The "my wife doesn't like fish tank furniture" build

[Jrodinnola]

On 2/23/2017 at 0:38 PM, Christopher Marks said:

Hmm, I think I would vent air out of the cabinet. If it's blow too much air over the surface of the sump it might accelerate evaporation. You can use one for the fan and the other as an intake. They're not right beside each other though, right? One on each end or something?

I'm thinking I may just vent the air out.  There's such a limited amount of space in the sump area, I'm not sure I could accommodate two fans anyway.

-------------------------------

This last Saturday, I got to attend Fragniappe (local annual frag convention here in southeast Louisiana) and picked up some pretty neat stuff!  As soon as I got home, I spent some time cutting off old plugs..

 

then put everything on new plugs, dipped, and acclimated to the QT tank.   Here's what I have after things have settled down a bit:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jrodinnola]

Got some more frags for the QT tank! I'm going to need to start moving them soon.. frag tank is getting full! Lol

 

[TFish77]

Yep anytime I hear "my wife hates fish tank furniture" and " I got a new tank" in the same breath my first question is "Are you still married"  . 

 

Seriously though the tank looks amazing! Keep up the good work. 

[Jrodinnola]

5 hours ago, TFish77 said:

Yep anytime I hear "my wife hates fish tank furniture" and " I got a new tank" in the same breath my first question is "Are you still married"  . 

 

Seriously though the tank looks amazing! Keep up the good work. 

Thanks! Yep, if you keep the queen happy, all is well in the castle, lol. Seriously though, this little project has actually been really fun, I actually like it a lot more than a generic fish tank stand.

------------------------------

In other news, I'm making progress slowly but surely.. added these last night:

 

 

i feel like I should've done that a long time ago.. it's so much easier to work in there now, lol.

Hopefully I can get around to hooking the magnetic door switches up to the breakout box this afternoon, then the lights will turn on only when I open the doors. 

[Jrodinnola]

Well, the 41 is almost completely stocked.  I went with mostly easy to care for, beginner fish.. the fish that amazed me when I first got into the hobby. Current livestock list:

 

-Midas Blenny

-Firefish

-Royal Gramma

-Neon Goby

-Golden Neon Goby

-Standard Issue Occelaris

-Coral banded shrimp

 

And for the main attraction: a blue star leopard wrasse (that I have yet to find).  I also picked up this guy from a friend that's been holding most of my coral for months.  It's hard to see in the pic, but it's super light blue with bright blue polyps.  Not sure how it will look in my system, but I like the way it is now:

 

 

I forgot about these photos of the electrical cabinet shenanigans I had to straighten up:

 

before-

 

 

after-

 

I'm going to give the 41 a few weeks to settle down before I try out a few pieces of coral from the QT tank and see what happens. Excitement!

[smiz]

On 3/20/2017 at 6:07 AM, Jrodinnola said:

Thanks! Yep, if you keep the queen happy, all is well in the castle, lol. Seriously though, this little project has actually been really fun, I actually like it a lot more than a generic fish tank stand.

------------------------------

In other news, I'm making progress slowly but surely.. added these last night:

 

 

i feel like I should've done that a long time ago.. it's so much easier to work in there now, lol.

Hopefully I can get around to hooking the magnetic door switches up to the breakout box this afternoon, then the lights will turn on only when I open the doors. 

Tank is looking great! Do you have a link to these lights? I've been looking for some magnetic lights that will turn on when door opens!?

[Jrodinnola]

42 minutes ago, smiz said:

Tank is looking great! Do you have a link to these lights? I've been looking for some magnetic lights that will turn on when door opens!?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/122063175427 

 

The magnetic switches are "ADEMCO HONEYWELL 945T - BR MAGNETIC CONTACT", which you can get at any lowes or Home Depot I believe. I wired the magnetic contacts to my apex's breakout box and programmed it to turn on the cabinet lights if any of the three switches are open.  Not sure how to rig it up if you don't have an apex, but I'm sure there's a way to do it. 

