Lula Mae's "Make a Wish" IM 14 peninsula--tank came down today. RIP

[Lula_Mae]

Those of you who follow my threads know I've been planning an upgrade for a while.  I've never had a saltwater tank larger than 5.5 gallons and have wanted a larger tank for a long time so I can have a wider variety of fish and corals.  I've been slowly gathering stuff for this build since mid-summer, buying things as they went on sale and looking for great deals.  I'd pretty much decided to set up a 10 gallon, peninsula style, when I found the 15 long at Petco, and a few weeks later got an amazing deal on a used AI Prime!  I'd hoped to start this Nov. 1st but my spray painting job was not satisfactory to me so I had to try again.  I started the rocks cooking last weekend (Sunday night?), seeded with a couple pieces I pulled out of the Jarden.  This morning I had the time to both spray the back and reinforce the stand, so the tank was ready! 

 

The rock is Reef Saver rock from Bulk Reef Supply, bought on sale a couple months ago.  I told them the size tank I was using and said I wanted to go for an island look with plenty of negative space and asked that they send pieces that were suitable for that.  Boy, did they ever deliver!  I'll be using an AquaClear 70 on the back, currently without converting to a fuge, and a powerhead...I'd bought a Maxi-Jet 900 but have borrowed it for salt water making, so I'll probably order a Hydor to replace it.  Eventually I hope to upgrade to a programmable pump of some sort.  Lighting is a white AI Prime--I've loved the way the Prime looks over people's tanks, and I knew it could go over 20H so figured it would work on this since the footprint is about the same.  I'm still figuring out how to work a light from my phone!  I'm using a Better Homes and Gardens storage cube unit, reinforced at the corners with L-bracket thingies.  I spray-painted the back the same color as my 5.5, a very soft gray color that looks gorgeous.  I've arranged the rocks into two islands.  The left island is one rock, the right island is two rocks.  There's a few small scattered rocks for seeding that will be removed later.  Heater at the moment is an Eheim Jager 75w that I bought a couple years ago and never used, it will be replaced sooner than later simply because I can't get it to stick to the wall and it's also huge.  It will be a great change water heater, though!  I'm using Aqua Forest Sea Salt because I really like it.  Sand is Fiji Pink sand, chosen because my LFS has little containers with different CaribSea sands in it, and I looked at the color and grain size and made up my mind right there.  I'd been considering special grade sand but it was too large for what I wanted.  I've bought a screen top kit from BRS but have not put it together yet, and am not worried about it since there are no fish in there!

 

This tank will be the home for my pretty little clown, Myrtle (currently residing in the 5.5) and hopefully a mate for her.  Other fish I'm considering include the tailspot blenny I have in quarantine (thought I may put him in the 5.5), a pink-streaked wrasse, a firefish (especially a purple one or similar), some sort of watchman goby, perhaps some green banded gobies...I'm also open to suggestions for relatively peaceful fish.  I'd like to try a small conch and a serpent star, perhaps a cleaner shrimp or some more Pederson's, a porcelain and maybe a pom pom crab.  I'd like to stock zoas and palys, blastos, gorgonians, softies like leathers and xenia or anthelia and GSP, and a few macros like botryocladia, dragon's breath, cladophora, caulerpa prolifera, etc.  Some of the stock from the 5.5 has been earmarked for here, though I haven't quite decided what yet!  

 

I chose to name this the "make a wish" tank because it's 11/11 and the name just fit. Anyway, if you've made it to the end of all these ramblings, you deserve a cookie!

 

 

(pardon the sand everywhere, I hadn't started adding water yet!)

 

Tank and Equipment:

15 gallon long (24" x 12" x 13")

Better Homes and Gardens cube organizer from Walmart (reinforced)

dry rock from Bulk Reef Supply (Reef Saver rock)

Fiji Pink live sand

AquaClear 70

Eheim Jager 75w heater

powerhead (tbd)

AI Prime in white

 

Inhabitants:

a bunch of bacteria...

[Lula_Mae]

Reserved for tank pics and stuff.

[pappadumplingz]

Looking great!

[JcSH2o]

I'm sold! Love it love it.....! 

