Update on my new tank... - Page 2

commabc · #26 12/10/2007, 02:00 PM

yeah i've been making those. thanks

mr294 · #27 12/11/2007, 11:05 PM

A few coral pics. Not the best, but photography isn't one of my strong points

Hopeful Reefer · #28 12/12/2007, 08:58 AM

Those look great. Did they come from the swap?

J. Montgomery · #29 12/12/2007, 10:31 AM

Sweet lookin' acans.

mr294 · #30 12/12/2007, 01:31 PM

Thanks! The Acans both came from the swap as did the palys. The micros came from Atlantis. Also got a nice piece of A. caroliniana at the swap and another acan, but I didn't manage to get good shots of them.

J. Montgomery · #31 12/12/2007, 01:37 PM

Which one is the micro, the last picture? I've been seeing some sweet looking green w/ purple acans, those are real cool looking.

mr294 · #32 12/12/2007, 01:55 PM

The micro is the second picture, bright red with grey splotches. The last picture is an Acan. lordhowensis which I believe was donated to the swap by 143gadgets. There have been a lot of nice aussie acans popping up lately, unfortunately most of the ones for sale are out of my budget, so I'm stuck with frags. At least they seem to grow very quickly

surfnvb7 · #33 12/12/2007, 01:56 PM

that red micro is the same as the one twon and I have. twon got his from atlantis, and i got a frag from twon. its a REALLY BIG micro...lol its as big as one of my acans. all of the other micros i've owned have been MUCH MUCH smaller....bout the size of a small zoa polyp.

mr294 · #34 12/12/2007, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by surfnvb7
that red micro is the same as the one twon and I have. twon got his from atlantis, and i got a frag from twon. its a REALLY BIG micro...lol its as big as one of my acans. all of the other micros i've owned have been MUCH MUCH smaller....bout the size of a small zoa polyp.

Yep thats the one. The polyps on the mother colony never seemed to expand as much as the frags I've seen do. It's a good looking coral either way

33g · #35 12/12/2007, 06:00 PM

Those frags are lookin good brandon,makes me want some lps.

mr294 · #36 12/21/2007, 04:15 PM

Christmas came a little bit early today!

J. Montgomery · #37 12/21/2007, 06:03 PM

Merry Christmas!

prop-frags · #38 12/23/2007, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mr294
Christmas came a little bit early today!

hmmm looks like he's gonna use a controller...

mr294 · #39 01/10/2008, 12:08 PM

Just a quick update on things for those who were wondering…

I placed an order from underwater warehouse (I wouldn’t advise anyone to do the same) for some adhesive background and finally received that after over a month of waiting. It looks like a great alternative to painting, but the adhesive was a rather poor decision in my situation. I don’t have as much space between the tank and the wall as I thought, and I don’t feel entirely comfortable using soapy water to apply it on a rimless tank. So long story short I’ve decided to just go ahead and paint the back. Probably going to knock that out this weekend.

Added a trio of really great looking sunburst anthias (S. latus) that I picked up at the LFS. These guys look much better than the pair I tried many years ago in my 75, and unlike their predecessors these were out and eating anything I offered within 48 hours. Definitely worth the wait.

Vacuumed out all the sand in the tank, and I’m temporarily running bare bottom again to see if I can get over the acrylic bracing around the lower edge. If I can’t get over the way it looks, I’m going to be adding a smaller grain sand back in purely for aesthetics. Bare bottom is hard to beat for flow and ease of maintenance, but I do like the look of a nice white sandbed.

Got the Tunze 6055 running on its temporary controller (thanks again Anthony) and I’m pretty impressed with the water it moves for its size. Definitely seems stronger to me than a modded 6025. A little noisier than I was expecting, but it has quieted down over the last week (a trend that I’m hoping continues).

Replumbed the sump in anticipation of the new skimmer that should be arriving today. I hope to have some pics and a review once I get it set up and running. Overall I’m pretty pleased with the way things are slowly but surely coming along.

