Montipora Fields of Bikini Bottom 🗿 Old School Mullet

[seabass]

Montipora Fields of Bikini Bottom 🗿 Business Up Front... Party in the Back

CURRENT PIC:

FTS: 10/27/19

 

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Equipment/Livestock lists, and Progression Photos
2. Live rock
3. Lights and filter
4. Top and SpongeBob decorations
5. Pics of cutting the glass top
6. Video of cutting the glass top (and fish room tour)
7. Merch
8. Diorama construction
9. Completion of diorama
10. Water added
11. Copper pipe stand
12. Unique Corals orders (with Bayer dip)
13. Corals and April FTS
14. Heater and temperature probe
15. Proposed LED mods
16. May FTS
17. June FTS
18. July FTS
19. August FTS
20. September FTS
21. Contest Recap (October FTS)

 

What could possibly go wrong?

[seabass]

EQUIPMENT:

• Tetra 2.5 gallon tank at PetSmart ($15)
• Aqueon Versa-Top at Amazon ($11)
• Aqua-Tech 5-15 100gph HOB filter at Amazon ($8)
• 7.5W Deep Blue BettaStik heater at Amazon ($11)
• 165W Lxyoug LED light fixture at Amazon ($84)

• RK2 controller w/ temperature probe (discontinued)

• Penn Plax SpongeBob aquarium decorations

 

LIVESTOCK:

• Solomon Island purple Digitata ($34)

• Superman Montipora ($39)

• Orange Digitata ($39)

• Orange Setosa ($39)

• Orange portion of a grafted Monti Cap ($59)

Corals purchased from:

 

MONTHLY PICS:

             

[seabass]

On 03/11/19, I picked up 2lbs of live rock from my favorite LFS (at $5/lb), which I've been cycling in a five gallon bucket with a Maxi-Jet powerhead.

 

I must have picked off several dozen vermetid snails from the rocks already.  There are also numerous asterina stars, which I haven't decided if I'm going to keep or not (I'm leaning towards not, but I'm still not sure).

 

Here's the rock in my 5gal bucket as of 03/26/19:

 

[SeaFurn]

What could possibly go wrong? 😂😂

Will be following along to find out!

 

The rock I picked up the other day is the same - vermetids, asterinas, some works (not bristle)...think I may go with dry after all.

 

 

[stevejo]

I feel like that first gif may encompass a large portion of this contest 😂🤣

[Underworld2.0]

Can't wait to see what you come up with! 

[seabass]

Originally I was going to use the PAR38 bulb which I used on my cookie jar pico.  However, I wasn't that happy with the spectrum, so I searched around for another PAR38.  I even looked at Coral Compulsion's bulbs, but the price started getting closer to a fixture.

 

I've been considering trying a Chinese black box for awhile.  I know it's crazy overpowered for a 2.5gal, but I figured that I can dim it down and raise it up.  I chose the Lxyoug fixture because it claimed 120 degree lenses.  The fixture, however, is actually labeled ZXMEAN LED Aquarium Light.  And while it doesn't have 420nm diodes, I figured that my eyes might be better for that (plus UV degrades cheap lenses pretty quickly).

 

Yesterday I got it in.  It's only fitting that it's made in China (and a little janky).

 

My Aqua-Tech 5-15 HOB filter is definitely cheap ($8), and also slightly janky.

 

Proud to be a member of the

[This guy is extra salty]

Waiting for that aquascape

[seabass]

On 3/25/2019 at 12:51 PM, This guy is extra salty said:

Waiting for that aquascape

I'm afraid that my rockscape will be little more than two rocks placed in the tank.  So in comes the aquarium decorations (more on that later).  However, for coral, I plan on keeping a few Montipora species.

 

I changed out all of the water in my bucket two days ago, but forgot that I had lowered the specific gravity of the water that I used.  It was probably around 1.022.  While not ideal, I don't think that I hurt the rock too badly.

 

However, the next day the rock had a bloom of algae (not exactly sure how that was related).  I have temporarily added four astraea snails and a hermit crab to the bucket to help control it.