[seabass]

2 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

This tank will be the home for my pretty little clown, Myrtle (currently residing in the 5.5) and hopefully a mate for her.  Other fish I'm considering include the tailspot blenny I have in quarantine (thought I may put him in the 5.5), a pink-streaked wrasse, a firefish (especially a purple one or similar), some sort of watchman goby, perhaps some green banded gobies...I'm also open to suggestions for relatively peaceful fish.  I'd like to try a small conch and a serpent star, perhaps a cleaner shrimp or some more Pederson's, a porcelain and maybe a pom pom crab.

I'd probably leave out the blenny if you are considering gobies and a firefish.

 

This is exciting!  Good luck and may all your algae be decorative macros.

[StinkyBunny]

In that size tank, a Randalls shrimp and one of the smaller shrimp gobies would be great. A Yellow Nose or Randalls goby would be my choice. There are several new ones coming in from Bali and The Philippines that are nice. Another one that I like is the Tangaroa goby.

 

[Lula_Mae]

5 hours ago, pappadumplingz said:

Looking great!

Thanks! 

 

5 hours ago, JcSH2o said:

I'm sold! Love it love it.....! 

Haha thanks, I loved the rock the minute I pulled it out of the box!

 

3 hours ago, seabass said:

I'd probably leave out the blenny if you are considering gobies and a firefish.

 

This is exciting!  Good luck and may all your algae be decorative macros.

I wouldn't put all of those in, but I did wonder how they'd get along, being similar shaped fish. Guess it depends on personality too. Those are just some fish I've toyed around with, though the clown pair and wrasse (if not a pink streaked then a possum wrasse) are at the top of the list, and I'd probably add either the blenny or the firefish or a goby and probably stop there.  But it'll also depend what's available when I'm looking lol.

 

1 hour ago, StinkyBunny said:

In that size tank, a Randalls shrimp and one of the smaller shrimp gobies would be great. A Yellow Nose or Randalls goby would be my choice. There are several new ones coming in from Bali and The Philippines that are nice. Another one that I like is the Tangaroa goby.

 

I've thought about a goby/shrimp pair but haven't done a lot of research on them. I'd worry about whether there sand grains are properly sized for the burrowing, and had wondered if it would be too loud in our little apartment when the pistol makes his noise lol.

[jesseatam]

Woah the tank looks super deep in the picture, those dimensions are awesome!

[Weetabix7]

8 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Those of you who follow my threads know I've been planning an upgrade for a while.  I've never had a saltwater tank larger than 5.5 gallons and have wanted a larger tank for a long time so I can have a wider variety of fish and corals.  I've been slowly gathering stuff for this build since mid-summer, buying things as they went on sale and looking for great deals.  I'd pretty much decided to set up a 10 gallon, peninsula style, when I found the 15 long at Petco, and a few weeks later got an amazing deal on a used AI Prime!  I'd hoped to start this Nov. 1st but my spray painting job was not satisfactory to me so I had to try again.  I started the rocks cooking last weekend (Sunday night?), seeded with a couple pieces I pulled out of the Jarden.  This morning I had the time to both spray the back and reinforce the stand, so the tank was ready! 

 

The rock is Reef Saver rock from Bulk Reef Supply, bought on sale a couple months ago.  I told them the size tank I was using and said I wanted to go for an island look with plenty of negative space and asked that they send pieces that were suitable for that.  Boy, did they ever deliver!  I'll be using an AquaClear 70 on the back, currently without converting to a fuge, and a powerhead...I'd bought a Maxi-Jet 900 but have borrowed it for salt water making, so I'll probably order a Hydor to replace it.  Eventually I hope to upgrade to a programmable pump of some sort.  Lighting is a white AI Prime--I've loved the way the Prime looks over people's tanks, and I knew it could go over 20H so figured it would work on this since the footprint is about the same.  I'm still figuring out how to work a light from my phone!  I'm using a Better Homes and Gardens storage cube unit, reinforced at the corners with L-bracket thingies.  I spray-painted the back the same color as my 5.5, a very soft gray color that looks gorgeous.  I've arranged the rocks into two islands.  The left island is one rock, the right island is two rocks.  There's a few small scattered rocks for seeding that will be removed later.  Heater at the moment is an Eheim Jager 75w that I bought a couple years ago and never used, it will be replaced sooner than later simply because I can't get it to stick to the wall and it's also huge.  It will be a great change water heater, though!  I'm using Aqua Forest Sea Salt because I really like it.  Sand is Fiji Pink sand, chosen because my LFS has little containers with different CaribSea sands in it, and I looked at the color and grain size and made up my mind right there.  I'd been considering special grade sand but it was too large for what I wanted.  I've bought a screen top kit from BRS but have not put it together yet, and am not worried about it since there are no fish in there!

 

This tank will be the home for my pretty little clown, Myrtle (currently residing in the 5.5) and hopefully a mate for her.  Other fish I'm considering include the tailspot blenny I have in quarantine (thought I may put him in the 5.5), a pink-streaked wrasse, a firefish (especially a purple one or similar), some sort of watchman goby, perhaps some green banded gobies...I'm also open to suggestions for relatively peaceful fish.  I'd like to try a small conch and a serpent star, perhaps a cleaner shrimp or some more Pederson's, a porcelain and maybe a pom pom crab.  I'd like to stock zoas and palys, blastos, gorgonians, softies like leathers and xenia or anthelia and GSP, and a few macros like botryocladia, dragon's breath, cladophora, caulerpa prolifera, etc.  Some of the stock from the 5.5 has been earmarked for here, though I haven't quite decided what yet!  

 

I chose to name this the "make a wish" tank because it's 11/11 and the name just fit. Anyway, if you've made it to the end of all these ramblings, you deserve a cookie!

 

 

(pardon the sand everywhere, I hadn't started adding water yet!)

 

Tank and Equipment:

15 gallon long (24" x 12" x 13")

Better Homes and Gardens cube organizer from Walmart (reinforced)

dry rock from Bulk Reef Supply (Reef Saver rock)

Fiji Pink live sand

AquaClear 70

Eheim Jager 75w heater

powerhead (tbd)

AI Prime in white

 

Inhabitants:

a bunch of bacteria...

 

I like it, very happy to see this coming together for you!!!

[fishfreak0114]

Off to an excellent start!  I've been waiting for this thread.... I don't think I've ever seen a 15 long before, it looks way bigger than it is!  The scape is really nice, also makes it look bigger than 15g.

[Lisa166]

Whooh! So exciting to see this one coming together!

[seabass]

3 hours ago, jesseatam said:

Woah the tank looks super deep in the picture, those dimensions are awesome!

It's basically like a scaled down version of a 40B.  It was one of my favorite nanos to keep.  Hmm... I can't remember what happened to mine.  I think I gave it away when I switched to a 40B.   Back in the day they were commonly stocked at Petco.

[gogeta]

In for me wtank also where's my cookie!!

[jack1978]

Tank and scape look awesome!

[StinkyBunny]

12 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

I've thought about a goby/shrimp pair but haven't done a lot of research on them. I'd worry about whether there sand grains are properly sized for the burrowing, and had wondered if it would be too loud in our little apartment when the pistol makes his noise lol.

If you do get one, let me know, I'll send you some chunky stuff for the shrimp to use. They're so cool to watch, it's all they do for as long as lights are on. When the lights start ramping down he collapses the entrances to the tunnel for the night. Honestly, they can build a tunnel out of just about anything, the one thing to make sure of is that the rockwork is on the bottom of the tank so it doesn't either collapse and kill them and the goby or break the tank. They are a little noisy at times, my pair of Randalls seem to be noisier than a single shrimp is. Even so, they're not that noisy.

[Lula_Mae]

On 11/11/2017 at 9:34 AM, jesseatam said:

Woah the tank looks super deep in the picture, those dimensions are awesome!

Aren't they?  I fell in love with the dimensions when I saw one at Petco back in college, when I was new to the hobby and very, very broke lol.  I was so excited to find this one!

 

On 11/11/2017 at 9:55 AM, Weetabix7 said:

 

I like it, very happy to see this coming together for you!!!

Thanks Weetie!

