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

[lanshark]

Coming along nicely. This has been a fun read for sure :reading:

I'm shopping for my next glass tank and LeeMar is no longer a shoe in. It's not the first time I've heard of the scratches upon arrival from them. A condition with my LFS will be that I completely unwrap, inspect before I put in my truck. I presume it's pay in full up front?

I love the "resource list" at your disposal :spin3: kind of like "I know a guy" that moved his plane so I can build a canopy .... I'm waiting for, " spoke with my bud from NASA and he's got some moon dust I can feed my corals to achieve better PE... :beer:

Congrat's on the dream tank.....

 

[gofor100]

Coming along nicely. This has been a fun read for sure :reading:

I'm shopping for my next glass tank and LeeMar is no longer a shoe in. It's not the first time I've heard of the scratches upon arrival from them. A condition with my LFS will be that I completely unwrap, inspect before I put in my truck. I presume it's pay in full up front?

I love the "resource list" at your disposal :spin3: kind of like "I know a guy" that moved his plane so I can build a canopy .... I'm waiting for, " spoke with my bud from NASA and he's got some moon dust I can feed my corals to achieve better PE... :beer:

Congrat's on the dream tank.....

Thanks! Glad you're finding the read interesting... sometimes you have to wonder if people are taking an interest to the build or not when there isn't too many commenting. Worst case, I'm at least documenting what I hope will be an awesome tank .

I personally think LeeMar makes a great product, but that their quality control (at least in my case) was really lacking. They gave me a slight discount for my troubles and seemed like they were truly sorry for the mishap, but I will probably at least look at other vendors before purchasing another tank... whereas before my "issues" with this tank, I would've automatically gone to LeeMar based on what I'd heard was a good reputation on quality and service. I didn't pay a thing (other than a small downpayment/security deposit to the LFS) before the tank was in my living room, but I'm sure the LFS has to front some money to LeeMar to begin the build.

It is nice to have "friends" in different industries... but no friends in NASA... yet :lmao:

Hopefully we'll be able to finish the stand/canopy build soon... our schedules have kind of conflicted the last couple of weeks.

Thanks again for your comments!

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

Alright,

So there's good news and some slightly bad news...

The good news is... I came home last night to find that the Nori and Scallop were almost non-existent (barely anything remained in the clip/rubberband) and nothing could be found floating throughout the tank. So that means either that the MI devoured it during the day, or one of the other fish (Trigger, Flasher Wrasse, Bangaii Cardinal) got smart and ate it all up. But considering both the Flasher or the Bangaii Cardinal are planktivores and don't pick off of surfaces (such as a clip or rock), I narrowed it down to either the Trigger or the Moorish Idol. This morning though, the Idol immediately went for both the scallop and the Nori (after already eating the frozen vitamin enriched brine that it's been eating since placing in QT). So overall, I have the MI eating Nori, scallops, and frozen brine (along with bits and pieces of a frozen butterfly/angel food here and there). No dice yet on pellets, but we'll hopefully get there. I've definitely noticed that he is thickening up a bit and his streamer has grown to 2+ inches since I've gotten him (since last Friday- so only 3 days total).

The bad news is I noticed a few white spots on the MI last night (which can actually be difficult to see, surprisingly), so I bit the bullet and decided to not take any chances and started a small dosage of Cupramine last night and again this morning (earlier than I'd wanted to since I'd hoped to get the MI eating more than just brine/nori/scallops before starting treatment). Like I said before though, he was eating both last night and this morning, so I hope that my very slow acclimation to Cupramine won't suppress his appetite. (FYI- this is the same way I treated my Potter's Angel and he never stopped eating throughout the treatment process)

To give you an idea of the way I'm treating (in case anyone is interested), the instructions on the bottle says to use 20 drops per 10.5 gallons the first day, then repeat again after 48 hours (then test). This would have me dosing 120 drops the first day (since my QT is 60 gallons, and based on 20 drops per 10.5 gallons, you would roughly multiply the 20 drops by "6" which equals 120 drops) and repeating this after 48 hours. I've cut this dosage by about 2/3 (80 drops) and divided it roughly over 4 days then adjust my dosing accordingly to hit about a .40 copper level within 7 days or so. Then the treatment will continue 4 weeks from the day I hit my target copper level.

From what I've read, it seems the early demise of these delicate fish come when a stressor (whether it is a power outtage, bad parameters, bullying fish, inadequate diet, etc.) causes a drop in their immunity and something takes advantage of this (whether ick or some other malady) and ultimately kills them. To help prevent this, I've quarantined/treated every single fish going into the tank, as well as not allowed a single piece of rock/substrate to go into my system that came from a system with other fish. Any frags I get are dipped (more for coral pests) and get pulled off of their plug and placed on a clean plug before introducing into the tank. I know I can't be 100% sure that my system is ick-free, but I'm trying to significantly reduce the chances that it gets introduced. That way, when/if a stressor presents itself, all of my fish (including the MI) have that much better of a chance to get through it.

