Ralph's Painted Angler Cube

[NirvanaandTool]

Edit 3-06-14 : Tank broken down and sold. Combined into my 40G.

 

Edit 4-5-13 : This setup has had a lot of changes since it started. Originally it was a 7.5G cube that was going to be for a yasha haze goby and pistol shrimp. Plans changed and I put a G Viridis mantis shrimp in it. Then in a tank move, I cracked the tank and upgraded to a 16" cube. The G Viridis was moved to the fuge and a G Chiragra mantis was added to the display. In Jan 2012, the G Chiragra passed away and I moved onto a Painted angler. In about May 2012 the G Viridis passed away and I've been left mantis-less for the time being.

 

The 7.5 is Alive!

G Viridis in the 7.5G

UPGRADE! 15G Acrylic Cube for G. Chiragra!

Chiragra & Coral Shots

Moar Coral Shots

Chiragra Eating a Snail

Enter the Yellow Glutton - Painted Anglerfish!

 

EDIT 8-8-11: Added some new frags to the 16" cube. New pics posted on Page 2.

EDIT 7-7-11: 12" cube cracked while moving the tank, upgraded to acrylic 16" cube (around 15-16gallons.) Moved G. Viridis mantis shrimp to fuge, added male G. Chiragra mantis shrimp to display. Scroll down for pics.

EDIT 4-14-11: Tank was finished in March. All running with several new frags. Scroll down for pics.

EDIT 2-8-11: Plans changed and the cube will now be a mantis shrimp species tank for a G. Viridis mantis shrimp. Couldnt pass it up at the LFS.

MTS has sent in and my 34g Solana alone isnt enough for me. Decided to set up a new tank - a 7.5G Mr. Aqua cube for a pair of yashe hase gobies and a pistol shrimp. Want a small tank to watch their interaction without disturbances from other fish.

Cliffs on how this came about - had a yashe in the Solana, clownfish tried to kill it, moved it to QT tank until new tank was set up, yashe died but the build continues.

Specs:

Display: Mr. Aqua 7.5g -> Now custom 16" 1/2" thick acrylic cube
Sump: Mr. Aqua 7.5g
Heater: Hydor Theo 50w + Theo 25W
Overflow: Glass-holes Super Nano overflow
Return: Glass-holes 1/2" locline return
Return pump: Mag 3
Powerhead: Koralia Nano -> Now MP10ES
Lighting: DIY LED: 3 XR-E-WG-Q5 Cool White, 3 XR-E Neutral White, 6 XR-E RB Royal Blue, 2 1000mA Buckpucks w/ pots, 24V power supply, 5"x6" heatsink. EDIT 2-8-11
Fuge Light: 10W LED on 10W 900mA driver, 4"x5" heatsink
Control: Reefangel Controller
Stand: DIY
ATO: Blueline Tsunami AT1
ATO Pump: Minijet 606

Decided on another 7.5 as a sump due to stand space. Modeled the stand in AutoCad at work - 16x16 1x2 frame with 1/2" plywood skin. See attached pic for the model.

Livestock plans - G Viridis mantis shrimp, zoas, acans, other lps.
7-8 lbs Live Rock, 10 lbs sand


Onto Pics

Starting the stand

That's where I stand now. Painting the stand on Sunday and hopefully ordering the overflow from Glass-holes next week. I'll update with more pics as the build continues.

Thanks for looking
-Ralph

[amored]

i have this tank and i love it. this should be a cool system.

[Rehype]

Looks good ralph.look forward to seeing the it with water

[NirvanaandTool]

i have this tank and i love it. this should be a cool system.

 

Just checked out your thread. Very nice. Looks awesome with the LED.

 

Looks good ralph.look forward to seeing the it with water

 

Thanks Rehype! Same here. Cant wait to get it filled

 

I didnt end up painting the stand yesterday. Got caught up winterizing the car and didnt have time to paint. Hopefully I can get the stand painted before Thanksgiving but definitely ordering the overflow next week.

[NirvanaandTool]

Almost Christmas update? Haven't made a ton of progress on the build but the stand is almost completed at least.

