Piper's Travis Tank

[first-chevalier]

Okay, the tank stand construction is underway. I'm not really sure what I'm doing as far as the posting part goes, but I'll learn along the way, I hope.

Here is (again, I hope) a picture of all the hardware currently purchased for the project surrounding the new Hitachi ten inch contractor table saw I was able to finagle for the project (it will also be used to build a leaf for our kitchen table and finish out the bathroom remodeling jobs). My daughter, who's tank this will be, is the one standing in the shot.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719IMG_0468.jpg

I wasn't able to find the lights Travis suggested from lights of america, but these GE lights have the same color rating and a little more wattage so I think I'm okay (Travis?).

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719IMG_0466.jpg

I'll post more as the project continues. Any feedback is appreciated and welcome. Thanks.

[first-chevalier]

Worked on the stand this weekend as I don't have my acrylic solvent yet to make the overflow. should get that this week though. Here is teh stand underconstruction. I've got some red-oak veneer plywood I'll be skinning this thing with stained with tongue oil. Trying to find matching 90 degree trim in oak now.


Stand legs
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719stand-legs-JPG.jpg

Halfway assembled
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719half-Naked-Stand-JPG.jpg

The completed stand without any finishing work
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Naked-Stand-II-JPG.jpg

Found the lights at Lowes but didn't use LoA's. They had a GE brand that specifically lists the color at 6500k. Thought I'd give those a shot, but still ahve the receipt. I'm gonna throw up a post in the lighting forum to see what people think.

[ALittleSalty]

Looks good, you might want to put a support brace on the side supports to keep the wood from bowing out and collapsing. Plus it will allow you to nail the outer skin on in the middle as well as at the top and bottom. Jon

I am getting ready start building a stand myself for my AP 24.


How tall is your stand??

[first-chevalier]

Our stand is 36 inches.

On the stability question there shouldn't be an issue. There are two screws in every joint (everywhere board meets board) and they're 2 1/2 inches long. I've played with it a bit and there just isn't anywhere for it to go. Plus the panneling is just 1/4 inch redoak. shouldn't be any trouble attaching it and keeping it there.

What's an AP 24 (I'm new, can you tell)?

[first-chevalier]

In case anyone wonders/cares, here is how sturdy this stand is. Keep in mind it's designed to hold a 10g tank. Full with live rock and water that can't be more than 100 lbs. I weigh over 220.......

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Stand-Load.jpg

[ALittleSalty]

Looks like you had some fun surfing on your stand!!! LOL

An AP 24 is short for the Aquapod 24 tank by current usa. My stand will be roughly 25 w x 25 l x 45 h Jon

[first-chevalier]

I haven't been able to work much on the stand recently because the whole house has been foucsed on my daughter's fifth birthday, which happened today and is now over, hurray.

I was able to jump in and get the hood built, the 12 inch hinge installed, and route the stand for the 32 inch hinge. I'll try to skin the stand tomorrow and trim it as well as add the lights to the hood. If I get to work longer I'll add the shelves and be done except for staining.


Side of hood
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Lid.jpg

Back of hood
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Lid.jpg

Stand hinge
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Main-Hinge.jpg

12 hood hinge
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Top-hinge.jpg

Piper and Gavin with the stand
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Piper-And-Gavin-w-tank.jpg

Stand with the tank and the hinges
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719tank-w-hinges.jpg

[drummereef]

Lookin good, first-chevalier! Will be cool to see it all filled up.

[first-chevalier]

Thanks. Given this is my first attempt at salt I'm debating LFS caribean LR or clubbing up for the good stuff and ordering from Tampabay saltwater. I'm worried I kill everything then my money is down the drain, literaly. I'm hopping to have rock in it on or around the first of Feb.

[first-chevalier]

Finaly the birthday party is over and I was able to get back to the tank construction. The short version is I'm almost done. I have one panel of redoak to put on the hood, then trim it, and stain the whole thing. Lastly I still need to drill the back and build the overflow. I'll take care of that this week.

Shot of the front panel in redoak
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Front-door-pannel.jpg

Shot of the lights on
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Lights-on.jpg

Shot of the lights off and my DIY reflector
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Lights-reflector.jpg

Back of the hood with the lights on
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Lights-back.jpg

Side shot with the lights on
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719SIde-lights-on.jpg

Back with the lights on
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Tank-back.jpg

The main area with the door open
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Open-Front.jpg

Just the tank with the lights on (that's a tempurature guage in there)
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Tank-top.jpg

Temperature with teh lights on after about 1/2 an hour. The area where the tank is was 67 degrees when this was taken
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Tank-Temp.jpg

Finally the whole thing. The flash washes out the hood lights being on but it kind of makes the tank glow.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Tank-unstained.jpg

I hope to begin putting sand, rock, and water in by Thursday.

