Aaarrrggg's 144g Half Circle

[Robb in Austin]

It's not so much damp foundations as it is drying and then moisturizing the soil surrounding the home. East of I35 a prehistoric river(Colorado?) dumped a hug amount of silt and clay as it emptied and for those of us on it are really screwed. The clay shrinks and swells and causes foundation issues. Most of west Austin is on limestone which doesnt have that same problem.

[Juiceman]

The other thing you have to remember is that even when the float switch stops the rodi water from being made, the supply line is still pushing and sending it all through the waste line. So you might get a valve on the intake and out take to turn one when you want to make water to refill, and turn off when you don't need it to make water. just a thought, that's one thing I didn't know when I added that same type of float switch in my resevoir.

[bimmerzs]

The float switch turns the RO/DI unit on as soon as it sinks -ie immediately. Someone on another thread has just pointed out that this is actually a bad thing because RO/DI units don't operate as well for small amounts. Blast... going to have to look at a 2 float switch setup (with max-min water lvls)... or maybe something that stops water flowing to the RO/Di unit for set periods of time...? In the meantime I'm going to start turning the water on/off under sink so the water lvl in the RO tank can drop a little more in between top-ups.

Yup....quick cycling a ro/di unit is not so good, may be a good idea to check the tds of the water in your reservoir. It's a good idea to check tds in your reservoir as over time it seems to buildup. I check mine at each filter change and give it a vinegar bath if necessary.

Cheers,

[afgun]

The other thing you have to remember is that even when the float switch stops the rodi water from being made, the supply line is still pushing and sending it all through the waste line. So you might get a valve on the intake and out take to turn one when you want to make water to refill, and turn off when you don't need it to make water. just a thought, that's one thing I didn't know when I added that same type of float switch in my resevoir.

If you have a one-way and an auto-shutoff valve (I didn't see one in the pics above) that will shut off the supply when the float valve closes. That's what I have today.

[Aaarrrggg]

The float switch I have must have one of those auto-shutoff valves because the RO/DI unit stops spitting out any water (waste and RO) when the water reservoir is full. I've turned the water off at under the sink for the time being so it can get a bit emptier before it fills up again. I need to find a better long term solution for that though.

Grim wisely set the dual TDS meter up so I can have the option of moving the "OUT" sensor to measure the RO coming from the water tank, which will help me keep an eye on it. It's been a little dirtier than I'd like, but that's probably from the small bit of tapwater that was stuck in the bottom when I drained them after the leak test. I'll be sure to keep a close eye on it, thanks for the warning bimmerzs!

I fixed the wet foundation problem! Here's Bandit inspecting my work...

I'll move the tube about every time I go out there to collect the dogs toys, -Krypto (the Boston Terrier) has a habit of taking all the toys outside and leaving them there to get rained on...

[Aaarrrggg]

I've been testing the nitrate and it's finally starting to fall! (20 instead of 30)

I thought I'd celebrate by releasing Guybrush & Marley into the big tank!!

I pulled Marley's beloved faux-nemone out first and placed it on "nem forest to be" pillar. Then I scooped both clowns out. Guybrush proved true to his name and was far more resourceful at eluding capture, but I got him in the end. When I added them to the 144g Marley dove straight into her fake anemone!

Guybrush swam to the side of the tank and looked a bit lost, but after about 10mins she found him and they went exploring together...

She'd only leave the comfort of her anemone for a little while before returning to it... so she definitely considers it her host. I managed to get a vid of her behavior, (excuse the noise in the background, hubby was making dinner.) This was shot about 15mins after they were added to the tank.

They've had 3 nights in the big tank now and for some reason Marley has elected to leave the anemone and sleep near the sandbed with Guybrush... which is odd because the main time she used the anemone in the nano was to sleep. I suspect it might be the Radion moonlights causing it. At the moment they don't have a lunar cycle like the AI Sols did, so they are quite bright at nighttime. I'm going to have another play with the settings and see if I can get the brightness down. Still, I take it as a good sign that she wants to sleep next to Guybrush.

As time wares on they've been getting braver, exploring more and more of the tank. Being tank bred fish I recon they must think this is "That Ocean Place" the other wild caught fish have told them so much about! They certainly seem pleased with their new digs... I just hope they won't mind when they get some roommates!

