MrSpiffy's 40BR tank/stand build (BIG pics!!!)

[MrSpiffy]

Originally posted by melev
How did you make your bends? They look pretty straight to me.

'Twas a highly-scientific process... I used a piece of plywood with a nice straight edge, another small piece with a straight edge, and my hands. The first piece acted as the edge to bend across. The second was to pin the aluminum down so I could bend it (I lined up the edge with the first piece). And my hands... well... they did the bending. The sheet isn't too thick, so bending it by hand wasn't all that difficult. I was just careful to start the bends in the right spots before I went nuts bending it too far.

[MrSpiffy]

SWEEEEET!! I managed to find somewhere local that sells MAG Flake for the 2-part additive solution! A single 50lb bag was less than $13!! I'm totally psyched. That stuff's a pain in the butt to find without having to pay a TON to ship it. (Same with the Dowflake...) I found a place that sells the Dowflake and had $0.00 listed for shipping via UPS Ground. We'll see if they actually have free shipping... my guess is not. But I said to hold the order if shipping charges apply, so hopefully I won't get nailed with $30+ in s/h charges. W00t!!

[salty child 79]

I know its been awhile but the clown that might be a percula....IS a percula. If you look at the eyes you can tell. A percula will have an orange ring around the pupil, whereas the ocellaris (False perc) have black around their pupil.....so an all black eye.

Try it out and see how they get along, I have seen it done before. But then again, I have seen it not work out before.

[MrSpiffy]

Good advice! I never did notice that before. The female has kept toward the middle of the tank, but the male has rarely ever strayed from the edges of the tank. I think she still recognizes her territory, and that this relationship may not work out after all.

If I were to get another juvenile, would that work out? One would become female, the other saying male? I could see that working well, but I could also see that not working at all...

[MrSpiffy]

Well, I managed to get a pic of our new little buddy, a Tailspot Blenny. Here he is!

[yellowwatchmen]

Awesome fish.

[MrSpiffy]

Thanks! He's pretty fun to watch when he's not being shy.

[MrSpiffy]

Well, not much going on as far as progress goes. But I did manage to cut the crown molding for the canopy last night. I didn't get any pics because, well... I didn't assemble anything yet. Today I'm hoping to cut the top sheet of plywood for the canopy to size and cut the edges to the 45° angle to match the crown. And then I should be good to go for assembly. So, if all goes well, I should be gluing something tonight.

I also moved the blenny over to the display tank last night. The salinity was finally matched and he was looking excellent, coming out to eat eagerly and looking very healthy. Interestingly, he was laying on the bottom of the tank in the front this morning. He looked just fine, although somewhat stressed (he had the white spots that these guys get when they're stressed out), but otherwise he looked just fine. I'm sure he'll be doing great in a few days, and enjoying his new home.

The clowns are still a bit interesting. The female doesn't really chase the male much, but they definitely aren't sleeping together at night. They sometimes swim together during the daytime. But the male was sleeping in the rear-upper corner of the tank all by himself last night, while the female had her frogspawn to call home.

Considering they're not fighting, and sometimes swim together, are they mating up? Or are they just tolerating each other?

[yellowwatchmen]

The male ****ed off the female so the female made him sleep some where else.

[MrSpiffy]

Well... again, no progress on the canopy... But I did take care of something else last night that's been bothering me for a little while now. My calcium levels have been slowly dropping since I got the new tank set up, and a couple of my corals have started looking unhappy (tiny fungia, favia, and chalice). The chalice has been receeding, and the fungia and favia are looking pale. So, it was time to do something before anything gets worse. I never had any issues with this in my 20H reef, so it surprised me a bit, even though I should've expected it from all the posts asking about reef chemistry. So, I took it upon myself to create the "Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System" from Randy Holmes-Farley.

You know... finding the components for the calcium and magnesium were a pain in the butt! I searched around locally and it took me a couple weeks to really find any solutions. Sure, the stuff's available online, but the shipping is a killer! Seriously... Why would I pay $30+ to ship something that only costs me half of that price? Sure it's a 50lb bag, but so what? So, I called around, and finally found a Checker Auto Parts that had the Prestone Driveway Heat for the calcium chloride. And I found a local distributor for the MAG Flake that was nice enough to let me purchase a single 50lb bag for about $20. The other stuff was easy. If you can't find epsom salts and baking soda, you're pretty slow.

So, I spent a couple hours last night getting everything put together. I now have three milk jugs, each with one of the three parts of the supplement system. One for Ca, one for alkalkinity, and one for Mg. Now it's time to figure out the dosage, but after I straighten out the Ca level in the tank. Unfortunately, I ran out of my Ca test last night. So, I'll have to pick one up today before I can continue.

[MrSpiffy]

Last night I took it upon myself to get at least a little progress down on the canopy. So I hit the garage and did some cutting.

I cut down the very top piece of plywood for the canopy and mitered the edges to match the crown molding. However, it actually came out too long, so I'll have to cut it a little shorter. At least my mistake gives me room to correct it without any problems.

