Foam Rockwall w/ built in refuge for a 26 gal bowfront

[Lavoisier]

Originally Posted by sam.basye

Oh you know there can never be enough tanks!

I kind of limited for space in the current place, I acquired a free 55gal tank and sold it - what will power lol. Got $80 to feed the addiction though And I have soo much time and effort invested in the bowfront that I want to see flourish!

One of these days, I want to do a biotope for fiddler crabs. Make a reinforced 'beach' so they can burrow with waves in a long tank with tidal fish.

I'd love to see it if go that route.

[Saltydrip]

That would be really cool. Girlfriend has me tempted to look into building a 36x36" 10" tall tank with an island in the middle for mangroves and crabs. I build a similar tank for mudskippers once years ago but I was too inexperienced and couldn't keep it going. We don't have the floor space for something like that in this apartment.

[sam.basye]

Getting a new phone today with 13 more megapixels than the current 8 mp phone. Hopefully this will take better pictures!

Will post some pictures later today.

Salty, now what's more important... A bed to sleep in or.. A bad a$$ aquarium in the middle of the floor!

[Saltydrip]

Lol. Now that I found that 30cube for $30 I think she will be content with that.

[HunterBryan]

Did u rinse your sand before putting on your foam?

[sam.basye]

Hmmm. Don't think I rinsed it...

The sand originally came out of the water in Clearwater Florida. All life probably died in the bucket when transported home.

It was then sifted and rinsed in tap water (well water). I scooped a hand full into a fish dip net and ran the water through into a pitcher until clean.

It was then used in the pico tank until I removed probably half of the sand bc the pistol shrimp would blow it all everywhere.

I spread it all out and let it dry and put it in a container.

I sprinkled it directly to the wall, soo technically I didn't wash it. Didn't even think about it. Lol

[sam.basye]

Salty, Did you sweet talk the gf with the deal you got?? lol

New phone pics:




Snappy

[Saltydrip]

She loves the tank cube. It's in a place where it's 3 sided. I debated a foam wall for the back of it but I think I'll go tradition cube and do a pile/piler up the middle. Use a pvc pipe up the middle to keep everything in one piece.

[sam.basye]

You could always extend the foam wall down the back side and out under the sand to the center and back up into an island.

[Saltydrip]

No I think I like the black back wall to help contrast coral colors.

[sam.basye]

Got one of my starfish to eat a shrimp pellet for the first time tonight!

I will be going home tomorrow night and will be able to see the outcome of leaving the tank for a month... hopefully its not all over the floor. lol

Looking into getting a new programmable LED fixture as well.

[Saltydrip]

That's awesome about the starfish feeding. I hope the 26 is still in one piece

[sam.basye]

Well, good news - tank is where I left it. Lol not all over the floor!

Everyone survived the trip back, except my new anemone crab managed to lose its two front claws... I assume they'll just grow back. Nowhere to be found..

I don't know when, but the rank got turned off at some point... Probably when my landlord was doing something in the house.

Very little evaporation without the hob running.
Tank looks the same as when I left it. A little diatom growth covering the shell on top is all. Them weird bacteria balls are still in there... The two killer snails are still alive too.

The next step for the tank will be a pita. I went to the last day of the Petco promotion for buy 2 get 1 free sale and picked up a little orchid dottyback and an anemone crab. I managed to get a ton of lose and bunched button polyps for cheap - they ended up free with the sale. So I get to super glue each one to the wall! Got probably 50+ polyps, mostly pale green. Then find a spot for the rest of the coral on the wall and sand. Will do this tomorrow or the next day - or maybe next weekend. We'll see how I feel about it then.

Next is a new led fixture that will put out more light for the bigger tank.
I wouldn't use the current USA orbit led for anything more than 10 gal. My monti spongodes tells me it wants to be green again and doesn't like stretching for the light. Lol and with a better fixture comes a new glass hood for the tank.. Anyone wanna buy it for me for my birthday?? Lol

[Michael Hoaster]

Yay! Congrats on your good fortune. What's a pita? Orchid dottybacks are awesome! Crazy good color, and the least aggressive of the dottybacks. I look forward to pics, once you've got your new polyps 'planted'!

[sam.basye]

Pita - pain in the ***. Lol
The new fish has a really nice purple color. Hopefully just hiding, couldn't find it this morning!
I'm gonna have fun with the planting. Stay tuned for some sort of cool design. Might do my name or something. Lol

[Michael Hoaster]

Oh! I get it. Kinda like me hand-cleaning each individual seagrass blade!

One word of caution-if you have as much luck (and skill!) with your new polyps as you've had with your other corals, you could end up with a wall of polyps. This could look very cool, but you've made such a beautiful wall, it would be ashamed to cover it all up!

[sam.basye]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Oh! I get it. Kinda like me hand-cleaning each individual seagrass blade!

Hahaha- I feel your pain

"One word of caution-if you have as much luck (and skill!)"

