monkiboy's tank thread

[BL1]

Here's just a few

 

[BL1]

I never had a BTA with them but, I believe Brittany (Beeguiles) had one with hers. As long as you add the BTA first and let it find it's spot. The rock flowers rarely move around, they do prefer places with gentile flow though.

 

[monkiboy]

awesome, thank you sir! great pics too!

 

[beeguiles]

I had a maxi mini with my bubble tip in a 29g and they were fine. The maxi mini never moved around and the bubble tip found a spot and stayed there as well.

 

[monkiboy]

thanks, brittany for the input. i'm getting more excited about this build.

having this setup as an inwall viewable from both sides has ruined my plans yet again. the street elbow, and massive flex tubing doesn't fit within the space of the opening so gonna break some walls tonight/morning and get this sucker in.

what sucks though is that it's a permanent install after everything is patched up only to be removed by breaking walls again.

might try to figure out some false magnetic panels on the kitchen side for side access or something but pretty sure i have load bearing studs to the right and left of the tank, bah!

 

[monkiboy]

got three hours of sleep and was back at it with a vengeance at 8AM...too tired and suffering from back spasms which i've never had in my life but are some of the worst pain i've ever felt. ER doc gave me some meds that made my attempts at creative solutions to all the problems that came up, nearly impossible.

anyway, i'm exhausted and after a bit of work today, there is water in the tank! well SOME water...

 

[monkiboy]

gonna put two access panels there for future maintenance and reach. then cover with some photography work of mine that i've been meaning to print and hopefully will be discrete enough.

just waiting on RO/DI unit to do its thing...

already eyeing up clown pairs and anemones...

 

[monkiboy]

all done, couldn't look at the bare bottom anymore and added carib-sea black hawaiian sand. and some pukani rock.

cycle progress after adding dr. tim's:

day 1: ammonia .50ppm, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 0-.25ppm

 

[monkiboy]

the glass-holes.com overflow worked great. 700gph handles my return pump from my basement without any turndown which is great. my DIY overflow couldn't handle the flow so this is much better.

i also drilled for the return in the tank for an even cleaner look while i was at it.

did a bit of rock work and sand and was done.

found this guy floating around after i got the water recirculating again!

 

[chichimom79]

Looks awesome!

 

[buddy08]

saweeeet

 

[beeguiles]

Looks awesome! Great job so far!!

 

[monkiboy]

it's been a while since an update... moved my clowns upstairs along with my RBTAs.

i also changed the rockwork (added more LR) to create a wider space and feel and hiding spots for future fish.

taking things slow and really enjoying the clowns upstairs

one of the clown (unnamed) has discovered one of the nems. the other (niko) tiny guy swims a lot on the surface and seems too busy to notice what his partner is enjoying.

niko is about five months old and the other about nine. niko is tiny and the dang cutest fish ever at about 3/4" of an inch. (size reference is the 3/4" loc-line return in video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA0dC-P4Ny4
(sorry for the crappy focus)

and here's the other clown who's having a blast in her nem. (much better focus and image in HD)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHtPCed3QhE

 

[chichimom79]

Those are really pretty clowns. Love the nem too. If it ever splits, I'd love to buy one :D

 

[monkiboy]

ok, took the fish out to QT and am going to let the tank run fallow for 60 days or so that i can be sure anything in there is dead. i am going to have a couple expensive fish and don't want to be surprised in the long run and want to stack the odds in my favor.

i also added a lot more LR.

found this porcelain crab hiding out using his maxillipeds appendages to filter food. pretty fun to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69sZx7n363Y

and my serpent star being all creepy catching a piece of the shrimp being fed to the nem for his own meal, haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRyvpJP962U

 

[monkiboy]

updated shot...lot more live rock, some rock flower nems, new nems, and some new fish!

 

[chichimom79]

Gorgeous nems!!!

 

[little_fish]

So pretty!

 

[beeguiles]

Beautiful!

 

[cvcdrk]

Love the rock flower nems.

pacificeastaquaculture.com often has a lot of very colorful ones for sale. I've been tempted but am weary about nems in general.
These look amazing, though:
Anemones

Great work on the tank. Love built-in setups.