated all the aiptasia and continues to just swim around the tank picking at all the rock. I haven't seen any ich on it and it seems to be doing well. I hope my pod population will continue to keep it fed, but I'd like to add a mandarin to the tank one day and I'm not sure if the pod population can sustain 2 fish, including a CBB. I have offered the CBB just about all kinds of frozen foods including: mysis, baby brine, brine, clams, shrimp, blood worms. Any ideas? I am to the point where I am about to just keep offering it the mix of frozen foods I have until it starts eating them or I have to find it a new home.

 

As for the tank build, I removed the hood over my tank and purchased a hanging kit and suspended the light from the ceiling. I also bought some DIY screens and made screen top covers for the top of my tank. I don't know what I am going to do with the hood. I don't really have a place to store it. I thought I might use it to mount some LEDs in, but I think I would need to mount the LEDs further away from the tank than the hood will allow. Anyone looking for a low profile oak hood with a cherry stain (72 x 18) with vents on the top and open in the back? Any light you put under it would site about 1-2 inches above the top of the tank at the most. It's a nice top, but it's not easy to get into the tank with it.

 

I have several corals in the tank now. Mostly frags growing out, but I have mounted a couple of SPS. a Pink Poci colony that was dying off in my old tank, is completely turned around. I also have a green stag horn that I got to encrust on the rock nearby. I think the two will make a nice contrast with each other. I'll see if I can get a full tank shot tonight and post it up.

[icecool2]

If you didn't know they had ich until you saw visible signs you really should QT all of your fish. That means the parasite went through a full lifecycle. Best bet is to get all the fish out and run fallow.

[surf&turf]

Try some live black worms on the CBB, mine love's them. Mine also likes Jan's frozen food.

 

Once it gets use to taking food from you, mine eats out of my hand, it will try just about anything you put in front of it.

 

 

[Integral9]

Try some live black worms on the CBB, mine love's them. Mine also likes Jan's frozen food.

 

Once it gets use to taking food from you, mine eats out of my hand, it will try just about anything you put in front of it.

 

I'll see if I can find some of those. Did you get them at a bait shop or something? I haven't seen those at my LFSs.

[surf&turf]

I'll see if I can find some of those. Did you get them at a bait shop or something? I haven't seen those at my LFSs.

 

 

The LFS up this way have them, I'm sure someone down that way has them.

[trockafella]

Pristine Aquariums in Alexandria has them (blackworms). If thats to far Id be happy to grab them and you can grab them from me in fairfax.. Theyre pretty cheap and they give you a plentiful amount..

[Integral9]

Pristine Aquariums in Alexandria has them (blackworms). If thats to far Id be happy to grab them and you can grab them from me in fairfax.. Theyre pretty cheap and they give you a plentiful amount..

 

That's the one by the Post Office right? If so, my mom takes my kid to Gymboree next door when she watches him and he always asks her to "go fish store?" afterwards. I'll see if she can pick me up some.

 

Thanks for the offer though.

[Integral9]

I caugh my the powder brown last night and acclimated him and put him into QT. I didn't see any other infections in the tank so I am hoping the other fish can hold it off.

 

To catch the fish I had to build a screen out of egg crate and use it divide the tank so I could corner the powder brown. Unfortunately, I also had to take out most of the rock on that side of the tank and now my aquascape is a disaster. :-( I spent about 3 hours trying to put it back together w/out success, so now I am just trying to make an aquascape I can live with.

 

Also, in the process of trying to re-aquascape, rockslide, and I broke off a frag worthy piece of pink poci and a tiny bit of neon green staghorn. Although I think there is more, just hiding in the sand bed. But I had enough bristle worm bristles in my fingers by that point and I didn't want to go digging in the sand bed anymore. So I will tackle that again tonight.

 

Sorry guys, but I didn't feel like taking a tank pic after all that, it's hideous anyway. I'll put up a pic after I get the rocks stacked up again.

[trockafella]

That's the one by the Post Office right? If so, my mom takes my kid to Gymboree next door when she watches him and he always asks her to "go fish store?" afterwards. I'll see if she can pick me up some.

 

Thanks for the offer though.

 

 

Not sure if theres a post office. Its in Alexandria on pickett st

[Integral9]

That's it. Maybe the post office has moved. It used to be on your left in the corner of the strip mall if you are looking at the LFS.

[Integral9]

The rest of my fish are not showing any signs of infection. Woohoo, but I am confused about this hyposalinity treatment. I feel like I shouldn't be seeing anymore ich since: the water is now toxic to the invertabrate 1.008sg and there is no sand bed for them to reproduce in. However, it appears my hippo and powder brown are getting worse, not better. They have been in the tank at 1.008sg for 2 weeks now and the parasite seems to be getting stronger. uggh... I don't know what I am doing wrong, but if I don't start seeing some signs of improvement soon, I am really considering raising the sg back up to normal levels and starting a copper treatment. I would be very upset to loose another hippo. I've waited years before purchasing another one.

[Tracy G]

I did hypo before and kept it for 5 weeks. For the first 2 weeks I did see it get worse but then it improved pretty quick. They started perking up and still found some dead ich. I would wait it out if it was me as copper may cause more harm. Hypo also can lower the stress of a fish because less salt for them to have to balance. Just my 2 cents

[Integral9]

The fish are still eating well still, so I suppose I can wait a little longer. I am trying to get a pic of the hippo (worst looking) to post. I am concerned it may have developed velvet or something else as well. Saw some white stringy bits hanging off it and now it has some black spots (about pea sized). I am not sure what the black spots are, but the white stuff could be velvet or something else. I did put a piece of rock in the qt for the fish to scratch on (which they are, heavily). it had been sitting out of water for months and is about as dead as it comes. So I am thinking the black spot could be some over zealous scratching. the white stuff I am not sure about. saw it coming off the fish near the back of the dorsal fin, but it was gone before i could grab my camera.

[Integral9]

The ich is looking better today, but the hippo still has the white thing coming out of it's back near the back of the dorsal fin. And then there is the spot on it's side, could be excessive scratching?

Pics of my hippo (and powder brown)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

excess scratching?