 

23 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Off to an excellent start!  I've been waiting for this thread.... I don't think I've ever seen a 15 long before, it looks way bigger than it is!  The scape is really nice, also makes it look bigger than 15g.

I don't think they are very common, but I thought when I first saw one in college that it would look awesome as a sort of shallow reef build. 

 

23 hours ago, Lisa166 said:

Whooh! So exciting to see this one coming together!

 

22 hours ago, seabass said:

It's basically like a scaled down version of a 40B.  It was one of my favorite nanos to keep.  Hmm... I can't remember what happened to mine.  I think I gave it away when I switched to a 40B.   Back in the day they were commonly stocked at Petco.

Yeah they can be hard to find even at Petco these days.  I felt like I really lucked out that day!

 

17 hours ago, gogeta said:

In for me wtank also where's my cookie!!

I ate them...

 

 

 

(don't worry, as my dad likes to say, "They make more!")

 

17 hours ago, jack1978 said:

Tank and scape look awesome!

Thanks Jack!

 

14 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

If you do get one, let me know, I'll send you some chunky stuff for the shrimp to use. They're so cool to watch, it's all they do for as long as lights are on. When the lights start ramping down he collapses the entrances to the tunnel for the night. Honestly, they can build a tunnel out of just about anything, the one thing to make sure of is that the rockwork is on the bottom of the tank so it doesn't either collapse and kill them and the goby or break the tank. They are a little noisy at times, my pair of Randalls seem to be noisier than a single shrimp is. Even so, they're not that noisy.

Ok I'll keep that in mind!  I bet my husband would love watching one.  If I don't put one in here maybe I'll revamp the 5.5 and put one in there!

[Lula_Mae]

Discovered after comparing my digital thermometer to the ones on my other tanks (it's 0.3 degrees higher than the 5.5's thermometer and 0.2 degrees lower than the jar's lol) that the heater is running high, at about 82 degrees when it's set on 79.  Since Amazon had the smaller Cobalt Neotherms on sale (the 25, 50, and 75 watt heaters are all under $35!), I went ahead and ordered one, as well as a Koralia Nano.  Dosing Dr. Tim's ammonia and Microbacter7 almost daily (I forget sometimes lol). Come on cycle!

[gogeta]

Does the heater have adjustments? I don't know about other brands really only used Ehiem jager's ( if something works well i keep buying them lol) but they have an adjustment to counteract if the thermostat is not accurate. 

[Cannedfish]

I really like the two island scape. When it fills in I thinks it's going to look incredible! 

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, gogeta said:

Does the heater have adjustments? I don't know about other brands really only used Ehiem jager's ( if something works well i keep buying them lol) but they have an adjustment to counteract if the thermostat is not accurate. 

It's an Eheim Jager, so it does adjust, but...that's 3 degrees over where it's set, and after my experience with a Hydor Theo a few years ago, I'm not taking chances. It's really large in the tank, anyway, and the Cobalt may fit in the AquaClear, but even if not, it's small and sleek looking.

tl;dr, I'm over large heaters 

1 hour ago, Cannedfish said:

I really like the two island scape. When it fills in I thinks it's going to look incredible! 

Thanks, I just hope the rocks don't grow an incredible crop of bryopsis! 

[Lula_Mae]

Found the tank at 83.7 tonight so I unplugged it for a bit...

[jahnje]

7 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Found the tank at 83.7 tonight so I unplugged it for a bit...

that's with the Eheim right? not the new cobalt? 

[Lula_Mae]

18 minutes ago, jahnje said:

that's with the Eheim right? not the new cobalt? 

Yes, the Cobalt arrives Wednesday from Amazon.

[StinkyBunny]

My big ole Rio pump heats my mix barrel to 73 degrees. Our old RSM 130D would get warm too when it had the dual pumps on it.

[Lula_Mae]

8 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

My big ole Rio pump heats my mix barrel to 73 degrees. Our old RSM 130D would get warm too when it had the dual pumps on it.

That's the thing, I haven't even put a powerhead on it yet, just the AquaClear 70!  The light on the heater seems to stay on constantly so I'm thinking it just doesn't trigger to shut off for whatever reason.