Our final "build" thread - Page 2

Yeah, they are both pretty little, the black one is maybe 1.5 inches, and the orange is maybe 1 inch. The adult clowns on island are ocean caught, so we opted to stick with the babies that are captive bred.
 

Also, Jack saw the MP10 at the LFS last night and was asking about it...he is amazed, but he laughed when I told him how much it costs, sooo I will probably have to save up on my own if I want one.

Also, as for the sick fishy in the QT, adding the cleaner shrimp drastically improved his condition last night. When I put the shrimp in, he had 6 or so grey spots on his fins, this morning he has ONE left! Really hope he continues to improve, it is such a beautiful fish!

My tank is kind of on hold. I don't know if I mentioned it here, but my lights showed up last week...BROKEN. So we are waiting again...not only did the fixture itself not work, but the splash guard was cracked almost all the way down the lamp... I haven't ordered new lights yet because I am really put off by it. I will probably just wait 2 weeks to save some cash and buy some that are already on island (costs more, ironically, than having them shipped directly to my door).

In other news, the fish lives!

Honestly, I didn't think to check. We returned them last week anyway, so not an option at this point.

On to more pertinent things, my husband and I have noticed my clowns very rarely leave the left side of the tank, sometimes they will go to the center (mostly if they are eating) but they will never cross to the right side of the tank. Ideas?

Everything, including my hermits, wants the left side of the tank I moved the power head so it is pointing at the right side, but that doesn't seem to change anything.

Thanks, we are on hold again for a while since we have to put all money towards our daughter's first birthday in March, but the new lights will come...eventually.  We found some we like better (T5 with LED fixture), but ya know...more pricey too.

I am glad my clowns aren't freaks LOL. The ones Jack recklessly murdered didn't act like this, so I was concerned that maybe the tank was messed up.

New lights on their way, should be here next week. We are just sticking to the same one we ordered before. Better lights in the future for bigger tanks, but these will do just fine on the nano :)

On another note, we found out we are going to be on island for a looong time still, and they will not be sending us to Colorado when we leave :(... so in the spirit of cheering me up about that depressing note, we are going scuba diving and doing a reef walk in March. I just want to go home though. I am so homesick lately...bleh.

I will post new tank shots when I get the new lights up and operating.

The next big project we are going to start is a sump. So...here come my questions:

The sump needs to house my filter and skimmer. We have the 25 gallon we could use, but prefer not to...we also have a 5 gallon tank I mix my water in, and all kinds of buckets. What should we use? I lean towards just buying a 10 gallon aquarium, because I don't think the 5 will be nearly large enough, plus I rather like having it to mix my water in :) The downside is to fit a 10 gallon, or even the 5 gallon, under my 29, we have to buy a new stand, and that isn't going to be cheap or feasible at this point. Jack might be able to build me one, however...which is a definite option (not one I have run past him though ).

I know we will need a return pump, and I have found all kinds of sites describing how to plumb it. We do not need anything fancy, we honestly are only building it because we want a glass top for the new lights when they come in. So, besides the actual container to turn into the sump, and a return pump, what do we need to buy? The more specific you can get with me the better, we will find something similar if we cannot find exactly what you all say to get (when Jack and I get our brains going together, we can figure anything out lol) I would like a good list of what we need to plumb it, and anything essential to put it. I will likely buy some LR to toss in, but plan to hang the HOB filter on it rather than construct some filtration inside...

Another thing: Jack does not not not want to drill the tank. I don't really want him to do it either, so that isn't a big problem...but how do we rig it for the glass top without drilling the glass? I would guess off the top of my head we will have to either drill the tank, or cut the glass top?

Oh, and I believe the last question...do we need an overflow box? I don't have the mental capacity right now (Jack has been in the field all week, I am exhausted haha) to sit down and read article after article then decide who is right. I trust you guys at this point, and we will pretty much do whatever you say we need to do.
 

We refuse to buy a premade sump, because they are ridiculously expensive. Here is a summary:

1. what kind of container to use

2. list of supplies to build the sump and plumb it to and from the tank
3. drill the tank, cut the glass top, or something else
4. overflow box

TIA I am going to take a nap with the babies now so I have some chance of surviving the rest of the day/week!

So, my own supplies list would be something like this:

10 gallon tank

pump

tubing

2 control valves

live rock

overflow box

Jack would have to cut the glass top for the overflow box and the return tube... but I feel more confident about that than about him drilling my tank.

No dividers in the sump...

Input, please?

Ok, here come the pictures!

New lights...my glass needs to be cleaned something fierce haha, sorry.

Weird crap in my tank, ideas? :

What is the green stuff behind the clowns?

What is the blue thing?

Update on my clowns, since I noticed this yesterday...

Here they are when I got them:

Here is my female now:

She has grown and is quite black...sorry for the crap picture, but I was excited lol.

So my next move is to add another fish. All and all I want my stock list to be like this:

My 2 clowns

1 royal gramma

1 goby of an undecided species

still heavily debating an angel...if I do get one it will probably be a Coral Beauty.

1-2 shrimp

a few of hermits

something for me to clean the glass with since I am absolutely against snails

I will post pictures of whatever I get after we go to the LFS sometime between now and Sunday.

I am thinking a sitter... they had some pink spotted watchmen that I was watching in our friend's tank...they're really interesting, and usually in stock here(though they don't ever have them with shrimp counterparts). As far as I can tell one would work well in my plans...running some tests today to make sure the tank is as ready as I think it is and then we are off to the LFS.