"The Adoptees" 60 Gallon Shallow

[lkoechle]

29 minutes ago, burrito said:

Who makes that tank? Deep blue? It’s beautiful 

Yeah, its a Deep Blue 🙂

[lkoechle]

On 5/27/2018 at 9:50 PM, skoechle said:

Yeah... I'm lazy. Over promise under deliver! Maybe some day

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20263830/#/80263832

 

I think we're going to "ikea hack" this for housing the apex setup.  We need something that can house the apex plus the DOS module, vortech back up (or two) and the light's hella big fan box.  Now to pressure @skoechle that this is a great way to spend his weekend...

 

For a controller, I'm really liking the Kindle Fire idea with a stand on top of the bookcase.

[lkoechle]

So, @skoechle built me Apex housing! Sort of.  In reality we went to Ikea last night and found this kitchen drawer in their scratch and dent section. lol  Today we spent the afternoon mounting it and arguing.  Because that's what we do when fish tanks are involved.  We always fight. ALWAYS.  I love sharing this hobby with him because it makes justifying costs SO MUCH EASIER but it's also a massive pain because we never see eye to eye.  

 

Anyways, so here's some pics:

 

 

 

All in place:

(yes, I'm wearing totoro socks...)

 

 

Its all definitely a tight squeeze.  We didn't build this stand.  If we had, we probably would've done what we did in the 85.  I miss that tank.  So here's a throw back to it's kick ass set up:

 

 

 

Seriously.  I think @skoechle and I totally rocked the shit out of that build.  And there were a lot of fights... 

 

And He just walked by looked at my screen and commented "Are you doing my post? The one I took like ten pics for?" Oops...  my bad...

 

Anyways, we've officially had this tank for one week.  Everything looks great.  I measured our calc, alk, and mg a couple days ago.  I plan on measuring again in a couple more days to figure out daily consumption and then setting the DOS up.

 

Here are some pics I took while @skoechle was drilling for me...

 

Honestly, I don't know LPS.  Trumpets I think?  I'll have to google some IDs later...

 

How adorable is this?  The pic is crappy but it was one of those I just saw it and had to get it before they decided to stop being cute.

 

A couple of former 25 residents.  I love my conch.

 

 

And man do I hate my lights for taking photos...  

[Type-H20]

6 minutes ago, lkoechle said:

So, @skoechle built me Apex housing! Sort of.  In reality we went to Ikea last night and found this kitchen drawer in their scratch and dent section. lol  Today we spent the afternoon mounting it and arguing.  Because that's what we do when fish tanks are involved.  We always fight. ALWAYS.  I love sharing this hobby with him because it makes justifying costs SO MUCH EASIER but it's also a massive pain because we never see eye to eye.  

 

Anyways, so here's some pics:

 

 

 

All in place:

(yes, I'm wearing totoro socks...)

 

 

Its all definitely a tight squeeze.  We didn't build this stand.  If we had, we probably would've done what we did in the 85.  I miss that tank.  So here's a throw back to it's kick ass set up:

 

 

 

Seriously.  I think @skoechle and I totally rocked the shit out of that build.  And there were a lot of fights... 

 

And He just walked by looked at my screen and commented "Are you doing my post? The one I took like ten pics for?" Oops...  my bad...

 

Anyways, we've officially had this tank for one week.  Everything looks great.  I measured our calc, alk, and mg a couple days ago.  I plan on measuring again in a couple more days to figure out daily consumption and then setting the DOS up.

 

Here are some pics I took while @skoechle was drilling for me...

 

Honestly, I don't know LPS.  Trumpets I think?  I'll have to google some IDs later...

 

How adorable is this?  The pic is crappy but it was one of those I just saw it and had to get it before they decided to stop being cute.

 

A couple of former 25 residents.  I love my conch.

 

 

And man do I hate my lights for taking photos...  

The 85 was beautiful.

 

I'm always torn on how much of a difference not having the top trim makes (rimmed vs rimless), but the seeing your tanks in the same thread, as nice as the 85 was the DB60 looks cleaner.  What are your thoughts on it?

 

I was never able to get my wife into it.  She's cool in every other way , loves animals, just never "got it" with aquariums.  Point being, you're lucky to be doing it together even with the "fighting".  

[skoechle]

9 minutes ago, lkoechle said:

And He just walked by looked at my screen and commented "Are you doing my post? The one I took like ten pics for?" Oops...  my bad...

Can't even let me post about the one thing you let me do...

 

TLDR because she types too much:

She made me push the tank too close to the window when we set it up (11" from the sill) so of course no piece of furniture will fit there without being turned sideways.
I got a display model kitchen shelf that was a little beat up from IKEA for like $20. Put some holes in it for wires, mounted all her APEX stuff including the DOS she has had new in box in the closet for over a year.

