Lyle's 150H in-wall build (with pics)

[jlylec]

Hey buddy :wave: nice pieces you picked up.

All the fish doing good in QT?

Hows the frag tank coming, did you get the new sump added to it yet?

:lol: Yea that green monster could use a trimmed up a bit. Can't remember how much longer you have for your Qt/ fallow period but may be a good idea to plan a head and have some fish ordered to go into Qt soon after your current fish go back to the DT so the bacteria pop is maintained. You can supplement the lack of fish with just feeding the tank too, but I know you're dieing to get some new additions. : ) Keep it up man.

Thanks man! Yeah the fish are doing very well in QT. I haven't started them on Cupramine yet. There may be a little bit left in from when I treated about a month ago but I've done several water changes so it's likely very little. I bought a new CU test kit but haven't used it yet.

Good call on having fish ready to go in. I'm running fallow until mid-February so I have some time, but I am dying to get more fish back in there. I'm breaking down my nano at work as we're moving our office and I'm just moving my guys from there home so they'll be the next round. I have a clarkii clown, 3 blue/green chromis, and a red scooter blenny. They're all a few years old now and very healthy so I hope the move doesn't shock/kill them. I'm going to treat them with cupramine too prior. I may just move them in a week or so and dose all the current fish at once to get it over with for them.

 

[jlylec]

The last picture looks similar to some colonial hydroids.

I was worried about that. Don't they have a tendency to spread and take over? I'll need to research how to get rid of them.

 

[ludiNano]

Sounds great.

You could try covering them in kalk past I'm not positive it would kill them but it shouldn't hurt the other inhabitants if you don't dump a ton of it it there. ( you could put some on the aptasia while you're in there...)

 

[jlylec]

anybody know what kind of coral this is? I thought it was carpet coral but the pics of carpet coral i found don't look like it. thanks!

 

[jlylec]

got a used skimmer for coral QT...looks really nice. I like how it's built. it's the smallest, most powerful skimmer I could find to fit in my 20gal sump. hopefully it works well!

 

[jlylec]

I got an urchin last week. Very cool addition in my and my daughter's opinion. I think this hermit and snail probably feel otherwise!

 

[Crush Coral]

I have had small colonies of hydroids in my tank for years and they have never become invasive. Just look cool in blue light.

 

[jlylec]

I have had small colonies of hydroids in my tank for years and they have never become invasive. Just look cool in blue light.

very good to hear. I do like the way they look. As long as they stay put we'll live in harmony!

 

[jlylec]

So clearly I'm going to have to make sure everybody is nailed down now!

This guy is really strong! I have no idea why he did this or what he was planning on doing with this birds nest frag, but he was carrying it about 20" off the bottom. Luckily he didn't drop it or it would have been in pieces. This pic is straight up and down so you can see how he was holding it out over the ledge. I know that crab and snail were happy I intervened. They were held hostage all day today and there didn't appear to be any end in sight.

 

[psteeleb]

nice tank - that picture of the urchin hijacking everythign is a riot :lolspin:
that coral looks like an elegance, is it on large polyp or several?

 

[jlylec]

nice tank - that picture of the urchin hijacking everythign is a riot :lolspin:
that coral looks like an elegance, is it on large polyp or several?

thanks! I'm pretty sure it's several polyps. I'm going to move it home soon and get some better pics.

 

[jlylec]

I picked up a couple new lights last night. A 4x39 and a 2x39 T5. I put the 2x39 over my fish QT and the 4x39 over my coral QT. The coral QT is almost ready to go now. I worked on the frag rack for a while last night. I'm trying to do different levels in there for different species. You can see how it's coming but it's certainly not done yet. Not nearly as stable as I'd like it to be. I had to stop as it was nearly 1am and my hands hurt from snipping all that egg crate! Can you cut that stuff with a table saw?

New light over the fish...much brighter. Not sure that's a good thing as I've read they like darker environments in QT as it's less stressful. Anybody know about that?

Stack is coming together nicely. Should have my pump back this week and the coral QT will be up and running!

I'm going to cover the whole thing with doors like the DT so I only show it to people who understand. People think I'm crazy about these tanks at this point!

 

[ludiNano]

That looks awesome man. I think the the lighting for your fish QT looks just right, you don't want blast then with light and it doesn't look like you are.

Is your coral QT connected to the tank at the very bottom?

And the coral and fish QT don't share any water right?

 

[jlylec]

That looks awesome man. I think the the lighting for your fish QT looks just right, you don't want blast then with light and it doesn't look like you are.

Is your coral QT connected to the tank at the very bottom?

And the coral and fish QT don't share any water right?

Thanks man I really appreciate it! You guys on here are the only ones that appreciate the work on this thing!

The coral QT (top tank) is connected to the sump on the floor and doesn't share any water with the fish QT. I know the order seems backwards, but I wanted the fish QT there (in the middle) so it was more easily accessible for catching the fish. And I decided to go with a sump on the coral QT because I decided I wanted a real skimmer on that tank. So I ended up with a 5.5' drop between the tank and the sump! But it works...finally got water in there last night. I ran out of water about 5-10 gallons from full so I haven't been able to test the overflow from glass holes but the return plumbing works great! I'll post more pics tonight or tomorrow.

 

[T Diddy]

I'm going to cover the whole thing with doors like the DT so I only show it to people who understand. People think I'm crazy about these tanks at this point!

...we think you're crazy, too. j/k! everything is looking awesome. I wouldn't bother with the doors. honestly, you don't even need a light on the fish QT. nonetheless, I'm jealous of your stackables LOL. My fish room looks like crap!! :celeb1:

 

[jlylec]

My quarantine station is complete and all up and running. Can't see any leaks so that's great. I'll start moving coral tomorrow probably.

 

[jlylec]

...we think you're crazy, too.

i'm starting to think i am too...i'm definitely an equipment junky!

 

[jlylec]

Question for you guys about my coral QT. Obviously it's real clean right now. I'm wondering if it's TOO clean for corals to be happy/healthy in there. Should I put a big piece of live rock in the middle or something? I was planning on putting some chaeto in the sump/fuge section. My concern about putting the LR I have in my nano in there is that there may be some flat worms, aptasia, etc. in there and I don't want to contaminate the QT. I'm hoping you guys think it's OK to just have clean pieces of coral in there and they'll be healthy. I'm planning on dipping everything in that Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure stuff before it goes in. Thanks!

 

[jlylec]

saw a couple cool fish at the LFS today. going to research them to see if they'd work out in my tank. they weren't well marked so i don't know what they really are.

some sort of wrasse

unknown

 

[cdrewferd]

That green one looks sweet.