RustyRocket Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 Water, about a gallon of vinegar, a hose & a kent proscraper II with the metal blade attachment and the sponge attachment. Took somewhere around 4 hours to clean the whole tank, scrape the old paint off and clean the skimmer/return pump. First I rinsed the whole thing with the hose and then scrubbed it down with a water/vinegar mix with paper towels to get the first layer of crud off. From there I moved to more water/vinegar with the sponge attachment on the proscraper for the filmy deposits and then the blade for old coralline deposits. Between every step I rinsed it out real well with the hose and then drained it. Then I used the blade on the back to scrape the old paint off before heading back to the inside to get any spots I missed the first time around. The proscraper was the key to cleaning it, made short work of all the old algae spots - I just kept dunking it in the water/vinegar solution at the bottom of the tank to keep it wet during the cleaning. will this method remove hard water stains? also wjat do you use to feed? that feeding aparatus in them videos Link to comment
Sunar357 Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 http://reefbuilders.com/2013/11/14/quality-marines-blue-frogfish-absolutely-astounding/ Ahhh! Check that badboy out! Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted November 15, 2013 Author Share Posted November 15, 2013 will this method remove hard water stains? also wjat do you use to feed? that feeding aparatus in them videos Hmm not sure about hard water stains. I'd probably start with vinegar first and then move to something stronger like muriatic acid if 100% vinegar doesnt work. Its just a stealth stick. Wooden kabob with 50lb fishing line taped to it. The food is placed on the fishing line and then dangled in front of the fish. I got the idea from Greg & Renee @ Lionfish Lair. Check it out here : Tools of the Trade. http://reefbuilders.com/2013/11/14/quality-marines-blue-frogfish-absolutely-astounding/ Ahhh! Check that badboy out! Wowwww. Crazy! Dont even want to know what that beast would cost. Probably would have to keep him with some blue macro or gorgonians to keep that color though. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted December 4, 2013 Author Share Posted December 4, 2013 Thanks to the Black Friday sale at LED Group Buy, I'm going to have some Hyper Violets, XPE Blues, 6 LDDs & 2 12" Makers Heatsinks coming in to me for this tank. Merry Christmas to my tank. Finished staining the stand (well everything but the doors). Here it is in the room (also got quarter round down in the room so its ready for a tank). Stand inspector Next up, finish painting the back of the tank and start to work on the DIY canopy this weekend! Finally feel like I'm getting somewhere! Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted December 10, 2013 Author Share Posted December 10, 2013 Dirty glass. Don't care. No big progress on the 90 recently. Modeled the canopy in 3D in AutoCAD but thanks to the snowstorm on Sunday, I didnt get out to buy the wood for it. Maybe I can get it built this next weekend. Link to comment
Rehype Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Dirty glass. Don't care. No big progress on the 90 recently. Modeled the canopy in 3D in AutoCAD but thanks to the snowstorm on Sunday, I didnt get out to buy the wood for it. Maybe I can get it built this next weekend. Awesome looks like they want some food..lol Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 Nice stuff, Ralph! Thanks Greg! It will be even nicer when they are in that roomy 90g! Awesome looks like they want some food..lol Well they do. They always do. This was just after they both ate. It was more of a "Hey, you didnt feed us enough JERK!" move by them. My fish are fatties. Haha thanks Hype. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 Did a big WC and moved some coral from the cube over to the 40 to test to see how they do. If all goes well, the cube gets combined with the 40 after the holidays. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Some good news and some bad news... Start off with the bad news. Minus 1 Cockatoo Waspfish. Lost it on Friday night randomly with no apparent cause. Just stopped eating a week prior and then showed no interest in food. Prior to this the fish seemed as healthy as could be. Second one I've lost since I started keeping scorps. Bummer. Ok enough of the sad bad news, onto the Good news! Tank is pretty much finished being painted. Just need to touch up around the rim where the painters tape pulled off a spot here or there. Really like the color, something different. Got a new sump in for the 90 as well. Trigger Systems 36 Crystal Elite. 36x16x15. Should be a great setup for my tank. Really excited about it. Inspector approves. Next I need to build the canopy at some point. Probably whenever the temp outside gets above freezing since I'm building it in my garage.... Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 Some 90 updates. -Bleached some old live rock to clean it up before adding it into the 90 -Ordered 30lbs of dry rock from Reefcleaners to have some extra for aquascaping -Got the canopy assembled (just need trim work) Not bad for 30 lbs. I requested larger rocks and am not disappointed. This one is a beast. With a large jar of pellet food next to it for reference Canopy-time. Starting to come together! A box? Open up Progress. Maybe this thing can see water before winter is over... Maybe indeed. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted March 4, 2014 Author Share Posted March 4, 2014 Woops forgot to update this with the latest progress if anyone is still following along.Canopy lookin good Really happy with how it turned out. Test fitting the sump/skimmer & mentally planning out plumbing. Crappy full sump shot. Hopefully plumbing this weekend if its warm enough to do it in the garage. Link to comment