[lkoechle]

4 minutes ago, Type-H20 said:

The 85 was beautiful.

 

I'm always torn on how much of a difference not having the top trim makes (rimmed vs rimless), but the seeing your tanks in the same thread, as nice as the 85 was the DB60 looks cleaner.  What are your thoughts on it?

I love the cleaner look.  We had plans to go rimless with the 85 as an upgrade.  But it also makes screening difficult.  The 85 was eurobraced in the center so we were able to just set screened tops on each half.  But with the 60 we cant really do that.  One it has no convenient middle brace and two, with the length I think we would actually need a brace to keep it from sagging.  So we just keep our fingers crossed for no carpet surfing. lol

 

  

[lkoechle]

11 minutes ago, skoechle said:

including the DOS she has had new in box in the closet for over a year.

Better late than never!

[Type-H20]

5 minutes ago, lkoechle said:

I love the cleaner look.  We had plans to go rimless with the 85 as an upgrade.  But it also makes screening difficult.  The 85 was eurobraced in the center so we were able to just set screened tops on each half.  But with the 60 we cant really do that.  One it has no convenient middle brace and two, with the length I think we would actually need a brace to keep it from sagging.  So we just keep our fingers crossed for no carpet surfing. lol

 

  

Lol..... You have some swimmers in there, so a screen is probably needed even with the center brace...for when you're not around to catch a fly ball.😀

[lkoechle]

2 minutes ago, Type-H20 said:

Lol..... You have some swimmers in there, so a screen is probably needed even with the center brace...for when you're not around to catch a fly ball.😀

The previous owner had the wrasse for a year.  So I hope the luck holds out, but he's already made me nervous and we're only a week in 🤣

[skoechle]

1 minute ago, Type-H20 said:

Lol..... You have some swimmers in there, so a screen is probably needed even with the center brace...for when you're not around to catch a fly ball.😀

Also screens don't help when @lkoechle takes them off "because it looks better." That's when our cat got a taste of clown fish for the first time. I was like she caught it on first bounce. It could have been saved if it weren't for all the teeth marks in it. That was the second to last straw that led to the tear down of the 25 (and upgrade to this).

[1891Bro]

10 minutes ago, skoechle said:

Also screens don't help when @lkoechle takes them off "because it looks better." That's when our cat got a taste of clown fish for the first time. I was like she caught it on first bounce. It could have been saved if it weren't for all the teeth marks in it. That was the second to last straw that led to the tear down of the 25 (and upgrade to this).

I’d usually advise manning up but based on many previous threads I don’t see it happening. 

 

IVe got some song in my head..... Let my people go.... weird. 

[lkoechle]

So @skoechle has been amazing this weekend.  After setting up the Apex housing for me, he helped me mount the coral.  

 

In the 100 days of nanos contest, I won a $50 WWC giftcard, a Smart Micro ATO, and 500 mL of Aquamaxx Reef Welder Epoxy (not epoxy) Glue (not glue).  With the difficulties of my 25G (the chronic headache) , two of these things were not used until recently. lol 

 

 

Aquamaxx Reef Welder review:

So Thursday I got my frag pack from WWC, and today we decided to play with Reef Welder.  

 

Tools of the trade.  My father in law got me the Ecotech Coral Propogation kit a couple years ago for Christmas.  Love it.  Coral Glue is shit though, get IC Gel.  I love that stuff.

 

 

I wish Ecotech made a shirt of this.  

 

So Reef Welder is pretty interesting stuff.  It is neither epoxy nor glue.  It's plastic you melt and then as it cools on whatever you smooshed it to, it adheres.  

We had a few issues the first time trying to get my Tyree Orange Setosa mounted.  But I read an article that swore it worked with pretty impressive photo evidence (see here: https://reefs.com/2017/06/16/stick-good-aquamaxx-reef-welder-epoxy-glue/ ).  Poor thing.  It had a hard day today...

 

We eventually figured out you need to really heat that water up in order to have the plastic malleable enough to give you enough time to smoosh it to the plug then smoosh it to the rock.  After that, it's pretty cool.  There are a couple things I like about it:

 

1:  If you do it right (ie really heat that stuff up), you don't need glue!

2: If you mess up, you just heat it back up again and start over

3: Your hands don't have to touch disgusting two part epoxy

4: If you melt too much, no problem, just let it cool and save it for later!

 

Man, believe me you, if I had this stuff DURING the 100 days contest, my tank would've been so awesome.  This stuff would have been great for mounting gorgs and macros.  I have some red grape in my fuge that I think I'm going to try mounting with reef welder.  And this has definitely given me some thoughts on trying gorgs again.  Mounting those were a major pain.  I have one remaining gorg from my contest tank, and I'm gonna experiment with it.

