crvz's hole in the wall

[prop-frags]

Good news for me. How often do you perform maintenance? Screwing that base on was more of a pain than I expected, but the performance is been very satisfactory so far.

We take it off-line and clean the pump every 6 months. We opted for the SRO neck cleaner and it is one of the best purchases we've ever made as it allows us to go two weeks between cleanings. We just empty the cup every few days.

Nice riser btw!

 

[crvz]

Nice work on the skimmer stand. I might have to do the same for mine! Never bent acrylic before but there's always a first time... Sorry to hear about the powder blue. Never a fun day when that happens.

You do have to hold the acrylic in place while it cools, but it's pretty simple. It has worked very well thus far.

love your chevron..

Me too!

yes it is - it's simply one of the best $100 I invested in my tank and great job on the skimmer stand

We take it off-line and clean the pump every 6 months. We opted for the SRO neck cleaner and it is one of the best purchases we've ever made as it allows us to go two weeks between cleanings. We just empty the cup every few days. Nice riser btw!

That will have to go on the list then. Thanks for the suggestions!

Sorry to hear. How's the purple fairing?

Seems to be swimming around fine, but I havent seen him eat much lately. could be just freaking out about being in the new tank, though. Hopefully he will improve and recover in the next couple days.

What other preventative medications do people use for fish that are lethargic?

 

[crvz]

Purple tang seems to be much more energetic now that I have him around 1.021 specific gravity. Definitely not as bad as earlier in the week, but I can see his lateral line a bit more than expected. Hopefully he will continue to regain strength and attitude.

 

[drummereef]

Purple tang seems to be much more energetic now that I have him around 1.021 specific gravity. Definitely not as bad as earlier in the week, but I can see his lateral line a bit more than expected. Hopefully he will continue to regain strength and attitude.

:thumbsup:

 

[flipsideleo]

Have you putting a few drops of garlic-x (I think that's what it's called) on some nori? I know that it made my tangs go crazy when I did that... especially the lethargic newbies when I had your old tank... I used the kent stuff...

 

[crvz]

Purple tang is hanging on, but not doing well. Has turned white in a lot of places... not sure if he went too long in hypo, or if it created an infection. I've been doing some medication in the tank but the fish hasnt eaten (that I've seen) in quite a while. I am unfortunately not optimistic.

The other fish are doing pretty well. This has, once again, turned into a significant lessons learned for me about QT and how to address new fish. I will soon be putting these guys back into the display (with the exception of the isolated purple tang), and it will probably be many months before I add new fish in as well. Long QT processes are soon to be implemented.

Finally, I bought a new air conditioner for the fish room. The portable unit I have now seems to be struggling (compressor not always turning on, it's not getting rid of water nearly as well as it once did), and I didnt trust it to get me through another Houston summer. So, it will go into the position of my back-up once I get the new mini split installed. It seems to be something I can DIY, but I'll get the pleasure of some back breaking concrete work to pour a small slab for it.

 

[psteeleb]

sorry to hear about the tang and hope it pulls through. Try to give it as stress free and environment as you can. If you haven't already, consider adding some hiding spaces and keeping the lights down low.

 

[crvz]

AC installed. While I could have done the final evacuation of the lineset myself, I didnt want to buy the adapter and ended up having an AC dude come out this morning. Everything seems to be working very well. Dropped my fish room from 82 to 72 in about 20 minutes, and it's running at 640 watts. My crummy portable unit was running well over 800 watts and was less powerful.

I've got some clean up for the outdoor unit, cleaning up the lines and filling the vent hole with some expanding foam. Functionally it's finished.

The indoor unit is above the door, as you can see. I'm thinking about getting some lineset covers to aesthetically clean up all the runs, but the commercial stuff is pretty expensive (I believe it would run me over $100 for a cover). And, obviously, I have to finish painting the wall. I only had enough primer on hand to do the area I was mounting the indoor unit to, and I havent been to the store yet. And I suppose some door trim wouldnt suck, either.

All said, I'm really impressed even after the first 6 hours of operation. I should have done this originally.

 

[Editour2]

If you don't mind me asking.....how big is the total area being cooled? What unit did you end up using? What was the total damage ($$$)? My fish room is approximately 6ft x 10ft. I don't currently have an A/C in the room.....I did run a separate electrical line in the room for future use however was thinking about a portable unit. Currently I only have an exhaust fan running with a humidity controller.
thanks,
Frank

 

[crvz]

It was bought, shipped, and installed (including the service call) for 950 (I needed to buy electrical lines, some PVC for the drain, and concrete to get it installed). The room is about 140 square feet (10x14), and this is a 12000 btu unit with a heat pump (which I suspect I will NEVER turn on). There is no comparison to this and a portable unit. Yes this was about 2.5x the cost, but it's running less electricity and cools the room considerably better.

 

[crvz]

Some newer additions, as I've been focused on hardware the last few months (with the skimmer and AC). I have wanted a red-tail trigger (some times called sargassum) for a while, having had one in the past. And while I still may go in that direction as well, I saw this blue jaw with very dynamic coloration and a good price yesterday, so I grabbed it and stuck it in QT. It's about 4-5" and very well fed. The other fish in the QT (the very aggressive White cheek tang) took some offense to the new inhabitant, but the blue jaw didnt care. The personality of these fish (the Xanthichthys genus) is very entertaining, and I imagine 2 of them would do well in the 300 gallon. Not a great picture from the QT system, but you get the gist.

I've also procured a number of frags over the past few weeks, just whatever pops up randomly. A green milli, red planet, small piece of pearlberry, a blue tipped yellow slimer (or so it appears), and these two which I bothered to photograph.

For some reason birdsnests have done crappy in my tank (with the exception of the green one you'll see in the next photo), but this particular one looks really good so far. Finally, a FTS. I have a handful of fish in the display still, and they seem to be doing well. Excuse the reflections, it's quite sunny today.

 

[drummereef]

New additions look great Chris. :thumbsup:

 

[Taqpol]

That IS a gorgeous blue jaw! I think you're almost obligated to pair him up in a 300 gallon tank. The only problem I've ever had with blue jaws is that they always seem to be more skittish and hide more then the other triggers. How is this guys personality?

 

[crvz]

This one is borderline aggressive. Hasnt hidden on me yet, and was in a tank with another one at the store and they were swimming around together. Very unique for this fish, but I'm ok with it. And I'd rather a sargassum trigger than a female blue jaw, but we'll see how it plays out.

 

[crvz]

Another shot of the blue jaw.

I also had the macro lens out for the first time in a while. Cali tort

Green birdsnest

Tripneustes sp. urchin. Awesome at eating lobophora.

War coral. I've had this for a long time. It's probaly about 5" in diameter.

 

[drummereef]

Great pics! The trigger looks fat and happy.

 

[Hurdicuss]

Yes... Mini-splits are the bees-knees!! It's been a while, but sorry to read about your rough patch or reef endeavors :-/ Hope things line out for you soon.

 

[drummereef]

Love the Urchin pic.

 

[crvz]

How much would I regret 10-15 yellow tail damsels?

 

[Sharkdog22]

So the whole tank will be viewed on the "garage side" and just a "window" on the inside? Are you going to be able to see into the garage area from the window side or are you going to make a rock wall divider so to make it minimal to see the other side?