I'll let everyone know how it goes...

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

So the Moorish Idol is still doing okay... still a few spots, but I'll just continue to dose Cupramine slowly and cross my fingers that he's still eating during full treatment.

I have noticed that he is not devouring floating food like he was over the weekend, but still eating brine and other bits. He seems to really LOVE the sliced scallop I soak in garlic and rubberband to the rock. I put it in this morning before I left for work and he could barely wait for me to set the rock down in the tank. Once the scallop was there, he was tearing pieces off.

As you can see in this crappy picture (I know I need to clean the glass but remember this is my QT and it stays in the garage... hahaha), his streamer has grown a lot in just the past couple of days...

I'm starting to worry about my trigger though. He seems to have reverted back to just staying in his PVC and not coming out to eat... even though I am using a turkey baster to pump some food in his spot, I'm not sure how much he is actually getting.

All of the other fish (the flasher wrasse and the cardinal) all seem to be doing fine.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes...

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

Good news...

It seems my trigger is coming out more again... not sure what his problem was, but he looks fine. My guess is that since the Idol was showing signs of ick, he probably also had/has it and was a little pi$$ed. Now that I've been treating the tank for several days (since Monday night- slowly increasing the Copper/Cupramine doses), it seems everyone is a little happier and probably less irritated from the ick.

More good news is that my Idol seems to have kept his appetite even with the increasing doses of Cupramine (if anything, I think his appetite has gotten slightly better). As you can see he is looking pretty darn good... he is maintaining weight really well and his streamer is growing like crazy! I'm surprised it hasn't gotten trimmed by the powerhead or something...

I've continued to feed 3 times per day (during the week) and will continue to feed 4 times on the weekend. Basically, as I've mentioned before, I have the light come on early in the morning (well before I leave for work) so I can feed some mysis/brine to the tank (he's still favoring brine but I think I've seen him eat a few smaller mysis pieces). Then right before I leave for work, I'll clip some pieces of garlic-soaked nori in the tank, along with rubberbanding some slivers of garlic-soaked scallops to a small rock. Since I've been doing that, most of the nori is gone by the time I get home, and the scallops are mostly gone (except for the pieces immediately under the actual rubberband). I also, starting today, placed some pellets in the tank to see if he'll find those when scavenging around the tank during the day. I figure this gives him something to pick on throughout the day. Then when I get home from work I feed, then again before I go to bed. Usually a small water change is done to suck up any uneaten food, and the process starts all over the next day.

So far, so good... we'll see if this keeps up since we all know things can change at any given moment.

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

So quite a few things to update from over the weekend...

First, there was Coral Farmers Market (CFM)/Stock-my-tank-day...

I have been looking for some very specific SPS and found quite a few of them...

Red Dragon

$500 Efflo- needs to color up a bit, but nice PE

Strawberry Shortcake (my other one I got as a brownie RTN'd on me)

Rogue Milli- one of the pinkest ones I've seen

Rising Sun Stag- apparently this turns a nice pink/red when higher up

Paletta's Pink Tip Stag

Garrett's Magenta Stylo- it is actually brighter in person... this think GLOWS

Then some no-name non-SPS stuff...

Shrooms

Green with yellow eye favia

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

Next update is on the Moorish Idol...

He seems to be doing really well... still eating brine like a champ and the occasional smaller piece of mysis (a scallop slice and some nori also continues to be part of his daily diet). Although, on Friday night, I noticed him continue to try and scratch himself quite frequently on the side of the tank, and although I still noticed one or two ick spots (which the treatment level had officially been met on Fri), I also noticed a slight discoloration on a black part of his body, so I figured he must also have flukes.

So I get the Prazipro out and cross my fingers that all of this treatment right out of the gate won't take away his appetite... the next day he seemed to be much happier and was not trying to scratch himself. Here's some more pics... he lost a part of his streamer, but as you can see, it is still quite long and continues to grow.

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

The last update for now is on my progress with the stand/canopy... I just have a few more things to finish up, but here is our test run of the canopy on top of the tank (minus the hardware and a coat of finish). I'm pretty happy with how it is turning out, but hopefully I'll have both the stand AND the canopy on by this weekend... we'll see.

Apparently I can't take a straight picture for the life of me (making the canopy look crooked), but I can assure you it is in fact straight... hahaha.

Thanks,

Chad

 

[v1...rotate]

Hi Chad... Sorry to hear about the troubles you had at the beginning but good to see you overcame them. The tank is developing well. Following along closely. Keep the updates coming!

 

[gofor100]

Hi Chad... Sorry to hear about the troubles you had at the beginning but good to see you overcame them. The tank is developing well. Following along closely. Keep the updates coming!

Thanks bro'! Your tank is an inspiration for everyone, so I'd be lying if I said that I didn't steal a few ideas after re-reading your build thread a few times. :thumbsup:

Thanks again,

Chad

 

[Tracey2]

I love the new frags and the idol, he looks great.

