Rhodes19's 180 build

[Rhodes19]

Ok, this was a busy weekend but fun. To start with, on Friday night on the way home from work I met up with a guy selling a purple monti digitata. It looks more brown than purple but maybe it will color up. If not, I'll take it in for store credit.

 

[Rhodes19]

Sunday morning I went to Lowes with my 7/16" tubing and started mixing and matching parts until I got this. I used a small section of the 7/16" tube and slid it over a threaded 3/8" connector, added a short piece of polyethylene tubing, connected it to a valve and then ran some more polyethylene tubing to an empty soda bottle. Now, once the collection cup is full, all I have to do is open the valve an drain the skimmate instead of pulling the cup off. Well, that's the idea anyway. We'll see if it works.

Ops, the valve fell on the inside of the sump. That won't work.

A slight mod with the 7/16" tubing and...

It will be interesting to see how this works.

 

[Rhodes19]

Sunday afternoon I met Joe from Joe knows reefs. He was traveling to the area and was kind enough to bring my order with him so I could save on S&H. He was a very nice guy and even gave me some phytoplankton as well to try. Everything was packaged up nicely.

 

[Rhodes19]

Here are the corals after they went into the tank after acclimation. Even with all the traveling, you can still see some of the colors showing.

superman monti top middle (small piece)

Table acro

 

[Rhodes19]

Here are some of the close up shots. the pictures and not the greatest but the corals are beautiful.


Jason Fox Superman monti

Neon green fungi

Table acro

Radioactive dragons eye and watermelon zoas. The dragon eyes opened up later and they are a nice green. I'll try to get better pics later.

Purple Hornet acan

Pumpkin Patch acan

Merry Christmas acan

These are very pretty corals and the camera does not do them justice. I can't wait until they grow out.

 

[JoeKnowsReefs.com]

Nice build Chris! And NICE corals too - teehe

 

[Rhodes19]

Nice build Chris! And NICE corals too - teehe

Hi Joe,

Thanks. I have a great connection!!!! All the corals are doing well and looking healthy. I wish my lighting and camera would do a better job of showing how nice the corals look. I asked my wife earlier which one she liked the best and she said "the fussy red and green one" (the Merry Christmas acan). She's learning. She is starting to use words now like copapods and plankton... LOL, I love it when she talks reefie to me. I'm already starting my list for my next order with Valentine just around the corner. I wonder which corals she would like. I'm sure she's getting tired of all the red roses I give her.

 

[Frankie]

Nice score Chris!

 

[Rhodes19]

Nice score Chris!

Thanks Frank. You need to come over and check them out this weekend.

 

[Rhodes19]

Pee u!!!!!

I made some home made mush last night for the first time and it was definitely a learning experience. I used 2 lbs of raw shrimp tail, a lbs of scallops, a lbs of fresh clams, and a lbs of squid. I also added about a 1/4 cup of powdered kelp and powdered spirullina. To the mix I also added some liquid vitamins and garlic. Working in batches I first tried blending them in a blender but after it blended only the bottom inch (way to thick) I moved it to a food processor. It was still way to thick so I had to add several cups of water. My wife was not at all happy with me and finally went up stairs to get away from the smell. I mixed the batches into a big mixing bowl, added more water and mixed it all together so it would be less thick. I poured a couple of cups of mush into big zip top bags, put them in the frig t get them cold and then moved them into the freezer this morning. I gave some to my new Christmas wrasse in QT and at first she wasn't quite sure of it but then eat a bunch of it. Of course, after I made the mush, I realized that I had forgotten to add the mysis shrimp and cyclopese. Oh well, next time. Hopefully the other fish and corals will like it. AND, hopefully, my wife will still be talking with me when I get home tonight.


Preblended concoction.

In the food processor.

What it looked like before adding water.

Blended with more water.

In the zip top bags.

I got a total of 3 bags and decided to not add agar agar because the mush was so thick. After placing some in the QT, I'll add some next time I make it. Of course, when the wife is not home for a while.

 

[Chichas01]

looks good. One question though, your skimmer cup mod; won't that just drain all skimmate from the cup to the 2L bottle instead of letting it get a little full before it overflows to the 2L bottle?

 

[Rhodes19]

looks good. One question though, your skimmer cup mod; won't that just drain all skimmate from the cup to the 2L bottle instead of letting it get a little full before it overflows to the 2L bottle?

Hi Chichas,

No, I have a valve near the top of the tube that I open when the cup gets nearly full. I open the valve, drain the skimmate into the 2 L bottle, close the valve, empty the bottle, return the bottle, and repeat when the cup gets full again. Takes all of a minute to do.

 

[Rhodes19]

"So, sweet heart, what would you think if I moved the ceiling fan over about 16" so its more centered to the room (and not partially over the tank)"?

"Ah, sure, I guess that would be fine. I don't mind. But what are you going to do with the hole in the ceiling"?

Got it covered. I do have some skills. I am afraid of one thing though, my wife doesn't like the pop corn ceiling so I'm sure once I patch the hole I will hear, "While your up there, can you scrape the popcorn off the ceiling"? Well, the breakfast area shares the ceiling with the kitchen and the den. Then there is the dining room off the kitchen and seeing as the hall way has already been done (thanks to the upstairs bathroom flood) you might as well do the living room. Maybe I should reconsider making a canopy and just leave the lights the way they are. LOL

 

[mojoreef]

You have to learn to finess that one a bit Rhodes.

"honey here is the visa card, you should go get yourself a new outfit. Oh while your doing that I am just going to move the fan a bit"

Yea it costs a bit more but the labor gets knocked down alot!!:flypig:

mojo

 

[Rhodes19]

You have to learn to finess that one a bit Rhodes.

"honey here is the visa card, you should go get yourself a new outfit. Oh while your doing that I am just going to move the fan a bit"

Yea it costs a bit more but the labor gets knocked down alot!!:flypig:

mojo

LMAO!!!! And I thought keeping a reef tank would but me in the poor house. Oh, wait a minute, it has!!!

 

[Frankie]

Chris, just give me a heads up and i'll come help you move that fan over and patched before she gets home. Popcorn ceilings are easy to repair

 

[Rhodes19]

Chris, just give me a heads up and i'll come help you move that fan over and patched before she gets home. Popcorn ceilings are easy to repair

Thanks Frank, will do. It might be next weekend at the earliest. Do you want to plan on Sunday?

 

[ReefLogic]

You have to learn to finess that one a bit Rhodes.

"honey here is the visa card, you should go get yourself a new outfit. Oh while your doing that I am just going to move the fan a bit"

Yea it costs a bit more but the labor gets knocked down alot!!:flypig:

mojo

Sounds like experienced advice right there.:ballchain: Whatever causes less :argue: and more of :kiss: is probably good.

 

[Rhodes19]

Sounds like experienced advice right there.:ballchain: Whatever causes less :argue: and more of :kiss: is probably good.

LOL!!! So true.

 

[Rhodes19]

Ok, I downloaded a trial version of Photoshop Elements 9 and Picasa 3 and I must say that I like pse 9 much better for editing and organizing. I'll have to get it some time soon. I have an old digital camera that works fine but can't do macros like the newer ones can (and I don't know how to use it fully) so pse will help make my pics look more like the actually do. I can also do some cool effects to. Here is a pic of my Christmas wrasse with the colors altered so it looks closer to how it really looks and I gave it a black background to change thinks up a little bit. Any way, it was fun.