Connor January 21, 2008 Share January 21, 2008 very nice, could you post a full tank shot so we can see what it all looks like together. Thanks, Connor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stratos21ss January 21, 2008 Share January 21, 2008 Dave - You are developing a very nice collection of corals and it is great the way you have documented their specifics and origins. Looking great! _Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lletellier January 22, 2008 Share January 22, 2008 went and saw this tank last night.. WOW nice work dave, can't wait to see it once it has had some time to grow. Also thanks for the frags! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 January 24, 2008 Author Share January 24, 2008 Connor, I'll take a FTS next time I'm down there with the camera. On a livestock update: One of the yellow tangs got sucked into the closed loop intake for my 8-way. I thought it was dead as one eye was completely sucked out of the socket and it was looking very dead. I turned the pump off and it didn't come off, so I was fairly certain it was dead. I used tongs to peel it off and then when I took it out of the tank it actually flapped its gill a bit. I took a look at it and one eye had been pulled all the way out of the socket and was extending the same distance that the other eye had been sunken into the skull, essentially, it was pulled all the way through. I pushed the eye that was sticking out back in and this pushed the other eye back into the socket as well. I then dropped it into the refugium so that it could die peacefully and it floated around and sank to the bottom. I went back to check on it a little while ago and to flush it, but it's now swimming upright, although I'm fairly certain that it'll be dead in the AM as the body showed a lot of abuse from the loop intake, including the flesh showing blood coming through on the loop intake side. We'll see if it makes it, but I'm guessing it's a goner. I offered it some mysis to see if it would eat, but no luck so far. One of the anthias is probably dead. It had a growth on its gill plate and it hadn't eaten since I bought it. I didn't notice the growth until after I got it home and into the system, but it looks like this killed it off. Not sure what it was, I was suspicious that it was a parasitic isopod, but I don't think it actually was. Anyway, the other two females are eating and out and about, but the male eats and then hides. He's living the American Dream, he eats, sleeps, and is surrounded by a harem of females! I haven't been able to get the blenny out. He's very suspicious of the trap and so I took it out tonight. It's a huge eyesore. I'll have to put it back in as he's decimating my population of snails by nailing them all the time and he's taking chunks out of my clams and needs to be removed, but I'm going to modify my trap and see if I can successfully get him out. What a pain... One of the clams that was looking especially bad has improved a tiny bit. It's not gaping as badly as it was. Perhaps the blenny has begun to leave it alone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antiguan January 24, 2008 Share January 24, 2008 (edited) Connor, I'll take a FTS next time I'm down there with the camera. On a livestock update: One of the yellow tangs got sucked into the closed loop intake for my 8-way. I thought it was dead as one eye was completely sucked out of the socket and it was looking very dead. I turned the pump off and it didn't come off, so I was fairly certain it was dead. I used tongs to peel it off and then when I took it out of the tank it actually flapped its gill a bit. I took a look at it and one eye had been pulled all the way out of the socket and was extending the same distance that the other eye had been sunken into the skull, essentially, it was pulled all the way through. I pushed the eye that was sticking out back in and this pushed the other eye back into the socket as well. I then dropped it into the refugium so that it could die peacefully and it floated around and sank to the bottom. I went back to check on it a little while ago and to flush it, but it's now swimming upright, although I'm fairly certain that it'll be dead in the AM as the body showed a lot of abuse from the loop intake, including the flesh showing blood coming through on the loop intake side. We'll see if it makes it, but I'm guessing it's a goner. I offered it some mysis to see if it would eat, but no luck so far. One of the anthias is probably dead. It had a growth on its gill plate and it hadn't eaten since I bought it. I didn't notice the growth until after I got it home and into the system, but it looks like this killed it off. Not sure what it was, I was suspicious that it was a parasitic isopod, but I don't think it actually was. Anyway, the other two females are eating and out and about, but the male eats and then hides. He's living the American Dream, he eats, sleeps, and is surrounded by a harem of females! I haven't been able to get the blenny out. He's very suspicious of the trap and