 

It does have its issues though, like that whole cooling almost too quickly issue.  But over all I really liked it.  

 

Now some photos:

 

 

Tyree Orange Setosa,  WWC Yellow Tip Acro, Starburst Cap and green stylo.

 

Almost a full family shot, just missing Yara (female clown).  Wrassey McWrasseface (self explanatory), Theon (male clown), Dory (not our choice she came with that), Houdini (mandarin), and Captain Chromis (he's a reclusive one eyed pirate who lives under a rock).

 

I guess I only have two... I meant to get my DSLR out, but the battery was dead.  So these are from my phone. lol  Anyways, important point:  Reef Welder's different and fun.  You should go try it!

[lkoechle]

Broke out the DSLR today since folks were asking for FTS of the 100 days.  It's really hard to get good pics with this light.  Still figuring out the proper white balance.  but I got a couple nice top downs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

I just caught up on everything @lkoechle and @skoechle, what a neat turn of events! The new system is really lovely, I have a soft spot for shallow tanks! I'm thrilled your 100 days of nanos tank is still online as well!!!

 

Great review on the Reef Welder, you should write a how-to article for our library! 😇 It really sounds a lot nicer to work with, once you get the hang of it.

 

Re: color balancing your rad photos, I wonder if you could just adjust your tank lights for a brief period of time while you're taking photos, and turn down the blues? Assuming that's possible on the light fixture, of course 😄 

[lkoechle]

4 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Re: color balancing your rad photos, I wonder if you could just adjust your tank lights for a brief period of time while you're taking photos, and turn down the blues? Assuming that's possible on the light fixture, of course

we already do that. lol  It has a "display" mode and we can change the white and blues.  It's difficult though because it doesn't feel like the percentages are correct.  1% blue is still too bright for moonlights if you know what I mean. But if we totally turn blue off, then no pop.  Its a struggle.  I'd really like to find some AI Vegas or Hydras for cheap instead and have those lights.

[Lula_Mae]

On 6/3/2018 at 9:16 PM, lkoechle said:

So @skoechle has been amazing this weekend.  After setting up the Apex housing for me, he helped me mount the coral.  

 

In the 100 days of nanos contest, I won a $50 WWC giftcard, a Smart Micro ATO, and 500 mL of Aquamaxx Reef Welder Epoxy (not epoxy) Glue (not glue).  With the difficulties of my 25G (the chronic headache) , two of these things were not used until recently. lol 

 

 

Aquamaxx Reef Welder review:

So Thursday I got my frag pack from WWC, and today we decided to play with Reef Welder.  

 

Tools of the trade.  My father in law got me the Ecotech Coral Propogation kit a couple years ago for Christmas.  Love it.  Coral Glue is shit though, get IC Gel.  I love that stuff.

 

 

I wish Ecotech made a shirt of this.  

 

So Reef Welder is pretty interesting stuff.  It is neither epoxy nor glue.  It's plastic you melt and then as it cools on whatever you smooshed it to, it adheres.  

We had a few issues the first time trying to get my Tyree Orange Setosa mounted.  But I read an article that swore it worked with pretty impressive photo evidence (see here: https://reefs.com/2017/06/16/stick-good-aquamaxx-reef-welder-epoxy-glue/ ).  Poor thing.  It had a hard day today...

 

We eventually figured out you need to really heat that water up in order to have the plastic malleable enough to give you enough time to smoosh it to the plug then smoosh it to the rock.  After that, it's pretty cool.  There are a couple things I like about it:

 

1:  If you do it right (ie really heat that stuff up), you don't need glue!

2: If you mess up, you just heat it back up again and start over

3: Your hands don't have to touch disgusting two part epoxy

4: If you melt too much, no problem, just let it cool and save it for later!

 

Man, believe me you, if I had this stuff DURING the 100 days contest, my tank would've been so awesome.  This stuff would have been great for mounting gorgs and macros.  I have some red grape in my fuge that I think I'm going to try mounting with reef welder.  And this has definitely given me some thoughts on trying gorgs again.  Mounting those were a major pain.  I have one remaining gorg from my contest tank, and I'm gonna experiment with it.

 

It does have its issues though, like that whole cooling almost too quickly issue.  But over all I really liked it.  

 

Now some photos:

 

 

Tyree Orange Setosa,  WWC Yellow Tip Acro, Starburst Cap and green stylo.

 

Almost a full family shot, just missing Yara (female clown).  Wrassey McWrasseface (self explanatory), Theon (male clown), Dory (not our choice she came with that), Houdini (mandarin), and Captain Chromis (he's a reclusive one eyed pirate who lives under a rock).

 

I guess I only have two... I meant to get my DSLR out, but the battery was dead.  So these are from my phone. lol  Anyways, important point:  Reef Welder's different and fun.  You should go try it!