[seabass]

My 5 gallon bucket is currently going through a diatom bloom.  I'm glad to be getting this out of the way now.

[vlangel]

Sounds like you are off to a good start.

[seabass]

As others have pointed out, the Aqueon "Hinged" Glass Top is just a sheet of glass with a stick-on grabber.

 

It fits the Tetra 2.5gal loosely, but is in no danger of falling through.  I sanded the edges with some 220 grit sandpaper to make them less sharp, and I'll be making a cutout for the filter.  However, actually, I was thinking of dripping Kalkwasser at night; so I might need to encourage more evaporation (making the top unnecessary).

 

You can see by the title change and aquarium decorations, that this tank will be themed the Montipora Fields of Bikini Bottom.

[SeaFurn]

16 minutes ago, seabass said:

I'll be making a cutout for the filter.

Since you love posting tutorials on YouTube and we all loved the last one about drilling your pico jar - how about making one of this so I known how to do it without breaking it into pieces? 

It can be like a contest tradition for you! 

[seabass]

11 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

how about making one of this so I known how to do it without breaking it into pieces?

Good idea!  Although it might go horribly wrong.  If it does, we'll all be witness to it.  But then I'll definitely drip Kalk at night to make up for evaporation.

[Clown79]

Looking forward to seeing your tank progress!

[seabass]

For my modification phase of this project, I drilled and cut the top.  I'll give myself a C for it being functional.  But I'd do it a bit differently, if I had to do it again.

 

 

I cut a template, and placed it on the tank with the filter (to determine the overhang).

 

 

I trimmed the overhang, then made a cutout for the intake tube.

 

 

I used a diamond coated hole saw and glass cutter from Amazon.  The hole saw is slightly larger than the diameter of the the tube.

 

 

Here's the cut after a bit of cleanup.  While not perfect, it fits pretty good.

 

I'll post a video of the cutting process in awhile.

[This guy is extra salty]

I don’t think you have a big enough HOB filter 

 

but great job on the lid!

[seabass]

6 minutes ago, This guy is extra salty said:

I don’t think you have a big enough HOB filter 

Side mounted was a must for me.  It's only 100gph, which is 40 times turnover.  I'd prefer more.  I suspect I'll need to add a powerhead for more flow.

[Lingwendil]

I love how the package states "hinged" when it's literally a single pane of glass with a stick-on handle.

 

I just dug out my glass cutter so time to find an old framed picture nobody cares about to make my lid 🙂

[seabass]

I dumped about a quart of phyto in the 5 gallon bucket tonight.  Why?  I was just going to pour it down the drain anyway; so I figured, why not.  I kind of want to get the rock in the tank soon.  If for no other reason, to observe the rock better.  I also have to figure how much evaporation to expect.

[yoshii]

I'm excited for this tank.

[This guy is extra salty]

On 4/2/2019 at 2:31 PM, seabass said:

Side mounted was a must for me.  It's only 100gph, which is 40 times turnover.  I'd prefer more.  I suspect I'll need to add a powerhead for more flow.

Be careful of the surface skimmer police🚔 

[seabass]

2 hours ago, This guy is extra salty said:

Be careful of the surface skimmer police🚔  

No worries, no surface skimmer will be used.  Maybe the surface film will help diffuse the 165W of scorching light. 

[seabass]

I finally uploaded the glass cutting video.  I started it off with a quick tank tour of my fish/utility room in the basement.  When drilling the lid, I should have used double sided tape to hold the template and backing material in place.  I finished drilling without a backing and I had more chip out than I wanted.  Finally, I shot some video of me just cutting up some scrap glass (with a couple of failed attempts).  I actually did this after I cut my top, but I should have practiced beforehand.

 

The bonus material is probably more interesting than the cutting the actual top; however, I wanted to depict what I actually did.  Anyway, here it is:

 

[Tigahboy]

Wow.  Just wow.  Love the video and tour of your fish room!  I've never seen anything like that.  And you have the most extensive and legit tank supply inventory I've ever seen.  

 

Now I need a fish room.