250 Gallon room-divider project log - Page 37

jacmyoung · #**901** 10/13/2005, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jeffbrig
Ours is actually maple with a ginger glaze finish, but you're right, the two are very similar.

I think I said this to someone else before....if I gave you a price, you'd swear I was trying to rip you off. Furniture grade cabinetry is not cheap by any means.

I did not think it would be cheap. My guess the cabinet alone would be around $4K to $5K depending on the tank size. My estimate is based on the custom cabinets quoted by my builder. Will have to frame the stand separately since most cabinet shops don't do tank stands.

Of course you also have the granite slab that will set things back quite a bit more

Believe it or not, it is also similar to our kitchen counter top and island.

ufchristyb · #**902** 10/13/2005, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jacmyoung
My guess the cabinet alone would be around $4K to $5K depending on the tank size.

You are right on, the cabinet skins/doors and trim pieces totalled around $4500. We basically just purchased the door frames and nailed them to the outside of our tremendously overbuilt plywood/2x4 stand. The granite was about $750.00. All said and done, with all of the materials it was probably $5500 or so. Not including all of our "sweat equity."

Of course all of this was completely justifiable since we got a whole new kitchen out of the deal.

You know, whatever keeps the wife happy is a good way to go.

--Christy (Jeff's wife)

jeffbrig · #**903** 10/13/2005, 09:55 PM

Hey Christy,

To Reef Central

Ah64av8tor · #**904** 10/13/2005, 10:06 PM

That is too cool

Welcome Christy, ......I offered Jeff a RBTA but he never replyed do some research and if you like it Ill make you a sweet deal.

Jeff I wish I had a wife who liked my tank as much as yours. My RBTA just split again now I have 8.......Ill be home in a month

if you want one send PM

GrndHog · #**905** 10/13/2005, 10:06 PM

UT-OH!! another attorney on the board!

Thanks for letting Jeff share your adventure with us, amazing!

Welcome, its about time. LOL

jacmyoung · #**906** 10/14/2005, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ufchristyb
You are right on, the cabinet skins/doors and trim pieces totalled around $4500. We basically just purchased the door frames and nailed them to the outside of our tremendously overbuilt plywood/2x4 stand. The granite was about $750.00. All said and done, with all of the materials it was probably $5500 or so. Not including all of our "sweat equity."

Of course all of this was completely justifiable since we got a whole new kitchen out of the deal. You know, whatever keeps the wife happy is a good way to go.

--Christy (Jeff's wife)

Definitely worth the money and effort. Unfortunately my wife wasn't so understanding. Can't blame her though, five months after spending close to $8k to build up my in wall tank and fish room, we had to move and abandon everything. At the time asking another $5k (at least $10k to set all up) for a tank in the new house did not seem a wise idea.

Jeff, you lucky dog

Gawain1974 · #**907** 10/14/2005, 08:45 AM

Hey Jeff and Christy....I started reading your thread in the wee hours of the morning, and I just finished it (sleep be damned). You have a gorgeous setup. Have you gone diving in your tank yet?

How are the clownfish doing...and the achilles? Good work on keeping that clown alive (as I was reading, I was expecting a post telling us that you eventually lost him).

Have you definitively decided to stay BB, or are you still considering adding some sand in the future?

I have to giggle...my display is the same size as your QT.

jeffbrig · #**908** 10/14/2005, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rgasco1
just finished reading all this... really helpful. your tanks looks great, looks like something i want to do in the future. I just sent up a much smaller 55gal and it is very addicting... so much to learn. I'm still learning about water testing and what to add so this thread was really very helpful. Good luck in the future.

rgasco1, I just noticed this was your first post......

To Reef Central

Glad you were able to find some useful info in this thread....that's what we're here for!

jeffbrig · #**909** 10/14/2005, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ah64av8tor
I offered Jeff a RBTA but he never replyed

Sorry if I left that hanging....I was just waiting for you to get home first!

Ah64av8tor · #**910** 10/14/2005, 09:24 AM

Cool........ looks like mid Nov

Greg

jeffbrig · #**911** 10/14/2005, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gawain1974
Hey Jeff and Christy....I started reading your thread in the wee hours of the morning, and I just finished it (sleep be damned).

