InsaneClownFish
New member
Thanks Scott, but the credit for so much of this should go to my wife and the fine members of RC.
My wife is a source of inspiration and support, and she has encouraged me to step out of the box with many of my projects. I've also been able to bounce my ideas off her and get positive feedback. She loves the hobby, and quite frankly, my tank wouldn't be what it is today without her support. People who know me usually consider me a fairly handy guy. But here's the secret- I'm really not! I find so much inspiration from the people of RC who are both skilled craftsmans and weekend warriors just like myself. Someone like melev has been a tremendous source of inspiration for me. He's far beyond my skill level, but take his website and it's how to approach- it's just more encouragement for a guy like me to "just try it."
Reading how other people find solutions to problems, and seeing the "re-valuation and tweakings" of so many folks' build threads here is also inspiration to push ahead. The internet is a tremendous resource for the reef hobbyist, but to be honest, without RC, and the thoughtful and dynamic people here, I'd probably have a 10g reef with a pile of mud, a scared clownfish in the corner, bioballs floating on the top, and a dead sps frag glued to the back of the tank.
Most of my initial in depth reading and interest in this hobby was sparked by my stumbling across RC. Even just the little wave from people- the little step into this quiet little soft coral forum to say- hey that looks great..or keep up the good work is a world of encouragement in itself. It's anywhere from 1-1.5 gallons every 16 hours. Probably close to 2 in a 24 hour period- depending on humidity, temp, season etc. There's alot of surface area going on. 96x25, 53x32(sump), 20x20(show fuge)
Thanks so much. I'm trying to capture as many of the side angles for you, and others, as possible. I know how interested you are in aquascaping, and there are so many angles of depth that are hard to capture. It really looks so "lush" from certain vantage points. My sister's boyfriend was over last night and asked if it was all alive, or if there were actually "fake" things in the tank. I smiled to myself and said, nope...all 100% alive. I took it as a compliment. I told him to squat down on the far side and look down across the 8 ft length- personally my favorite angle. "Wow" is the response I always get.
Yup, I made sure I was within the "gaggle" +/- margin of error.
I'll tell you, sometimes I'm like a little blind man who can suddenly see just because someone taps him on the shoulder. If it bugs you, it has really been driving me nuts. I've given little thought to my lack of reef janitors though. I'm down to one scarlet hermit, a handful of blue legs, and the amount of snails I can probably count on one hand. In fact, most of the 250 dwarf cerinths I had have long since died off. I'm going to order a cleaning crew package.
What would you suggest for cucumbers? I'm pretty ignorant about cucs just because I've always been too afraid to keep one. Also, would adding a serpent star help in any way(other than the detritus)? I currently have a large black brittle that hunts for detritus at night, but does nothing for the sand.
I've noticed the blue legs cleaning it, but I just have too few. I've also heard mixed reviews on sand sifting inverts- starfish, cucs for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is cleaning out beneficial infauna. Any thoughts?
If you think those are fluffy you should have stopped over when you were in CT for some of my wife's pancakes.
Thank god for some forethought with my aquascaping. If I hadn't initially planned for an open rock design and open background it would have been nearly impossible. It takes me 40 minutes once a week to wipe down the acrylic properly. If I let it go for 2 weeks it can take me as long as 2 hours. There are some very fine scratches in the front, but for an acrylic tank of this age I am proud to say it is very clear. I contribute this to regular wipe downs, with an acrylic safe pad, which keeps any type of build up out of those very fine scratches.
When the tank gets a bit dirtier I use the algae scrapers from James. Ironically, these are what put most of the scratches I have in it. It works phenomenally well, but much care is needed.
Still, for anyone who didn't know the tank I'd have to point out the scratches for them to ever be noticed.
A 14k Phoenix will give your angled tank a nice look.
Just to quickly update on my fixture. After running it for 10 hours the unit is cool to the touch with only the area around the ballasts being slightly warm to the touch- impressive.
I hardly needed to clean the MH pendants because they were so high off the water.
The acrylic shield will have to be cleaned regularly as it picks up salt spray from all the surface movement I have.
I am noticing a loss of pigment, or color shift, or something on one small section of my pink Chalice, but I'm fairly certain this has to do with the way it was leaning on the sandbed or a change in current. I'll keep everyone up to date on this.
A while back the rock my Purple Crocea was on got moved just enough for it to look unhappy with the increased flow it had been getting. It rocked off its spot and was placed in a slightly lower position- actually a bit more flow. It quickly attached but seemed slightly unhappy at times. With the removal of the Koralia 4s and the addition of the Koralia Magnum 7 it was now looking even more unhappy.
Right before the new lights came I moved it to the softie dominated end of the tank high up on the rockwork. It's directly under the end of the new fixture and looking much happier. Over the last couple of nights I've noticed white clouds floating in the water and finally surmised that the clam must be spawning. Any thoughts on whether this is somehow in direct response to the move/new light?
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