[first-chevalier]

I've had a set-back. I was drilling my tank (through the back) and, well the picture speaks volumes...

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Shattered-10g.jpg

Gotta get a new tank. Perhaps I'll find someone local who drills glass for me.

[Rudy00]

how were you drilling it?

[first-chevalier]

Dremel with a diamond bit, water washing over the work area, absolutely NO pressure at all. I went to the LFS and was told all tanks are now made with tempered glass. However, I got a perfecto tank and am debating trying it anyway. I'm also debating making a tank from 1/4 inch acrylic. We'll see.

[first-chevalier]

Houston we have a hole!

Thanks to the strength from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I am able to report you CAN successfully drill a Perfecto Manufacturing 10g tank IF it does not have the orange sticker on it.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Hole-in-Tank.jpg

I was praying the entire time and when the bit dropped through to the other side on the pilot hole I nearly crapped myself and dropped the dremel. It's not the neatest job cutting and hopefully it will seal but it's a hole and the bulkhead goes through it.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Bulkhead-in-tank.jpg

I filled it and emptied it about five times testing the leaks. Leaked every time. I didn't do a very clean job cutting the gaskets apart so I'm gonna get another one and try to do a better job. That will also give me a spacer for the outside to hopefully help with the seal. Anyway, it's on to the acrylic work for the clafo, painting, and then installing all the acrylic in both the overflow and the sump. Hurray, progress.

[zma21]

Good luck! :)

[first-chevalier]

Update:
I did the flow test last night and discovered my mag model 3 pump at 350gph just isn't going to have the juice to get good flow in my tank. I've got to work wtih that and see how I can improve tank flow. I'd like to avoid buying a new pump, but I don't think I have an option due to finances. My only other option is to move the fuge up and shorten the 1/2 inch feed line from the pump to the display tank.

However, I have a new discovery. My hood is too tight. I know this because as I was putting my light hood back on the tank cracked. On the up side I now know that all the pains on this particular 10g tank from perfecto were in fact aneeled glass and could have been drilled. I was also able to fix the leeking bulkhead but now have a second chance to drill a better hole. I plan on picking up a new tank and 1 1/4 inch diamond hole saw today.

[first-chevalier]

Okay, I officialy suck at silicon. I've installed the acrylic walls to my 5.5g fuge for the tank but I make no warranties or guarantees for my silicon job, lol. Here are some shots of my first attempt ever at running silicon on glass/acrylic. I have a long way to go. Flow test setup shots to follow.

this first shot is the corner where the overflow is going to enter the tank.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Corner-silicon.jpg

This next is a shot long ways in the fuge. The background piece is wehre teh overflow will enter, then some sand and rock, then teh bubble trap.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Bad-Silicon-Fuge.jpg

Top down shot of same
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Fuge-Silicon-job.jpg

Fuge setup for the flow test
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Flow-test-fuge.jpg

The whole setup for the flow test, and yes I know I have a lot of extra pipe on teh 1/2 inch return. this was just to test teh design. water moved so successfull. Not a lot moved, just movement.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Setup-for-Flow-Test.jpg

[james deluca]

what kind of lighting are you uesing and will they work??

[first-chevalier]

Not sure I understand the 'will they work' question, but I plan to just use a simple clip on office light, or install a couple corss members to create a second shelf and screw the lighting into the underside of that.

[first-chevalier]

You were asking about the fuge ligihting, right?

[jbittner]

that is a heck of alot of work for a 10 gal tank! ;)
Looking good though.

[first-chevalier]

It's fun. I could have cobbled some stuff together and thrown it on a cheap ole stand but that just looks cluttered. Travis had a shot of his stand next to the Wally World metal stand and it's night and day. Plus I needed an excuse to buy a 10 inch contractors table saw....

[james deluca]

sorry was asking about the main tank lights and was wondering what you would keep in the tank?

[first-chevalier]

The short update is WE HAVE A TANK!

The longer one is to follow and I have more pictures in the gallery than posted here.

K, we drilled the new tank, painted the back, re-ran the flow test. Still had a small leak in the gaskets so I fixed that by siliconing the bulkhead and strapping the drain tube to the stand so it can't torque the bulkhead. Then I acrylic cemented the calfo together, painted and installed it.