That reef welder stuff sounds pretty neat! Gorgs can definitely be a challenge to mount, so I may try it sometime. Pics look great!

[Type-H20]

T

10 hours ago, lkoechle said:

Broke out the DSLR today since folks were asking for FTS of the 100 days.  It's really hard to get good pics with this light.  Still figuring out the proper white balance.  but I got a couple nice top downs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NIce shots.  Those top downs make it look huge and all the negative space in your tank gives it such a natural look  The footprint of these tanks gives you so much room to work with.  I have the Deep Blue 80 as my freshwater setup - love that tank (same footprint as your 60).

[lkoechle]

Guess I haven't updated in a while... lol

 

Long story short, I've had medical issues (see latest post in the 100 days tank, not gonna rehash it here), didn't get larger pumps for a while (like a month ago), just got around to setting up the DOS.  Added a blue spot puffer, lost several coral, started getting a cyano outbreak, hulked out on the tank today and removed half of the sand bed.

 

flow problem fixed.

 

 

Shit's getting done today.

 

So much crap.  I am never doing sand again.  I left half of it for my conch and wrasse until I ultimately decide if I'm going to sell them or just keep it how it is.

 

 

kind of clearing up.

 

I'm going to let coral grow along the glass. Maybe try to get some rainbow monti on there.

Poofie the puffer

 

 

 

 

[lkoechle]

So, another story time.  Nothing ever got better.  Still haven't figured out what caused the cyano.  I speculating its the red sea salt.  So I'm going back to fritzyme for my smaller tank because it too started getting cyano while using red sea salt.  0 TDS on my TDS meter.  So we'll see.

 

Anyways, I had a cyano outbreak.  Couldn't get it under control.  My super fat mandarin just died out of the blue with nothing but a bite in her tail.  The next day, Poofie just disappears.  Never found the body.  The day after that, I think I've caught the culprit.  The female Spotcinctus chased her mate out of the tank.  I couldn't save him.  After all those deaths, I just threw in the towel.  I've played with the idea of a Mbuna Cichlid tank for years, just never knowing when or where to incorporate it.  So I decided here's my chance.

 

I sold the idea on @skoechle by agreeing to sell equipment and livestock and use that to fund the cichlid tank build.  I didn't sell any coral, just fish except for Captain Chromis.  I moved the coral and Captain to my 14g.  The stand needed a lot of work.  But I manage to fund the whole thing plus saved money to buy a $140 worth of cichlids (which is a lot, like 25 juveniles).

 

So here's what I did.

 

First, I ordered a Beamswork LED for the cichlid tank.  The guy I got this tank from, traded me his lights for my NanoBox Tide Duo (see first post).  When he saw me asking questions about a cichlid tank, he asked if he could have his lights back.  I chewed on it and asked him if he still had my NanoBox and we could trade back.  He did.  So we traded back lights and I ordered the Beamswork for the 60.

 

 

Step two, was moving all the coral and Captain to Xena in the 100 days of nanos tank.

 

Step three was selling all the fish which happened surprisingly fast and were easy to catch.  I made my money back on all of them.  Then I drained the tank.  You can see how dingy it is and the inside of the stand is black.  A really cheap paint was used on the stand and the hinges were rusting out.

 

 

 

Then I started emptying my closet and guest room to sell stuff.  lol I had no idea I had so much.

 

 

 

I moved the tank and stand outside to prepare for painting.  I decided to paint the back of the tank black and for the stand I was at Home Depot and the paint guy was actually super helpful and pointed me to this paint that's a water based enamel.  Let the games begin!

 

 

 

 

Such a  dark and gloomy stand.  Hello Patio Pond fishies!

 

So much brighter!

 

I kept all my reef rock to use in the cichlid tank since they prefer high pH.  I am pressure washing them tomorrow.

 

I put lights in the stand from Ikea and replaced hinges.  So much brighter!

 

 

I also painted the electrical housing.  It was a black drawer from Ikea.  Now its a white drawer from Ikea.  yes, we bought one, just one drawer.

 

I also got an Innovative Marine leveling mat.

 

And I put pretty knobs on.

 

 

Then I got this CRAZY idea that you can fix scratches on glass.  Wasted 4 hours of my life.  Oh well.

 

And that's where we are.  Now I need to plumb it all back up, wash my rocks and my new sand, make the screen and then we can start cycling.  Since I'm going to throw 25 fish in here at once (Mbunas are peaceful through attrition from all the research I've done) I'm going to cycle for a couple months to get the biofilter up.  My husband also doesn't want me to add fish until after our trips this summer in June.  

 

And that's where we're at! I'm going to keep updating this thread even though it isn't salty anymore!

 

😂😂

 

 

[lkoechle]