Painted exterior black, primed the interior, primed the door. Just need to paint the door and interior black and drill my holes for the drain, return and wiring and it should be good.



Hopefully I can get this all rolling again after New Years...

[NirvanaandTool]

Some updates and some changes to the build...

Stand is almost finished. Interior was painted and been working on the door. Had to cut a new one cause the original warped. Door is primed and has 1 coat of paint. Probably needs a second coat though.
Drilled the holes in the back of the display tank and painted the back. No pics of this though. Paint was still drying as I left my parents house this weekend.
All major LED supplies ordered - drivers, emitters, heatsink, power supply. Changed the LED plans from 6 to 12 LEDs (6 RB, 3CW, 3NW) though I may use less than that number. Second heatsink is for a LED fuge light.
Also decided to switch from a RKL to a Reef Angel controller. Sold my brand new RKL basic and put in an order for Reef Angel so I can control the LEDs.

LED goodies...






It's a Gonodactylellus Viridis mantis shrimp. My LFS had him for a while and I couldnt pass him up. I've been wanting a mantis shrimp since 08 and now I finally had the chance at a small version. He is pretty awesome. Currently he is living in the 6g Eclipse I had the live rock sitting in. Made a burrow right in the middle in the live rock. So with him means no gobies in the 7.5. It will be a species tank for him and probably will just be zoas and rics to keep the light levels lower for him.

Hopefully I can get this sucker running by the end of the month. Thats my goal at least. Been sitting idle for too long thanks to the holidays and lately wedding planning... lol

Thanks for looking!
-Ralph

[NirvanaandTool]

Finally finished in March.
Finished the stand, switched the LED plan from 12 Cree's ( 6RB, 3NW, 3CW) to 9 (5 RB, 2NW, 2CW) and then got everything going.

LEDs


Hung over the tank


Water test!


6g moved into 7.5G


After this point, I got the Reef Angel coded and running and raised the LED fixture higher off the tank. I made sure there was no mini-cycle and then it was time for frags.
Luckily my reef club had a Frag Swap that got me some sweet zoa and lps frags.

Jason Fox Alien Eye


Bam Bam Zoas


Blasto


Unidentified Zoas


Pre-existing Zoas (Fire and Ice & Reverse Gorilla Nipples) (Couldnt get a clear pic of these)


Rockwork


FTS


I turned up the blues and turned down the whites to get a similar coloring to what Jason Fox was running at the swap. Just love that pop green's and orange's have. Also have the Knano off for now to see how the new LPS like the flow with just the return. So far they seem pretty happy so it may come out.

I got that 10W fuge led wired up and in the stand too. Gotta say it is frakking bright. Threw some chaeto in the fuge to get all nice and happy under it.
Also ended up winning 15 free hermits and got a bunch of other hermits from a club member so the mantis should have a nice supply of food for a while. He just finished a molt so I should be able to get new pics of him under the LEDs soon.

Next up:
Wire and code LEDs into Reef Angel for PWM dimming
Make some sort of frame to go around the heat sink and pretty it up
Take Tunze 9002 off Solana and put it into the sump.
Add more frags

[TheUnfocusedOne]

Well this is much more descriptive than your RC thread.

[NirvanaandTool]

Well this is much more descriptive than your RC thread.

 

Haha yea. The RC thread was more based around the mantis shrimp cause I posted it in the mantis shrimp subforum. Didnt post all the new coral pics and all the details of the build.

[TheUnfocusedOne]

Haha yea. The RC thread was more based around the mantis shrimp cause I posted it in the mantis shrimp subforum. Didnt post all the new coral pics and all the details of the build.

 

I know, I was talking to you under a different name .

[NirvanaandTool]

Ahh so you are JothamTheSlayer huh? haha

[TheUnfocusedOne]

Ahh so you are JothamTheSlayer huh? haha

 

 

Shh... dont let RC know... There's a reason I have a different name there .

[NirvanaandTool]

Shh... dont let RC know... There's a reason I have a different name there .

 

Haha I'll keep your secret safe. Dont worry.