Speaking of roommates... I got to cash in my first Christmas fish token! Say hello to my new Bangaii Cardinals; Isaac & Miria!

A HUGE thanks to o0zarkawater for the tip! He msged me to say these 2 beauties had just been traded in at RCA when he was there. They're tank bred and were spawning in the previous owners tank. It was only a half hr until they closed but luckily we live pretty close, so we sped over there to grab them. It was so unexpected and exciting!! MUCH more fun (and cheaper!) than ordering from Divers Den! This community is the best!

They're in my nano now which will be my QT for the time being. They were pretty nervous of me until I offered them some frozen mysis. Wow can cardinals really move when they want too! Now we're best buds and they keep coming to the front to see if I have more treats for them. Gotta love tank bred fish hehe!

I've been reading up Bangaii cardinal breeding. Did you know they're actually on the endangered species list?? That's pretty crazy! I hope I can help the wild population by raising some babies myself.

[Aaarrrggg]

ARGH... my reef junkie tendencies are showing again...

...but before I open the box, I need to do an update.

The LiterMeter has been running for 2 weeks now and I'm very impressed with it. I loooove not having to do manual water changes! (...and the hardwood floor loves it too! Tip for husbands; if you want your wife to sign off on an automatic water changer, just point out how much less water will end up on the floor!)

When the SW reservoir gets down to around 35g it starts splashing; which is a perfect reminder for me to top it up. I turn the taps to fill it back up with FW, dump in some salt and let the pump do the mixing. So far I've been leaving the LiterMeter on during all of this. If I was mixing the whole 50g up I'd turn it off, but as it's less than half the tank I figure it's probably OK to allow it to keep drawing water. By the time water gets to the aquarium its probably going to be pretty well mixed in the tube anyway... and even if it isn't, it's such a small amount I doubt it will notice. I guess it could cause some damage if I left it running unsupervised indefinitely, but with occasional checkups it's easy to keep an eye on things and correct accordingly.

SG has kept steady at 1.025 and Nitrates have fallen somewhere between 10-20ppm (hard to tell exactly on those color test kits.) I had thought getting the salt mix amounts right would be more of a pain, but it's turned out to be pretty forgiving. The storage tanks helpfully have the gallon amounts marked on the sides, so I can guesstimate the amount of salt needed. I test it later on and if it's slightly off I just add a little more salt or water. I'm getting pretty good at it now and I can usually get it right first time.

The only hiccups have been:

1. Sump lvl seemed to be going down more than it should. I worried it might have somehow been removing more than it was putting in, so I recalibrated everything just to be sure. I also upped potential amount of RO that can be pumped per day. One or other of these things seemed to do the trick and the sump lvl now only varies about an 1". (The way the sensor tube works, the water has to fall a little before it allows the pump back on again, so there's always going to be a little movement.
   
2. One time I found the LiterMeter was switched itself off. Turns out I didn't have the controller sensor tube up high enough and it had shut everything down. It's worth mentioning to anyone else setting this up that you should make sure the water has to rise about an inch before turning off the LiterMeter. The sensor tube needs the water lvl to fall a little before it turns back on; so if it accidentally turns off in the constant lvl of the sump, you're going to have to loose quite a lot of water before it comes back on again, (that's a lot of evap!) Lesson learned: I moved the sensor tube higher and it hasn't been a problem since.
   

As per forum feedback (thanks internetz! ) I added a few bits to the fish cupboard to make it more efficient. Shown here are:

Top: Reverse Osmosis System Flush Valve Kit

Bottom: JG 1/4 inch x 1/4 inch Union Ball Valve

RO/DI unit with new bits added:

The Ball Valve goes in between the RO/DI unit output and the float switch. When I close the valve the back pressure shuts off the whole RO/DI unit (no more reaching under the sink, yay!) Rather than letting the float switch constantly top off the freshwater tank with tiny splashes of (increasingly dirty) RO; now I just flip this switch and shut the whole thing off. Once the RO tank is empty enough, I open the valve and let it fill back up. The float switch prevents it from overflowing and I just need to remember to turn it back off again when it's full.

