cmaxwell39's new tank build

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cmaxwell39

Guest
Not much new today. Tank has cleared up fairly well. I played with the Hydor wavemaker a little to get familiar with it. I like it so far. I can set the minimum and maximum flow rates and run the pumps either alternately or in sync. I think I am going to run them alternately with them switching from low flow to high flow every few seconds.
I got live rock ordered today as well so it should be here later this week.
 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Well a week ago my order of live rock from here came in. I have ordered live rock off this site before and had been very pleased with it. This time I was a little disappointed. It was very dense rock and basically my 50# was two or three large peices with a few small chunks thrown in. So I bought some rock off a guy who was selling on here in the classifieds section (Thanks Scotty37). That rock came in today and I couldn't be happier with it. Nice variety of sizes and shapes. Very pourous with a ton of coralline on it. Tank is still very cloudy, but here is a preliminary picture of the tank with live rock in it. I will post more pics tomorrow after the tank clears some.
 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Thanks aquaguy. I am not sure if it is going to stay like that or whether I will rearrange it. I am sure that I will have to try to do something different with it before it is all done, but it will end up something like that. Any suggestion will be welcome.
 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Everything has been going good. The tank cycled rather quickly (not suprising as I have ~100# of live rock in it) so I ordered a starter clean up crew and two banggai cardinals. The cardinals are in quarentine now and the snails and crabs have been busy cleaning up the diatoms that had develped over the past few weeks. I will try to get some pics of everything up this weekend. Work has been crazy for me the past few weeks. Thanks for looking.
 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
As promised here are a few pics of the tank as of now.
First pic is full tank.
Second pic is left side
Third pic is right side.
Fourth pic is sump area.
Fifth pic is skimmer.




 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Here are a few more shots.
First one is an end shot.
Next two are a couple of the banggais in quarentine (Yes I know the tank really needs to be cleaned)
Finally one more full tank shot.



 
oceanlover

oceanlover

Member
Very sweet aquarium, looks like it will be a winner. The fact that the fish can swim behind the rock will probably make them very happy.
Is your floor unlevel? I see a shim under one side of your gorgeous cabinet.
 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Thanks Oceanlover. Unfortunately the floor is unlevel there. That is the place where the setup worked best with our house layout, and, of course, it is about the only spot in the whole house that the floor is out of whack. But just decided to shim it and go with it.
The stand was built by a local guy who does some cabinet work. We traded some labor so I got a deal on it. It is a beautiful stand and was worth the wait. It is much nicer than what I would have done myself.
 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Well, progress has been really slow on this thing. I have been really busy at work and have just had time to do mantainance and that is about it.
Also I lost the first pair of cardinals less than a week after I got them. They never made it out of QT. In fact they never ate. After waiting for what seemed like forever (about a month) I tried another pair. I also ordered a black sailfin blenny at the same time. Once again the cardinals lasted just over a week in QT and then died real quick.
This was real frustrating because the second set was acting really good. They were eating, swimming around the tank and pretty active. I have never kept these fish before, but for some reason I just cannot seem to keep them alive long enough to get them out of QT.
The blenny did fine and he is now in the DT. He is eating his little heart out on all the algae that has sprung up. I also added a couple of monti frags to test whether or not the tank is stable enough to start adding some sps. So far so good. Levels seem to be pretty stable.
Anyway, here are some pics to show you all how the tank is doing at this point hope you enjoy.



 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Yesterday I went and checked out a new LFS to see if I could find a local place to buy SPS corals (my normal lfs hardly ever carries any SPS and the ones he does are always brown. I think his water quality is just not up to par for sps because I have traded in some dark green digitata and when I went back the next time they were all browned out.)
Anyway this store did not have much in the way of sps either, but they did have a couple of purple firefish in. I had been considering giving up on the cardinals since I can't seem to keep them alive for some reason. This is one of the fish I had been considering getting if I don't go with the cardinals. Since they looked healthy and were both in the same tank there together with no nipped fins or signs of aggression I bought them both.
I know that two firefish can be aggressive to each other so I will watch them closely in quarantine to make sure they are getting along. If they don't I will probably put one in this tank and one in my 75.
Without further ado pictures of them in QT.

 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Today I received a millepora that I had ordered from online. Since I had the dip made up for that coral I also fragged some corals out of my other tank and moved them over. All the parameters have been steady lately so I am starting to slowly add some sps to the tank to see how they react. So far so good. I will post a couple of pics of the new one as well as a full tank shot.


 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Made a trip to a new LFS (well not-so-local about an hour away) yesterday and finally found a source for some decent sps locally. Picked up a couple of small frags to see how this stores stuff is longer term, but it looks like decent frags, small but healthy.
I also moved the two firefish from quarentine yesterday and they were out and about almost instantly. Even ate last night within minutes of being acclimated to the new tank. Got one more pair of banggai cardinals to try and they are in quarentine now.
All of the sps in the tank are surviving so far, nothing has really grown and the stuff that I moved from my other tank is taking a little bit to adjust (probably adjusting to the light as the colors seem to be more intense for the first couple of days and then they lighten up.) but nothing has croaked.
Well how about some pictures. That's what these threads are all about anyway right. Here you go.




 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
One of the two cardinals has survived and is now in the DT. I got my last two fish for the tank in today and they are in QT. The new guys are an exquisite wrasse and a sunrise dottyback. They both seem to be doing well. They didn't eat much tonight (only three hours from acclimation to feeding time) but they both at least showed interest in food. I am also starting to see some growth in the sps. Don't know exactly what the difference is, maybe more fish and therefore more fish poo. Will try to get some pictures later tonight or tomorrow of the new fish. Thanks for looking.
 
redsea

redsea

Active Member
Originally Posted by cmaxwell39
http:///forum/post/2903866
Yesterday I went and checked out a new LFS to see if I could find a local place to buy SPS corals (my normal lfs hardly ever carries any SPS and the ones he does are always brown. I think his water quality is just not up to par for sps because I have traded in some dark green digitata and when I went back the next time they were all browned out.)
Anyway this store did not have much in the way of sps either, but they did have a couple of purple firefish in. I had been considering giving up on the cardinals since I can't seem to keep them alive for some reason. This is one of the fish I had been considering getting if I don't go with the cardinals. Since they looked healthy and were both in the same tank there together with no nipped fins or signs of aggression I bought them both.
I know that two firefish can be aggressive to each other so I will watch them closely in quarantine to make sure they are getting along. If they don't I will probably put one in this tank and one in my 75.
Without further ado pictures of them in QT.
very nice firefish!
 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Thank you. I am very glad that these two firefish seem to do very well together. I have never seen any aggression between them. Purple firefish are one of my favorite fish and it was an easy sell because my wife really likes them as well.
 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Couple of pics of the new arrivals in QT. Forgive the condition of the glass on the QT tank. I have been busy at work and have not had time to scrape the glass on that tank in a few weeks. I will try to clean it up later in the week and get some better pics, but here they are, exquisite wrasse and sunrise dottyback. They arrived via fedex at ~1:00 this afternoon.




 
redsea

redsea

Active Member
Originally Posted by cmaxwell39
http:///forum/post/2821793
Here are a few more shots.
First one is an end shot.
Next two are a couple of the banggais in quarentine (Yes I know the tank really needs to be cleaned)
Finally one more full tank shot.
it looks awesome!
 
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