Catherine's 55 Gallon Build Thread

SeattleDarko said:
Spot two... my vote :)

Also with stained glass or fused glass let me know if you have questions I use to do a lot of glass art in high school.
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Thanks, SeattleDarko, Did you go to school in Florida? I taught Stained Glass in High School! I feel very comfortable with doing the stained glass (I don't like fused glass for art projects) it's the using it for an aquarium that I'm unsure of. Since I'm building my tank I'm going to make a mosaic design on the back of the back piece of glass and fill the gap with epoxy as suggested. Then I'll do a gentle back-light during the "twilight" hours to add some depth. As soon as I get my design done I'll start the build thread, my estimate is right after Christmas as I've got a few other projects going right now.

I can't move the furniture around to feature the tank more because this is my art studio so my art equipment comes first. I allowed the couch in there at my husband's request (NOT the TV), and my tanks are going to surround the area of my drawing board. That way when I sit and draw I can pretend I'm swimming with my ponies (yeah, cheezy, I know). I know I should go for the functional spot but the artist in me wants the feature wall. Sigh.

Thanks a bunch for the votes, I'll be setting it up on Thursday. Pics soon!

Catherine
 
Had my hands in saltwater all day. Crazy day for my tanks. Ok, I'm in the process of eliminating all my nano tanks: 15 gallon aiptasia farm with a BTA and a clown, 10 gallon one big LR and one little yellow goby, and a 20 gallon aiptasia farm filled with riccordea, shrooms, a big xenia and a little clown fish. In a perfect world I would put the BTA and the clown in my daughter's BioCube and everything else in my new 55 gallon but I'm not putting anything with aiptasia on it in my new tank. So, moving all this stuff around is nuts. Today I dumped and cleaned the Bio Cube and the stuff from the 10 gallon went into the 55 gallon! (the goby is now swimming happily in my little contest nano tank) WooT, finally got something in that tank! So, in the 55 gallon is three large Live Rocks (two rocks were hanging out in my fuge waiting to be moved) a bunch of live sand, bunches of hermits and a few snails. Tomorrow, I'll dump the 15 gallon aiptasia farm into the BioCube and move the lights from it to my 20 gallon so I can take the lights from the 20 gallon and put them on my 55 gallon. The 20 gallon and the 10 gallon were pushed together with one 48" Coralife light fixture was over both tanks that fixture was bought last spring because I knew I was getting a big tank as soon as I could. So, my hands will be in saltwater again tomorrow. I really, really want to put my corals and the clown from the 20 gallon into the 55 tomorrow but I'm so sick of dealing with aiptasia. Really, I've got no idea what to do with the stuff in that tank. I'm even afraid to move the clown because he might have aiptasia spawn stuck into his little gills! I'll take pics as soon as I can get the lights moved. It will be nice to have this done!

Catherine
 
I know a guy that would love the aptesia. He lives down by mazomanie though. He was trading corals. If you really have a lot send me a pm I will talk to hin and see if he would make a trade.
 
Time for some pictures! When my husband got his fancy huge telescope there is a big deal made about the first time you look through the scope at something. The Astronomy nerds call it "First Light". Well, in their tradition, since I'm a reefer nerd, here is the First Light of my 55 gallon!

4122015693_f24748ae75.jpg


There is a glare but you can see that I painted the back with a gradient: dark at the bottom, medium in the middle and lighter at the top. I really like the depth it gives the tank! The HOB filters and heater will leave as soon as I get my sump/fuge hooked up.

Here is a shot of my tank in my studio. I spend a lot of hours each day at that drawing board, that's where I work, so I'll get to hang out right next to my tank all day! Through the glass doors you can see a bit of the 2 acres of woods behind our house. I'm blessed with a fabulous view.

4122015645_58ea9dc4c4_m.jpg


As soon as I turned on that light I just fell in love with this tank! It is the perfect size. Not so big as to be overwhelming but big enough to feel grand. Because I placed it with a work room behind it I'll be able to run a good sized sump/ fuge and do a good bit of my maintenance in the room with a concrete floor. Also, it's bigger size will allow me to avoid the issues of my smaller tanks. This is so, so, so, so, exciting!
 
Last edited:
Picasso said:
Thanks, SeattleDarko, Did you go to school in Florida? I taught Stained Glass in High School! I feel very comfortable with doing the stained glass (I don't like fused glass for art projects) it's the using it for an aquarium that I'm unsure of. Since I'm building my tank I'm going to make a mosaic design on the back of the back piece of glass and fill the gap with epoxy as suggested. Then I'll do a gentle back-light during the "twilight" hours to add some depth. As soon as I get my design done I'll start the build thread, my estimate is right after Christmas as I've got a few other projects going right now.
Catherine
Click to expand...


Nope, I went to high school outside of Seattle. I think that will look great, I am really sick of my black background...

I like the fact your drawing table is right next to your tank. I actually paint on our dinning room table so I can see the tank :)
 
So, today I moved a coral, Zen and my fish Jazz into the 55 gallon. I moved Jazz so I can stop feeding my 20 gallon aiptasia farm and hopefully my pep shrimps will start eating them. So I've got this big tank with a few rocks and one little fish and I'm thinking I might get a fish or two for this tank. It will have my ponies in it so I need a vegetarian. (nothing that will eat my pods for my ponies). Are there any vegetarian fish?

Here's a pic. This is a double post with my photo gallery on the photo thread. Hey, I just noticed, you can see my nano tank in the background. cool

4144691549_2287c012a3.jpg


Thanks for any suggestions.

Catherine
 
be careful with vegetarian fish with your ponies, they will sometimes pick at the ponies because algae tends to grow a bit on them. ;) but you probably know this already.

and of course fast swimmers will scare them.
 
Haven't posted anything in a bit. Today I got 2 new Koralia's a Nano and a bigger one (forgot the exact size). I pulled the 400 I had stuck in there just to move water. Also, I played with moving stuff around. I moved my bubbles up along the top third of the back wall and moved one of the rocks over. I've been doing so much moving of tanks and getting things done I forgot how much fun it is to just play. It's like a dollhouse only wy cooler! Got a big dust cloud in there so I'll take full tank shots tomorrow. Here's a shot of my new leather! WooT!

4188261169_4e6603dd21.jpg
 

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