Rhodes19 180 Build
- Thread starter Rhodes19
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PaPa_Johnny
Premium Member
Coming along nicely! Hopefully I will be able to start on my big baby soon. I have the equipment gathered, just need to do the wiring and build a new stand if I decide to. Thanks for all the documentation on yours, makes it seem more worthwhile for this slow and steady route 
Rhodes19
New member
Coming along nicely! Hopefully I will be able to start on my big baby soon. I have the equipment gathered, just need to do the wiring and build a new stand if I decide to. Thanks for all the documentation on yours, makes it seem more worthwhile for this slow and steady route
Hi PaPa Johnny,
Thanks. It has been a fun build and one full of learning along the way. LOL I've been thinking of making a box to terminate all my cords to plug in and have switches on them so all I have to do is throw a switch when I want to turn a piece of equipment off or on. Make sure you start a build thread too. I would love to see how your system turns out.
Rhodes19
New member
Chris, the tank is looking beautiful congrats!
Hi Juan,
Its good seeing you here. Your beast is definitely coming along nicely. Were you able to get the last shipment of equipment taken care of?
Rhodes19
New member
Hey Chris, great keeping track of your tank in both sides LOL
I hope they send me a replacement for the Rowaphos, asked them for Vertex Pro-Bio Pellets instead and this is what they will give me, hope it arrives soon enough
LOL!!! I'm glad they are taking care of you. You'll have to post some pictures.
Rhodes19
New member
Sunday morning I went to Lowes with my 7/16" tubing and started mixing and matching parts until I got this. I used a small section of the 7/16" tube and slid it over a threaded 3/8" connector, added a short piece of polyethylene tubing, connected it to a valve and then ran some more polyethylene tubing to an empty soda bottle. Now, once the collection cup is full, all I have to do is open the valve an drain the skimmate instead of pulling the cup off. Well, that's the idea anyway. We'll see if it works.
Ops, the valve fell on the inside of the sump. That won't work.
A slight mod with the 7/16" tubing and...
It will be interesting to see how this works.
Ops, the valve fell on the inside of the sump. That won't work.
A slight mod with the 7/16" tubing and...
It will be interesting to see how this works.
Rhodes19
New member
Here are some of the close up shots. the pictures and not the greatest but the corals are beautiful.
Jason Fox Superman monti
Neon green fungi
Table acro
Radioactive dragons eye and watermelon zoas. The dragon eyes opened up later and they are a nice green. I'll try to get better pics later.
Purple Hornet acan
Pumpkin Patch acan
Merry Christmas acan
These are very pretty corals and the camera does not do them justice. I can't wait until they grow out.
Jason Fox Superman monti
Neon green fungi
Table acro
Radioactive dragons eye and watermelon zoas. The dragon eyes opened up later and they are a nice green. I'll try to get better pics later.
Purple Hornet acan
Pumpkin Patch acan
Merry Christmas acan
These are very pretty corals and the camera does not do them justice. I can't wait until they grow out.
Rhodes19
New member
Pee u!!!!!
I made some home made mush last night for the first time and it was definitely a learning experience. I used 2 lbs of raw shrimp tail, a lbs of scallops, a lbs of fresh clams, and a lbs of squid. I also added about a 1/4 cup of powdered kelp and powdered spirullina. To the mix I also added some liquid vitamins and garlic. Working in batches I first tried blending them in a blender but after it blended only the bottom inch (way to thick) I moved it to a food processor. It was still way to thick so I had to add several cups of water. My wife was not at all happy with me and finally went up stairs to get away from the smell. I mixed the batches into a big mixing bowl, added more water and mixed it all together so it would be less thick. I poured a couple of cups of mush into big zip top bags, put them in the frig t get them cold and then moved them into the freezer this morning. I gave some to my new Christmas wrasse in QT and at first she wasn't quite sure of it but then eat a bunch of it. Of course, after I made the mush, I realized that I had forgotten to add the mysis shrimp and cyclopese. Oh well, next time. Hopefully the other fish and corals will like it. AND, hopefully, my wife will still be talking with me when I get home tonight. :worried:
Preblended concoction.
