NonSequitur

I asked my wife this question, and she wanted me to ask you what you mean by "love your tank." What is it that you want your wife to love about it? Comment on how it looks? Help with maintenance?

This coming from a wife who bought me my first tank, then immediately regretted it because that's all I would talk about for months on end. She actually insisted on me joining ARC so I would annoy someone else with my obsession.

Fast forward a year and a half, and she just suggested sticking around San Antonio for an extra hour so she could wait until her favorite fish store opened so we could get another skimmer to support the tank upgrade she just suggested I do. While we were there and I was deciding what to do skimmer-wise she picked out an urchin, and a new pistol shrimp so the watchman goby wouldn't be lonely since his shrimp died. She decided against a hippo tang after looking it up on her phone and deciding our tanks weren't big enough to keep it happy and healthy.

She attributes her change of heart to a few things. First, when I joined ARC and could "talk fish" with someone other than her it took the pressure off of her to listen to me babble on and on about water chemistry, filtration, etc. As the newness started to wear off I kept tinkering with the tank, but didn't obsess to the point of neglecting the family. Just when I thought she'd had it with the entire hobby I mentioned wanting to add a clownfish to my already overstocked 12gal tank she replied "No way, it'll spike your nitrates!"

Huh? She'd been listening all this time?

It was backing off, not pressuring her to love my tank, that actually let her start to enjoy it, along with putting things in the tank that she liked. The symbiotic pistol shrimp/watchman goby relationship fascinated her. SPS corals bored her, but colorful zoas, softies, and LPS were huge hits. And then she said the words every married reefer wants to hear: "You need a bigger tank."

And so our family has gone from a single resented 12gal to an interconected 90, 27, and 55gal system (plus multiple planted freshwater tanks), with her being an active part of tank care. I still service the skimmers, do water changes, etc, but she loves feeding the fish, watching to see how they're doing, seeing the interactions between creatures, she even noticed my lawnmower blenny was losing weight and rehabbed him to his former fat self.

I don't know if you're planning on coming to Austin any time soon, but if you end up in this area I'd be happy to give you some GSP, devil's hand leather, and anthelia (if I have any ready at the time).

I borrowed one from Jake at River City a few weeks ago, I think they charged something like $5, and I kept it for a week.

Mine really like the gunk that grows on the glass, so I've had good luck leaving the back glass un-scraped. Mine also seem to like nutrafin flakes as well as formula two flakes.

I did something very similar, set a 15gal acrylic wet/dry sump up as a remote DSB and refugium/mangrove filter. Drain flow from the tank is split, with part flowing through the fuge into the sump, the rest into the skimer chamber of the sump. Initially I used a separate return pump to lift water up to the fuge, then overflow it back to the sump, but after another flood from a broken siphon I redesigned the system to be completely gravity driven. Will post some pics later in the weekend when I finish moving everything around (upgrading the display).

pm sent

I'm stuck. I got my new 90gal delivered, set on its stand in the foyer. Two holes are drilled, the overflow box is made, but my wife hurt her hand and can't help me lay the tank on its side to drill the last hole or glue in the overflow box. If I can get the tank down onto the floor I can rotate it back and forth as needed to drill the last hole, attach the overflow box, etc., but I'm nervous trying to turn it by myself when it's on the stand.

Anyone in the GT area have a few mins to help me out in the next few days?

Thanks!

As far as DIY lighting, over my planted freshwater tank I'm running a 175w MH light hacked together from an Ikea aluminum fixture with the guts ripped out, replaced with a mogul socket. You'd just have to be careful to make sure the fixture that you retrofit is robust enough to handle the additional heat you'll be subjecting it to. The ballast came from the habitat for humanity re-store (they usually have at least a couple of 175-250w MH fixtures in there that you can gut for ballasts and possibly sockets). Then you'd just need a suitable lamp. I like Mark's advice about buying someone's used lamps for cheap to make sure you like the color before committing to spending the money on a new lamp. The look isn't quite as polished as the solana fixture, but if you're into DIY it can be done, and can be made to look good for a good bit less than a manufactured fixture.

I understand how that goes, just finished drilling my new tank, trying to get it all set up as well, but nothing seems to just work together, constantly having to tweak the design. I'm looking for $25 for it, just send me a PM (I'll probably forget to check this thread) if you decide to go with it.

I have a 30 breeder I'm looking to sell if that would work: 36x18x12. One side is painted blue, but it's in great shape otherwise.

So far I've had 3 anemones go through powerheads. The first was a condylactis, that didn't make it. The second two are GBTAs and are growing nicely and seem well on their way to recovery. The most important thing I learned was to reduce flow in the tank for a while after water changes, carbon, etc. Neither of mine seemed all that enthusiastic about attaching right after getting injured, so they spent a while bouncing around the tank until I significantly reduced the flow for a few days. That seemed to encourage them to find a place they liked and attach.