Once we got the dry work done we went to the LFS after church on Sunday and bought 13.5 lbs of curred live rock labled 'Dragon'. I haven't seen that name before but the Fish Guy said it was aquacultured and when i looked at it the rock was coverd in live 'stuff'. I've included some shots of said 'stuff'.

We set up the tank about 3 pm. The Fish Guy said because the rock was already curred we could put a small clean up crew right in so I have what I believe are five astra snails, two redleg hermits, one queen conch, and a tiny emerald crab. Everyone but one small astra snail are in teh DT.

My drain is making a LOT of noise so I'm toying with driling the bend and siliconing a section of the one inch vinyl tube to it but I'm looking for you alls opinion there.

I got a lot of foam after I added the sand and rock but that went away. By this mornign eveyrthing was really clear. The gravity is at about 1.0215, Amonia was a 0 with Nitrites <3. Haven't found my nitrate test kit yet. Temp is right around 72 but I don't really trust the digital thermometer I have. Here are some photo's. I'll think of more later and post it.

Heres the new hole
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/1447193-New-tank-hole.jpg

Tank back paitned with krylon
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/1447192-Painted.jpg

Flow test with samll towel on bulkhead to deal with the tiny leak
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/1447191-flow-test.jpg

I fixed my flow problem by removing about a foot of 1/2 tubing (from teh previous picture). Here's some surface agitation..
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/1447191c-flow-test-more-agitation.jpg

My 1/8 inch acrylic calfo for the upper left corner.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/1447195-Acrylic-Calfo.jpg

The painted calfo (same Krylon)
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/1447197-Painted-calfo.jpg

Moon light installed
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/1447196-moon-light-installed.jpg

Refugium in action during flow test
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/1447191b-flow-test-fuge-in-action.jpg

[first-chevalier]

Calfo installed from the left side
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471910-tank-on-stand-left-side-.jpg

And the top
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471911-calfo-installed-top-down.jpg

Tank on teh stand without the calfo installed
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/1447198-tank-on-stand-no-calfo.jpg

Tank on teh stand with teh hood and with teh calfo installed and drying
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471912-tank-front-calfo-drying.jpg

The tank waits patiently for live rock in the morning
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/1447199-tank-on-stand-w-calfo-dry.jpg

JUST finished putting rock in teh tank
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/14471945-finished-sand-rock.jpg

One hour after adding the sand adn rock
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/14471957-one-hour-after-tank.jpg

The fuge one hour after
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/14471957a-one-hour-after-fuge.jpg

The foam.....
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/14471946-Foam-after-sand-rock-add.jpg

Couple hours after adding everything.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471958-Couple-hours-after-addit.jpg

Calfo in action. I ultimately had to snap off all the teeth becuase it just couldn't keep up with teh pump.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471914-calfo-in-action-front-on.jpg
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471913-Calfo-in-action-half-tee.jpg

[first-chevalier]

14 hours later at 8 AM here's the fuge in full action
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/14471941-Full-fuge-in-action-fron.jpg
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471940-Refugium-rock-and-cheeto.jpg

Here's the tank this morning at 8 am. We spread the rock out so we could look at it this morning and aqua scape this evening. This shot is with teh moon light on before the mains came on.


http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471960-Moon-light-14-hrs-after.jpg

Here is everything running full tilt this morning when the hood lights came on.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471972-Tank-this-morning-8-am.jpg

And finaly the (we hope) final aqua scape. I don't know if you can see it, but we got some rock to make a cave with and a little overhang at the end.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471973-Aqua-scape-done.jpg

Heres a shot of one of hte five snails. They're all the same type. I believe they're astra snails.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/14471952-Snail-and-queen.jpg

WE have quite a few of these little guys but I don't know what they are.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/14471950-Stuff-on-the-rock.jpg

Here's the emerald crab diggin on some algae.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/14471951-Emerald-crab.jpg

The queen.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/14471953-The-queen.jpg

WOOT it's done. Now the work begins, lol. Thanks for your support folks. I couldn't have gotten this far without you. Gotta go edit my bio now and add a 10g nano, woot.......

[TitusvileSurfer]

I like the LR and your modified overflow design to allow more room. I shared a few tears with you after the first drill attempt, but you are obviously well on your way now! Good luck to you and your future animals. :)

[first-chevalier]

Thanks Titus. I have more pics of today.

