My stand and canopy - more to come.

[kellypark]

Hi, All.
After spending couple days on workshop, I am getting toward to finish my stand and canopy, Here are some of the pictures of it.
These are made with solid oak with mahogany stain.
I tried not to use any nail, screw, or staple. most corner are jointed with biscuit joint and glued. and need to spend little more time to finish door (I haven't started yet due to which design to use), and couple coat of polyuretane will do.
I will post more pictures once I set it up..

I spend about $150 plus my time to build both, and spent little more (about 8 hr.) than I though becuse it was my first stand and canopy.

http://www.nwsarchitects.com/kp/DSCN0267.jpg
http://www.nwsarchitects.com/kp/DSCN0269.jpg
http://www.nwsarchitects.com/kp/DSCN0270.jpg

[reefer420]

Lookin Good!!! Looks very clean!! Want to come and clean up my mess?;) Keep us posted!!:)

[makoshark]

Very nice Kelly!

Just out of curiosity, did you use your Architectural knowledge to decide how much or little wood was necessary in designing the stand. I've always wondered how one determines such things. I usually end up overbuliding most of my projects.

[makoshark]

Oh Yeah! I forgot to mention that you should upload your pictures to your RC Gallery.

[kellypark]

Hi.
I tried to figured out how much of wood that I need before I start to make my stuff. however it is not always the case.
I made few mis cut on my wood, so I went to homedepot to get more wood.
And I need to go one more time to buy wood for the doors...

After I finish my stand, I will try to post on RC page..
Thanks...

[jbash]

Very Nice! As someone who only does "rough carpentry" and thinks wood is always held todether with drywall screws:-) I have to say I'm impressed!

jim b

[kellypark]

Thank you all for great comment...
By next week I should have doors done...

[tryingsalt]

Very nice.....For what size tank is it for?

[kellypark]

My wife called me crazy.. I was up till 4 a.m. to finish my tank yesterday.. or was it this morning.
My tank is only 29 g tank, And I wish I had bigger one.
Here are some of my pictures of tank. I will try to finish doors by this weekend. but I am very tired...

http://www.nwsarchitects.com/kp/DSCN0271.JPG
http://www.nwsarchitects.com/kp/DSCN0272.JPG
http://www.nwsarchitects.com/kp/DSCN0274.JPG

Thanks guys.

[kellypark]

Yestday I went Harbor Aquatics to get some snails, star fish and blueleged hermit crab.
I will try few clown fish later.

http://www.nwsarchitects.com/kp/DSCN0298.JPG

Thanks.

[makoshark]

Looking better all the time! Did you get the Macro Algea at Harbor as well?

[kellypark]

l also got some of Macro Algea yesterday too. I had no idea which one to get and the guy gave me good suggestion.

Because my live rock and sand are from other tank which was running about 3 years, my water seem to stable (check with testing kits). I might my pair of clown fishes tonight.

Last night I was up till 3 to figure out what kind lighting system to use. it will be another DIY system but could not decide whether I should use overdrive t-5 or t-8 system.
I like the idea of more efficient t-5 but having hard time locating shop who sells 24" long. Any one using t-5?
And could somebody tell me where I can set in ~24" and actinic bulb?

Thanks all...

[makoshark]

I've got two 24" Atinic Bulbs that I bought by accident. (24" hood = 18" bulbs not 24" bulbs:o ) You can have them both for $10.

[kellypark]

Great, I will take it.
let me know how I can get it.
I can pick it up. is it t-8?
Thanks.

[kellypark]

Great, I will take it.
let me know how I can get it.
I can pick it up. is it t-8?
Thanks.

[makoshark]

YGPM!

[kellypark]

Hi, Everybody.
Sorry about not updating frequently. Because my rock and sand was old, my tank cycled really fast, and my chemistry level was good after few days. So I went to pet shop, got myself two clown fishes last week from reputable store, they were very small babies but day after one of the fish died. I read somewhere that water from plastic bag that carried from pet shop have lots of ammonia and fishes should be get in to main tank as soon as possible and that’s what I did. And my guess is that ph and temp shocked fish.

