Gofor's 60"L X 30"W X 24"T LeeMar Upgrade

[gofor100]

Looking good!

Thanks Derek!

 

[blkg35]

Just finish reading the whole thread. Awesome job.
As I was getting to the part about skinning the stand, I was thinking "I hope he took pics of the skinning process"... Your buddy Jeff has amazing woodworking skills.
Do you mind me asking who built your metal stand?

 

[gofor100]

Just finish reading the whole thread. Awesome job.
As I was getting to the part about skinning the stand, I was thinking "I hope he took pics of the skinning process"... Your buddy Jeff has amazing woodworking skills.
Do you mind me asking who built your metal stand?

Hahaha... Yeah I'm trying to document the whole process. At least that's what I always look for when reading build threads. And Jeff is definitely an artist with cabinetry and carpentry... I can't wait to see how it turns out.

My stand builder was actually an rc member named Aaron (aka sonnus). Really nice guy that does great work.

Thanks for following along!

Chad

 

[gofor100]

So, I didn't get too much done this last week/weekend, since I took advantage of the long weekend and went snowboarding up in Mammoth.

But, I was able to accomplish the one thing I had intended to get done last week, and that was moving all of the livestock from the holding tank into the DT. Here's some shots the day after the move (sorry for the iPhone pic, but everything seems to be looking better on a daily basis).

First, a semi-full tank shot...

Here's some LPS...

And some of my clams...

Most of my SPS are browned out right now (they originally browned out in the holding tank- some of them not making it), but are showing good polyp extension, so I think it'll just take some time to get some color back.

Hopefully I can get back on track and get some work done on the stand sometime this week/weekend.

Thanks for following!

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

And here's the reason why I didn't make any progress on the stand/canopy...

Here's our group...

Me freezing my arse off...

And me making some margarita mix from scratch... good times.

Thanks,

Chad

 

[OCREEFLOVER]

Great job on the cabinet work.

 

[gofor100]

Great job on the cabinet work.

Thanks! So far so good but I'll be excited when it's all finished.

Chad

 

[mthguy]

Tagging along for the ride, I am envious of your setup, and hope to have a similar setup in the near future. hope everything goes better with the current set of QT fish than last time.

Also, i like the rack for your lights, did you fab that yourself?

 

[gofor100]

Tagging along for the ride, I am envious of your setup, and hope to have a similar setup in the near future. hope everything goes better with the current set of QT fish than last time.

Also, i like the rack for your lights, did you fab that yourself?

Thanks! Yeah, I'm pretty sure this round of QT will go much better. I think the reason the last round didn't go so well was because of a little neglect on my part (due to me being busy trying to get everything ready for the new tank).

As for the rack, I actually had the guy that built the stand make that for me (it's made out of aluminum then powder-coated black). We kind of worked together on the design and I'm happy with it so far.

Thanks,

Chad

 

[gofor100]

So nothing much to update on the tank as of right now. My friend Jeff was out of town this last weekend, so no progress made on the stand (although I hope to get it done this week/weekend sometime).

I did end up moving some of my corals/clams/etc. around to get a final placement of some of the stuff and clear up the sandbed a little.

Here's some pics I took yesterday after messing with the tank a little...

First my Squamosa... getting bigger by the day it seems.

Here's my Neon Green Frogspawn... not growing nearly as fast as I would like it to.

My Maxima clams...

My Bubble Coral...

Acans...

And a full tank shot as of yesterday...

The SPS are still showing good PE and some are actually gaining some color back, but I'll be patient with those.

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

Alright... now for the fun update. I have 4 fish in QT (and have had them in there for over 2 weeks now), and I just started treatment with Cupramine last week. Happily, I can report that all of them are doing great so far, so I wanted to give you all an update on what's going on there.

Here's what I've got...

> McCosker's Flasher Wrasse and Starry Blenny: I picked both of these up together and they have settled in quite nicely. Unfortunately, I can't get a decent picture of the blenny for the life of me, so here's a few shots of the Flasher.

> Hawaiian Flame Wrasse (male): picked this guy up from a local hobbyist getting out of the hobby for a while. I always wanted one of these but didn't really want to put down $200+ for one... luckily I got an awesome deal on this one.

> Potter's Dwarf Angel: I never truly realized how awesome these little angels were until I saw one in a LFS recently. This one seems to be slightly different than most I've seen though... it has STRIKING AND VERY DISTINCT lavender lines (some I've seen are quite dull) that make them "pop" against the orange background that much more. Unfortunately, when it was in the LFS, even though extremely fat, it wasn't eating. It showed a ton of interest, but it seemed like it didn't know what to do when it got to the food. So, after much deliberation, and since I was quarantining with a few pieces of LR in the tank it could pick on, I figured I would take the chance and see if I could entice it to eat. Well, after almost a full week, it was still showing interest but no cigar... I tried rubberbanding slices of scallops to a piece of LR... nothing... live brine... nope... finally, I figured that since these type of fish like to forage from the bottom/rocks, I would try sinking pellets, leave them in for the day and see if it would eat any. Well, when I got home from work, I noticed that the few pellets I left were gone (so someone must have eaten them). After a couple of days of that, I finally witnessed the angel actually eat the pellets from the bottom. Then after another day or so, the angel started eating the pellets as they were floating down to the bottom (so finally figuring out that items suspended in the water column are edible). Now, this last weekend, the angel is eating small pieces of brine/mysis shrimp along with gobbling up any pellets it can get its mouth on. He/She's doing AWESOME!!! Here's some pics...