I also took the pieces of crown molding and glued them together to make the gluing of the ply to the crown easier, instead of gluing the crown to the ply and hoping the corners meet properly. I didn't have anything to really clamp it with, and wood glue would take much too long for me to sit and hold it for 30 minutes, so I just decided to try using Loctite (super glue) gel. It actually worked amazingly well! That made a very quick, tight bond between the pieces of the crown molding. I was able to line them up nicely, and it bonded in seconds. Here are a couple quick pics of the post-glue status:





I plan to cut down the top panel of ply tonight, and hopefully glue the crown to the bottom panel of ply. I'll wait until that's dry before gluing the top on.

An update on the blenny and clowns:

The blenny seems to be doing pretty well. He's taken to one side of the tank, and doesn't venture far from there. But he loves perching on a rock, the mount for my Koralia, and my Mag Float. He's been eating when I feed, and picking at the rocks, so it seems he's doing well.

The clowns also seem to be doing well. The female is slowly becoming more hospitable toward the male and less territorial. She's still not sharing her home with him, but seems to be nicer to him. So, hopefully that'll continue to improve as time goes on. Eventually, I'd love to get an anemone for the two of them. I think they'd enjoy it. But I'll wait until I have my halides up before I get one. I sure would love one of those rose bubble tips.

[MrSpiffy]

After some cutting, tweaking, more cutting, fitting, tweaking, and gluing, I finally have everything together! Yay! Saturday was spent fitting and gluing the plywood panels to the crown molding. It's not quite perfect, but it'll do just fine. Here are a couple pics for everyone:





I still plan to add a couple details to help structurally, but I'm not sure which route would be best. So maybe everyone else could help me decide how to proceed. I want to add support to the rear side of the plywood panels by putting a block or strip between them. You can see the long slot between the panes on the pic of the rear of the canopy. I have a couple ideas.

1. Add a couple blocks inside the slot to help support that back side, also using them as possible mounting spots for the hinges I'll put on after staining. I figure three smaller blocks would be great, as I want three hinges.

2. Add a long strip of ply between them to seal off the entire rear slot from any moisture or other items. Fill in any remaining gaps with wood filler.

I'm not too concerned about moisture inside there, as it's not directly exposed to humidity or splashing. But it might not be a bad idea to seal off that hole anyway, just to be safe. What do you think?

Moving on, the blenny seems to be happy and doing well in the display. Not much new to report on him, but he's colored up nicely. And since everyone loves pics, here's a new one.



I'm also having some issues with my chalice frag. I'm kinda thinking it's already too late. The tissue has been receeding, possibly due to low calcium levels, which I've been working on correcting with liquid calcium supplement. But the chalice hasn't really responded, yet. pH, dKH, temperature, and nitrates are all fine. I've been changing the water, about 5 gallons every couple weeks or so. I even moved it higher in the tank to make sure it was getting enough light. And still nothing... Any ideas?

[melev]

I would add a block of wood in the center just to prevent the wood from dipping down over time.

So how will you gain access to the tank? Will this entire part fit up against another section on the tank?

Echinophylia is kind of tough for me to assist with. Either it does well, or it does not. Have you tried target feeding it yet? As long as water parameters are good, the coral should be able to recover and grow.

[MrSpiffy]

I'll have to see about putting the 1x2 down the middle to support the top. I'm pretty sure I have enough laying around to do that. It's definitely not a bad idea. The inside should be accessible by lifting up the top, which is the portion with the crown molding. That's separate from the sides and front, and will be attached with hinges so it swings up to give me access to the inside.

As for the chalice, I haven't tried feeding it, yet. But I do have some freeze-dried cyclopeeze that I can feed it. I'll have to see about doing that just after lights-out tonight. I really do want to see this thing recover, as I love the color it has.

[yellowwatchmen]

I still love that blenny my LFS just got a bicolor in but i a going to wait a week or so and make sure it is healthy.

[MrSpiffy]

Yeah, I saw mine in the LFS for about a week or so before bringing it home. And even then, I plopped it into QT for a week longer, just to make sure he was clean (well... and to match the salinity, too, but I wanted to observe him, too). It's better to be careful, for sure.

[maroun.c]

Funny my post did not appear so here goes again.
I just read all your thread and believe you have a nice planning to what yo uare doing.
I really admired the graphics of your tank.
One question about your overflow noise.
Did it quiet down by itself or did you have to do anything for it.
I'm planning on doind a dual return where only one would normally work and the 2nd one would only kick in if the 2nd one fails. basically the second one will not have a durso this way it will be verynoisy if it works and I'll notice if something is wrong.
Do you think I should go for more distance between the two?
Thanks for any input and good luck with your tank.

[MrSpiffy]

I'm glad you've enjoyed the thread, so far. It's always nice to hear comments, both good and bad. So, thanks for reading through it!

