ac7av tank build

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Well its 5pm and the kole is gone. I shore would have like to know what happened. To bad, my wife really liked that kole, probably more personality in that fish then any of the others.
 
So sorry for your loss. It really suck when we loose one of our friends. No idea what caused an injury like that?
 
awwwww crap !!! sorry to hear that..I hope it was going to make it...I sent you a PM with links to Melafix.
 
So sorry for your loss. It really suck when we loose one of our friends. No idea what caused an injury like that?

Well it mite have been the tomini but man I just don’t know. The tomini is much smaller and I’ve never seen it act aggressively at all ever. It’s the only other fish that has any marks on it and it’s probably half the weight of the kole so it doesn’t make any sense. The tomini’s marks as so minimal that if nothing had happened to the kole I wouldn’t have thought much about them other then thinking he scraped the edge of something. .
 
Thank you TJL for the fine new corals for my empety tank. And even though its empety I must have spent 2 hours putting in those pieces into the tank. Why dos it have to be so complicated??? Just cant make my mind up where to put it all. Ill snap some pictures in a few days when every thing opens up nice to see them in there new home.

Hay eew,
Was what you I saw when I was leaving TJL’s house? Just wondering. Would have liked to stay a bit longer but I needed to get home and was still about 15 minutes late and got an ear full from the wife about it. All is ok, I think she just got up on the wrong side or the kids were getting on her nerves. She leaves for work too early in my opinion. She only works 5 miles away and its mostly highway and leaves an hour before her shift starts.

Picked up a couple of new damsels too. Boy do they look sweet. I cant wait to get them out of QT and into the main tank. The colors on them are like no damsel I’ve ever seen. Definitely a rare find. I just hope they all get along.
 
Hay eew,
Was what you I saw when I was leaving TJL’s house? Just wondering. Would have liked to stay a bit longer

Yep it was. Spent the rest of the day over there. Todd and I (Todd more than I) built a really nice acrylic sump in his garage. Too bad you were just leaving. It's fun meeting new faces for names we all know on these boards. Maybe next time. Get some of those pics up so we can see your handy work :).
 
Couple of pictures and a video of the new fish.
I could not get a good picture of the fish without using the flash and with the flash the color and texture of the fish is just not accurate. The video is better for the actual color and texture of the fish.

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As you can see the flash causing a lot of sparkling on the fish that is just not there in real life.

Here is the video.

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/14904661?loop=1" width="848" height="477" frameborder="0"></iframe>
 
Mario Kart and Mario and sonic Olympic winter games is in 12 hours a day around here. The only time its not on is when the kids are sleeping it seems.

That may be a slight exaggeration but it sure seems like it.
 
first time tank drilling

Well I have lots of exciting stuff happening last night and this morning. First I drilled my first glass holes. No one ever mentioned how hearing protection is required. That hole drilling thing is really noisy, but got it all done and I’m very happy with the results. I drilled a couple of test holes on a glass top piece that I’m not using with the same thickness of glass to get my feet wet and didn’t do to bad. So I decided to just do the tank while I had all the stuff out.

What I used was a 2 ½ bit on a bench top drill press.
First I had to raise the press up to the correct working level for the tank by putting a wooden box half way into the tank and shimmed under the end in the tank (because of the lip around the tank top) and shimmed up the end out side the tank to make it level. Then I taped the area to be drilled after marking it. I used plumbers putty to build a dam around the hole area. Then I moved the drill press into place and put a piece of styrofoam on the table of the drill press and moved it up to support the glass after aligning the drill to the hole. I really wanted to do this by hand because you can not feel the pressure your putting on the glass with the press but slow and steady does it. it takes about 5 to 10 minutes but the end results look pretty good. Only a slight bit of chipping on the exit side. Definitely not bad for a first timer and cheep drill bit. Here are some pictures and video of the process.

Tank drilling.


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Inside of tank
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Outside of tank.
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Last night after drilling the tank I was giving my display tank the once over with the flashlight after the lights have been off for a while. I saw something that I don’t think I’ve seen before. I had a hatch of something that looked kind of like the damsels fry but they were different. They are so small but it looks like the large side was red with red tip on the small end and they seem to swim backwards, small end first. What do you think these could be? My camera could not focus on them so video is all I have and actually easer to see in the camera then in real life. They are just way small. Even a bit smaller then the damsel fry.

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/15271901?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="800" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>
 
I was going to give him one more day before putting the power head to him to push it out of the cave it’s been in but it looks like its coming out on its own and that all the better. It’s still not willing to move its foot. He is stretching almost a foot from the base just to get partly into the light. At least I can see it now with out using a flashlight.
 
That’s the two 20 gallon tanks I got from the petco sale. They are going to be my new fuge. And because I could not fit 3 of them under my tank the 3rd tank that is a 10 gallon will hold the skimmer and the sump with return pump. The one 20 has only one hole, the other has 2 holes, one on each side. The 10 doesn’t need any because the height of the exit hole is higher then the rim of the 10. So that’s just a matter of plumbing it to dump in where I want it in the skimmer compartment. I’m going to be working on clearing out under the tank today and setting up the new tanks in the stand. I will have to be without a skimmer and sump for a day but I’m sure everything will be fine.
 
good job on drilling your tank. It wasnt too bad was it. keep us updated
 
No not as bad as I thought it would be.

I do have a story about working on the sump this after noon. When I was testing my hole drilling abilities I used the lid that came with the tank as a test dummy. I drilled two holes in it and all was well so I drilled the tanks, a total of 5 holes. Since the glass tops that came with the tank were not tempered I figured Id repurpose them as baffles in the sump so I bought a glass cutter and splitter pliers. $20 and I was back home from the hardware store and have all the glass laid out on the counter and got out the tape measure, measured twice and cut three times I always say. Anyway I put the straight edge on the glass and used the glass cutter to scribe the glass and went over it a couple of times to make sure it was a clean line. Put the pliers on the seam and squeeze, nothing. Ok what did I miss? Squeeze as hard as I can and nothing. Ok so we double teem this piece of glass on the edge of the counter and we can’t get it to break. What the heck is going on? So I go out and get a metal rod to lay the glass on, on the seam and use that to split it. Try that you piece of glass, and nothing. I tried banging the glass down on the metal rod and its just laughing by now. So I go out and get the 2 pound machinist hammer and start whacking it on the seam while it’s on the metal rod and nothing. What the heck is going on here? Glass is not this hard to break. So I start hitting it harder. You would think I’m trying to pound in a marlin ***** into a telephone pole. Then it finally snaps. And I just stand there for a minute looking at the million pieces of glass flying all over the place and whats left on the counter sounds like popcorn in the microwave. Now I’m just frustrated and mad. This is not supposed to be tempered glass. Why is this piece tempered and not the other piece. I actually took the piece I drilled out side and broke it to make sure it was not tempered after that. I was thinking how was it possible that I could miss that. I had called the company years ago to make sure if it was tempered or not and it was suppose to not be tempered. Why would part of the lid be tempered and not the rest of it. What can I say? Don’t try to cut tempered glass it doesn’t work.
 
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