My husband is actually very very good with my hobby. He just rolls his eyes every now and then....but I got in a GORGEOUS Sailfin Tang on Wednesday, and right away he's telling me how good it's going to look in the display tank!!! Not, how much we selling that for or anything...just how good it's going to look in the display!!! (Didn't actually get it for the display but that's ok!) :biggrin: He does like the hobby and even though he gripes every now and then, he's been really good. HOWEVER, he sure doesn't love the Vancouver Fish Shop "tour". I mean, you have GOT to hit them all, and then if you see something you like, you DO have to observe it for quite some time, then chat up the employees and such. Usually he goes back out to the truck to play on my iPhone. But, he's been very very patient!

It seems that you "win" quite a few doorprizes at reef meets :wink:

Bwaahahahahahahha!!! I'm gonna have to use that one!!! :twised:

There's always the good old faithful: "It followed me home, what could I do?" If it works for puppies and kittens it should for Tangs & Wrasses.

Love it.....I think it would work well!

that it followed me home what could i do? worked from my girl today when she came home with a tiny lil clown trigger only about 3/4 inch long

It won't work quite as well for me....as the tank is at the store....I could say "it jumped"~ to the new tank....what do you think?

I wish on all accounts. Steve eventually (sometimes it takes him a few days but no longer then a week) notices anything I put into the tank. He was the one who started the hobby but now wants nothing to do with it, he wishes we'd shut everything down and sell it all, I say I don't think so, I wont allow that to happen. He mostly complains about how much money I'm constantly spending and how high my line of credit is because of it. He's also stopped going to lfs with me because he hates how long I take in them, but I'm with Sarah you have to look at everything and chat with everyone :mrgreen:

I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about :wink: Although I plan on winning something from Blue world for their 1 yr anniversary prize :mrgreen:

He doesn't seem to complain as long as he doesn't think I paid for it. Good thing I have a lot of reef friends who work with me on getting stuff :mrgreen:

I used to try that but he only got annoyed with me.

Guess it works better when the guy is into the hobby and wants more fish.

I love it, you should definitely use that one :lol:

A small but very overdue update........Soooo...a couple of things followed me across the floor? A very nice Sargassum Trigger, a TEENY TINY Atlantic Blue Tang, a Seagrass Wrasse, a very small Lamarck's Angel, and a group of very small yellow tangs...the tank has been doing very very well.....all levels have been fantastic and now we'll just see! I did lose the little Orange Shoulder in quarantine which was very upsetting...his poor little face rotted...it was odd.

Our lighting has been decided...we are going to have either 4 or 5 MH pendants with some T5 supplemental in the canopy...it will be an open top canopy to allow for heat to escape...but should be pretty well lit when all is said and done. Will try to update with pics in the next few days....

Hey I was just in Campbell River this week and I didn't know what kind of retail outlet that you have this tank in...but I will be coming back before long for business so I would love to know for then.

PM sent! I don't advertise yet on Canreef as I have no website still...but I'll let you know where I am!:biggrin:

Sorry to hear about your orange shoulder. Were you treating with copper in QT? My sohal's face rotted when he was undergoing copper treatment when he had MV. Not sure if that was the case with your fish or not, but I thought I'd mention it.

Actually no, I wasn't treating for anything as he was perfect....ate like crazy, no sign of anything wrong...so I was holding off..then one of my staff said that he looked like his face was getting dark, and he wasn't coming out to the front like normal....so I took a look, his face looked...."wrong"? and the next day he was dead. Very sad as I was soooo excited and he was so perfect!

Sorry to hear that, that is very sad and strange.

yeah, I hate to say but I wish I HAD been treating him to then have a reason for his demise. But, I will get another as I really really like them!

Sooo after a long chat with Mike (skimmer king) we've changed our direction a bit...we're going to install a remote sump along side the tank with an in sump skimmer. We don't like the noise of the pump with the external....sooooo the build will be changing but I can't wait...no more heaters in the tank, or hoses of any kind...YAY! And places to put reactors and such. Maybe not the easiest to do at this point but...the build is stalled anyways as our contractor has not come by to start the cap. ARGH...it is just sitting there waiting for our lights but no cap so can't do it.....I don't do well with waiting as it is...but we called him over 6 weeks ago and he was coming by that night....I think he may have gotten lost!