The flush valve goes on the waste water (yellow) line. After I've made a batch of RO I open the flush valve for 20s. This allows the waste water to bypass the flow restrictor and rush though the system, pulling any crud and impure water with it. I'm learning so much about RO units!

[Aaarrrggg]

Isaac & Miria (Bangaii Cardinals) have been coming out of their shells in QT. They're quite picky eaters, but will happily except the larger meaty bits in frozen food, especially when it whizzes by them in the current. When my father-in-law met them he said they look like "Italian Piranhas!"

They were spitting out more food than I liked, so I started spicing it up with a little Garlic Xtreme & Selcon.

That was a big hit and now they rush to the front to see me!

I noticed one of them looked a little pinker than the other. You can kind of see it in the following picture; the left one has a slightly darker body than the right one (it's a more pronounced in person)

At first I thought something might be wrong, but after researching it turns out that it could be a sign the female is getting ready to lay eggs!

Now that it was easier to tell them apart (and they were readily coming over to say "Feed me Garlic!") I started noticing more differences. The (presumed) male is slightly smaller and has longer dorsal fins. Apparently males often have longer dorsal fins, although not always.

In comparison the (presumed) female's dorsal fins look blunted.

She's also more feisty and keeps having amusing bouts of "shadow boxing" with her reflection! This is in line with the male/female roles; as female has to defend her chap while he's busy holding the eggs/fry in his mouth.

This is my first time QTing and it must say it's surprisingly fun! You get to know the new fish a little better (and them you!) and it's exciting to look forward to the release date. It does suck having to go 4 weeks before purchasing anything else, but it feels good doing it the "right way" at last (there was only so long I could have gotten away with being lucky!)

Speaking of new purchases, it looks like I'm going to have to pass on the Blue Spotted Jawfish. I knew they needed deep sand for a burrow, but I had thought they were like Pistol Shrimp / Gobies which dig sideways; allowing the hole be quite deep in relatively shallow sand. Alas, this is not the case for Jawfish; who prefer to build their burrows straight down in 6" of sand (4" in a pinch.) There's no way my sand is anywhere near that depth, so bye bye Blue-Spot...Bah! Being responsible can suck sometimes!

[Aaarrrggg]

Time to find out what's lurking in the box!

Ta da! It's a Pellet Reactor Kit from Dr Tim's Aquatics!

• Bashsea Pellet Master Reactor
  
• 500ml of NP-Active Pearls
  
• 8oz bottle of "Waste-Away" bacteria
  
• Rio Hyperflow pump
  

What brought this on? Well my nano has been getting a bit of nuisance algae of late (the long filaments you can see in the cardinal pics) and it's got me thinking about nutrient control in the big tank. I had looked into algae scrubbers, but was ultimately put off by them needing a light. Even if I didn't have the problem with the glass cabinet doors letting light out, I still don't like the idea of having a light in the sump -from both an electricity bill and safety standpoint.

Enter the pellet reactor! Which is essentially the same as an algae scrubber, but utilizing bacteria instead. The pellets provide a home and food source for the bacteria, which consume nitrates and phosphates from the water as they grow (just like chaeto.) The protein skimmer then removes any fattened bacteria that drift out into the water, taking the nutrients they've eaten with them (equivalent of trimming chaeto.)

This is my first reactor of any kind and I was excited to get my hands on it. It feels very sturdy and it even has Dr Tim's logo etched into the top, which I thought was a nice touch.

The only thing that didn't come with the kit was the tubing... which led me to the awesome discovery that they sell all kinds of tubing on Amazon Prime! I went for White Silicone Tubing (1/2" ID) The instructions say you have to build up to the correct dose of pellets over the course of a few weeks, so I only put a little in to start with.

Ignition!

I'm no expert, but the pellets appear to be tumbling really well. As the reactor is new there was a bit of air trapped inside, but after a few hours (and some shaking) all the pellets you can see stuck at the top, sank down to join the rest. As per the instructions, I squirted a few turkey basters full of "Waste-Away" into the reactor pump. Apparently that should help things get kick started. It says to add it for 3-4 days, but as it's only a 8oz bottle, there's actually only enough for 2 days. I'm a little miffed there isn't more provided for the larger kit, (the small one has the same 8oz bottle,) but I'm not in any particular hurry, so it doesn't really matter... I figure I'll just spread what I have out over a few days instead.