HVani Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 Adorable! I have a cairn terrier myself Good luck with the build. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted March 4, 2014 Author Share Posted March 4, 2014 Haha awesome. Oh terriers, adorable little troublemakers. Though now my little guy just wants the box to the sump, not the actual sump. How old is your Cairn? Thanks- its coming along slowly but surely. Link to comment
Rehype Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 Wow everything looks great so far ralph....I love that sump and canopy Link to comment
awpong Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 The tank is coming along nicely. And I love any and all scorpion fish. I'm glad you're dedicating a tank to them, they're just so awesome! Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted March 4, 2014 Author Share Posted March 4, 2014 Wow everything looks great so far ralph....I love that sump and canopy Thanks Hype! Trying my best. Not up to your level but I'm pretty proud of everything so far. Would be more proud if it was running though haha The tank is coming along nicely. And I love any and all scorpion fish. I'm glad you're dedicating a tank to them, they're just so awesome! Thanks man. Appreciate the complements. They are awesome. Such unique and amazing fish. I'm still amazed how smart they are. They know when its a feeding day and hop and beg at the front glass or "Pray to the Food God". I can't wait to get some dwarf lions and add them to the mix too. The 90 won't be all scorps/lions though - I'm going to devote part of the volume to other oddballs and predators. Probably a marine betta, a smaller hawkfish, a smaller maori wrasse or two and maybe a Halichoeres wrasse of some sort. Should be a fun mix of ground crawling scorps, rockwork perchers in dwarf lions and the hawk and swimmers in the wrasses. Link to comment
Rehype Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 Thanks Hype! Trying my best. Not up to your level but I'm pretty proud of everything so far. Would be more proud if it was running though haha IMO you exceeded my level since you did alot of that work yourself...You should be proud its come a long way. Link to comment
Giga Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 My LFS had a Japanese scorpian fish and it was very tempting, but I didnt want to lose my inverts lol Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted March 6, 2014 Author Share Posted March 6, 2014 IMO you exceeded my level since you did alot of that work yourself...You should be proud its come a long way. Thanks bud. Appreciate the compliment. I cant take all the credit. The wife helped a lot on the canopy. The trim setup was pretty much her idea. I just did all the cutting and nailing. My LFS had a Japanese scorpian fish and it was very tempting, but I didnt want to lose my inverts lol What kind? A redfin like mine? Only shrimps are in danger. Hermits and snails are safe and all other inverts are pretty much safe. And even then, if its a large shrimp, its safe from smaller scorps like my wasps. So in summary, get it! Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 Now that my acrylic cube setup sold, I've got some funds to throw at the 90. Started off by ordered 60lbs of Caribsea Special Grade reef sand. Starting fresh on this tank and tossing all my old finer grain stuff in the 40. Next up ordered a nice Aoyue soldering iron for the LEDs/LDD boards. Finished up yesterday ordering a Meanwell NES-350-48 power supply from Mouser. Only major thing left is a LED controller for the LDDs. Was leaning Storm X but damn, that Bluefish controller is FANCY. Might have to wait for it. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 Progress! Plumbed and leak tested! Only 1 minor leak from a drain union and no bowing or any other problems. Full and ran overnight. I'll empty it tonight or tomorrow probably. Thing is loud though. I cant figure out what's wrong but it doesnt seem to be pulling a clean siphon. There are tons of bubbles and tons of noise. I dont know if the Mag 9.5 isnt enough pump for the system - I have to restrict my 1.5" gate valve a lot to keep it in line with the return. I need to mess around with it and see what is wrong. Crappy phone pics w/ flash cause it was late at night when I finally got it running. I know the return is high but it's sized so it fits through the canopy via the union and straps to the 1x4 trim on the back. This idea involved the least canopy destruction. Just couldnt get around with the idea of cutting into it with the jigsaw to fit a simple U over the rim. (I didnt run the fuge in the leak test - that's powered by a separate pump from the return area.) Next up Canopy staining! Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted April 9, 2014 Author Share Posted April 9, 2014 Bad news... Lost my redfin wasp (fish in avatar) last week. Last weekend he was totally fine, begging and what not. Last monday he wouldnt eat, Tuesday and on he just faded and looked terrible. I moved him into a 10g QT just to be safe cause I had to go out of town Thursday - Sunday so if he passed, he didnt crash my 40. I couldn't find anything physically wrong with him, no idea why it happened. Eerily similar to what happened to my cockatoo, just stopped eating and then died. Good news... Ordered a new RLSS Gen 2 DC-6000 pump to replace my Mag 9.5 return pump. Mag just doesnt seem to have enough umph for the current drain setup. Figure the Dc6000 has plenty of flow and then some. Plus its like half the wattage! Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted April 13, 2014 Author Share Posted April 13, 2014 Worked like a freaking charm! 2 Speed settings down from max flow. Dead silent. All I hear is a slight hum from the pump but man it is quiet. The trick was raising the water level in the overflow so no more bubbles form by the water falling down. But I couldnt do that with the Mag 9.5 cause I literally had to shut it off almost all the way. The new pump allows me to open up the valve somewhat and set the water level perfectly. Check it out. Now: Previously: Link to comment
Rehype Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 Really sorry to hear about the readfin Ralph but congrats on the pump. Link to comment
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