So...on to better stuff now!!

And, HUGE thanks to Mike (skimmer king) for his help and advice. I think we may actually be a lucky group to have someone like him that will purchase and install just about every kind of skimmer....and then sell it a few months later, but be able to give a review on it! LOL! Thanks again Mike!

The sump we're going to use is built. We had it built for a customer but his stand was WAY too short...so I think we're going to use it for this tank....LOTS of room and big refugium room too..it's the one by Melev that was built for a 210g with a refugium......at least I think that's what we'll use...it could change tomorrow if I change my mind....:lol: will update as we go

No problem Sarah, great talking with Larry where we both were having a laugh ,about the tank and the skimmer and well I told Larry just to blame you for the mishap.

I'm glad that you have went the direction of the sump it will be alot better in the end and easier to work on for the skimmer anyways. Remember when you have that skimmer as a recirculating one go with a high powered internal pump to things that it will do ,
1. heat the water
2 blast the crap out of the injectors and give you multi million bubbles in the skimmer and with the MR -2 you can add height to the skimmer making more contact time to the skimmer hence pulling more crap out of the tank.

let mw know about the LAst PM that i sent you with regards to the types of skimmers and prices for Larry's wallet/:lol:

I'm down here in Courtenay and my wife likes to go for drives... are you the Campbell River Pet Center? I like the tank. I'm putting my tank on the stand on Saturday, so I could go up to CR on Wednesday next week :D.

PM sent

Pic's, Pic's, Pic's.... Don't teaze us with just one picture, we need more!!!

that is What I'm talking about. 1 big long tank

like whatever SARAH.:redface::redface::redface::redface:

and I took the time to help you guys out with your skimmer problem and this is how you return the favor...hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

fine be like that :sad:

HEHE, don't P I S S off the HORE

EEEEK I think I might have slightly aggravated the skimmer hore! LOL...so anyways..there's really not much to show other than...hey here's the tank.

We were going to use a sump we had built for a customer that didn't work out.....but changed our minds..........So......what I am asking for is pics of your sump. I want a big sump to go beside the tank and am at a bit of a loss to plan it. I'm not "really" keen on having a refugium...I've never had one, why start now? And I've gone over Melev's reef sumps many times...just not finding what I want. I have about 5 feet long...and about 28 inches of possible room with height not being a concern. Show me your sumps ... if you don't mind!!!!! Hey Mike...this means YOU TOO!!!!

Attachment 6618
40g breeder with a 5 gal for the input.

here is littlesilvermax's 8 footer
[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/MIKE&T%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-11.png[/IMG]http://www.members.shaw.ca/bkotrla3/...0/IMG_8509.JPG
http://www.members.shaw.ca/bkotrla3/...0/IMG_8510.JPG

Hey Ben I hope you dont mind

bit of an "overdue" update.

Sump has arrived and is plumbed. Will have pics tomorrow. It's HUGE..no really it's LARGE. I wanted to be sure that I'd never have to worry about a power failure and having the sump overflow so I sorta over-compensated. Will post more details to go with the pic tomorrow...but it's about 175-180 gallons:redface:. We first used a Quiet One 9000 for the return pump as we wanted an in sump instead of outside sump....let me tell you...there is nothing QUIET about that pump. Sounds like you're running a chainsaw in the front of the store. UGH.....so next, after talking to Jeff at J&L and expressing our extreme displeasure....we hooked up 2 Quiet One 6000...and it's a fraction of the noise..I'm happy, staff is thrilled and I'm sure the animals close to the tank are happy too!!! We've run the tank a bit strange but it works. One side we kept the closed loop on, the other is the side that drains into the sump and has the return on. Again pics tomorrow. I have a large refugium area, great skimmer zone, and the return zone is perfect...and hey, no microbubbles!!!!

