Tuesday was the big day and we met up with Dave and took of for Farmington to get the tank. The rest of the afternoon consisted of swallowing lots of salt water while starting siphons and Greg turning on the Rio while I was inspecting the output. Three seconds of salt water spray later, we had a rather large splash on the wall (sorry about that) and I was tasting nothing but detrius flavored salt water. Yugga!
While we were hunting for fish we were down to two left and couldn't find them. One the spotted hawkfish stayed in the tank until there was only sand in it. I just happed to notice the red in his lateral fin before scooping sand into a bucket... whew that was a close one for him.
However, the Royal Gamma was never found. We saw him swimming just minutes earlier, but no fish. Fastforward 8+hours later in a bucket of LR that went dry to ride in Dave's car, in about 1/2 inch of water lay a poor gamma gasping for breath.
The most amazing thing is that the next day, the little guy was alive and well! :rollface: He is now patrolling the 55g holding tank, but still staying close to the rock that nearly took his life in the first place! What a champ.
After getting the cars packed with a tank, stand, hood, sump, lots of buckets, and various supplies and what had to have been the hottest and most humid day of summer so fare, we were off to St Louis. Sorry for no pictures of the take down and eventual cleaning of the tank in my front yard, but do you really want to see me and Dave sweeting and covered in grim? I didn't think so. :lol:
After the cleaning Greg resumed his plumbing feng shui skills and finish the connection of the tank and sump. Funny I say that in one sentence. In reality it took2 more trips to Home Depot, one in which the lights went out (it was closing time after all).
So there we were 18 hours after starting this adventure and we realized we didn't have a 3/4" to 1.5" adaptor for the return! For the next half hour we died laughing as well scoured my basement looking for that dreaded piece that was never purchased. With some "creative" plumbing and the rest of the teflon tape used, the return was connected to its pipes (it wasn't pretty, but it worked - or so we hoped).
After a long hard day of mostly success and more than a few laughs we were finally done... at 3am.
The day wasn't all roses though... a very beutiful Naso Tang and Clown didn't make the trip. Perhaps it was the heat. Whatever it was they were laid to rest in the backyard with a private service. They deserved better.
)