[TFish77]

On 3/27/2017 at 1:08 PM, Jrodinnola said:

Well, the 41 is almost completely stocked.  I went with mostly easy to care for, beginner fish.. the fish that amazed me when I first got into the hobby. Current livestock list:

 

-Midas Blenny

-Firefish

-Royal Gramma

-Neon Goby

-Golden Neon Goby

-Standard Issue Occelaris

-Coral banded shrimp

 

And for the main attraction: a blue star leopard wrasse (that I have yet to find).  I also picked up this guy from a friend that's been holding most of my coral for months.  It's hard to see in the pic, but it's super light blue with bright blue polyps.  Not sure how it will look in my system, but I like the way it is now:

 

 

I forgot about these photos of the electrical cabinet shenanigans I had to straighten up:

 

before-

 

 

after-

 

I'm going to give the 41 a few weeks to settle down before I try out a few pieces of coral from the QT tank and see what happens. Excitement!

 

 

/r/cableporn 

 

Seriously looks awesome. 

[Jrodinnola]

On 4/5/2017 at 10:24 PM, TFish77 said:

 

 

/r/cableporn 

 

Seriously looks awesome. 

Lol, thanks! I figure if the wires are easy to sort through, I'm more likely to service and clean my pumps like I'm supposed to. 

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Update: Transferred all frags from the QT into the 41 last night after the whites went off. Everything has since opened up and seems to be doing well!  I'll get a better pic after everything settles in a bit more. 

Now just have to wait a little while and let the sps color back up.. the sps in the QT tank all were very slowy turning brown, but encrusting with full polyp extension.. so now that they have plenty of light, they can start to color up. 

 

Frags now in the tank:

-blue cali tort

-setosa

-bubble gum digi 

-dragon scale milli

-red planet

-poor mans dippin dots

-ponape birdsnest

-rose milli

-random cool blue acro

-emeralds on fire

-rainbow infusions

-utter chaos

-rastas

-pink zippers

-speckled fire and ice

-sunny Ds

-LA lakers

-vamps in drag

-jack o lantern lepto

-rose gonio

 

 

Also, I got something in today at work... hehehe

[Jrodinnola]

Got a little work done on the tank yesterday.. finally got around to installing the vent fans in the sump and electronics cabinets, as well as finishing up wiring the magnetic door switches to turn the cabinet lights on whenever the door is open. 

 

 

Besides that, the tank is chugging along, although it is going through the new tank uglies with a few different types of algae popping up... but nothing out of the ordinary.  Oh yea, this guy has finally started to feel comfortable enough to cruise around the tank with the other fish and is eating like a pig!

 

Besides that, I'm putting a few cell pics up for growth reference, colors are still coming back from browning that happened with an alk drop in the quarantine tank, but everything is healthy and encrusting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rainbow infusions seem to have lost a bit of their green under the T5's, but they have rapidly grown tissue.. much faster than I've seen with any LED I've tried. 

 

 

The rastas and emeralds on fire I originally had melted away for whatever reason when I transferred them to this tank, but I recently picked up some more Rastas that are now in quarantine.  I'm actually kind of glad the old ones melted, this new strain is MUCH brighter than any I've gotten or seen before.  

The new strain on the right, and another strain I picked up from another reefer on here. These are literally right next to each other and the color difference is crazy. The blue skirt is rediculously blue, and the greens and oranges are much more vivid.  It's true, not all corals  are created equal. Lol

[vlangel]

I love your livestock list.  You have not posted a close FTS for a while, any chance of one?

[frahny]

Really solid looking tank. 

[Nidilsky]

Wow. A lot of work. Would work for a much larger display. Well played.

[TFish77]

6 hours ago, Jrodinnola said:

Got a little work done on the tank yesterday.. finally got around to installing the vent fans in the sump and electronics cabinets, as well as finishing up wiring the magnetic door switches to turn the cabinet lights on whenever the door is open. 

 

 

Besides that, the tank is chugging along, although it is going through the new tank uglies with a few different types of algae popping up... but nothing out of the ordinary.  Oh yea, this guy has finally started to feel comfortable enough to cruise around the tank with the other fish and is eating like a pig!