Lights....we hummed and hawed over the lights. I like my SPS tank at home, but really does "Joe Blo" actually appreciate the ORA Pearlberry that has grown a quarter of an inch in the last 3 months as we do? NO. They want to see a "flowy" reef with movement. Not to say I won't have SOME SPS (as I mean, really, what's a tank without some good SPS) but it will also have some coral movement to accompany it! So the lights went from 5 250w halides with T5's supplementing to, after much discussion and discussions with other reefers (whom I am very thankful for their input)...we have 2 4 foot 8 bulb T5 fixtures (that arrived YESTERDAY WOOT, WOOT) and in the centre of the tank we will have either a 400w halide pendant or a 250w halide pendant. I've just put the 250w over one of the store tanks and it looks fantastic so I'm thinkin it's the 400w. We just picked up the Oak plywood and made our first cuts for building the canopy. Our builder never did show up so my Dad and I are building it.... I also went with T5's as I don't want the heat issues that 5 halides would have put out. My BC Hydro bill is high enough! We will be moving the LED's I have on my tank at home to this tank so that we have some "moonlights" on the tank....

Skimmer is something I'm still not sure of. I've spent some time talking with the Skimmer Hore, Thanks Mike!, but am still not too sure what we want. We're looking at the SWC 250 1A from Oceanic Corals and a Bubble Magus 220CS from Sask. I don't know which one as of yet.....as I will have quite a few fish in the tank....and I do like to feed as do my staff. Still any input will be valuable here...Mike has been a big help but still not quite sure.

Fish...oops...sorta added a couple of fish.....and some rock. So, should decide on the final skimmer choice ASAP! I added a GORGEOUS Blonde Naso we got in at the store which has tons of personality....a teeny Earspot Tang, a small Tennenti Tang and 2 little Long Fin Wrasses.....that's it now until we get the proper skimmer. Can't really add more rock until the lights are on the tank....all my home tank rock is going into this tank....and can't add more fish until we have a skimmer. Phew, you really can't rush a reef tank! LOL:lol:

Don't get me wrong this all sounds SPLENDID but here's the problem with not postings pics.

Now we ALL have to wait until tomorrow when you could have posted this tomorrow and there'd only be ONE person waiting. You! Lol. Just kidding but dangit I wanna see!

Brett I will back you up too PIC's please

WOW, I really suck at keeping this up to date....a "few" changes to the tank:lol:

We bought a Bubble King skimmer from a reefer here and WOW that is an AWESOME skimmer! Easy to use, easy to clean (I have one staff member who is VERY VERY dedicated to cleaning it, and it's NOT ME! YAY)

We have the following fish now;

Blonde Naso Tang (really THE tang of the tank!)
Vlamingii Tang (when they say these grow quickly, they're really NOT KIDDING)
Tennenti Tang (the NASTIEST tang of the tank)
Orange Shoulder Tang
Ear Spot Tang
4 Yellow Tangs
2 Long Fin Fairy Wrasses (1 Dominant Male, and a submissive Male)
Breeding Pair of Banggai Cardinals
Spotted Mandarin Dragonette (Male) we lost our female while taking down the 150g
Golden Dwarf Moray Eel
Trio of Picasso Clowns
Hector's Goby
Potter's Angel (who truly tried it's hardest to die in the store, and finally after 2 months decided food was a good thing)
Sand Sifting Goby

AND...just yesterday we added a Trio of Hawaiian Flame Wrasses. The Longfin dominant male was NOT happy and tried his hardest to push them all around. Today, most are out and swimming around normally.

Tomorrow we are considering adding;

McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
Exquisite Wrasse
and one other that for the life of me I can't remember!

WISH LIST; We have a few tangs that we would still like to add but will give it careful consideration before we add as we have quite a few already, however they all get along EXCEPT the Tennenti and Orange Shoulder;

Black Longnose Tang
Achilles Tang
Atlantic Blue Tang
Chevron Tang

So without further delay...here are some pics!