so I took it out tonight. It's a huge eyesore. I'll have to put it back in as he's decimating my population of snails by nailing them all the time and he's taking chunks out of my clams and needs to be removed, but I'm going to modify my trap and see if I can successfully get him out. What a pain... One of the clams that was looking especially bad has improved a tiny bit. It's not gaping as badly as it was. Perhaps the blenny has begun to leave it alone... So sorry to hear that, Dave :( . How do you prevent something like this from happening again with a CL? Edited January 24, 2008 by Antiguan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 January 24, 2008 Author Share January 24, 2008 Not sure... I already split the feeds into two different strainers, I guess the next step would be to split it even more, but I already buried the feeds behind the rock. They're not too difficult to get to, but I am not convinced that it would be very easy. The tang died, by the way, I guess having your eyeball sucked out through your opposite eye socket and having your guts sucked through your skin was too much for it... certainly not the way I expected things to happen with this fish! Did some routine maintenance again, too, and cleaned out the kalk stirrer... it was practically a solid chunk of kalk at the bottom... I decided to go with less kalk in the stirrer at a time and added 3 cups versus 4 cups which I normally add. The fluidized kalk extends over halfway up the column, but this is actually a good thing. Hopefully it stays at that level and doesn't pack down again. I'm constantly experimenting with how much to put in and what speed to mix it at. Tested the effluent, too, and it's at around 11.5 or 12.00 pH while the effluent from the calcium reactor is actually fairly high compared to the pH inside the reactor. It's over 8 while the pH inside is at around 7.5 give or take .1 (inconsistent needle valve and the solenoid is non-functional). Also, I noticed quite a bit of growth on some of the corals. There are many new spots of growth on the purple monster and also on the green/turning purple stag. The Christmas Acro is also fully recovered and the frags are all encrusted while there is a lot of growth on the various tort looking frags. Still no luck in catching the blenny, decided to reduce the size of the "trap" to 1" PVC with an elbow. I poured mysis into the tube and enticed him to eat from it so I'm hoping that he ends up inside it so I can pull him out. It's not as obtrusive and I can leave it in the tank until I'm ready to pull him out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 January 27, 2008 Author Share January 27, 2008 Updates on the blenny eating machine... he sticks his head into the feeding tube but hasn't gone into it completely. Hopefully this happens soon... he has now officially killed one clam and multiple snails. Anyway, one of the corals fell over so I did some rearranging tonight (no idea how it will look tomorrow as the lights were going off one by one as I was doing this) and decided that I'd move the remaining clams into holes in the rock so he can't get to their byssal glands. Some of the corals also got moved in order to optimize the space I've got. I also had to remove the anemone from one of the closed loop feeds. I added a chunk of rock to block it from going in there again, hopefully it works out. I may build a wall all the way around this anemone so that I can stock some SPS on that side of the tank as well. On growth... some of these corals are really taking off. There is noticeable growth from just a day ago when I was looking at the corals with Lee/vaironman. We were looking at one coral in particular, the purple stag, and since he was here on Friday night, the tips have grown about 1/2 cm or more. I need to get a scraper for the glass and then I'll take a full tank shot. Gotta time things right for when the lights are on, the kids are asleep, I'm not drooling from being so tired, and I have all of my grading done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 January 29, 2008 Author Share January 29, 2008 Caught the blenny tonight. Last night he would dart out of the tube every time I got close to it, but tonight he retreated into it when I put a pipe down there near the entrance to the pipe. I then lifted the pipe out while blocking the hole and transferred him into the frag tray where he was before. I'll see what damage if any he does in there, and possibly leave him in there if he doesn't damage anything. He only was eating snails and clams, and since there's only about 3 or 4 snails in that system, it should be easy to monitor. The clams already look much happier and are spreading their mantles out nice and wide. They all have funny looking white dots all over, though, from where he bit them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lletellier January 29, 2008 Share January 29, 2008 good to hear you caught the demon fish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Connor January 29, 2008 Share January 29, 2008 congrats, hope your clams recover nicely. Connor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaironman January 30, 2008 Share January 30, 2008 A really happy congratulation Dave. You got the devil after all. Stress free!