 

Besides that, I'm putting a few cell pics up for growth reference, colors are still coming back from browning that happened with an alk drop in the quarantine tank, but everything is healthy and encrusting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rainbow infusions seem to have lost a bit of their green under the T5's, but they have rapidly grown tissue.. much faster than I've seen with any LED I've tried. 

 

 

The rastas and emeralds on fire I originally had melted away for whatever reason when I transferred them to this tank, but I recently picked up some more Rastas that are now in quarantine.  I'm actually kind of glad the old ones melted, this new strain is MUCH brighter than any I've gotten or seen before.  

The new strain on the right, and another strain I picked up from another reefer on here. These are literally right next to each other and the color difference is crazy. The blue skirt is rediculously blue, and the greens and oranges are much more vivid.  It's true, not all corals  are created equal. Lol

 

Cable management for the win! Really looks good. Inspired me to redo one of mine :-) 

 

[Jrodinnola]

16 hours ago, vlangel said:

I love your livestock list.  You have not posted a close FTS for a while, any chance of one?

Ill take one when I get home tonight.. no coral is mounted on the rock work yet, still trying to find out where each sps piece likes to be as far as how high in the tank. 

 

14 hours ago, frahny said:

Really solid looking tank. 

Thanks!

 

14 hours ago, Nidilsky said:

Wow. A lot of work. Would work for a much larger display. Well played.

It definitely would, but a larger display wouldn't work well with my wallet, Lol.  I just like to tinker with things... I have way too many bells and whistles on this tank for it being only a 41g, but it makes it easy for me to take care of since I work all the time, have a 1.5 year old running around, and another one that's due in august.  Automation is the only thing that's going to keep this tank alive at this point in my life. Lol

 

10 hours ago, TFish77 said:

 

Cable management for the win! Really looks good. Inspired me to redo one of mine :-) 

 

Glad I could help, lol.  I think yours looks better than mine, though. I have too many electronics crammed in that little cabinet. Lol

[Jrodinnola]

On 4/30/2017 at 5:08 PM, vlangel said:

I love your livestock list.  You have not posted a close FTS for a while, any chance of one?

As requested.. 

 

A blank slate. I keep trying to pick which corals will contrast best with the black background, and which corals will look good adjacent to the background corals.. still undecided.  Also, I'm thinking the bottom rock will be the Zoa/Paly garden, maybe with a gold torch on the backside? (A friend of mine is holding onto a frag of gold torch for me.)

 

Also, on a different note, I've decided to pick up aquarium maintenance and installation, as well as aquaculturing the "name-brand" zoas as an legit second job (My primary, full time job is an environmental specialist for the state of Louisiana).  I picked up this guy in the last 3 weeks, which should help with frags.. hehe:

 

Annnnd I may or may not have also purchased a gryphon diamond band saw....lol.  I've worked at an LFS here in New Orleans for the last 4 years while I was in college, and performed maintenance as a side job during that time and still do so on a few tanks, so I'm not new to the maintenance gig.  In the last few weeks, I've chartered my business with the state, got my occupational license, and will be insured and fully legit by the end of the month.  I'm pretty excited! 

[Jrodinnola]

Well, this past Saturday I mounted all the sticks on the rock work and the zoa frags on the little island.  Now I'm just going to try to let the tank do its thing and only do regular maintenance and minimal input on my part. 

[Travis]

Man that looks great!!! Too lazy to go back and look, but how did you cure the base rock?

[Christopher Marks]

Beautiful rock work, this is going to be awesome to watch grow out.

[Jrodinnola]

1 hour ago, Travis said:

Man that looks great!!! Too lazy to go back and look, but how did you cure the base rock?

Thanks!  I have found that using BRS reef saver with some live sand and ammonia chloride drops will get the tank cycled usually within a 2-4 weeks with pretty much zero phosphate and little nitrate.  Using the ammonia chloride drops, I bring the NH3 to 2ppm, then wait for it to return to 0 ppm.  When the tank processes 2ppm worth of NH3 in 24 hours, I do a 100% waterchange and add up to 25% of the tanks bioload at one time. I then go to the low and slow approach only adding one or two fish at a time so the bacterial populations can balance a bit easier.  I really like this approach since it saves a good chunk of change on live rock and you start with zero pests, unless you accidentally add one on your own, lol. 

