Teddy's embarkment on the 55gal reef boat. Lets sail away!

[teddyzaper]

Very ****ed off right now. As I said, my front desk people dropped my canopy and it's all best up. The corner is crushed in and all the hinges got pulled out. I just figured out today they won't pay for damages. ***!!!! It's a $200 hood and now it looks like junk. Screw that. Anyways now I need to find a way to fix it. The hinges I'll just move to make new holes, but the corner is f***ked.

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix it? If I cant make it look like it used to I'll have to add trim on it which will look stupid.

 

[jonnyu]

Do you have a chop saw ? I'm sure you can make a replacement piece no problem. Is it painted white or white Formica?


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[teddyzaper]

Do you have a chop saw ? I'm sure you can make a replacement piece no problem. Is it painted white or white Formica?


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I live in a tiny apt. So no tools other than the necessary. I'm trying to fill it in by sanding it down and adding wood epoxy. I'm going to repaint the whole thing.

Tank is coming along, I see the first diatoms

And the skimmer is really sucking the gunk out.

I'm getting the new lights today so I'm going to try mounting them in the canopy tonight.

 

[Charley Diesing]

Love the build. Subbed.

What made you go with a 55G?

 

[Charley Diesing]

I'm considering going with a 40G long. Same tank just 4 inches shorter.

 

[teddyzaper]

Love the build. Subbed.

What made you go with a 55G?

Largest tank during the $1 per gallon sale. I regret it a bit as it's quite skinny, wouldve gone with a 60g made by glasscsages with a stand and overflow about ($700) now that I see how much $$$$ I've put into the equipment.

40g breeder is a nice sized tank if you don't want to go larger. Also they have em at Petco

 

[jonnyu]

Well if you live in SoFlo I can help you out.


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[teddyzaper]

Well if you live in SoFlo I can help you out.


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Sorry, with what? I'm in Sunny isles

 

[teddyzaper]

Got new lights, hydra 26HD. awesome lights. Finishing up the hood (repainting and fixing the broken parts). Last coat of paint is drying, the screws to mount the lights come this Tuesday so i'll probably mount the lights then unless i can find another way.

Will post pictures when they go up.

Other notes, looks like my cycle is already finished.

3 days ago ammonia was 1ppm, now 0. Nitrites are hardly readable, may be none as i'm using an API test kit for nitrites. Nitrate hovering around 10ppm. Got a big diatom bloom, but nothing unmanageable for sure. I'll take water to LFS and if they confirm my tests i'll be grabbing some CUC tomorrow.

alk is the only other thing i'm testing currently, which is holding steady at 8.4dkh.

 

[teddyzaper]

Got new lights, hydra 26HD. awesome lights. Finishing up the hood (repainting and fixing the broken parts). Last coat of paint is drying, the screws to mount the lights come this Tuesday so i'll probably mount the lights then unless i can find another way.

Will post pictures when they go up.

Other notes, looks like my cycle is already finished.

3 days ago ammonia was 1ppm, now 0. Nitrites are hardly readable, may be none as i'm using an API test kit for nitrites. Nitrate hovering around 10ppm. Got a big diatom bloom, but nothing unmanageable for sure. I'll take water to LFS and if they confirm my tests i'll be grabbing some CUC tomorrow.

alk is the only other thing i'm testing currently, which is holding steady at 8.4dkh.

 

[jonnyu]

With the wood work. [emoji106]


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[teddyzaper]

With the wood work. [emoji106]


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ahh ok, i got most of it done, even though im in a tiny apt i still manage. got a hand saw and a sander now, along with a whole bunch of glue materials and a 3d printer

 

[teddyzaper]

So got the hood done. Cannot mount the lights so it can't go up yet. What a shame, it looks really good.

Diatoms in full blast now. Looks like I have a bit of nitrite still, so going to wait till Monday to put in CUC.

Question for you guys. I can already tell that these powerheads aren't nearly strong enough. I want to replace them. What would you guys do? I don't want vortech as I don't like the look of the drive with cable on the outside. I was thinking a gyre on one side maybe. Would it be enough for the whole tank? If not, should I supplement it with something on the other side or go for sicce/tunze?

 

[teddyzaper]

So I couldn't wait and went out to home depot Christmas Eve and bought some bolts to mount the lights (also picked up an indoor palm tree for a Christmas present). Fixed the hood up, you can see the fixed corner in this picture. Not the greatest paint job.

Here are the lights. I've been having fun playing with them. The fan on one of them wasn't working so I opened it up and one of the plugs was broken. Got out the soldering iron and a quick solder onto the appropriate pads and we are back in business.

Here is the front in all its glory. Side and front panels for the stand are ordered, but as they come from Italy it will be a month at least. Hopefully worth the wait as air freight would've been hundreds more.

I'll be adding a small cleanup crew to test tomorrow, probably a cleaner shrimp, a sea slug, and maybe a snail or 2. Next Friday I'll be adding fish. I think first addition may be midnight starry blenny. not sure there is enough food source for it though, I'll do some more research. Test yesterday showed 0 ammonia and a TINY amount of nitrite, I think it's a false positive from the API test kit. under 10ppm of nitrate, but need to test that again.

In front of my car yesterday was this beautiful iguana. While Florida and I have our differences, the wildlife is amazing.

Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy holidays to everyone! [emoji9]

 

[Anthony357]

Lookin sweet!

 

[teddyzaper]

Adding the start of my clean up crew as I type this out. Picked up 5 astrea snails, a Florida cerith and a cucumber. Not 100% on the cuke species but I've seen them at work and know they do well. Going to get these diatoms under control!

The cuke putting his feelers out

 

[teddyzaper]

 

[teddyzaper]

I'm getting this bright green algae, anyone know what it is? Also tons of diatoms now. Going tomorrow to pick up more clean up crew

 

[teddyzaper]

New toy in today. Maxspec gyre xf230. It's a little loud, I may purchase another one and have them run at lower speeds alternating. Also cleaned my glass (need a magnet scrubber) and filter sock. I think I'll add some carbon to my reactor today.

Also I'll be adding my first fish along with some more CUC. We will see what I come home with. Perhaps 2 fish.

Under the stand is getting busy!

 

[Anthony357]

I was looking into the gyre's. They're about as expensive as the vortechs, but seemed like they could create more flow in all areas of the tank because of the long dimensions of the unit