JapanReef - 450 gallon In-Wall system

[NexDog]

Went to the UK with a month and took the family. Father-in-law looked after the tank and it came through unscathed.

4 Royal Grammas survive, only see 3 for the most part.

The larger Foxface turned on the smaller Foxface about 3 months ago after living in harmony for a year. The smaller Foxface lived in hiding for about 2 months, venturing out to grab some food and being chased away. I didn't think it would make it but over the last few weeks it has started to stick up for itself and is back in the community.

Had a strange experience with the Vodka dosing. I was finding that my pumps were starting to become clogged very quickly. For instance the main return pump once went without a clean for 2 years and I was now cleaning it weekly so it would provide enough flow through the skimmer. The Tunzes were getting clogged and putting out no flow. So I stopped dosing vodka completely, cleaned teh rturn pump and sure enough, two weeks later it is still providing enough flow. I didn't clean the Tunzes and 2 weeks ago, when I stopped dosing Vodka I could hardly see any surface agitation from the Tunzes. But little by little it has been increasing every day and now they are at about 80% power (up from 10%) and I didn't clean them, just stopped dosing Vodka.

So even though I wasn't seeing any visible signs of bacterial slime it was building up in the pumps. I was dosing almost 100ml per day when I stopped. I knocked up a new bactch of VSV that has more Vinegar than before (maybe 35%) and I'm dosing 40ml twice a week now. I might up it to 3 times a week but right now, as can be seen by the improvement in the Tunzes, the tank is breaking down the excess bacteria in the tank, which I hope is also eating nitrates.

During this Vodka overdosing many anenomes bleach, I've almost lost the big Frogspawn, and the two biggest heads of the toadstool rooted off. That Frogspawn almost died once before but grew back very quickly so I'm hoping it will do the same again.

So Voddy dosers - beware!

Right now I'm cranking up the QT again as I will be receiving a Scarus Quoyi Parrotfish tomorrow.

[Bax]

All good news Laurence!

[NexDog]

Small update.

The Quoyi Parrotfish went in a few days ago. I made an Isolation box out of wood frame and BBQ grills. Seemed to do the trick. I released it yesterday and this morning was swimming around in the community. The yellow tang side swiped it a few times and last night the Niger Trigger had strong words when the Quoyi came close to the Trigs sleeping cave but other than that, seems to be okay. Haven't seen it since the afternoon as I've been working on finally putting up a sliding rail for the lighting fixture. I made a lot of noise and most fish were in hiding. I hope it will be out again tomorrow.

Here is the Quoyi in QT:





This is the isolation box. In hindsight, a tad big, but did the job:



Yes, front hasn't been cleaned in ages.



Few images of the slider. For 5 years I put up with the old hanging system that just drove me crazy. Changing bulbs, cleaning, maintenance, work involving large tank access - was always a dreaded nightmare. Now I just slide it across, unhook it and pull it above the return plumbing and lower it down. I'm going to redo that return plumbing that has always bothered me too.







The chained is just looped up with an elastic band and sits on the top of the hood. Not ideal, but not sure what else to do with it.

I also moved the canopy ducting over the far end which is an added bonus access wise as it got in the way.

I have an acrylic cleaning mesh kit being shipped in. It was recommended to me by James at Envision Acrylics who made the tank way back 5 years ago. If I can get the front looking great I think I'm ready to start taking the tank to the next level with a calcium reactor and more coral.

[auem]

umm...is this parrot reef safe??(never knew any)...

[NexDog]

It's the only reef safe parrotfish, but only if you have platinum cajones.

[Last Version]

Wow.. I really like your isolation box..and good ideas for rail but would it not bend when you using?

[NexDog]

It does bend a bit but it's stainless steel and it's strong enough.

BTW, love your tank.

[Bax]

That's a nice looking fish and just unusual to see in a reef tank.
Hope it works out well when you start adding corals, I suppose if you can grow coral fast enough there'd be no issues

[jnarowe]

LMAO. Why not just cut the chain shorter? The problem I had was even though it's "stainless", they still corode. Then there's the electrical element. Couple thoughts: Maybe coat the chain with plastic, shrink, or something of the like? Also, It looks lik ethe bottom hook is not stainless. I would switch that out for identical materials ASAP. Disimilar metals cause all sorts of problems. Nice DIY trolley for sure!

As for the return line, that's a bugger. Much too severe of a transition IMO. I would look for a way to get rid of one of the angles. Perhaps by using flexible PVC, coming at it from another direction, etc.

Good luck with the Quoyi!

[tcmfish]

I wouldn't have made a chamber out of metal either...

[NexDog]

The metal rods are easily replacable if they corrode. What else could I use that has the strength to hold that big heavy fixture? The casters are aluminium I think, doesn't corrode (or as fast)?

The chain is also easily replacable. I need the length so I can lower the fixture down which was the whole point in doing this.

I'll be replacing the hooks when I find something more suitable but for now does the job.

[jnarowe]

Kool...just keep in mind that mixing aluminum and steel + salt can get ugly. You have put a lot of work into improvements, so just some caution regarding that. And no offense meant Laurence! I think you are making a lot of good changes, but just wanted to remind you about disimilar metals.

[NexDog]

Could you elaborate? What are the possible issues with mixing steel, aluminium and salt? Definitely don't want something that might be dangerous.

Any tank for you in the future? Maybe get something a little more manageable like a 180g, in-wall in the house somewhere? I think your last 1000g was open and in the basement?

[jnarowe]

Last tank was actually in-wall, in a tank room. Next tank will be similar overall. Or not.

http://corrosion-doctors.org/Forms-g...-corrosion.htm

http://www.engineersedge.com/galvanic_capatability.htm

http://www.corrosionist.com/dissimil..._corrosion.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion

[NexDog]

Learn a new thing every day.

I'll see what I can do, have a few ideas.

[watchguy123]

wow what an awesome project

[jnarowe]

Just remember that the salt creep will make it over and through everything, so suggestions about rubber spacers are only good for so long. Cleaning vigilence is vital as you know, but regular inspections of your rack system are a must. I came across this quite a bit in my system, having used the stock hanger chains.That got UGLY.

[NexDog]

So I'm continuing on with my mission to fix all teh things that have been bugging me for years. These are:

1) Damage to the acrylic tank.
2) Bloody green mushrooms.
3) Bloody snails and turnicates.
4) Rusty stand.

The damage to the acrylic is quite strange. When there's a buildup of the standard crap that we all wipe off every day (due to not cleaning for weeks), I scrape it off with an acrylic block and it seems to leave behind some kind of marking, like a reflection of the brown spots etched into the acrylic. It's not very deep though.

So I asked James at Envison Acrylics and he recommended a mesh kit to me which I ordered and received a few days ago. I had a quick play with it yesterday and I'm relieved that it works. It's going to take days of painstaking elbow grease but it looks like I'll be able to restore the acrylic.

I have declared war on the mushrooms. I test boiled a rock which worked quite nicely. I think I can remove about 10 rocks easily and boil them. The mushroom near the bottom of the tank will be a big challenge and I might not be able to get them all. If I can clear the top and middle sections and confine the mushrooms I'll be happy.

One of the reasons I stopped cleaning the front so often is snails. These tiny triangular bast@rds cover the front, get under the magnet and I have some lovely scratches to show for it, which I can now finally remove. I put a big dent in their population a while back by scraping loads into a net and pulling them out. Needs to be done again, after lights out when they all come out of the sand.

Stand is rusting badly and I need to do something. Going to attack it in stages, wire brush, sandpaper, steel wool, and paint it with Hammerite or something.

If I can get these 4 things done I'm going to reward myself with a calcium reactor and try some SPS finally.

[jnarowe]

yay! I am surprised that none of yor fish eat the snails.

[NexDog]

The new Quoyi Parrotfish eats snails, but he has his work cut out for him.

[jnarowe]

crack the whip yo!