Quote:

Have you gone diving in your tank yet?

Nah...we drive down to the keys for the day when we want to do that.

Quote:

How are the clownfish doing...and the achilles? Good work on keeping that clown alive (as I was reading, I was expecting a post telling us that you eventually lost him).

I'm a little surprised we were able to save the little clown too. It's frustrating, good info on disease treatment is somewhat hard to come by. Even the experts don't seem to agree on treatment methods.

All 3 fish are doing pretty well at this point. The larger clown seems to be fighting a whiteish patch on top of his head, but other than that no real symptoms. Since I can't ID it, I'm hesitant to pick an arbitrary treatment. It's still eating, but less than the other one. The tang is doing very well IMO, but his eye is still misbehaving some. It goes from perfect one minute to cloudy/swollen a few minutes later. Christy noticed that it seems to be stress related. He eats like a pig and it doesn't seem to be bothering him much, so I'm not too concerned about this.

Quote:

Have you definitively decided to stay BB, or are you still considering adding some sand in the future?

I really think I'm going to stay BB. You saw the coralline coverage we're getting....the entire bottom will be purple in just a few more months. I need to play around with the flow patterns, because a lot of crap collects on the bottom towards the overflow. I'd like to keep that stuff suspended so it gets sucked into the overflow and skimmed out as much as possible.

Quote:

I have to giggle...my display is the same size as your QT.

Don't worry, I find that strange too. The big QT is great....until you have to do a big water change. At least it's forcing me to keep up with changes in the display!

Gawain1974 · #**912** 10/14/2005, 09:57 AM

My gold-banded maroon clown has a white growth on the bottom of her chin. It's not ich, I don't know what the heck it is, and I haven't been able to pinpoint a diagnosis. I don't have much luck capturing it on camera either. However, she eats like a pig, is very active, and loves to bite me when I stick my hand in the tank, so she must not be too bad.

ufchristyb · #**913** 10/14/2005, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gawain1974
My gold-banded maroon clown has a white growth on the bottom of her chin. It's not ich, I don't know what the heck it is, and I haven't been able to pinpoint a diagnosis. I don't have much luck capturing it on camera either. However, she eats like a pig, is very active, and loves to bite me when I stick my hand in the tank, so she must not be too bad.

Here is what we know re: our clowns disease processes:

Our little guy definitely seemed to have Brooklynella, so we went through a process of Formalin Dips, and then did a follow up tank treatment with Maracyn II, since we thought that his fin loss might be related to a secondary bacterial infection. After beginning the antibiotics, the fin loss stopped, and the fins are now regrowing.

However, at the end of the week's worth of antibiotics, both clownfish were again showing signs of white patchy areas (this time the big fish having the worst of it) and we thought the Brook had returned, so we again gave them both a formalin dip. However since that time, the fish have been behaving normal - no loss of appetite, sluggishness, rapid breathing, or hanging out at the top of the tank, which the little guy did when he had Brook the first time. So, at this point, we have decided to keep our eye on them, and see how it goes. If it is Brook, we are dealing with again, the fishes' immune system seems to be keeping up with it. I don't want to run the risk of stressing them out with anymore treatments, until it is necessary, since I have a gut feeling that having them in antibiotics for a week caused the latest "outbreak" of whatever it is that we are seeing.

If anyone else has any ideas, that might be helpful re: how to proceed now, I would appreciate it.

--Christy

JustOneMoreTank · #**914** 10/14/2005, 03:39 PM

Welcome

Sounds like you are doing well with the treatments for the clown fish. Taking a "wait and see" approach is worthwhile. That is what they are in the QT for anyway.
Glad you have joined the forum. It is great fun.

Ohh and by the way... Go Gators!!!

jeffbrig · #**915** 10/16/2005, 09:44 AM

Christy took some new pictures this morning on her Canon SD200 (tiny Elph camera).