The pump started out VERY loud. I shook all the bubbles out and left it a day to settle in, but it was still noticeable over everything else (skimmer, return etc.) I was all ready to send it back, but as a last resort I moved it from where it was (chamber after the skimmer,) to the fuge and after a day in there it finally quietened down. I think microbubbles from the skimmer must have been collecting in it and rattling around.

While I was under the hood I decided to sort out some issues with the skimmer. Lately it hasn't been skimming as well as I'd like. The water lvl has needed to be up higher than the recommended max lvl to stop it uploading it's residue before it reaches the cup. I've come to the conclusion this is due to 2 things:

1. The gate valve is under the water lvl. In the instructions it says it's "recommended" that it's kept above the water. It doesn't go into specifics on why this is, but I'm thinking it could be causing some of the problem
   
2. The pump has rubber feet that keep slipping through the gaps in it's eggcrate shelf; causing it to sit as a bit of a funny angle.
   

The space saving skimmer is kind of annoying because the pump has to dock into an opening on the bottom of the skimmer. It's quite a loose fit, so after you wrestle the skimmer into position in it's (barely big enough) chamber, the pump has a tendency to slip out... and once the skimmer is in place there's absolutely no way to squeeze your hands in there to adjust the pump position.

To fix issue number one I used larger pipes to raise the skimmer another couple of inches. The second problem was solved by a usefully sized tupperware lid. It happened to fit perfectly into the base of the skimmer; holding the pump in place and giving it a better surface to rest on, (it's even red to match!) It's been skimming much better since.

Here's how the sump is looking now:

I think my next purchase will be a carbon reactor. I'm hoping I might be able to plumb it into one of the return lines, but I may just chicken out and get yet another pump.

[Teresa]

Love the updates with pictures, details on solutions to problems and the suspense of waiting to hear what's in the box!!!!! Very cool.

[Aaarrrggg]

Thanks!

I find out almost everything aquatic from forums, so I try to include all the stuff I find interesting in other peoples build "advnetures!"

[Aaarrrggg]

Well I had a bit of a disaster yesterday...

It's hard to make out in the pics, but the floor is covered in about 1/2" of water. It completely floaded the utility room and extended into most of the surrounding rooms, although thankfully not too far into each.

It actually could have been a lot worse if it wasn't for this blog, as I discovered the leak when I came downstairs to snap a few pics for this update!! I heard a weird sloshing sound and opened the utility room door to find the RO/DI unit was spraying water all over the place! Not good!

After some mopping up, I investigated the RO/DI unit to find that a couple of tubes had come loose. One of them was part of the flush valve, so I dismantled it and discovered that it had TWO flow restrictors! The online instructions had said to add my RO/DIs flow restrictor to the flush valve, but unbeknownst to me, my valve already had a flow restrictor at the other end!! Perhaps the instructions were out of date? I removed the excess one and put it all back together again.

I have no idea if that was the cause of the leak (pressure build up?) or if I was just careless putting everything back together again, but needless to say I made double (triple!) sure all the tubes were pushed in as far as they could go this time around. Since then I've been obsessively checking for leaks... I really don't trust it now.

Another mini crisis was averted earlier in the day. I was checking on the skimmer in the morning when the LiterMeter happened to kick in and pump some new SW into the sump. As it did its thing, the skimmer began to pour water into the collection cup! The pressure of the new water entering the skimmer chamber must have been enough to raise the skimmer lvl. I moved the fresh SW and RO tubes to the next chamber along, so hopefully that won't be a problem anymore.

The last issue of the day; my SG is pushing 1.026. Not the worst SG in the world, but still up from where it was at 1.025... which means something is off. I'm going to recalibrate the LiterMeter tomorrow. I was lazy and didn't recalibrate after adding the longer tubing outside, so hopefully that's all it is.

Oh, while I'm on the subject of the waterchanger, I finally added the last part; a Drain Saddle Adapter

I didn't talk about it before because I forgot to buy it when we first set the waterchanger up. This clamp plumbs the RO/DI waste line directly into the sink drain.