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 February 2, 2008 Author Share February 2, 2008 Today is the day I actually begin building the wall. I've got a small pile of lumber down there (hopefully enough...) and most of my tools have been moved down there as well do do the construction. I'm going to start the building today and hopefully will have some panels hung by this afternoon so that I can start on taping some of the joints. I also couldn't resist as I was out in Ashburn so I stopped by F&F and grabbed some corals. I'll try and take pictures of them later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 February 2, 2008 Author Share February 2, 2008 ARRGGHH!!! Was thinking to myself, "this is too good to be true!" as I tried to catch a gorilla crab that was sitting on the bottom of the tank, maliciously eying me from a shadow. So I reached down and scooped him up as quickly as possible... just a shed. I'll have to see what I can do to catch this one. Hasn't done any harm that I can see as of yet, but why chance it? Maybe I should put the devil fish back in so he can do a search and destroy mission! Still trying to work on the wall today, caught whatever bug is going around since I work in a petri dish and it had me pretty worn down this afternoon, but the Tylenol cold is kicking in and I'm feeling better. Time to get to work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 February 3, 2008 Author Share February 3, 2008 Just finished framing the tank out. I'll try and take a picture when I wake up and it's daylight... in about 30 minutes. Ugh. Will hang the drywall later today and so the only thing remaining will be the mud and tape and then putting up a facade on the tank and putting cabinet doors on it for access from the front. Not convinced that I am going to do this, so I may end up just putting drywall up for the time being and put the cabinet facing over that. Not sure... I do most of the access from the front right now, and am thinking that I'll still need that access once I am done with everything, but I'd also like to have a nice clean look on the front with no cabinets since I have never done it and am a bit intrepidated by the whole project... maybe just some false panels that I can remove would work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin February 3, 2008 Share February 3, 2008 My question is what on earth were you doing at 4:46am working on a fishtank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 February 3, 2008 Author Share February 3, 2008 My question is what on earth were you doing at 4:46am working on a fishtank? Took a nap yesterday when I was not feeling well and started working at around 7PM. I knew it was after 1AM when all of the lights turned off, but by that time I was far enough in that I just wanted to finish the major framing, so I did. That's pretty much my life... I can't get started on anything typically until after about 9 or 10 because of work and the kids, so I work late into the night. Weekends are always upside down for me, especially when there's housework to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 February 3, 2008 Author Share February 3, 2008 There's a wall! I still need to do the mud and joints, but the wall is up and the tank is enclosed except where the lighting and the stand is. I will be installing the fan and a register or feed to the furnace and then hopefully the temperature will drop in that room. For those that use external air, what do you do to the air before it comes in? I was thinking of drawing air from the outside into the room, but what is the effect of this? Do you use an air dryer or purifier? Run it through a filter? I'll try and finally get that elusive shot tonight of the full tank and the wall. I'll also try and install the UV and my own versions of "canister" filters for both carbon and phosphate remover. The last step will be to frame in the tank and allow front access with cabinetry... thinking of how I can twist Bob's arm to get him to make a facade and cabinet doors for me now that he has shown everyone how much of an artisan he is with Mohsin's tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 February 4, 2008 Author Share February 4, 2008 Just finished taping all of the vertical seams and a few corners on the drywall so I am going to post a few pictures from before I made a mess of the place... This is starting to really color up. I couldn't get the colors to show up on the photo, but it's now lime green at the tips and getting much more intense with each day. If you look at these three clams, they have all been victimized by the devil blenny. You can clearly see the white spots where he took out chunks of their mantles on some of these pictures. Here's a coral I got at F&F. Sean was trying to save it from STN, so I picked it up and am trying to see what I