 

[Toxic Slurpee]

Love all of the pictures

 

[gofor100]

I love the new frags and the idol, he looks great.

Love all of the pictures

Thanks guys! I hope the Idol does well, but you never know with these guys.

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

Well, it's been a while since my last update, so here we go.

First the not-so-good update... ever since I started scrubbing the rocks to rid my tank of the algae/cyano/whatever it really is, my skimmer has seemed to overflow quite a bit. I figured that maybe this scrubbing was causing this, so I stopped for two weeks straight, but to no avail. This resulted in the algae slowly making its way back. Then "solitude/Mike" recommended that I check the skimmer's silencer, which actually did have some crap in it. This seemed to help a little bit, but the skimmer is still skimming REALLY wet, so I'm not sure what to do now with this situation. I'm kind of waiting it out for now to see if it improves at all, but I'm contemplating just getting another skimmer.

Now for the GREAT news... the stand and canopy are FINALLY finished!!!!

Here's the skin frame on both the canopy and stand...

Now a close-up of the stand...

Now the canopy...

My excitement was clearly not shared by my dog...

More pics to come with the doors installed.

Thanks for looking!

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

It is pretty difficult to capture the "look" with the lights on, so the next day, I took some pics with them off...

And here are some more with lights back on... there's more light spillage than there will be in the end (I didn't install the door on the left-hand side at the time of this pic), but you get the idea.

And here's the view from my living room couch...

I'm really happy with how it turned out and am almost MORE happy that I'm finally done. I still have some other things to do to the tank, but this was one thing I really wanted to get out of the way.

Hope you guys like it!

-Chad

 

[Chappy]

Nice updates! What happens if you lift your skimmer up a little in the sump? Does the water level drop at all?

I hope the algae issues get better. That can be the most frustrating issue to deal with. Keep the updates coming even if you don't get a lot of responses, we are still reading them.

 

[gofor100]

Nice updates! What happens if you lift your skimmer up a little in the sump? Does the water level drop at all?

I hope the algae issues get better. That can be the most frustrating issue to deal with. Keep the updates coming even if you don't get a lot of responses, we are still reading them.

Thanks!

Yeah, it does help a little, but I've already got the skimmer in just over 7-inches of water (the suggested depth is 8-9 inches). Worst case, I might move it up a little... but we'll see.

Thanks again! I'll keep the updates coming.

-Chad

 

[robferrari]

I have enjoyed your build thread and I think the stand and canopy came out very nice. I am looking at the exact same dimensions for my next build with stand and canopy as well. Would you mind sharing your thoughts for choosing a 60" long tank now that it's in place? How do you feel about the tank proportion, aesthetics, and any other design elements with the build? I'm torn between 5-6 feet and considering how much "extra commitment" an extra 6-12" would be. Your input would be appreciated, thank you.

 

[gofor100]

I have enjoyed your build thread and I think the stand and canopy came out very nice. I am looking at the exact same dimensions for my next build with stand and canopy as well. Would you mind sharing your thoughts for choosing a 60" long tank now that it's in place? How do you feel about the tank proportion, aesthetics, and any other design elements with the build? I'm torn between 5-6 feet and considering how much "extra commitment" an extra 6-12" would be. Your input would be appreciated, thank you.

Thank you very much for following along. I am really pleased with the dimensions, but to be honest, the only reason I didn't go longer was because it wouldn't fit in my house. If you can, I would go as long as you can, but the key for me was the front-to-back depth. 30-inches really makes a big difference (versus say 24-inches)... it definitely adds more options when aquascaping.

Hope this helps,

Chad

 

[gofor100]

Well, the tank is definitely moving along. Now that I have the cabinetry finished, I will hopefully be able to have a little more fun tinkering and adding new things to the tank.

The skimmer issue seems to be getting under control... still perplexed on what exactly the issue is, but I might end up raising it a little to see if that helps with the "wet skimming" issue I'm having. But at least now it is back to skimming instead of continuously overflowing... who knows what it'll look like when I get back home though. Holding my breath...

I also hope that getting the skimmer issues under control (along with me staying on top of pruning the heck out of my algae) will help with the growth you see on the sandbed/rocks. The good news is that the corals don't seem to be affected by this algae issue I'm having, but time will tell.

With that update out of the way, I'm happy to say that the QT fish are now officially DT fish... here's some pics of them enjoying their new home.

First the Moorish Idol... as you can tell, I kind of went overboard on trying to get a good photo of the Idol. So here's a bunch of okay photos since I have yet to get a REALLY good one.

He seems to really dig the new tank... since he's been in QT (and now in the DT), he is eating Formula 1 & 2 pellets, along with NLS pellets (one day he suddenly loved pellets), along with my seafood buffet that I described before. Not sure if you can see it in the pics, but he's actually pretty thick (especially compared to when I first got him), so I hope to keep him alive and healthy for a long time. We'll see how that adventure goes.

More pics to come...

-Chad