In the food processor.
What it looked like before adding water.
Blended with more water.
In the zip top bags.
I got a total of 3 bags and decided to not add agar agar because the mush was so thick. After placing some in the QT, I'll add some next time I make it. Of course, when the wife is not home for a while.
I made some home made mush last night for the first time and it was definitely a learning experience. I used 2 lbs of raw shrimp tail, a lbs of scallops, a lbs of fresh clams, and a lbs of squid. I also added about a 1/4 cup of powdered kelp and powdered spirullina. To the mix I also added some liquid vitamins and garlic. Working in batches I first tried blending them in a blender but after it blended only the bottom inch (way to thick) I moved it to a food processor. It was still way to thick so I had to add several cups of water. My wife was not at all happy with me and finally went up stairs to get away from the smell. I mixed the batches into a big mixing bowl, added more water and mixed it all together so it would be less thick. I poured a couple of cups of mush into big zip top bags, put them in the frig t get them cold and then moved them into the freezer this morning. I gave some to my new Christmas wrasse in QT and at first she wasn't quite sure of it but then eat a bunch of it. Of course, after I made the mush, I realized that I had forgotten to add the mysis shrimp and cyclopese. Oh well, next time. Hopefully the other fish and corals will like it. AND, hopefully, my wife will still be talking with me when I get home tonight. :worried:
Preblended concoction.
In the food processor.
What it looked like before adding water.
Blended with more water.
In the zip top bags.
I got a total of 3 bags and decided to not add agar agar because the mush was so thick. After placing some in the QT, I'll add some next time I make it. Of course, when the wife is not home for a while.
Rhodes19
New member
"So, sweet heart, what would you think if I moved the ceiling fan over about 16" so its more centered to the room (and not partially over the tank)"?
"Ah, sure, I guess that would be fine. I don't mind. But what are you going to do with the hole in the ceiling"?
Got it covered. I do have some skills.
I am afraid of one thing though, my wife doesn't like the pop corn ceiling so I'm sure once I patch the hole I will hear, "While your up there, can you scrape the popcorn off the ceiling"? Well, the breakfast area shares the ceiling with the kitchen and the den. Then there is the dining room off the kitchen and seeing as the hall way has already been done (thanks to the upstairs bathroom flood) you might as well do the living room. Maybe I should reconsider making a canopy and just leave the lights the way they are. LOL
"Ah, sure, I guess that would be fine. I don't mind. But what are you going to do with the hole in the ceiling"?
Got it covered. I do have some skills.
I am afraid of one thing though, my wife doesn't like the pop corn ceiling so I'm sure once I patch the hole I will hear, "While your up there, can you scrape the popcorn off the ceiling"? Well, the breakfast area shares the ceiling with the kitchen and the den. Then there is the dining room off the kitchen and seeing as the hall way has already been done (thanks to the upstairs bathroom flood) you might as well do the living room. Maybe I should reconsider making a canopy and just leave the lights the way they are. LOL
Rhodes19
New member
HI bradjc,
Thanks. I thought about that but I won't need to feed that much at a time yet. I actually got the idea from opening a bag of frozen mysis shrimp. Open the bag, snap off a piece, and let it thaw in some tank water, feed. Plus, we haven't had an ice cube tray in the house for almost 20 years. LOL
Rhodes19
New member
Ok, I downloaded a trial version of Photoshop Elements 9 and Picasa 3 and I must say that I like pse 9 much better for editing and organizing. I'll have to get it some time soon. I have an old digital camera that works fine but can't do macros like the newer ones can (and I don't know how to use it fully) so pse will help make my pics look more like the actually do. I can also do some cool effects to. Here is a pic of my Christmas wrasse with the colors altered so it looks closer to how it really looks and I gave it a black background to change thinks up a little bit. Any way, it was fun.
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