can do with it. It hasn't lost any tissue since I moved it into my system and I gave it a 30 minute iodine dip and then a 6 hour interceptor dip. I also removed three small oysters that were inside the branches and removed the commensal crab for the dip and then put it back afterwards. I will dip it again if I start to see any tissue fading. Hard to tell, though, as some of the branches are white anyway. The efflo from Doug. It's starting to grow a little bit. Here's the promised full tank shot for Connor. I'll have to get a larger photo host so I can display the picture with more detail. Here's a lime green milli that I picked up at F&F. Sean said it used to be blue and was slowly becoming blue again in the frag system. It has a blue rim and some blue tips, but I'm hoping it actually stays this lime green. Here's the porites from Doug. It's starting to grow in several places. It'll be interesting to see what shape it takes on as it's in constant flow. I moved this one up to the top and all the way over so that it gets better light and more current. I'm hoping it becomes a nice center piece for that side of the tank. Here's a shot of the little green milli frag I got at BRK. It stopped growing when I moved it into more light, but I'm hoping that it has now adjusted and that it starts to grow again. Lots of little white tips on this guy, it apparently likes what I'm doing and where it's at. This is also growing a lot. You can see all the white tips. It also has purpled up and the polyps are another color (reddish? pink? can't tell with my color blindness to certain combinations). Here's the pink milli I got from Dr. Mac. It is definitely turning very deep red and the polyps are finally starting to extend. Here's a tri-color or valida (not sure which) that has been moved all over the place. I think this is its final resting place and it's starting to color up in appreciation. Another shot of the turaki. It also got moved and it appears to be doing pretty well where I put it. Not sure what this one is, but here's a shot of it anyway! Not sure what this one is either. It was from Mr. Coral and it's starting to turn very green. Not sure what color it will end up as. Another unknown from Doug. I'll have to bug him to tell me what everything is. Same thing... Here's another Valida. And here's the wall I built, before I put the mud and tape on. From the other side of the room. Only thing left is to put the facade on the tank so I can have access from the front. Here's an unknown bleached/browned out coral from F&F. I really like getting these pieces to see what they turn out to be. It had a pinkish tone to it and now it's got a tan tone to it since adding it to the tank. It's fairly high up, but towards the back and in between lights so it's not going to get overpowered (I hope). It'll be fun watching what color it turns out as! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaironman February 4, 2008 Share February 4, 2008 (edited) Looks very nice with the dry wall up. Saw you put in lots of efforts finishing up your project. Almost seeing the finish line...... Edited February 4, 2008 by vaironman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Connor February 4, 2008 Share February 4, 2008 Great tank, the wall also looks really good. Connor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zotzer February 4, 2008 Share February 4, 2008 Great job on the wall Dave....and I love your aquascaping!! Tracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanman February 12, 2008 Share February 12, 2008 Looking good! And you still have that Rube Goldberg system back behind the wall?? bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 February 13, 2008 Author Share February 13, 2008 Thanks Bob, and yes, the crazy stacking is still going on behind the scenes. Since you visited I have replumbed (I think it was in the old set up when you came) the two trays and also moved the frag tray over so that I could put a dehumidifier on the top shelf to drip into the sink. The next step for me is to finish off the cabinetry (not gonna do this one alone, too much craftsmanship involved!) and also hook up the exhaust fan and tap into a couple of different areas of the house to exhaust it (I plan on having the ability to switch between three options - one is venting to the supply for the HVAC, another is venting directly into the basement as the only heat register, and the last is venting outside during summer months to get the heat out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lletellier February 14, 2008 Share February 14, 2008 Looking good! And you still have that Rube Goldberg system back behind the wall?? bob hahaha good call bob Looking great dave! you will now be able to work your madness behind closed door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmubeach February 14, 2008 Share February 14, 2008 Wow I've been missing out you caught the deamon fish and built a wall:) very nice tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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