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...0build/300.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...build/3001.jpg

Sump; (it's about 175 gallons full...so running capacity is around 140)

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...d/300gsump.jpg

Bubble King

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...BubbleKing.jpg

Most of the tangs;

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2.../mosttangs.jpg

Centre

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...ild/centre.jpg

Green Brain from CUBEMAN with of course, the Tennenti. It's either the Tennenti or the Naso that's in all the pictures, all the time!

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...greenbrain.jpg

Frogspawn...one of the many corals I still have to get pics of....yes, I know, you WON'T hold your breathe. Good thing, many of you would have perished LONG AGO :lol:

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...build/Frog.jpg

Orange Shoulder and friends...

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...20build/OS.jpg

As you can see, there is still a few projects to be completed. We just had the bottom of the stand "fixed" by a local carpenter/customer. It was very very poorly done. So, will take a couple shots of it, and it is much improved.

We also still have to build the "cabinet" around the sump. Too many kids with things in their hands that could drop, walk by the tank daily...so better safe than sorry. On the refugium side, there will be a window in front and possibly overhead to view the animals we hope to have in there.

The refugium side of the sump is FAR from completed. We still have to add sand, live rock, macro algaes, lighting, and then in several months we "hope" to add a couple of seahorses to it. Maybe, maybe not. We built it with that in mind so we'll see.

We have a few powerheads and a wavebox still to add, and some LED nightlights, my controller from home and a few other things...plus I need to lower the lights. The lights are still quite high over the tank so I can get in there and play around still. AND of course have room to add fish.

Fish additions; those will happen over the next 6 months. We really screwed up when we added an unhealthy fish in the beginning so now we are taking our time, and really, it's soooo incredible looking already, that it's really not something we're going to get bored with quickly. We will add a couple more gobies of different types, wrasses, maybe/maybe not some tangs, Sargassum Trigger is a hopeful addition as well, maybe some Wyoming White Clownfish if we can, and who knows what else. We have a gorgeous Powder Blue Tang in the store that would look amazing in this tank, however I have one JERK tang, don't know that I want to add another that I know will be nasty!!!

Coral Additions;

LPS will be added as it comes in. I've been very lucky to have a few local reefers have corals outgrow their tanks, and been traded in....YAY for me! And Zoanthids will always be added when I get them...always collecting!!! I will add some SPS to the tank as I love it, but for general public viewing the tank, they like seeing coral moving around, and don't get the excitement behind "look at the polyp extension on that Bali Tri Color"......

Wow Sarah.. That look amazing! When my wee little Atlantic Blue outgrows my tank I now know where to send him.:mrgreen:

Look at all that tangy goodness!! Tank is looking awesome Sarah! :cool:

What kind of clowns are those in the 2nd pic? Onyx? Me likey!

Thanks Ladies!!

Shelley...I will take your tang in a heart beat!!!

Christy...those are my Picasso Clowns...they're actually really a nice trio...the little guy (male) isn't as well patterned as the other 2 but nice anyway.

CORALS IN TANK;

Aussie Orange Torch
Green and Pink Frogspawn
Green and Green Frogspawn
Aussie Duncan
Green and Purple Chalice
Red and Green Chalice
Lava Chalice
Mystery Chalice
Green Brain
Red and Green Brain
Green and Purple Brain
Orange/Blue/Brown Acan
Green Horn Coral
Pink and Green Hammer
Green and Green Hammer
Nuclear Green Palys
Purple Death Palys
Giant Palys
Dendros
Blue Mille
Green frag from O.C.
Couple of small Mille frags from O.C.
Bits of previous corals from my 150 that are attached to the live rock
MANY MANY MANY Zoanthids, Paly's and such
Hawaiian Feather Duster

Green Bubble Tip Anemone

I have 4 or 6 Peppermint Shrimp (sorta lost count while putting them in)
MANY Snails of all sorts
40-50 Blue legged hermits
2 Sand Sifting Starfish

looks great Sarah

Sarah, it's looking terrific! Good job! I'll be over your way soon to have a look-see.

Now I want a 10' tank. Thanks a LOT Chaloupa! :lol: