captbunzo's 47g tank log

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8650204#post8650204 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by papagimp
why did you go with the light fixture support like that instead of attaching it to the ceiling? Or is this one of those things that I just need to read through the whole log already?
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No, I don't think I mentioned it. Adam (the other Adam) is part right in that this is related to the stuff I went through with my other apartment. But also, the other apartment was never that nice of a place in the first place. And so I was never all that terribly concerned about drilling a couple holes.

My new place, however, is actually pretty nice. I mean, there's actually like trim around the ceiling and stuff. I just didn't really want to mess up my new pretty place.

Also, the ceiling hung fixture requires you leave the tank in one place, no moving it ever. This is more flexible as I could move the tank to Ardmore and not have to go through a lot of hassle to rehang the light fixture.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8650222#post8650222 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by divecj5
Great work Paul.
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Thanks! I do like my new light fixture a lot. And it was fun working with a new building material (the angle iron, or whatever it's called). The stuff isn't cheap, however, at $12 for a 6 foot piece. That's about $60 worth of light fixture there. I think it was worth it, though. Pretty quick build, lightweight, and easy to install. Ok, somewhat easy. Would have been easier if the tank wasn't already up and in place. :)

How are the new fish doing?
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Doing well, as far as I can see. The crosshatch goby has made himself a burrow under a rock and seems to never want to come out. But that's ok - sand sifters do that sometime.

The Copperband seems to be getting less and less afraid of me, which is nice. I still don't see him eating anything SPECIFICALLY, but do see a lot of picking at the rock. I think he is getting some food.

I might take the plunge eventually and buy some live bivalves from the grocery store (steamer clams, mussels, etc) and crack one open for him and put it in the tank. Supposedly that is a GREAT way to get Copperbands to eat. I have been resisting that technique, however, as I really don't want to TRAIN the little son-of-a-gun to EAT clams, as I'd like to have 1-2 in the tank eventually....

Thanks for peeking in, guys!
 
Hey Paul, how did you attach the light frame? Is it just bolted to the stand? Anyway I really like the idea of being able to move the lights up and down and I am more than sure this will be real handy when it comes time for new bulbs. BTW how about some new pics.
 
Yeah, I love to be able to raise and lower the light to get in the tank. As for attachment, the "posts" are bolted to the back of the stand with four 3/8 inch bolts and washers and nuts. Similar 3/8 inch bolts were used to attach the frame together. I apologize as I didn't get any pics during the assembly process.

And new pics? I just posted some today! :) Whatcha wanna see, fish & corals?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8650864#post8650864 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by captbunzo
And new pics? I just posted some today! :) Whatcha wanna see, fish & corals?
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:lol:

AAAHHHH did you say fish and corals? uummm OK :smokin:
 
Ok, finally an update.

Well, the great copperband experiment ended badly. I got back to the apartment one Sunday evening to find it dead and half decomposed on the bottom of the tank.... YUCK!!!

This is disappointing, but not all that surprising. I really made a mistake when I didn't have them feed it for me in the fish store before I bought it. In short, I don't think it ever ate a thing after I brought it home from the fish store. It was a beautiful fish, but unfortunately didn't work out.

My orange striped goby is doing well, but hides when I approach the tank, so is pretty much un-picturable. I have also got a lawnmower blenny, which seems to have done a BANG UP JOB of eliminating some hair algae from my tank. I was shocked at that as from what I hear, they can be hit or miss on the eatage of GHA.

I've also acquired a variety of small zoanthid frags, a small rock with a couple of ricordia polyps, a nice Montipora confusa, a blue tuxedo urchin, and a GREAT orange brittle star. And I retrieved my corals back from the coral babysitter, so I have my ORA german blue monti & blue tortuosa acro back. And my orange sunrise montipora.... So I am am happy camper in coral land.........

EXCEPT, I discovered what I believe to be Montipora eating nudibranchs on my Monti confusa. So I did some dips and some serious work removing the remaining eggs. I think I got it all cleared up and will watch ir for the next couple weeks. Assuming it has survived my first round of abuse, I'll likely redip it next week or so as to catch any hatched babies from eggs I might have missed.

That was, btw, a disgusting task....

Anyhow there's the run through. Now here are some pics......... As usual, click on the pics to go to the page on flickr where you can comment or see a bigger version. Some of these pics look REALLY nice when seen a bit bigger.... And just to keep myself honest, these pics HAVE been photoshopped to correct exposure, contrast, white balance, etc. Nothing significant, just some minor tweaking...


The obligatory whole tank shot. The lights are off right now, so things actually look pretty boring....


The return of my ORA blue tort. It has changed color a bit, losing some of it's green. I chalk this up to the fact that I am not keeping it solely under 20000K lights.

This is also a good example of what happens when you take pics of corals in different lights. I can guarantee that if I had more blue light above this coral when the picture was taken, it would look even better. However, when I took it, it was illuminated solely by the flash of the camera. So it came out more brown...


Here is a picture of my Montipora confusa, after dipping and nudibranch removal. You can see a large spot near the base (a little smaller then a dime) that has been affected. I hope this coral hangs in there as I really like it....







As you can see by the abundance of pics, I really like my orange brittle star. Very cool.


Just that one more pic of the starfish... I like to call that one "Dance of the Orange Brittle Star"....

(too be continued)
 
(continued...)


Ok, sort of one more starfish pic. I left him in that one so that you could see the size comparison of him and the coral here. This coral is called an Oulophyllia. It is something that I haven't seen before and, um, still can't pronounce correctly.... :)


Here is a closeup of the Oulophyllia.


And the Oulophyllia after feeding. This baby got a little beat up in shipping into Extreme Corals and recovered there for a while. Now that it is in my tank, it is puffing up and looking wonderful. And since I'll be feeding it zooplankton, it'll likely recover really nicely.

Gotta say, I love LPS corals.....


And last but certainly not least, by blue tuxedo urchin. Now that the hair algae has been cleaned up from the tank, I can see this guy a little more often (he used to be covered with GHA that he'd collected from the walls). One neat thing about this pic, you can sort of see the little clear tentacles that wave off of the sucker..... I didn't realize they had the little tentacles as you normally only see the little spikes in pics.

Anyhow, that's all for now.... :)
 
Hey Paul. Sorry for not catching up in a while but I've actually been away from a computer for a whole week now :) Kinda nice every once in a while. I'll have to catch up with you sometime soon.

Merry late Christmas and Happy New Years...

Adam
 
Same to you, Adam - Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! And thanks for poking your head around.....

I should give you a holler sometime so we can chat.... :)
 
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