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925 contest tank "Why Be Normal"


growsomething

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growsomething

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Here's my contest offering, the "Why Be Normal" tank.  6 gallons of pests and strangeness, hopefully attractive.  This will be a clash of fw and sw in appearance only.

 

Current Full Tank Shot:

[Photo 📸 Here]

 

Contest Entry Picture:

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Equipment:

6 Gal. Fluval edge with the top removed.

18w nemo light.

For now a .5 sicce return pump sitting in the tank, maybe a cheap hob later with live rock in it.  Was looking at intank, but they dont carry any.

Bdbs from Tractor Supply

Dragon rock and other fw type rock.

Spiderwood

 

Livestock:

Local caught mojano and other oddities, glass anemone,  xenia, caulerpa, and one feature item tbd.

Not sure if a local caught fish or shrimp will go in it, but probably if I take time to catch something.

 

Today I aske the lfs for a ziptie in their system covered in aptasia.  They thought I was joking.

 

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What a beauty!

 

 

 

 

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growsomething

Went to the beach at sunrise with our cart and 5 g buckets.   Was shocked to find dead fish again.  Red tide came back yesterday.

The plan was to start the tank today, but that won't be happening now.  Maybe pick up some asw this week to get things started.  Who knows how long this red tide will last.

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growsomething

On my nuvo 10 thread I've been posting updates of an old shrimp bucket and it's changes that I will pbly use creatures from for this tank.

Yesterday I stopped by the jobsite and there is no discernable red tide in the bay, apparently it is just on the beaches. Little fish were swimming around in the bucket with hundreds of amphibious and assorted fauna.  This morning I got 10 g of water from the dock for this tank.  It is tannin stained, but that is fine since there will be wood in the tank.  I'll pbly run a little carbon to cut the tint.

Hopefully tonight I can get it setup if not started.

 

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Here is the area I'm getting the water from.  A pass to the gulf is just behind the mangroves in the distance, which pbly explains all the life on the bucket.

Yes, that janky fencing will be up when the homeowner moves in, an for final inspection instead of powdercoated aluminum.  That's just the way things are going right now.

 

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growsomething

There were dead fish on the dock the day after I got water there, but there was so much life in the bucket the day I got it I think I'll use it.  It's a pest tank.

 

First tank scape

 

 

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With the light on the side...

 

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My boy approves!  Notice the empty saved 200g acrylic on the side 😏

 

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Halloween tank!

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growsomething

Finally cleaned some bubble algae and red cyano out of the nuvo 10 and placed them here with a few xenia I could dig out of the rock pores.

 

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Fts.  The smaller wood has not sunk yet, so it will do whatever it wants till saturation.  I'm not sure what wood will do to the parameters, and the dragon (?) stone.  I'm not even sure I'm going to test parameters, but it could be interesting.

 

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Also going to place black paper on the tank backside.

I totally forgot the aptasia till I was typing this!  It's been sitting in a whipped cream container for weeks.  Looks to be OK.

 

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growsomething

These 2 anemone have been fed 1 pellet for 3 nights and have started blowing up unbelievably fast.  The largest of the 2 is almost an inch from tip to tip.

 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Looks like you included spaces in your contest tag.  Please let me know once you have changed your tag to 9to5, so that you are included in the contest.

thatd_be_great.jpg.73eca49a69cb8ca4f4e801fe24ebb308.jpg

Sorry about the confusion.  Looking forward to more updates.

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growsomething
9 hours ago, seabass said:

Looks like you included spaces in your contest tag.  Please let me know once you have changed your tag to 9to5, so that you are included in the contest.

thatd_be_great.jpg.73eca49a69cb8ca4f4e801fe24ebb308.jpg

Sorry about the confusion.  Looking forward to more updates.

Done

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Very cool idea! I miss living off the gulf coast i would have totally done the same and went with locally collected species. The gulf and bays can be so diverse! I used to love swimming and fishing in Johns Pass and in Tampa Bay. Can't wait to see how your tank progresses! 

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  • 3 weeks later...
growsomething

Everything is closing up,  even the xenia and invasive green zoa.  Problems keeping the PH above 7.5 with the fw sand, rock, and wood.  I'm not sure what to do.  I've never needed to check alk in my nsw/lr tanks, so I have no means to test this tank right now, but pbly it is off w the ph so low.  Lfs is closed for a few days.  Added baking soda tonight, just a touch to see what happens and if things perk up.  That's not a long-term solution, though.

Happy New Year to you, too, Miss Deb.  Going to eat bbq and watch kids run around with family tonight. 

See you next year!

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IDK, I'm kind of thinking it might be an ammonia problem more than a pH issue.  Was there a death?  A large water change could improve the water chemistry (pH, alkalinity, ammonia, etc). :unsure:

 

Do you have a current pic?

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growsomething

Happy 2022!

There are no deaths, only a hermit crab in there, and he's still cruising around, seeming unbothered by the water conditions.  I tested for ammonia and it was 0.

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Chris's Fishes
On 12/31/2021 at 5:24 PM, growsomething said:

Everything is closing up,  even the xenia and invasive green zoa.  Problems keeping the PH above 7.5 with the fw sand, rock, and wood.  I'm not sure what to do.  I've never needed to check alk in my nsw/lr tanks, so I have no means to test this tank right now, but pbly it is off w the ph so low.  Lfs is closed for a few days.  Added baking soda tonight, just a touch to see what happens and if things perk up.  That's not a long-term solution, though.

Happy New Year to you, too, Miss Deb.  Going to eat bbq and watch kids run around with family tonight. 

See you next year!

You could always try and chunk a small amount of crushed coral or rock rubble into the HOB, if you can make room. I'd imagine that with a PH in the mid 7's, even a small amount would buffer things enough to be noticeable. That's the method plenty of FW people use to add minerals to their tanks without going for PH Up or something.

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