 

1 hour ago, Christopher Marks said:

Beautiful rock work, this is going to be awesome to watch grow out.

Thanks!  Yep, it's going to be hard to not mess with it while it matures. Lol

[Jrodinnola]

A little mini update- colors up top are doing well, and some on the lower parts of the rock aren't coloring up just yet.. mainly the dragon scale milli that I was told is notoriously difficult to color up.  Another challenge added to the list, lol. 

 

This top section should look pretty fantastic when it grows out.

 

I picked up the sunrise milli in the middle from a fellow reefer locally.. and I think it was just the splash of color I needed.

 

Thats all for now.. still have a little random new tank algae that I'm waiting on to clear up, but otherwise things are clicking along.

 

Side note: My business that was mentioned a few posts ago has picked up a little speed here locally, and I've gained a handful of maintenance jobs and installs to help with bills due to the new baby on the way... Pretty excited!  As far as the aquaculture side goes, I have about 10 different colonies (mostly collector pieces) that I've cut about 25 frags from, and I'm almost ready to list them in my online store.

[frahny]

4 hours ago, Jrodinnola said:

A little mini update- colors up top are doing well, and some on the lower parts of the rock aren't coloring up just yet.. mainly the dragon scale milli that I was told is notoriously difficult to color up.  Another challenge added to the list, lol. 

 

This top section should look pretty fantastic when it grows out.

 

I picked up the sunrise milli in the middle from a fellow reefer locally.. and I think it was just the splash of color I needed.

 

Thats all for now.. still have a little random new tank algae that I'm waiting on to clear up, but otherwise things are clicking along.

 

Side note: My business that was mentioned a few posts ago has picked up a little speed here locally, and I've gained a handful of maintenance jobs and installs to help with bills due to the new baby on the way... Pretty excited!  As far as the aquaculture side goes, I have about 10 different colonies (mostly collector pieces) that I've cut about 25 frags from, and I'm almost ready to list them in my online store.

Looking great! I just happened to be in the market for some collector frags? Let me know when and where and I'll take a look.

[Reefkid88]

I love simple and clean set-ups. Looks top notch,would love to see some close ups of everything. 

[gogeta]

No doubt this tank will mature and grow into something amazing. Just read from start to finish. Such a neat and tidy set up. Also that stand came out amazing! 

[Jrodinnola]

Sorry for the extended silence y'all, I've been super busy!!  

On 7/7/2017 at 8:48 PM, frahny said:

Looking great! I just happened to be in the market for some collector frags? Let me know when and where and I'll take a look.

www.CoralCoveNOLA.com/shop

I have 5 frags of sunrise milli, 3 of blue Cali Tort in the store, along with some Z's & P's and shrooms I've been growing. 

On 7/7/2017 at 9:01 PM, Reefkid88 said:

I love simple and clean set-ups. Looks top notch,would love to see some close ups of everything. 

When I get a camera with better zoom, it's going to happen! That may be a good candidate for a "Business expense".. lol

On 7/8/2017 at 3:41 AM, gogeta said:

No doubt this tank will mature and grow into something amazing. Just read from start to finish. Such a neat and tidy set up. Also that stand came out amazing! 

Thanks!  It really helped that I was able to spray the stand in a booth instead of using a brush to apply the paint.. using a spray gun makes the paint come out 100x smoother and the color is much more even than using a brush!

 

---------------------------------------------------

Also, three small announcements.... 

 

1) The main reason I've been absent on the forums so much (besides spending all my free time working on the business) is that my wife and I have a fresh cut Frag that has arrived!  Our first son, Jace, was born July 26th and is doing well!  

 

2) My service company is starting to do pretty well, and I may be able to do installs and maintenance full time soon!  I've partnered with a local fish superstore around here to do all of their maintenance and installs, and I'll be at MACNA standing with them (aquatic sealife) at booth 330, so feel free to stop by and say hello!

 

3) I have a 1" frag of WD coming in!  I won it on an auction and it should be here next week! 

 

(Photo courtesy of all delight corals)