First up is the little clown that was so sick a few weeks ago. He's making a great recovery, and his fins are regrowing nicely

sick fish on 9/28:

same fish 10/16 (the apparently cloudiness in his eye is from the flash reflection):

The clowns have really taken to hosting in the PVC fitting. We hope they take just as quickly to an anemone when we introduce one next month.

And a few of the achilles tang. His eye has been staying clear for the last few days, so I think we'll be fine there. His color is great, and we think his orange spot is starting to grow.

We're planning to do another water change in the QTs this afternoon, just to be safe.

I had ordered a few things from Marine Depot the other day, but received someone else's order in a shipping snafu. Mildly frustrating, but they're expediting shipping on the right stuff to get it fixed. Some different foods, a mag5 pump for QT water changes, etc.

Jeff & Christy

jacmyoung · #**916** 10/16/2005, 12:47 PM

Nice work! Your clowns will take up the anemone in no time.

jeffbrig · #**917** 10/17/2005, 07:13 AM

In recent weeks we've seen some of the bigger mithrax crabs becoming more aggressive. I'm pretty sure one ate a hitchhiker clam/oyster, and last night I saw one trying pulling on an astrea's shell, trying to get him off the rock. So we decided to declare war on crabs.

First I tried a pair of tongs, but the crab was too fast and disappeared into the rockwork. Then I took a BBQ skewer, sharpened the edge, baited it with some shrimp and went fishing. Couldn't bait the crab into the open (smart little bugger). Then we decided to try a crab trap. We used a giant novelty shot glass, put a piece of fresh shrimp in it, and leaned it up against the rocks. Within minutes we had caught our first crab, although not the one I was originally targeting. This is the commensal crab that we usually saw with the curly Q anemone.

A couple of closeups:

After removing this crab, I reset the trap. An hour later there were no new crabs in thre, but plenty of isopods on the shrimp. I have no idea if these are the harmless scavengers or the dreaded cirolanid isopods that will latch onto your fish and suck their blood. These are probably worth a cross-post in Dr. Ron's forum.

I'll continue to try the crab trap every evening for the next few days, and we'll see what turns up.

GrndHog · #**918** 10/17/2005, 08:46 AM

I had those isopods in my tank when I first setup. They clung to my Kole Tang at night and would drop off when the lights came on.

I had a total of six, I would have to net them when they fell off the fish to get rid of them. They more or less suck and feed off of any creature in the tank, but prefer fish.

Make sure you rid your tank of them before you put your fish in.

jeffbrig · #**919** 10/17/2005, 09:31 AM

Thanks GrndHog, that's what I was afraid of. I'll keep trapping for now....I removed 8-10 of these last night. I'm just glad the baited trap seems to be working, I would hate to have to use a fish to find/catch them.

Psyire · #**920** 10/17/2005, 01:37 PM

Definately a bad isopod, the big eyes are a give away. I'd keep up the aggressive removal of these critters.

wastwage · #**921** 10/17/2005, 01:43 PM

Wowee ugly looken dudes

reefah · #**922** 10/17/2005, 02:01 PM

Jeff,
can you describe how you made the trap?

Lunchbucket · #**923** 10/17/2005, 02:38 PM

reefah - its in the post. its a tall shot glass w/ shrimp in it leaned against a rock

Lunchbucket

Mark · #**924** 10/17/2005, 03:06 PM

Not sure if it will affect the isopods, but you may want to consider the Interceptor treatment. Since people have noticed it's effect on most, if not all, athropods when treating their sps. It has become a good treatment to rid the tank of other "pest" arthropods as well.

Also, Kudos for doing a Quarantine.

It's nice to see a tank thread, where someone actually uses a q-tank. It's truly sad to see how many don't.

jthnhale · #**925** 10/17/2005, 03:53 PM

hey Jeff,

tanks looking great

those isopods are scary! be glad you tried to trap that crab and discovered them before your fish went into the tank. seeing them stuck to your little clowns that your doing such a good job QT-ing would have made me sick.

I would put a whole bunch of shot glasses in there and see how many you continue to catch. you could nuke the tank with interceptor as Mark suggested, but that would kill all the crabs in the tank, good and bad.

I'd use that as a last resort.