Not sure if I have either of those. lol
Just recently have all my corals been somewhat happy one could say. Nothing grows like a weed yet. The GSP on top of the rock has been spreading decently though.
I decided to spread the polyps all over the place so there would be more color in different places. The torch, which I believe to be a Todds torch, is dead center with better flow to promote the long sweeping tentacles like the guy who sold it to me had going on. We'll see.
One thing I really want is a torch/hammer/frogspawn the size of a melon to put in the corner. lol and a bta to host a breeding clown pair... one of these days!



orchid dottyback is a goner... It somehow pulled a Houdini and vanished...
Nowhere to be found. Not on the floor, not behind the tank, not in the filter, and not dead in the tank....
It was swimming happily last night at 3am by the time I finished setting everything back up, unpacking, and went to bed to completely gone 7 hours later when I checked on everything. Déjà vu back to the two Houdini mangrove snappers I had 6 months ago.
I also noticed that someone is being a dick and the little ghost hermit I have is missing its big claw too!! So, someone is terrorizing the rest while they were in the bucket.

I tore the entire tank apart looking for it... Now everything is set up in the bowfront!

Took me 7 hours to get everything set up how I wanted it.
It surprisingly only took less than 30 min to superglue all the polyps. No fun designs this time.

The biggest pain was the initial siphoning 3/4 of the tank water into every water holding container I owned. lol I had it in my empty 5 gal RO water jug, the 5gal tank, pitchers, cups, the 5gal transport bucket, and the 2gal transport bucket all filled to the brim. splashing and dripping everywhere!

The next difficult thing was to position and glue the current livestock and not letting the torch slime out into the water and everything else drying out.

Lastly, I decided that I would tie up all the cords neatly behind the tank. What a pain figuring out what needed the timer and which strip to plug it in to and tying off cords in a 4 inch gap only one arm fits in. lol

Everything looks good and some of the corals were already opening. Mr. Chromi (Aqua) seems to be on drugs though.. swimming up and down the right wall trying to swim through the glass. Doesn't know what to do with all the room! Snappy is building his infrastructure in the back.

The next thing on the list is the glass hood and Reef Breeders Photon 16" LED fixture, or the Chinese knockoff version. Whichever I can find first on my budget. Then Chaeto for the fuge.


Pics to follow tomorrow afternoon when everything should be fully extended

[Michael Hoaster]

I feel your pain too! Sounds like you had quite the adventure. I look forward to pics!

[sam.basye]

Pictures. Quality is ehh, I'll see if I can take better ones tomorrow.
Still gotta reorganize some rocks and remove the shells snappy didn't want. lol

The mithrax found a shell in the wall he likes and has been camping out in it.

[sam.basye]

[Michael Hoaster]

Nice! I'm still impressed with your fake wall. Such nice, natural variation and undulations! It's like a slice of a reef! And it will just get better and better. Great job!

[Saltydrip]

That looks great!!! In 6 monthst it's going to be amazing!!!

[sam.basye]

Thanks guys! It's always nice to do something that turns out how you envisioned it evonce in a while. Lol


I'm thinking that I want to remove the big rock with the gsp on it as it kind of clutters the tank IMO. Remove the gsp to a different location.

One great thing about the wall is the placement of frag plugs is limitless! Just use my Dremel to drill out a little hole and stick the sucker right in.

[sam.basye]

So, as of today. I lost one of the Monti spongode frags and the other recovered. A couple of the zoa's weren't glued down enough and disappeared. That's the only loss that I've had with the transition. Keep in mind this was with the same water from the start plus the current 5 gal water added in. Everything was acclimated for a while and then arranged. I did a water change a few days later (75%). And top offs as needed. So, with that said, I think I did pretty well to only lose one of the spongodes (probably sat out of the water too long when arranging things on day one).
I was in a hurry/panic looking for the missing dottyback that I was never able to find... So I tore out the 5gal looking for it and decided to just transfer everything. Didn't have any RO on hand so I made do with what I had. Wouldn't do it again, but it worked this time.
I thought I lost the anemone crab and was starting to get ****ed.. Then I found it two days later doing it's thing. I am both impressed and surprised at how smart it is. I found it a few days ago sitting on top of the mp10 like an idiot so I turned it off and flicked it back to the sand bed. Next thing I know, the little **** is swimming it's way up the glass and clings to the mp10 again! I then realized he was filtering the water that gets drawn in by the pump... Blew my expectations out of the water. Lol

I rearranged the gsp rock and anemone things in the sand. The gsp seems to be growning faster.. Maybe it's just the angle it's at now.

The torch is the best it's ever looked! Thick and more flowy than before. The location is exactly what I wanted with the flow around it.

I moved the tube coral to the top back shelf... Nowhere I really have to put it as of now.

The diatom bloom deceased overall, but increasing on the front glass.
Also, getting some form of pink/red algae at the top.. Thinking it might be cyano, so I've been tooth-brushing it away. Lol

Did a water change a few days ago. So far, the only thing to disappear behind the wall is my mithrax crab that comes and goes as he pleases.

Will post updated pics tonight!

[Michael Hoaster]

I can't wait to see pics! Sounds like your tank is really coning together. Kick @$$!

It's weird how we all find ourselves in these very hurried situations, when most of the time we have to be ridiculously patient! One thing I try to do now to avoid them is to sit and think for awhile. How do I want this scenario to play out? What are the steps? What do I want to avoid? Do I have everything I need before I begin? A backup plan? If I do take a little time on the front end, it helps me get through without the desperate moments.

I know it's ironic coming from me (the current king of cyanobacteria), but be very careful with that cyano. Just brushing it away could spread it around your tank. Try to remove what you can. Then do the usual blah, blah, blah…feed less, light less long, water change more often, yada, yada, yada. Nip it in the bud, before…I'll shut up now.