Last night just before bed, at about 11:30, I tested for amonia again. Fortunatley I had made a 10g batch of water as the amonia came it at 1.5 m/l. I did a 30% water change immediately. That came to about four and a half gallons. I decided I'd swap out the other 5.5g I had in the morning if things haddn't improved. However, while I had the DT down about half, I couldn't help but look at the LR again. That caused a need for a re-aquascaping. Pics to follow.

However, in the morning amonia was at 0 so were nitrites. This evening, amonia is still 0, nitrits <3, nitrates at 12.5 m/l, and PH is at 8.0. Considering I started with what the Fish Guy said was good cured rock, how am I gonna know when my cycle is done? I had a VERY short amonia spike but if it doesn't reappear after my water change, am I to assume it really is done and ready for a fish?

[first-chevalier]

K, I did a 30% water change last night to reduce the amonia and couldn't help but re-aquascape while it was easy. Here is the right side pice of rock anchoring the temp probe for the heater as well as my untrustworthy thermometer probe...

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Right-rock.jpg

Left side rock, which is nearly exactly how I really wanted this tank
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Left-Rock.jpg

The full on tank shot...
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719New-Aquascape.jpg

This is what I'm assuming is a feather duster but would like confirmation or more information from you veterans since I have a bunch of these
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Feather-duster.jpg

What I'm assuming is a sponge of some kind (again would like pro-confirmation...
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Sponge-question.jpg

I'm assuming this is some kind of polyp, but would LOVE some help on this one. I've found about three of these...
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719polyp-of-some-kind.jpg

[tripsied]

The tank looks great!!!!

It's good to know that the 10 gallon can be drilled safely.


I have been agonizing over drilling my Perfecto 15 gallon that has 1/8 glass as well. I'm going to be doing a weir style overflow with an external box because I do not want to take up any real estate inside the tank due to real estate being at a massive premium in such a small tank.

Looking forward to seeing your progress!! Keep up the good work!


Tom

[first-chevalier]

Thanks Trip. THe wally world tanks apparently can't anymore, but I'd call the manufacturer to be sure.

I had a perfecto too (I drilled three total tanks on this project) and they do make both kinds of tanks. Get their phone number
from their website and call them before you drill. They're very helpful and will work with you to figure out if the tank you have is drillable or not.

I agree on the precious real estate on these little tanks. That's why I did the little calfo instead of the full overflow. Good luck and remember take it slow drilling. It's worth it.

[yman32]

that lil polyp is an aiptasia anemone

they are kind of a parasite as they sting other corals and have the ability to over populate an aquarium.....read more about the positive and negatives of these guys....but mostly negatives in the tank

[first-chevalier]

Aight, then how do you get rid of them? Scrape them off or let something predate them?

[james deluca]

well you can uese jose juce or truepepermint shrimp

[Zestay]

id go with a peppermint. or 2.. and than once its all gone return the one that seems to eat less aptasia to the LFS trade him in for a few snails or something along those lines

[first-chevalier]

Tank update.

Added a small brittle star, one more astrea snail, six blue legs, and a sally light foot. Yes we know sally isn't really a great nano crab, but she's voracious and we'll trade her back when she out grows it or will have our larger setup ready by then.

We also tried to introduce a fire shrimp, but he only lasted aobut ten minutes and was dead. Not sure what happened there but I started a thread for suggestions if you're interested and want to know about tank parameters. I'm taking it back to the store on Tuesday (they're not open on Monday) and we'll see what happens. I THINK I know what happened, but I want to see what they say.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1049942

[first-chevalier]

Well, all is well aside from the death of the fire shrimp. the system seems stable and running well. The majority of the algae seems to be under control and we have a pod outbreak on our hands. I'm getting to the point where I'm going to let it run to the end of the month then we'll add our first fish. It's going to be one of the following (input welcome):

Purple Firefish

SMALL six line wrasse

Bi color pygmy angel

Here are some shots.

