The build thread: 430gal. display

jasonh

jasonh

Angel Fish
#361
#361
I like the rock on the small leg, but I agree, the rest is just way too big.

Those are some cool lookin fish, but I don't think I'd have the guts to try something like that. 1 week in captivity the norm? No thanks, I'll pass. Good luck though, I hope you're successful with them :)

I still say just "accidentally" dump some pure ammonia in there. :) you'll get a spike pretty quickly, haha. How many gallons is the rest of the system? (700something?) You could try tossing in an uncooked trout from the fish market. That oughta be big enough to get things going :D
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#363
#363
Thanks, Gale, but the ones the electrician left behind are rated for 175 lbs. each. They're monsters. :)

Thanks, Jason! As I said, though, the guy whose work I'm trying to replicate has had _very_ good success with them. So I'm not really heading in blind. And there have been other successes with them over the years--Greg Hiller just told me that his female just died after 4.5 years in captivity--just not that many. And most of those people only fed them live Acropora.

The system without the other 90 is right on the order of 800 gallons. I haven't found any pure ammonia yet or believe me, I would have started with it. :) I guess I could just pee in the tanks....

Oh, I just found out something I _love_ about the large water volume. When I fill the pump intake chamber in the sump from right above where I worry about running the pumps dry all the way up to the top of where the ATO will be (about 2-3 days evaporation right now), the salinity of the system only changes by .001 (From 1.025 to 1.024). Mmmmm, stable salinity.... :)
 
jasonh

jasonh

Angel Fish
#364
#364
Ummfish;10617 said:
Oh, I just found out something I _love_ about the large water volume. When I fill the pump intake chamber in the sump from right above where I worry about running the pumps dry all the way up to the top of where the ATO will be (about 2-3 days evaporation right now), the salinity of the system only changes by .001 (From 1.025 to 1.024). Mmmmm, stable salinity.... :)
Click to expand...
Yeah, I guess you could say that's pretty stable :)

I don't know if I'd be using the yellow ammonia, lol. I have no idea where to get the pure stuff. I've just heard from a lot of people that it's really hit-or-miss on where to get it. Darn those additives.
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#365
#365
And there is (some of the) light:



The yellow tank down on the end is for growing algae.

This is the isolated 90:



I'm still waiting for two bulbs to come in. The T5 fixtures were originally supposed to go above the display to hold actinics. But, there was a problem finding timers that could handle the wattage of all those lights. So, the T5s moved down to the fishroom. So, I have plenty of actinic bulbs and have just been waiting for others to come in.

I'm off to the hardware store to get spraybar making supplies and stuff to clean up all the electrical cord mess.

Oh, an pure ammonia, if I can find it. ;)
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#367
#367
I have to run right now, but a quick update on the filefish (a copy from the log I have of them):

It's time for another Snoopy dance!!!

The female has subsisted off a diet of small, frozen zooplankton--mostly prawn eggs, BBS, and cyclops. Today, I saw her take at least two bites of large pieces of Rod's Food out of the water column! We're talking food of at least 5-6 times the size of the food she's been eating. And I saw her thereafter follow the male down and start picking off the substrate (maybe more Rod's?)!

Woohoo!!!

Thanks, Jason! I'll get back to you this afternoon....
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#370
#370
I went with the timer for the pool pump. :) The tanks are all plumbed in with the display but they all can be run separately, too, so I can use them all as QT tanks.
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#373
#373
Not much new happening. We're still waiting out the cycle. I did a couple of water changes on the 90 yesterday because the cycle seemed to have stalled with lots of ammonia. The rest of the system is _finally_ showing a little ammonia. :) The LFS is now holding five fish for me. Two auriga butterflies (for a fish-only tank as live rock cleaners), a convict tang, and two filefish. The rock guy has cut down a lot of the rocks but still a little more to do.

Other than that, the whole family's been sick all week. I don't even think we've unpacked much. Sigh.
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#374
#374
Since we've been sick twice since the move-in--sigh--it's going pretty darn slowly. Lots of boxes and piles of stuff everywhere. In fact, I was still fighting a fever yesterday. But, it's really nice to be living here.

I'm still waiting out the cycles. The 90 that's alone is still in the nitrite stage, but it's starting to show algal growth and life is springing up. I've done some water changes in there to try to give the bacteria a break from the high ammonia. The aiptasia really seem to appreciate the water changes.

The rest of the system has yet to show any nitrite, but there is still some ammonia.

So, given that the system pretty much looks exactly the same, I decided to start shooting the small stuff. So, copepods on the glass with a very pregnant female:

 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#377
#377
Well, you know, same ol' stuff: Canon body, the MP-65E macro lens racked out to 5x life size, and the twin flash on the end of the lens. Oh, and a battery pack for the flash. No tripod this time.

Here's the whole photo that I cropped those two pictures from:



Good luck on getting the new camera!
 
J

joeyg4583

Goby
#378
#378
I am so excited to see your set up! I hope to learn a lot of things I can use on the 300 I am building. You know you have a mandatory meeting at your house right? LOL
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#380
#380
The 90 is cycled! No ammonia, no nitrites, and a little nitrate. And man, is it a mess in there. Diatoms everywhere, hair algae, and this is the tank with the aiptasia rock.

The rest of the tanks are not through the cycle yet, though the deep sand bed tank has a huge crop of hair algae. I put a few hermit crabs in there yesterday.

But, we have first fish! A pair of Chaetodon auriga, the threadfin butterfly. Very definitely not reef safe and mentioned by name by Scott Michaels for controlling aiptasia.

Butterfly #1:



And #2 (please excuse the demon eyes). This one got a little lip damage trying to get it out of the dealer's tank:



The pair:



And #1 again:

 
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