Red line = RO/DI waste to sink drain

White line = sink water to RO/DI unit (I'm assuming a copper fitting is OK to use here as it's before the RO/DI unit? Please correct me if I'm wrong!)

[Aaarrrggg]

I had to order some meds for the dogs from Dr Fosters and Smith, so I used the free shipping as an excuse to grab an Azoo Micro Temp Controller.

I plugged in both of my heaters (it can control up to 3) and placed the probe in the sump. I left the temp at 26°C... no point in fighting the default if it resets in a power outage. I stuck the control unit high up on the inside of the cabinet, so it can't normally be seen, but if I crouch I can easily read the current temp glowing through the glass doors. I'm starting to really like my see-through doors! It certainly makes keeping an eye on the equipment easier.

In my quest to achieve the perfect dark fuge I went a little nutty...

I gotta have more shower poufs!

There was a deal on Amazon for a 12 pack, so I thought what the heck... if I'm going to make a go of this fake chaeto stuff then I might as well go all in. Now granted, they could become somewhat of a nitrate trap, but hopefully the pellet reactor will be able to deal with that.

Speaking of nitrates, they're now somewhere between 5-10ppm... which is great considering I've upped the feeding to about 1/2 a cube of frozen a day (previously it was ~3rd, every other day.) I'm traditionally pretty stingy with feeding, but as I want both clowns and cardis to get their "groove on," I've been forcing myself to be more generous. I saw some folks on here talking about the EHEIM auto-feeder and thought one might be a good idea to provide the tank with a quick morning snack (and feed when I forget to!)

After programming it (easy!) and filling it with some crushed up flake food, I positioned it in the canopy at the front of the tank.

(View from back of tank looking towards front)

I set a test time and waited excitedly for the feeder to turn on. After about a minute it rotated and tipped in some flake food, which proceeded to go straight down the overflow.... D'oh! Maybe flake isn't the best stuff to put in it!?

I've been considering getting some Anthias and saw someone mention successfully feeding them New Life Spectrum 1mm pellets... so I'll probably go with some of that for the auto-feeder. Here's hoping they might sink a little better... or at least be easier for the fish to spot before they get sucked down the overflow.

[Aaarrrggg]

There's not a huge amount to report with the actual tank.

One great thing about Radion lights, which I haven't seen anyone else mention, is the different light colors highlight different things on the rocks (CSI style!) There's a point in my lighting schedule where the blues come down and white & red ramps up to mimic the sunrise/sunset. Although it doesn't look as pretty as the usual blue/white LEDs, it's one of my favorite times of day to take a closer look at the tank because its much easier to differentiate between the colors on the rock. At the moment they're mainly green, but there's definitely some spots of purple coralline coming in:

Incidentally all those white sponge tubes I had growing in the shadows have all vanished. Pity, I liked them once I knew they weren't hydroids!

The sand in the middle towards the back (lowest flow) is getting a light fuzz of cyano, but it's barely noticeable. Here's hoping it's just a phase and not an omen of things to come.

The bangaii cardinals are on week 3 of QT and I'm totally smitten with them. I had no idea cardinals could have so much character! Even when I'm too far away to tell the difference between them physically, I know which is which just by the way they act. The female is really pushy, either leading the way or shadow-boxing the glass... whereas the male is much more chilled out.

(Male left, Female right)

Both of their posterior dorsal fins has been growing longer. I'm not sure how they got them chopped off in the first place (the move? Vortech?) but they seem to be looking better everyday.

Male (with easily identifiable flap on his front dorsal fin)

Female (pinker and usually in front when they swim together)

Still no eggs, but the female has continued to do her little dance in front of the male. It's usually just before feeding time though, and right up against the glass where I sit in the lounge; so I'm beginning to wonder if it's for my benefit.

I'm a little worried by the weird white bump on the female's lower lip. If I didn't know better I'd say she's got some mysis stuck on it. I only noticed it today; I'm really hoping she's just bashed herself on the glass with all her boxing.

