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Coral Vue Hydros

Matteo's 55G Predator Build (Vtail Grouper added)


Matteo

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FTS: 8/04/2019

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FTS: 7/11/2019

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FTS: 06/222019 

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What:

 

  • 55g Standard
  • Aquaclear 110
  • 1 x Hydro K 750GPH 
  • 1 x Hydro K 425gph 
  • 300 Watt Explosion Proof Heater 
  • Coralife 48in Led 

 

Living:

 

  • Green Wolf Eel
  • Narrow Striped Puffer
  • Niger Trigger
  • Vtail Grouper
  • Macro Algae & Softies
  • CUC that is also snacked on... 

 

Care:

 

  • Off and on feeding as over feeding is way too easy with these guys
  • 10g water change every 1-1.5 weeks
  • Weekly turkey basting 
  • Full canister clean out weekly with fresh media
  • Algae scrub as needed

 

A video of Pearl, a beautiful female Green Wolf Eel. Technically a Dotty Back actually

 

 

 

Pearl

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Francis the Narrow Striped Puffer 

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Nigel the Niger Trigger 

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Thinking of adding a Long Nose Butterfly and a Red Coris Wrasse. 

 

What you guys think? Any other fish that adds color and would be okay here? Maybe a big mean maroon clown? 

 

Also, for a weekend project I'm thinking of seriously doing this... 

 

1. Remove all rock and fish into bucket

2. Sift through sand to get all black rocks I can out from freshwater conversion

3. Remove tank to outside and spray paint back of tank black. 

4. Once dry, place tank back inside, add sand, rock, and most of the water. 

5. Give tank fresh new 15 gallons of water

6. Let sit for an hour or so, place fish back in. 

 

Any objections or better ideas appreciated. 

I'll get a new fts up today too hopefully after work. Hopefully the tank is nice and clear from the rescape yesterday 🙂

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pricewayne

That eel is awesome!! Love the puffer, too.

 

Could try black out window tint and apply to back of tank? Prob would need to drain enough water to easily access the back, but from vids I’ve seen you could do it without having to take livestock out and just trim edges to fit. Believe @seabass just did something similar to his nursery tank.

 

For the sand, it looks like the black rock is larger than the white sand particle — could prob find a sifter to scoop/sift the black out.

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19 hours ago, pricewayne said:

That eel is awesome!! Love the puffer, too.

 

Could try black out window tint and apply to back of tank? Prob would need to drain enough water to easily access the back, but from vids I’ve seen you could do it without having to take livestock out and just trim edges to fit. Believe @seabass just did something similar to his nursery tank.

 

For the sand, it looks like the black rock is larger than the white sand particle — could prob find a sifter to scoop/sift the black out.

I actually bought a kitty litter scooper to get most out. Going to need something finer now. 

 

That is a good idea though, I will just snag some vinyl window film home depot and carefully sticker it on there, that's gonna be perfect! 

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Black background is on. Not perfect as static film is hard to work with when you have to reach behind a tank but you can't notice much when lights are on. 

 

 Will get pics later in the day for you all! 😄

 

Once my IM 40 is running and the equipment is no longer being used on my Waterbox 20g I will be tranferring the elfux 660s and ic loop pro LED over to this build. 

 

The pumps will replace the weak ass koralas I have and the IC Loop LEDs will compliment the Coralife RGB LED. 

 

Going to be a much nicer setup once that is done. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

New fish! A beautiful Lemon Peel Angel 

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Nice shot of Pearl

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FTS with new Scape

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So I did a 10 gallon water change yesterday. New additions are lemon peel angel and a big fat Kenya Tree. Going to grab more larger softies and macros if I can. 

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Geoff Southworth

Nice looking tank. I like the low profile lights and the black film background looks good. Would you still use it if the tank was empty or would you opt for painting it instead?

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9 hours ago, Geoff Southworth said:

Nice looking tank. I like the low profile lights and the black film background looks good. Would you still use it if the tank was empty or would you opt for painting it instead?

I'd probably just paint next time but I put the film on when it was full so that was my only solution beside draining the tank. Granted if you can get the black film on nice and tight why not! Makes selling the tank later easier if someone doesn't want a background. 

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12 minutes ago, Matteo said:

I'd probably just paint next time but I put the film on when it was full so that was my only solution beside draining the tank. Granted if you can get the black film on nice and tight why not! Makes selling the tank later easier if someone doesn't want a background. 

Im debating the background for Dragonpigs new enclosure. Lotso options

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2 hours ago, pgrVII said:

Im debating the background for Dragonpigs new enclosure. Lotso options

Do film incase you want to remove it. ORRRR I built an enclosure awhile back and the back ground was spray foam insulation, then I sprayed adehisve all over it, then added bark, moss, and dirt to the back where it created a nice natural looking back ground that was 3d. Maybe you can do the same but use sand instead? 

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18 minutes ago, Matteo said:

Do film incase you want to remove it. ORRRR I built an enclosure awhile back and the back ground was spray foam insulation, then I sprayed adehisve all over it, then added bark, moss, and dirt to the back where it created a nice natural looking back ground that was 3d. Maybe you can do the same but use sand instead? 

Yea i thought about the foam but you lose space width wise. At most I'd do bark back drops in the tank.  Foam looks great though. 

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1 hour ago, pgrVII said:

Yea i thought about the foam but you lose space width wise. At most I'd do bark back drops in the tank.  Foam looks great though. 

What if you did your cool tile idea? Like tank sandstone looking tiles? 

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  • 3 weeks later...

So I had to get rid of my lemon peel angel. He was beating the crap out of my trigger and nipping my eels fins so he had to go.

 

Replaced with a Vtail Grouper. So excited for this guy to become a monster. 

 

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Also  my fluval 406 is leaking and I'm going on vacay so I bought an Ac110. Gonna fix the 406 and sell it. 

 

Once I upgrade to a 120ish I'll add a second Ac110 and grab a surface skimmer mod as well. 

 

I like my predator tank simple. No need for sumps and plumbing etc. Powerfilters, flow, adequate rock, responsible feeding and weekly water change is all it needs. 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
On 9/28/2019 at 4:09 PM, Pjanssen said:

Any happenings on this tank?

I had an outbreak and some losses so I took it down. The spot in the room has been replaced with a Bioactive Leopard Gecko Setup 🙂

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