Hey Michael! I've been out fishing a lot for sure. But, I've made progress. There's good news and some pretty bad news. I'll start out with the good news.
I was able to pretty much finish the stream tank. I finished washing the gravel as best that I could, added it to the tank along with the river rocks that I collected, and rockscaped the tank. I'm not certain that I'll keep it this way. More than likely, I'll remove some of the river rocks. I kinda got carried away LOL. I also purchased a glass top that didn't fit correctly. But, it worked out, because I was able to trim the plastic pieces that come with it to make up the difference and give it a good fit. All I need to do with that is cut a couple of the corners to make room for the canister filter stand pipe intake tube and the spray bar. Oh, yeah, and I finished the spray bar. Once I get the glass cut, then I'll set up and run the canister filter. This should bring the river effect into full swing, adding current across the top of the roots and across the tank. The roots are cinched down tight and are doing their job well, hiding the powerhead. Below are a few pics.
Front View:
Front Left Side:
Front Right Side:
Front View Sunset:
Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNRo_j9UGV4
Next up for this tank, cycle it, then get out there and collect fish, then add them to the tank.
Now the bad news... My 20g long oyster reef tank had an ich and velvet outbreak. I have no idea how that happened, but, it did. I had a QT set up with some fish that I recently collected, treating them with copper and Prazipro, so I moved the surviving fish into the QT. One of the blennies was too far gone and died in QT. One blenny seems OK as of last night. One goby is hanging in there. It was belly up on the bottom barely breathing two nights ago, and is at least upright and breathing better, but, is really out of it. I think it could make it, but, I'm not really optimistic. I lost all of the skilletfish, three blennies, and four gobies. Of the fish that I recently collected, I lost two skilletfish, one goby, and a couple small killifish. Most of the fish that were in QT already that I collected seem to be doing better, including a small male blenny. They're still scratching, but, they are better, I think because they're eating again. The oyster reef tank is still running with inverts, but, I pulled the oyster cultches out for some maintenance.
My 20g high tank is doing OK, but, it's fishless. I did collect another anemone for that tank, so that was nice.
Now that the stream tank is up and running, it's time for me to clean up the mess that I left behind and finish my 100g oyster reef build. Hopefully, I'll be able to save the blennies and the fish to have something in the larger tank. Otherwise, I'll have to wait until it warms again next spring to collect more fish.
Lesson learned...when fish aren't interested in food and they haven't eaten yet, they're sick. Take action.