Lumps permitting... I'm looking forward to their release into the big tank next week (31st!) I still haven't figured out who I'm getting next. I know I want a mandarin and possibly a (less nippy!) flame angel, but I need to wait for them (mandy needs a mature tank and flame angel should be the last thing added.)

I'm tempted by some orange firefish, but from what I've read they prefer to be single or in a confirmed pair... which is tricky because they aren't sexually dimorphic. At this rate my tank is going to be the Noah's Arc of reef tanks!

I'm also considering a blenny of some sort... but as blennies usually don't tolerate firefish, I really need to decide who I want more. Any suggestions welcome!

[bige]

You have done a great job documenting your journey. Thanks for all the pics and updates. I like getting all the info. Thanks! Sorry for the flood but you are well on your way to one great system.

[Aaarrrggg]

Thanks bige! I do feel funny at times stopping to take a photo of everything, but I hate writing about anything without a picture to go with it. In fact I'm so predictable with it now that when we came downstairs to water everywhere my hsuabnd turned to me and said "Before we clean this up do you want to take a picture...?"

[Aaarrrggg]

...and they're IN!

There was a bit of a scuffle when Guybrush (♂ Clown) and Miria (♀ Cardi) went for the same piece of food ...score 1 Cardis... but other than that, things went smoothly. In the last few days Guybrush has even taken to swimming alongside the Cardis and Marley has been letting them surprisingly close to her nem. Yay!

The lump on Miria's lip went back down, but now she has a similar white blemish on her left pectoral fin:

Not really sure what's going on there, but she's swimming fine and eating like a pig, so hopefully it will just go away on it's own.

Since the cardis left the nano, the pod population has EXPLODED! The glass is crawling with big fat isopods! (Pardon the dirty glass, I've been leaving it unscrubbed so I don't disturb them.)

I've started periodically harvesting them with a small net (not easy!) and transferring what I can catch into the sump of the 144g. I hope my one-day mandarin will appreciate the effort!!

Speaking of mini-critters; time for a "Where are they now...?" IPSF critter update!

Bristle worms - I'm sure they're being creepy in there somewhere...

Pods - Spotted this large Amphipod last week hitching a ride from a dwarf cerith.

If I move the shower poufs around in the sump I notice a definite increase in pods in the DT about a minute later, so I *think* the fake chaeto is working.

Spaghetti Worms - These guys will squirm out of the sand in various places. Here's one (some?) that breached next to a dwarf cerith:

Sandbed clams - MIA but presumably they're still munching their way around the sandbed.

Nerite Snails - There's still a few of these guys around but I've noticed quite a few empty shells too. It's possible they starved due to the tank being quite new.

Strombus Grazers - These guys are GREAT! I haven't noticed any dead ones and they are always cleaning. From the way they look I'd assumed they would be mainly in the sand with the nassicais snails, but they love cleaning the glass. They never get stuck upside down and apparently there's a good chance they'll breed in the tank! The perfect snail! Highly recommended!

Image from http://home.comcast....fxe/inverts.htm

Micro/Zebra Hermits - Still love these little guys! They're really fast and get all over the place.

Comet/Asterina Stars - I see them from time to time.

Mini Brittle Stars - I haven't seen any of these guys but I guess they'd be pretty well camouflaged against the rocks. I hope they're doing OK.

Large Bristle Star - Stayed by the first rock it crawled under for weeks, but I just realized while writing this that it's not there anymore.

[Aaarrrggg]

I've been mulling over what fish to get next. I was getting close to pulling the trigger on a Midas Blenny, but then I realized it was just because I was pining for a Blue Spotted Jawfish...

I'd previously ruled out a jawfish because I'd assumed my sandbed wasn't deep enough. Well while I was "diving" in the tank, sticking down some frags, I decided to find out once and for all. It turns out that in the center it is actually 3" deep! So close!! Just 1" off jawfish happiness!!!

I immediately went out and grabbed another bag of pink fiji live sand. I did my best to empty it carefully near the sandbed at the center of the tank, but the resulting sand storm was terrifying! Even worse, when I put the lights back on it happened to be at "sunset" time and the tank lit up blood red! ARGH!

As the water began to clear it revealed that all the upheaval might have brought 2 fish hearts closer together...!

