Project 150!!

[maxxII]

04-15-07

As promised here are some pics.....nothing spectacular, but its something new to look at...

Here is the new canopy:

Its not lowered fully, it comes down about another inch, placing it just above the top of the tank. The VHO's sit below the MH's, but on either side so they are not touching. Not necessarily proud of the handles to raise/lower the canopy, but the eye bolts work better than my last system. Besides, they are simple and were inexpensive.
Ignore the rats nest of wires...those are for the Streams and will be stored neatly when this all comes together.

Here are some pics of the Thorite experiment...

First off, let me state its not any where near finished....still looks like pvc covered in cement, so I'm not happy. I will be adding more Thorite to the rack to break up the outlines and camoflage it more....

But, it went from this...

to this :

Not a bad start IMO....added the acrylic feet to raise it up off the bottom so detritus doesnt get caught up under there.

I'm tired, need to get up earlier tomorrow morning...

Nick

 

[maxxII]

Had a bunch of stuff interrupt lately....Little brother is also in town from NY, so havent had much time to get much farther on the tank. I did manage to add a little more Thorite to the one rock rack I've already got going....doesnt change the outline a whole lot, but does make it better. One thing to deal with on the Thorite is the quick set time....it goes from soup to brick pretty rapidly, so it makes it interesting to work with.

I have another rock rack to coat w/ Thorite, but I'm going to try something different this time. I have some waterfall rock foam from an earlier attempt at this sort of thing, some thinking of using some of that to initially break up the shape of the other rack, and then coating it w/ Thorite. The problem w/ the waterfall foam is that the stuff is so bouyant, I couldnt get my initial rack below the surface of the water....so I'm hoping that limited use of the foam, and the weight of the Thorite will overcome the foam's bouyancy...

Pics will come later.

 

[inwall75]

Wow....really coming together.

Are you keeping that glass tank lid?

 

[spooda420]

any updates? ....slacker...

 

[maxxII]

Sorry, been busier than I'd like to be...

Did get some things done though...

Ordered a Virgate rabbitfish and Blackcap Basslet from www.vividaquarium.com and put them in the 120. I wanted to give them the best opportunity to get acclimated before I added the other fish from the 58 over, (Red Sea Regal Angel, Tomini Tang, Pair of Onyx percs, and a large Royal Gramma).

The Rabbit hasnt made the connection that the green stuff floating about in the current is coming from the nori sheet clipped to the side of the tank. I've seen the black cap exactly twice since it dove into the rock...once as it dashed out to grab two pieces of mysis, and the other as it glared at me from inside the rock. I've only had them for two days, so once they get used to the surroundings and are eating comfortably, I'll transiition everyone else over.

I also built a small wooden rack that will hold my American DJ power centers, and also be a mounting place for my Tunze controller and the WavySea controller. I might also put my HQI ballast on top of it in an effort to keep everything centralized....

Need to coat the new rack w/ urethane so it matches the rest of the wood.... Also need to get off my butt and make the other rock rack...

Nick

 

[jnarowe]

try a little garlic on the nori. fish seem atracted to it and it will help the rabbit get the idea.

 

[maxxII]

Thanks Jonathan, hadnt thought of that......

Nick

 

[Pkelley228]

When do you want to get that clown from me Nick?

 

[maxxII]

05-22-07

I'm on afternoon shift right now, (2:30 pm - 10:30 PM) so its hard to get much done lately. I'll be going to midnights here soon, so I expect I'll be able to get more accomplished then.....maybe.

The Blackcap Basslet didnt make it....It never ate again after those two times I saw it eat. I sent Vivid pics of it today....so hopefully they will send out a repacement soon. The Virgate rabbit has made the transition to broccoli just fine...eats it willingly and doesnt really seem to be too stressed out when my hands are in the tank to put food in. I havent tried Nori on the clip again...think I'll try that today.

Here are some pics just to keep things going here....