And Jeff from CMAS gave me link and advises regarding fish acclimation. Few days later I went to Petco and got myself another clown and medium size yellow tang.
They look really healthy. Specially, clown that I got from Petco is lot bigger color is lot darker and very playful.

As soon as I added another clown, other one joined right away and swims next to each other all the time. Yellow tang is still little shy, most of time it hiding behind to rocks and comes out only when people is not around.

I am going to upgrade my current little strip light to new T-5 lightings soon, and I will post comments regarding new lights. I have been hearing lots of good thing about new T-5’s with single reflector.

Here are new pictures.
http://www.nwsarchitects.com/kp/DSCN0357.jpg

And thank you all for giving me great advises.

Kelly Park

[alpine]

Hey kelly

I cant believe you put a yellow tang in your tank.I sure do hope you know how big they get.I like the new look,but as I stated when you came buy you still seem to be going to fast with your system.Remember bad things happen really fast in a reef tank.My water parameters are ready for my corals but I am still going to wait a week or two before I bring my corals home from andrews tank.My clowns are doing very well,but they seem to hide all the time until its feeding time.

By the way I finish my calcium reactor a couple of weeks ago.Finally got it to stop leaking and I wish I would of payed more attention to what I was doing before I added the goop to it.

I need to pick up a cleaning crew for my tank real soon.The scwd wavemaker is working like a charm with the mag 18.I had to throttle the pump back a little due to the fact that it was blowing my sand up to much.

Give me a call when you get a chance,still need to see when I can pass by to check out your system.By the way,the tank is coming out real nice.

Jorge

:rollface:

[makoshark]

Kelly,

I concur with Jorge. Slow down. Your satisfaction with your tank will quickly turn to disgust if you stock it too quickly and fish start dying off or worse a whole tank crash (meaning everyone is fine one day and all dead the next).

Tangs should be kept in tanks no smaller than 55 Gal. due to their need to swim constantly and confinement leads to stress and eventually death.

I suggest researching as much as possible before making a fish purchase.

Also read this post: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=146661&highlight=seant

HTH!

[kellypark]

Thanks for advices.
I have been checking my water for last few weeks and all the level shows undetectable. That’s why I added fishes. May I should have waited little longer. I am not going to add any more fishes.
As for tang, I did not know that the tank was too small for him until after I got it.
My wife wanted have yellow tank.
If it gets too big, I will call my LFS to see if they can take him, or trade with something else.
Yesterday, I try to feed nori to tang and he did not eat much. My guess is that he has been eating algies from rocks.


I will go slowly from now on…

Thanks all.

[kellypark]

Also, the reason that I got my yellow tang was that saleperson at petco told me it was ok to have yellow tang on my 29g tank.
He even told me that I could have 2, if I like.
After reading more about it, I have to do my homework before I can have any more animals on my tank..

[jbash]

FWIW, sales people aren't always well informed or sometimes even honest about what they sell--one of the biggest problems with this hobby, IMO. In a Petco I'd be inclined to believe the person didn't know any better and the fact that you'll see a whole bunch of yellow tangs together in a tank on a TV show doesn't help matters. In a locally owned store some owners and employees seem to give advice that has more to do with making a profit than keeping everything in our fish tanks alive and healthy. Sad but true and that is the reason that AMDA exists with standards and MAC has a new certification process (CMAS VP John Brandt was just in the Phillipines to report on this process). To be fair, my LFS store says he tells people to wait and cycle tanks but if they refuse to follow advice he will eventually quit giving it and sell anyway--any LFS owner has to make a living, and those fioks buy a lot more fish than us careful aquarists...


While there are some honest disagreements in the hobby about techniques, overcrowding, which fish, etc; there is also a lot of greed:-( There are quite a few good books that warn you about fish that are hard to keep, stocking levels and tank sizes required (Tullock's Natural Reef Aquariums and Fenner's The Conscientious Marine Aquarist being the two that come to mind as general books along with my favorite, Scott Michael's Marine Fishes: 500+ Essential-To-Know Aquarium Species).

Whoops, I'm gettig long winded--sorry. Off to fold CMAS newsletters:-)

jim b