J. Montgomery · #40 01/10/2008, 12:12 PM

To paint, are you going to drain some of the water and pull the tank away from the wall to give yourself some room? What kind of paint are you going to use?

surfnvb7 · #41 01/10/2008, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by J. Montgomery
To paint, are you going to drain some of the water and pull the tank away from the wall to give yourself some room? What kind of paint are you going to use?

i've had good success with Rust-Oleum Metallic, Brilliant Metal Finish. the kind i get looks black with some silver glitter in it. just put it on in VERY thin coats, wait, put on another thin coat etc. i just use lots of newspaper and some wide masking tape and mask off the entire back side of the tank so no spray could spill over anywhere.

i think the stuff works pretty well, as i've had to use razors to get it off in the past when looking for a crack.

if you use a fan on the back side in b/w coats it allows it to dry faster, and get the whole job done within a couple of hours.

Neptune777 · #42 01/10/2008, 01:01 PM

Brandon,
The 1 remaining S. latus at the store looks awesome! So much better in person than in the pics. So much that I am considering getting a trio for my tank as well... anything special about them that you know to be true?

mr294 · #43 01/10/2008, 01:22 PM

I don’t have too much real world experience with them yet, since my last pair made it less than 3 days. They are apparently pretty susceptible to poor decompression practices during collection. If you get a properly collected specimen, however, they seem to be quite hardy even though they are pretty skittish when first added. Mine have adapted to halides pretty quickly and are out all day, although they do hide if I approach the tank too quickly. Mine are eating mysis, arctipods, and cyclopeeze so far.

Most of the reading I’ve done suggested sticking to a single specimen or a male/female pair in smaller tanks, but I’ve heard of 1m/2f trios being kept successfully long term, so I wanted to give it a shot. No aggression so far, but it’s way too early to tell. Consensus seems to be that in larger tanks (I think yours qualifies

) small groups can be kept, but again females should outnumber males. Only problem here is that sexing seems to be rather difficult.

Some sources suggested that females have very little yellow/orange on the body and are mostly pink in addition to having a shallower head, but I’ve seen pictures from aquariums and the wild of pairs and trios where the fish looked identical aside from size difference. I think, as with a lot of fish, you’re safest bet is probably finding smaller specimens so you can be reasonably sure they are mostly females. I’ll let you know how things progress.

mr294 · #44 01/10/2008, 01:58 PM

On the painting thing, I’m not sure yet. I’ve spray painted all my previous tanks with great results, but that’s not really an option on this one. I’m planning on using a roller this time, but I still need to do a little research to decide on exactly what type of paint I’m going to use. Open to suggestions, if anyone has one that has worked better than another.

xxtriggermanxx · #45 01/10/2008, 04:01 PM

I have a suggestion! How about some updated pictures! I don't care what the box for a pump looks like!!!! I want TANK pictures.. The last tidbits you posted are almost a month old

..and may i also suggest an avatar change as well.

Neptune777 · #46 01/10/2008, 04:02 PM

Yeah...lets see those Sunburst/Fatheads!!!!

J. Montgomery · #47 01/10/2008, 04:10 PM

I painted my 10 gallon tank with some kind of latex paint and a brush. It was a real pain in the *$$, it didn't go on smoothly or uniformly. I've spray painted a bunch of equipment with Krylon Fusion and that stuff is the bomb. Hopefully someone has had better luck with a non-spray paint and can chime in.

Personally, if it was me, I'd first try lowering the water as much as possible (and draining the sump) and try twisting the entire tank and stand to make the back accessible. Cover everything in the room, and spray paint.

LB · #48 01/10/2008, 06:36 PM

Just a thought but I think you can apply the backing that you have with just a spray bottle of water,and a small squeegee. I know that soap is recommend so that you have more time to work with the product,but with such a small section I would try it!! As for paint I used latex on the 180 and unless it's spotless clean it will peel and on a rimless it for sure will peel at the top in short order.I ended up repainting the 180 with oilbased.Just roll on with a couple light(dry)coats or it will sag.I have latex on the 90 but it was new when applied and I ran a bead of silicone along the top and bottom edge to keep out salt creep.

mr294 · #49 01/10/2008, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LB
Just a thought but I think you can apply the backing that you have with just a spray bottle of water,and a small squeegee.

Thats good to know. I might go the vinyl route after all.

mr294 · #50 01/10/2008, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by xxtriggermanxx
I have a suggestion! How about some updated pictures! I don't care what the box for a pump looks like!!!! I want TANK pictures.. The last tidbits you posted are almost a month old ..and may i also suggest an avatar change as well.

I've got a few pictures coming up