My Projects

brian1973

Superstar Fish
Jan 20, 2008
2,001
3
38
Corpus Christi, Texas
#1
Ok this post is going to span about 3 or 4 different categories so i am sticking it here because I don't know where the heck else to put it.

When I posted my last thread, I'm back ...maybe, I was beginning converting my 90G oscar tank to a 90G planted tank, when I left the forum I had pretty much left the hobby and only had my oscar tank running. I spent a lot of money on plants, substrate and a ph controller and all the need equipment for CO2 minus the tank and contents. I called around and was having trouble finding anyone in town that had CO2 bottles in stock and one place wanted 130 for a 10 pound bottle plus another 30 to fill it. I have a coworker that is one of our delivery drivers and I knew he had a SW tank so i caught up with him and asked if he knew any place, he didn't BUT he said he was probably going to sell his 125G reef tank due to brown hair algae and with the hours he works he didnt have time to care for it properly and after months and months of trying to beat the algae had given up. Of course I said let me take a look at it but figured I couldn't afford it. Anyway I find the CO2 and get that tank up and running, found very quickly that my large pleco was going to destroy everything I had just put in it, So I drug out another 90G that I had in storage and built a stand for it, set it up and transferred my large fish from the planted tank to a basic sand and driftwood tank.

My coworker calls me up and asks if I want to come look at the tank, he wanted to give me first option, so I go check it out, the tank looks like hell with the algae BUT I could see the potential. I ask how much, he gave me an unbeatable price, but I didn't have the cash. He says pay me what you can when you can until you pay it off.. DEAL.. So the following weekend we broke it down and moved it, he lives about a mile from me so quick and easy, it took me about $100 worth of clean up crew and a 4 day black out and some elbow grease but I have beaten the brown hair algae. My wife wants some fish that are not reef compatible and so do I and some of the fish that he had in it when I bought it are listed as "with caution" plus I never realized what I was missing by avoiding SW and that it really isn't as complicated as I thought. My wife and I went to San Antonio and checked out some LFS and thats when we decided to do a separate reef tank Well a few weeks earlier I was at Petco and they were having the $1 per gallon sale so I bought a 40G breeder, I priced HOB over flows and googled the heck out of everything and decided to drill the tank, no one here drills tanks so me being the DIY type ordered what I needed from Glass-holes.com. Everything arrived, I even bought a drill guide to make sure I didnt screw it up. Well I screwed it up, the drill guide had springs that I had to overcome so I was applying to much pressure and instead of following the instructions and leaving my drill turned down to the lowest setting I got impatient and moved it up to the 5 setting, so when it was about to cut through the back side instead of stalling the motor it cracked the tank. Of course I drilled another 10 perfect holes in the same panel after I screwed it up. Went back to Petco and bought another 40G breeder at FULL price, test drilled one more hole n the damaged tank and got to work, taking my time and praying I drilled my holes with no issues. I removed the springs from the drill guide and only used it to get the hole started, once it was grooved I removed it and went at it by hand. I have the tank drilled and over flow and return installed, I built my own sump/refugium and have mocked up the plumbing and test ran it - all good.

So I know have a broken 40G breeder tank sitting in my back yard, so what does a DIY type of person do, the only reasonable thing I can do, I cut the top and bottom rims off and removed the broken side. I was able to order a replacement pane from a local glass shop for 30 bucks. I picked up the glass today but have to order the right silicone from amazon before I install it, after much research it seems RTV108 is what I need to use but I can not get it locally. I have already drilled the other side for when I am ready to set it up.

where was I... Oh so heres where I stand as of this long drawn out post. 1 125 SW reef tank, 1 90G with an Oscar, Pleco and Convict (the oscar was supposed to eat the convict when it was a baby 8 years ago). 1 90G planted with neon tetras, serpae tetras and 2 angel fish, 40G breeder that will begin cycling with sand and live rock tomorrow night....

I am struggling a bit with some of the plants but they will come back, I think it is because they were grown out of water and are now submerged. The planted tank pics are before I moved the oscar. The SW tank pic is from last week.
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brian1973

Superstar Fish
Jan 20, 2008
2,001
3
38
Corpus Christi, Texas
#5
nice! do you have a pic of the sump area for the sw tank?
No because I am thinking of how to redo it, I want to make some changes, it worked for the previous owner for a long time but there are some things I want to change, I did remove about 1/2 the live rock from the refugium and added Chaeto, I skipped my water change this past weekend and tested parameters tonight and for the first time all reading are spot on where they should be. The chaeto should have been full of pods as well. The guy I got the Chaeto from has the fattest mandarin I have ever seen and he sold me a bunch for 20 bucks. Surprisingly the guy i bought the chaeto from does everything "wrong" (uses straight tap water or water changes and top offs) and his tank is beautiful, i am going to stick to RO. The black and white spotted fish (Domino damsel) is gone. he killed 2 $50 fish i added, he went to a local lfs. The 40G breeder is also showing perfect water parameters this week, i added a yellow chromis to it a week ago.
 

big54bob

Superstar Fish
Dec 20, 2006
1,486
6
38
29
On my office chair playing Runescape
#7
No because I am thinking of how to redo it, I want to make some changes, it worked for the previous owner for a long time but there are some things I want to change, I did remove about 1/2 the live rock from the refugium and added Chaeto, I skipped my water change this past weekend and tested parameters tonight and for the first time all reading are spot on where they should be. The chaeto should have been full of pods as well. The guy I got the Chaeto from has the fattest mandarin I have ever seen and he sold me a bunch for 20 bucks. Surprisingly the guy i bought the chaeto from does everything "wrong" (uses straight tap water or water changes and top offs) and his tank is beautiful, i am going to stick to RO. The black and white spotted fish (Domino damsel) is gone. he killed 2 $50 fish i added, he went to a local lfs. The 40G breeder is also showing perfect water parameters this week, i added a yellow chromis to it a week ago.
The only damsel's I would trust is the Springer's Damsel and the yellow tail. Rest of them can be mean SOBs.