The 2 lovebirds (lovefish?) decided to spend that night sleeping at Guybrush's bachelor pad on the left side of the tank. The next night Marley was back in the nem, but Guybrush was allowed to sleep next to it near the right overflow. He still hasn't swam as deep into the tentacles as Marley does, but he now skirts the tips without being chased away. Progress!!

When the water finally cleared I was left with this:

I smoothed it out a little and added a few pieces of LR rubble for burrow making.

The next step was the jump proofing.

I tried putting some of the netting between the lights and the water, but unfortunately they're too close and it cast an ugly checkered shadow down on the tank.

Instead I picked up some eggcrate (light diffuser) from Home Depot and cut it to fit the gap at the back of the canopy.

After attaching it I suddenly released that the holes in the eggcrate would probably be big enough for a jawfish to jump though... D'oh. Off it came again and I zip-tied some netting to it:

I'm hoping that I can get away with the top being left open. It's about 11" from the water to the top of the canopy and that would require a pretty lucky (unlucky) jump to navigate the 2 sets of holes. There's still a chance a fish could jump up onto the plastic edging on the inside of the canopy, but I'm hoping that if they managed to get up there they'd also be strong enough to wiggle their way back into the water.

As soon as I find some large enough, I also plan to buy some filter foam to close off the tops of the overflows so nobody can jump down them.

With the preparations complete, it was time to claim my Blue-Spotted Jawfish!

[Aaarrrggg]

I didn't want to put a Jawfish through the rigors of failed burrow making in a QT; so I decided to order one from Divers Den where they at least have been though some QT already.

When my 5pm DD alarm went off I was out having a nice meal in a restaurant with my husband. I apologized and began the customary frantic page refreshing; expecting it to be updated within a few mins as it usually is. A LOT of refreshing later and finally the selection changed at around 5.30pm... Whoops. Sorry patient husband...! It paid off though as this chap was amongst the days treasures!

Meet Kululu!

Roll on a couple of days and my new little pal arrived safe and sound. Here he is in the bag...

I added him to the tank and he almost immediatly began to build his first burrow... at probably THE most shallow part of the sandbed...

He seemed happy enough though and it was fascinating to watch him go about the business of digging...

I am really impressed how quickly he settled in. I'd read that BSJ can be quite difficult at first, but mine only took about 5mins shake off the trip and get digging. When I fed the tank that evening he even sampled a few bites... although he did end up spitting out most of it out in favor of continuing the excavation instead.

[Aaarrrggg]

The next day I came down to find that Kululu had toppled one of my arches. I had cemented down most of the rocks, but evidently not the ones he had decided to start digging under <sigh.> The one circled is supposed to go up here...

He looked really smug in his new epic rock fort.

A little later that day he'd moved again; this time to the similarly shallow sand on the opposite side of the tank...

He spent all day fighting the current and unsuccessfully trying to keep the sand from blowing back into his burrow. Poor little chap.

The next morning... SUCCESS!!

He'd found the perfect spot and arranged the rock rubble around the hole, but in doing so he'd also pushed away all the sand I'd carefully piled up.

If he could just figure out how to stack the rock rubble into a tube then the sand could come back in and he'd have the perfect burrow. I tried in vain to explain this to him but he seemed to think he knew best and today he was back trying his luck again on the left hand side of the tank.

On the plus side he's a lot braver now and is greedily eating anything that floats by. He also seems happier to spend time outside the burrow, which gave me the opportunity to snap this shot:

I'm going to give him another week of trying and then I might have to intercede with some sort of Jawfish Condo.

[fjr_wertheimber]

That's awesome, congrats on the beautiful jawfish! I have to ask, though, is Guybrush's last name Threepwood, by chance??

[+brian.srock]

My watchman goby acts like a jawfish and will leave me mounds of dirts in different spots of my tank. If you plan on trying your hand on some SPS let me know I have a couple small frags you can have.

[+Grog]

Someone else made the comment before but I think it is worth repeating. The placement of your tank is awesome. It looks like it was made for your location. The curve of the tank matches the curves above the windows. Very balanced, fits perfectly.

[Brooks]

I've read every post in your thread. Cannot get enough! Congrats on winning the blog contest, BTW!

[cMidd]

^ +1