And a really crappy picture of all of the fish together (I'm sure the blenny is in there somewhere but with really good camouflage)...

Now another 3 or so long weeks until they get added to the DT... patience is definitely key with this hobby.

Thanks,

Chad

 

[gofor100]

Good looking fish

Thanks! Too bad my iPhone can't get a clear picture of 'em!

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

So I got A LOT done on the stand/canopy over this last weekend... it all started Thursday night, when I stopped by Jeff's to finish up the frame for the canopy.

While we were doing this, Jeff came up with the bright idea of moving this build to a place with a little more space... his plane hangar...

I'd say this will give us a little more space...

So Jeff transferred all of the equipment over to the hangar on Friday, and the build continued on Saturday morning.

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

So Saturday morning, the Canopy had dried and we were able to remove all of the clamps.

Looks pretty good if you ask me...

I then sanded it down several times throughout the day to get a nice smooth finish...

Before I got to the sanding though, we started putting together the stand so that the glue would dry while working on other things...

Letting it dry out a bit...

Here's one side finished...

Then up went the other side...

And before we knew it, the day was over and we let things dry out overnight, just to begin working again Sunday morning.

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

So back to work Sunday, and things were really rolling at this point.

The stand had dried, so we removed all of the clamps... and here's what we got.

Then, back to sanding it down several times (all while Jeff was busy starting on the doors), and here's the finished product.

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

And in between sanding sessions, Jeff and I got to work on the doors.

First, choosing the pieces of wood and lining them up...

Then inserting "biscuits" and applying a generous amount of glue...

Let it sit...

Then place it aside and repeat...

And repeat...

After they were dry we got to remove the clamps...

And then Jeff got to cutting them to size and sanding them down...

Before we knew it, our time was done on Sunday, all of the doors were glued, and now all we have to do is cut out the rest of the doors, sand them down, attach the molding/borders, and stain/seal everything. Probably another 1 to 2 days of work, but we'll see.

I don't know where the weekend went, but I'm sure glad I made some progress.

Thanks for following,

Chad

 

[gofor100]

Oh, and I almost forgot... after building, I met up with a local reefer that is an acan addict, and got frags of the following...

All of them looked great when placed in the tank, and I can't wait to see how they look after being totally acclimated and settled.

While I was out, I also stopped by Steve Garrett's and got a few SPS (The Ultimate Blue Stag, German Blue Polyp Digi, ORA Blue Hawkins, and Rainbow Stylo) to replace some of the casualties I experienced while the corals were in their prolonged wait for the new tank to arrive.

So like I said, a VERY constructive weekend...

Thanks,

Chad

 

[gofor100]

So, nothing much has happened with the tank lately, just seeing some algae pop up on the rocks a little (nothing that I'm worried about), and at least my snails will stop starving. I'll probably install my Vortechs sometime this week to get more flow going, along with some more water changes to stop any further growth.

Here's a full tank shot I took last night (which has the tank at about 2 months old)...

And here's some random shots of some corals that are looking better by the day.

First, my torch, which I might swap out with a more colorful one down the road, but I kind of like the look of the white tips (other than the sand, you don't get too much white stuff in your tank that you actually want).

Then there's my Neon Green Frogspawn... I love this coral! And it's actually getting bigger by the week (it hadn't grown that much in my old tank).

Finally, there's the Superman Scoly I saved from near death about 1 1/2 years ago (I got it from a LFS that had an ATO get stuck in the "on" position and took out a good portion of their corals in one of their tanks). It also seems to be expanding more and more each week.

My SPS are all showing great PE still, and some are starting to color up, but I'm playing the waiting game with them since I know it can take SPS a while before coloring back up completely. At least the SPS I just got recently are still as colorful as they were when I got them.

Thanks,

Chad

 

[TheFishTeen]

Nice tank! Couldn't help but notice you used a PVC check valve. Ive read that they are not aquarium safe, since they use a metal spring. If your still using it, i'd switch it out.

 

[gofor100]

Nice tank! Couldn't help but notice you used a PVC check valve. Ive read that they are not aquarium safe, since they use a metal spring. If your still using it, i'd switch it out.

Hahaha... good catch!

I actually did switch it out before I started running the water. Thanks for looking out though!

-Chad