This is a way to semi organize all the electrical stuff that goes into this hobby. Its not meant to be a pretty set up, this is just a temporary one to get me through. I will be building a nicer looking one later...I dont like how all the cables are hanging out everywhere.

I put bulbs in and fired up the lighting. After several hours, the tank hits 84 degrees with the lights on. This is up from 79 degrees w/o lights on. I dont think I'll need a chiller, I should be able to get by w/ a fan for cooling purposes. The structure on the left is the PVC rock rack. Still not wildly happy w/ its appearance, but it looks better than PVC. The rack will have the rock from the left side of my 58 sitting on it.

Here is a pic of the Virgate rabbitfish hiding behind the new rock rack...

Here is a better pic of the Virgate....

I was going to go with a purple tang, but my wife felt it looked too much like stuff I already had in the tank...(?????). She liked the looks of the Virgate Rabbitfish...so we got it. I dont mind it, and if it gets her a little more interested in the tank than its worth it.

Nick

 

[jnarowe]

watch out for the rabbit...they seem to think zoas are croissants! :lol:

 

[TRITON1]

Nice fish, I have a foxface and if yours is anything like mine he will have a huge appetite! He even eats flakes from my hand. Now only if I can convince him to peck on that bryopsis I have growing......... Regardless, pretty fish and underrated IMO.

 

[TRITON1]

BTW, if it makes you feel better, my foxface (which is technically a rabbitfish) doesnt touch my zoas. I hope yours wont.

 

[jnarowe]

My foxface doesn't either (yet) but those scribbled are naughty fish! :lol:

 

[TRITON1]

Thats funny. Can you have two rabbitfish in the same tank, I thought I read that causes alot of stress. Does you foxface eat any nuissance algae? Mine seems to prefer just about everything else, but heres just a baby that has to learn to eat his veggies (check out the chromis next to him):

Nick, how do you like the rabbitfish?

 

[jnarowe]

nice baby...mine is so friggin' fat it's hard to tell what direction it's going! :lol: Just like tangs, my foxface will try anything. It will eat pumping xenia, any meaty foods I feed, and of course macro algae and nori.

Sherman has a pair of scribbles in his tank and they have summarily eaten about 75% of all polyps in his tank.

 

[JxMetal]

I can't even get my tang to eat broccoli....any secrets?

 

[maxxII]

My Regal immediately started attacking the broccoli...The rabbit took a little longer. I placed a piece of steamed broccoli in a small cup and dripped some garlic extreme on it per Jnarowe's suggestion....the rabbit was eating shortly afterwards.

Oddly enough, Nori was completely ignored today....broccoli on the other hand, was being nipped at around/through my fingers...


The trick w/ broccoli is to blanch it. Basically, you want to put it in a frying pan for a few minutes til it turns bright green. The fibers in the broccoli are too tough for the fish to digest w/o some sort of change.

You can also freeze/thaw the broccoli repeatedly to break down those fibers as well.

I'm hoping the Virgate rabbit doesnt eat zoas....I was wanting to put some in the tank, and I already know the Regal isnt interested in them...

We have a local place that has some awesome zoas I've been wanting, (www.zomania.com).

Nick

 

[jnarowe]

energy had to extract a scribble because it was eating everything in his tank...and he's got a huge buffet! :lol:

 

[inwall75]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9996169#post9996169 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
energy had to extract a scribble because it was eating everything in his tank...and he's got a huge buffet! :lol:

Hey,

Who let the PSAS riff-raff in here???

Just kidding Jonathon, this is Curtswearing.


What are scribbles?

 

[maxxII]

Curt,
He's referring to the Virgate Rabbitfish. Many places call them scribbled rabbtfish due to the vertical stripes that looked "Scribbled" on.

Vivid sent me a return email indicating they will replace the fish. I will have to pay shipping, but they will send a new fish. Need to coordinate a time for that.

Nick