[NirvanaandTool]

Added some more frags- 2 favia frags and more zoas. Waiting for some to open but decided to take a few quick pics on my Droid X.

No mantis shot though. He was being shy last night and wouldnt even peek out of his burrow.

 

Also turned up the LEDs just a tad for a little more par.

 

The acan seems to be happy

Droid X macro shot. Actually make out pretty decent lol

 

FTS

 

Sump shot w/ fuge LED on

 

I'll get more when the rest of the zoas are open and happy. But actually impressed at how decent the phone pics are. Normally they are awful

[Rehype]

Looks good man

[NirvanaandTool]

Thanks Hype!

 

Im still working on mantis pics, almost had one last night but he darted in and out of the burrow too fast while feeding

[NirvanaandTool]

Finally! Got some pics of the shy little bugger! He was out posing Sunday so I fed him and snapped some pics with my phone.

These kind of suck but it's the best I can do right now. Funny, they looked a lot better on my phone

 

 

 

 

 

I think there's a mantis shrimp in this pic, can you find it?

 

 

That's all for now. Maybe I can get better pics of the elusive mantis tomorrow. He's getting a lot more brave lately

Thanks for looking at my crappy pics!

[NirvanaandTool]

More phone pics. Took pics with the DSLR but I'm packing for a move right now so I havent gotten a chance to upload them.

 

Added 2 small blue/green Chromis (Chromis Viridis) to act as dither fish for the mantis. So far it has worked but the mantis isnt too fond of them when they get fed and he doesn't. Already tried taking a swipe at one a few days ago. Luckily for the Chromis he missed.

If they survive long enough, they will get moved into my 35g peacock mantis tank that I am setting up so they have more room.

 

New Blasto Merletti frag in the center.

 

Close up of the Frag

 

Chromis

 

When I get around to having some free time, I'll upload the pics off of the DSLR.

 

Thanks for looking.

-Ralph

[NirvanaandTool]

This tank is no more. Back panel of the tank cracked and no it wasnt the mantis shrimp that did it. Happened moving it to my new apartment. Cracked right by the drilled drain hole.

So I upgraded it to a 16" 1/2" acrylic cube that I just recently set up. Same sump setup, same stand, same light. I'll keep this thread for the new setup since its still a mantis tank.

And changed some of the livestock plans. Moved the G. Viridis to the fuge and added a male G. Chiragra (I think its a Chiragra at least) to the new display. The Chiragra was rescued from a LFS where he was kept for over 6 months in a critter container inside of a 20g tank with only a PVC burrow. He had lost a rapt in shipping and looks like he finally is beginning to grow it back. He is super active compared to my Viridis and really brings the tank to life. So far no aggression to the lone remaining Chromis (1 I believe was killed by the Viridis).

Pics:









My favorite of the bunch

[DIstudio]

beautiful shot of the mantis, almost makes me want one...but I'm afraid the Wife has already said no...she read a bit about them online and now thinks they are the Devil...damn the internet and her ability to Google...

[NirvanaandTool]

Really? They arent all that bad. My fiancee loves the new guy Lefty. She really thinks he is awesome and loves sitting there watching him with me. She was never too fond of the Viridis cause it was so reclusive but she really is starting to like them now thanks to Lefty. Gives me an in to set up something else for another species.

 

My advice is take her to a LFS that has one and show her how awesome they are. In a species tank they are amazing though I wouldnt put one into a tank where I actually cared about the other livestock (sorry chromis).

[Rehype]

Sorry to hear you lost the last build. But love that you did a species only tank.

 

Looks great so far.

[NirvanaandTool]

Thanks Hype. It was a tough loss but the upgrade that came out of it couldnt be any better. And I still have the 12" cube that just needs a back panel and could be set back up lol

 

Now I just need to restock with coral and add a few more fish. I lost a few zoa frags and my 2 chalice frags in the hell of the tank move/break so I need to get about replacing them.

[junginit]

Nice. Like the set up. Will be following.

[NirvanaandTool]

Thanks! Gonna try to get better pics of the mantis this weekend. He's been out and about every night hunting and is readily taking frozen food