Joe's Wet Dream, A 550 Gallon Work In Progress

[Scooterman]

All beautiful fish, I must say the Hippos are my favorites, they have personalities about them that differ from all other fish I've ever had.

 

[NC2WA]

Scooty,

Agreed, as long as you can keep the Ich off them.

 

[veralteaquatics]

Looking good, let me know if you want to part with the copperband at some point and give me a call this wknd and we'll catch up on things.. !

 

[Jobiwan]

Most of my fish have come from various LFS's, as you can tell by the rampant obesity I've had at least half of them for several years, I have recently bought some from fellow hobbyists in the area that are breaking down their tanks, it's great to take a fish home that is well adapted to the captive environment and eating well.

The Hippos are great, I love the way they school together, they roam the tank in a tight little group, no one really bothers them. Neat the way they sleep on their sides, My wife thought they were all dead when she first saw that.

I'll give you a buzz this weekend Eric, we can tell each other a few lies:evil:

 

[Scooterman]

Hey Joe, can you tell my more about your substrate? What do you have on the bottom & how does it fair with high water flow & cleaning detritus out of it?

 

[Jobiwan]

Hi Scooty, I bought it from someone who had a home based frag farming operation, he was shutting it down and selling off everything at fire sale prices, I think he told me he bought it online, I've never seen this at any LFS, but I imagine a few carry it or could get it. I don't remember the product name, unfortunately I didn't keep the bags, but it was part of the Caribsea line. It is all actual coral rubble, none of the pieces are less than 1/2" , most are an inch or more with some chunks in the 2" to 3" range, it came in a 40 or 50 pound bag. It works great for fragging, I've used it for almost all my frags. I actually did not intend to use it for a substrate in my tank, but I have some very intense current, and with the OM-4's it is constantly shifting, just right for moving finer substrates, I also bought three hundred pounds of medium grade araganite intending to use it, when I put some in the tank it was moving all over the place, (I tried oolitic first, that was an underwater sandstorm), hence plan B (anyone want 300 pounds of aragonite cheap???). The rubble never moves, it's quite stable in the current. Another benny is the detritus vaccuuming, we've all seen what a pain it is, tumbling the substrate in the siphon tube, tearing everything up, making a cloudy mess of your tank, yada yada yada.... The rubble almost gives the bare bottom effect, the fine detritus particles aren't embedded in the tiny spaces found within the typical substrate, it can't hide in the large spaces within the rubble matrix, vaccuuming goes much quicker and detritus is more effectively and efficiently removed (IMHO). Another great benny is that you have a perfect habitat for massive pod culture, in my case I now have 27 square feet of optimal pod fuge effect, my system is absolutely infested with the little devils after just three months, Mandarin heaven.... I used an Oolitic DSB in the 55 gal side of my fuges, so at least it didn't go to waste.. But I grow verbose, time to shut up...
Best regards, Joe

 

[Scooterman]

Thanks for the write-up Joe, I like that idea, I had ruble in the sump & all it did was collect detritus but that was stacked up, a thin layer may be easier to deal with & nitrifying more than what I already have would be a bonus!

 

[Jobiwan]

Yeah, I should have mentioned that it is an inch or less deep, just enough to cover the bottom and not see the acrylic underneath it......

 

[Jobiwan]

Entering the next phase as my system progresses. Up to now I have been married to the idea that I would use a winch and cable system to raise and lower my hood, just seemed like the logical thing to do. Fortuneatly, Jason has steered me away from that, it turns out that winches, hoists, etcetera have one problem-the initial jerk of the start of operation, even with an expensive variable speed device, and swinging around on a cable would make lowering fun, even with the guide track on it. My halide bulbs would have a life expectency of one use of the lift. There may be something out there in the marketplace that would operate smoothly, but I've been all over the internet and haven't found it, and if I did it would probably cost more than I want to think about. And I'm also a big believer in Murphy's Law, no matter how many safety measures in place I would spend many sleepless nights wondering when the winch would somehow fail to stop, or some other failure causing my hood to come crashing down from the ceiling. I took my Garage Gorilla back to Costco this weekend, that broke my heart..


Jason introduced me to Randy Harp this week, he is a bona fide genius engineer who happens to be into reef tanks big time. He's invented a system for raising hoods that will work perfectly on my setup. It's based on using a 300+ pound counterweight, which will be concealed in the wall behind the tank. Most of the works will be hidden within the wall, the visible components will be stainless and will look way cool. When all is finished I will be able to raise and lower it with a finger, no electrics involved. Randy dove into the intial prep work here on Sunday, I was his gopher, did what I could to help, mostly tried to stay out of his way. Basically we removed siding and plywood to gain access to install the equipment, Randy will spend the next couple of weeks fabricating everything, we should get it installed in two weeks.. Here's some photos of the initial work, I'll have more interesting ones in two weeks.
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This is Randy, siding off.
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Finished product for today, now that he knows exaxtly what he's working with Randy will spend the next two weeks fabricating the lift components. All the pulleys and counterweight will be within this wall, there will be an access door installed in the exterior. The outlets you see are the five dedicated circuits, I had them placed terribly, they will all be moved now, most to the equipment room in the crawl space.
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And here's a shot of my golden angel...Note the big eyes, I'm guessing that this is an adaptation to his deepwater existence, they live around
100 feet down or more
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[edwing206]

Can't wait to see the finished product.
That golden angel is awesome. How big is it?

 

[salmonslayer]

Wow. Thats a beautiful fish. How big is it and did it cost ya a pretty penny ?. Looking good pal

 

[Jobiwan]

The golden is just over two inches. I've had him 9 months, I think he is one of the smaller centropyges. All the pundits say their main diet is sponges, so I quarantined him in a well established 40 with lots of live rock. I didn't see him for two weeks. knew he was dead, cuz they always say this is one of the more difficult pygmies, probably true if you subjected him to 6 weeks in a bare bottom quarantine tank. Once he settled in I moved him to my anemone tank, he has done great there, now resides in my big tank.

 

[Scooterman]

Beautiful Angel, you better get a better camera (or learn how to take better ones:evil & take some more of him! :shock::shock:

Sounds like Randy is using the counter weight system like in large windows using pulleys along with heavy in-wall weights, that should work out nice!:exclaim:

 

[Jobiwan]

I've been trying to get a decent shot of him for weeks Scooty, the little bugger really cruises when he is in the open, he won't hold still. I'll study my camera manual and see how to manually set the shutter speed instead of using auto, hope I can do better, probably will have depth of field issues, but we shall see...

 

[Scooterman]

Fish don't hold still long enough huh?:lol:
I set-up on a tripod, put a remote flash above the tank & then go manual on the shutter & aperture, you'll have to experiment to get that shot that will pop & take millions of blurred photos but it is worth it, don't worry I'm not so good myself!

 

[Krish]

Beautiful angel Joe!!! Love the color

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Isn't that one of those dyed potter's

 

[NC2WA]

Joe,

Do you have a "motion" mode on your camera? I have this on my Canon Rebel xTI Digital camera and is great for those action photos.

Kirk

 

[spongebob lover]

wwoouu dood your fish is awesome .

 

[Jobiwan]

Thanks guys, as far as the camera goes, I've had a Nikon D40 for months and I use it like a point and shoot, I do have to figure it out....