68G cube becomes a 95G Reef :)

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

Sounds like a plan. To be honest that drawing was not a real plan for the sump, just a quick sketch to show where the refugium will be. I am set on keeping the fuge 4' long though because I am keeping one of my puffers in there for now. Plus aesthetically for viewing it needs to be 4' give or take.

Your idea with the return in the middle will work perfectly though. Thanks.

Looks like a a cool design. Do you know what material your gonna use or what finish for the cabinet? I am running a sump with the return in the middle and I think it works great. I think doing it this way eliminates one obstacle at least for the pods (etc.)....they still have to survive going through the return pump

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by fishytime

Looks like a a cool design. Do you know what material your gonna use or what finish for the cabinet? I am running a sump with the return in the middle and I think it works great. I think doing it this way eliminates one obstacle at least for the pods (etc.)....they still have to survive going through the return pump

No I am not sure yet but probably just the same MDF I am using now. Sealed and painted with a semi gloss black. One of my brothers works at an auto parts shop and can get me really cheap car paint. I may go with that.

The other option I am considering is counter top laminate. It gives a nice perfectly smooth finish. The problem is, I have not been able to find the right finish in laminate yet. Its not all that common to have glossy counter tops I guess.

The only thing I forgot to think about was that the tang is going to outgrow the 68 pretty quickly. I had planned to move him to the big tank once he did but if its not set up, there goes that idea...

My fiance's vote is to just use the big tanks current set up as the reef. She said she likes the new plan but thinks the bigger tank where it is now is still nicer. That way too she can keep her trigger.

So I am going to have to really think about this. I am not in a hurry. I do prefer not to spend too much more money though

This is the big tank a few months back (The canopy was not completely painted yet):

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

LOL...after seeing these pics, she may be right. It does make a nice reef. And I would do the lighting the same with it fading away down the length of the tank.

[Sebae again]

Dont take down the 130,put the bar in front of it.It really suits your place. I would love to have a tank like yours as a room divider and focal point.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Sebae again

Dont take down the 130,put the bar in front of it.It really suits your place. I would love to have a tank like yours as a room divider and focal point.

Hmmmm...you basically said exactly what my fiance said earlier!

You guys are probably right. It is a great focal point. The problem is that focal point right now is not a very nice looking tank. Since switching it to a FOWLR and spending all my time on the reef, its gone downhill.

It would be pretty nice as a reef again and hey, no more plumbing! Its done! Plus that tank is very quiet.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

So weird...without exception, every single acro that did NOT come from someone elses tank (which is most of them) died overnight. The one or two I got from members on here are ok but anything from the LFS I shop at died all at once. I have checked everything and all I can find that is different from a few days ago is alk. It rose from 8.3 to 10.2 I don't know how quickly though, it could have been overnight or over the past week.

Temperature, salinity, PH, Calcium, ect. stayed the same.

I just find this really strange and too bad because I have some really nice little acro frags I bought over the past three weeks.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

What!

I moved the 68G to my bigger tank and everything looks great considering but I decided to measure my tank (I never had before) and its NOT 72"x20"x20"...Its more like 71.5"x19.5"x19.5" and thats including the glass thickness. Then I have the overflow about 2" below the water line. So when you do all the math, this tank is actually closer to 95G. Thats a huge surprise to me! For a while it was in the same room as a 180G I had and certainly did not look half the size!

Anyways, I will take pics soon. I am just building a canopy.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Ugh....My yellow tang has ich of course. He was QT'd when I bought him. 5 weeks. No problems, so he went into the display. The clowns he lived with were also QT'd. They went two months and no disease. He got really stressed after moving tanks the other day and now has a decent amount of ich.

I am so sick of dealing with this. I have QT'd and been so careful and still almost every tank I have ever set up gets it. I am done QTing for more than a few days anymore with this tank. If new fish look ok after a week of QT, I am not going to bother making them wait longer to go into the display.

Of the dozen or so members tanks I have seen lately, I would say all of them have very healthy looking, active fish and 3/4 of them have ich in their tank. It just seems to be such a wide spread problem.

Hopefully the small fish I plan on keeping can deal with it...

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

So this is where I am at...

Moved everything to the 95G...yeah its only 95G in the display. I was shocked. It would be 125 if I had it filled to the top but I have the water level quite low. So its a 95G with 75G sump (only about 40G water in sump though). The corals are ok but very dull after three days. The skimmer went nuts and skimmed the heck out of the water. I think its starving the sps to be honest. They still look ok but dull. I need more fish The stand/canopy is not close to done. No doors on anything. We are choosing a stone or concrete looking tile for the stand and not sure about the canopy yet. Probably just painted though.

Here are the latest additions and tank shots.

Pair of Fang Blennies. They do not leave each others side. Sorry bad pic. I will have to try for a better one.



And the other addition that I have only seen once is this Clown Goby. I think you get an idea from the second pic of how small he is!





And the tank from both sides. Its a room divider still.





The plan now is to fill this bad boy with tiny fish! All kinds of gobies and blennies, ect. I just have to find out how well they get along. Anyone have a general rule for these small fish?

[untamed]

Your yellow tang should kick that ich. I know I have ich in my tank but my yellow tang is one of the fish that never shows any sign of it. They must have better natural resistance than something like my achilles, which always shows it to some degree.

I like the rockwork in that tank! That will look fabulous in about 1 year.

Are you planning on doing anything more with your lighting? It looks like you are lighting the reef portion with MH, but not trying to light that sandy end too much. What is your plan there?