As far as the drain, it definitely did quiet down over time. I don't even notice it anymore. And when I top up on water, the drains are pretty much submerged in the sump, so the noise is nearly nothing. I think it just needed to slime up a bit inside the piping before it could quiet down.

If I had to do it again, yes, I'd probably try putting a little more distance between the two heights of the drains. I still suspect it's using the second drain to help, even though it shouldn't really need it. I would separate them by a good 3 inches next time to avoid this issue. But it doesn't worry me too much, I guess. I have already had cerith snails end up in the sump after climbing down the drains, and everything was fine. I just worry about the big turbo snails trying to take a ride down the drains. But, all-in-all, I'm very happy with the design and how everything has turned out.

Now... if I can just figure out how to quiet down the vibrations from the pumps... The return and skimmer pumps put out some vibration, which is actually the loudest noise I hear. It's not overly loud, but I wouldn't mind it going away. Maybe I'll see if I can steal a mousepad from somewhere.

[reeferoo]

One trick is a mouse pad under the pumps
I also have some foam specifically made for under pumps submerged to absorb vibrations... Might be more of a placebo effect- don't know if it actually got any quieter :-P

looks awesome, great build, LOVE the fish (my tank would be too aggressive unfortunately)

[MrSpiffy]

Thanks, reeferoo! I have to say that the blenny is my favorite, so far. I still have two more to add, though.

I talked to the manager that orders the livestock at my LFS about getting two more fish for my tank. He contacted his supplier, who said there's a good chance he can get both the fish I want, but didn't supply any prices. So, it could be interesting.

I was wondering about purchasing and acclimation. The manager said that he could give me a discount if I were to take the fish directly home in the bag from the supplier, instead of having them acclimate it in their own tanks first. But I've never had to deal with that before. It can't be different than ordering online, except this way I have no guarantee on the livestock. Is this something you guys/gals might take a risk with? Or would you prefer the LFS acclimate and hold the fish first, and risk them giving what could be a perfectly healthy specimen ich, or worse?

The fish I still want:
McCosker's Wrasse
Brazilian Flameback Pygmy Angel

Those should round off my list of livestock, at least as far as fish go. I'm planning to eventually add more frags, more live rock, and also a clam or two once I get the halides up and running.

I'm concerned about the halides, though. It seems someone wired our condo funny, and very few of the labels on the breaker panel actually switch off what they say they should. I found that the outlet I'm using the tank for is actually tied to the basement lights, too, which is odd, considering it's in the living room. In fact, I think the entire living room is wired with the basement. It may actually also be wired to the dishwasher's circuit, because I accidentally tripped that breaker switch when vacuuming (I plugged it into the strip the tank is running on.), while the dishwasher was running. I'm so confused!! In any case, it's a bit of a mess, and I'm not sure how to correct it, short of getting an electrician involved. Whoever wired and labeled the place should be subjected to some form of agonizing mental torture, it's that messed up. Ugh..!

/sorry... rant over

[melev]

Vacuum cleaners pull several amps. You'd be surprised how many. Better to plug it into anything other than your power strip. I actually added a plug in the hallway of my home, taking power from the room behind it (empty guest room). From that location, I can vacuum in any direction and don't have to keep relocated the cord to another outlet.

Getting livestock directly from the box the fish store got it is fine. I've done that a few times, and just did my normal float the bag and add water every 6 minutes. Just don't pour that water into your tank.

During acclimation, have the MH lights off so you don't cook the floating bag. Better to acclimate to a quarantine tank, of course.

[MrSpiffy]

I was planning to acclimate into QT for both fish, for sure. There's no way I'd take the risk of dumping them into my display without observing them first.

The QT's both have NO fluorescents, so they shouldn't be too bad. And I usually shut the lights off during acclimation, anyway, to reduce the stress on the fish. I'll do the same when I first put them into the display. I'll shut the lights off before introducing them, to keep them calm and less-stressed.

I was probably going to drip acclimate them both. I also got the advice to test the initial water for pH and ammonia. They said that, if the pH is low and there's ammonia in the water, dripping them to a higher pH would actually make the ammonia more potent, and you should acclimate more quickly. That sounds like it's true, like I remember reading that somewhere before. Can you confirm/deny that?

[melev]

The pH in transhipped bags is quite depressed, plus you've got higher ammonia as you expected. Oxygen releases the ammonia into the water.

I'm not a drip-acclimate kind of guy. I've done it a few times, but usually I just pour water into the bag regularly to double the water volume.

[MrSpiffy]

So, unless it's a particularly sensitive specimen, you're more an advocate of a faster acclimation process. Interesting! I suppose it's more about the salinity than the pH. As long as the parameters are pretty close, they should do just fine.

You think they'd do okay in a 10G together? (The wrasse and the angel..?) Assuming they're healthy, they should only be in there together for a couple weeks or so. But if it's a bit too crowded, I can always put them into a 20H instead. And should I QT them together? Or separate them into two tanks?

[SFeST]

Farnsworth made me smile

My setup is similar to yours, I'm following along now.