I checked the dimensions, and I'm pretty sure a 1" bulkhead won't fit, but thanks for the offer! I've called RCA to see if they have one to lend out, he is going to try and track it down, then call me back.

I'd like to use either 2 x 1.5" or maybe 3 x 1" drain lines, if you have them, otherwise I can call jake and see what he has.

Thanks!

I'd like to borrow a glass bit if anyone has one to lend. Going to drill the 90, and I'm concerned that if I order one today it won't get here before this weekend.

Or, if you know of someone in town that sells these bits that would be great too, just looking to stay local.

Please let me know.

Thanks!

Two, actually. The one on my tank has worked very well since I got it (which means It's probably due to malfunction any day now and will not be moving to my 90gal), but the one from my refugium to to my sump has been a pain, and will be replaced as soon as I get home.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm going to have to stick with the 90 (when I suggested going bigger my wife replied "I like the 90. You'll get bored with this one in a year or two, just plan on upgrading again then." Works for me!) To give the fish more swimming room, I'm going to reconfigure my rock situation. I'm going to move the rock from the 55 to the 90 (with new sand), add the 55 to my sump setup (plus my existing 37gal rubbermaid tub and 15gal fuge). This will let me ultimately add another 75+ lbs (probably more, as funds allow) of rock to to the sump to increase denitrification, yet keep the display tank as open as possible to allow for coral growth and fish swimming room.

A flood last night (lost about 15 gals) finally convinced me that I have to drill the new tank before I set it up, so now I'm pondering overflows. I came across the BeanAnimal Silent and Safe overflow deisgn:

http://www.beananima...low-system.aspx

Have any of you tried this setup? How did it work? Still using it? I vaguely remember seeing a post a while back, but a quick search didn't turn it up.

Thanks!

Edited: Removed a redundant question

The original plan was to go with a 125 or bigger, but a 4ft long tank is the biggest I could fit into the space I have

I finally decided to pull the trigger on an upgrade from my current 55 to a new 90 from RCA. My rabbitfish is rapidly outgrowing the current tank, and I picked up a sad little yellow tang at Petco last weekend (adopted him, he was failing to thrive and my wife and I felt sorry for him) that is currently in QT (and fattening up very nicely), but will need a bigger home soon as well.

Now i'm trying to come up with the best way to move everything and cause the least stress for everyone. I'm thinking of getting some rubbermaid tubs to store rock, sand, fish, etc in while I'm taking the old tank down and putting the new one in its place.

Any advice I should keep in mind while doing this swap?

Also, I have a 2+ft long eel in the tank. Any suggestions about the best way to move him without stressing him out too badly or getting bitten? A big net? Grasp him behind the head like you would a snake?

Thanks!

I've had a snowflake moray eel in my tank for just shy of a year, and he's quickly become one of my favorite fish. He's in there with a few chromis, a foxface rabbitfish, yellow watchman goby, and various CUC, including a coral banded shrimp and black brittle star that actually share his burrow. I've found that the my snowflake (we call him Joe) really doesn't bother his tankmates as long as I keep him well fed. I think he might have eaten one chromis when I first added him, but they're pretty stupid about taunting him.

I was talking with Jake at RCA a week or two ago and he was telling me that the eels in the front tank had eaten several several lionfish, I don't recall what else, but they pretty much ate whatever he put in the tank with them. I suppose a lot of it depends on the individual animal.

How are things looking now that you've addressed the salinity issue? Any more deaths/declines, or are things turning around?

I believe it is softer.. one of the reasons low iron glass tends to be significantly more expensive than garden variety glass is it is less durable and harder to keep intact through the manufacturing process.

I've seen people use clip-on 150w MH lights on tanks of this size (I think there's one listed in the for sale section if you're interested in going this route) , but that requires removing the tank lid. Nanotuners carries upgrade kits that allow you to run higher wattage PCs over your tank (a 96w upgrade if I recall correctly). My 12g aquapod was running on a 96w PC for a while before I took it down, it worked quite well, but I'm probably going to switch to LED when I bring it back up as a mantis tank.

I had a peacock mantis shrimp when I first got into the hobby, and plan on getting another in the near future. Definitely a cool creature. I never had a problem with mine hitting the glass, but I did have a cutting board trimmed down to cover the bottom of the tank, since that's what I've heard they're more likely to break while burrowing. As far as clean up crew, she would eat anything I put in there, regardless of how well fed she was, so I had to think of CUC as expendable, but it wasn't a big deal, just did extra water changes when she succeeded in breaking open a turbo snail and clouding up the water.

She absolutely did not like my hands near her burrow entrance, so I really had to be alert whenever working in that area of the tank, but anywhere else she didn't bother me, and I loved the "Feed Me Semour!" dance she did whenever I came near the tank, I can't know for sure, but it even seemed that she enjoyed coming out and entertaining the cats (I frequently saw multiple cats sitting in front of that tank watching).

I'm probably in.. need to get some snails to eat the hair algae off of the snails I put in to eat the hair algae.