Oh, and feel free to comment on the clean up crew we have running about as well

Clean Up Crew
2 redleg hermits
7 blue leg hermits
2 Nassarius
2 Super Nassarius
5 Astrea snails
1 Peppermint Shrimp
1 Brittle star
1 Emerald crab
1 Sally Light foot (small)

Super Nassarius and a shot of the algae we had covering the sand bed.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719super-Nas.jpg

The sandbed as it is now
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Sand-bed.jpg

My current personal favorite, the Brittle star
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Brittle-star.jpg

Fuge from the front with the clump of cheeto (how much of this stuff is too much anyway?) and the small piece of live rock as well as two of the above mentioned blue legs and an astrea snail. I'm thinking of putting the nassarius snails down here and letting the supers have the DT.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Front-of-fuge.jpg

same fuge from the top down.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719top-of-fuge.jpg

Tank a week ago
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Tank-before.jpg

Tank today
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719tank-after.jpg

[JerseyWendy]

Gorgeous, First-Chevalier, absolutely beautiful. :)

How much time do you spend hanging out in front of your setup and watching everyone, everything? I know for sure that once my (future) tank is that far, I'll be spending a whole lot of time in front of it. :D

---
Wendy
---

[first-chevalier]

Thank you Wendy. I hope I can keep it that way :)

[first-chevalier]

Well, we officially have our first corals. Thanks to Jennifer from Imagine Oceans here in Kennesaw, GA we have added two mushrooms and a seven polyp zoanthid colony.

Here's a not really good shot of the mushrooms
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719mushrooms.jpg

And a better shot of the second one.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719wounded-mushroom.jpg

Here's the zoa colony
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/1447191sat-zoanthid-colony-7polyp.jpg

The best part of the deal is we got all of that for $5. WOOT!

Yesterday we found a great pom pom Xenia and put it into the tank

Here's a shot just after they got into the tank
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719pompom-just-in.jpg

Here's a shot from the oposite end of the tank
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Pompom-side-of-tank.jpg

And here's a front on image
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719pompom-front-of-tank.jpg

I went with this setup because they seem to like being higher up in the tank, more in the flow, and because we frequently look at teh tank from the far end and it gives us a nice view from there so there is something cool to look at from that angle too.

As an aside, we set out yesterday to find and add a purple fire fish, of which we had seen ten between two LFS's last weekend. No one had any.:(

Oh, well. The quest goes on.

[first-chevalier]

Sorry, I never answered your question Wendy. We all spend A LOT of time in front of the tank, on the side, underneath and behind the tank :D

this is a lot of fun having so much stuff and motion to look at and my daughter loves it so points for Daddy.

[JerseyWendy]

It really looks so very pretty! Your daughter has to be mesmerized by it all. Hopefully my boys (18 & 15) will enjoy our tank, too.

I'm still amazed at how quickly and nicely you put this together. Today I'll be testing my skills in siliconing. Yep, I had the baffles cut, so the time has come to get to work.

---
Wendy
---

[first-chevalier]

Here is an update. I've been REALLY busy with work and home but have found a little time to spend on the tank. It's the way we want it and we're now 'decorating'.

Banished the frogspawn-eating peppermint shrimp to the refugium as well as our little salylightfoot, who took a shot at one of our fish during feeding the other day. $14 crab vs a $25 fish, you do the math.

Anyway, here are the shots. We're just adding corals now. We have a small colony of green star polyps, two small zoanthid colonies, what I believe is Alveyopora (?sp) but was told it was goneopora (?sp), pompom xenia, branching hammer, and a small brown plate coral.

Fish include a smal six line wrasse named rainbow II (the first went carpet surfing while my daughter was at her grandparents so we leave off the 'II' part), a neon gobie, and a fire fish. We also have a small fire shrimp nad have replaced our brittle star with a serpent star. Thanks for all the support and any comments on how to promote these suckers to grow is welcome.

Here is the hammer ($39)
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471974-Hammer.jpg

The plate coral is only the size of a half dollar ($10)
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471975-plate-coral.jpg

Our favorite the star polyp ($10)
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471976-star-polyp.jpg

What I was told is goneapora but belive is alvy ($10)
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471977-Alvy.jpg

Our six line wrasse about an inch long or so
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471978-six-line.jpg

The neon goby
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471981-Goby.jpg

the firefish
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471980-firefish.jpg

The fireshrimp in two poses
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471982-fireshrimp.jpg http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471983-Fireshrimp2.jpg

Right side of the tank
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471984-Tank-right.jpg

Left Side of the tank
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/14471985-tank-left.jpg

[dez_2121]

the last update on the tank was march, hows the tank now

[first-chevalier]

Funny how things work. I was trying to find this thread again because my bookmarks had been lost/changed and couldn't. Now I have it again. I'll have to post pictures, but it's going great with a few minor/major setbacks. Give me a little time and I'll have new pics. Suffice to say the xenia has taken over and I'm going to try my hand at selling some back to the LFS. We lost the fire shrimp due to my stupidity in adding to much fresh water during the heat of the summer, and the green star polyp is going gang-busters.

[dez_2121]

thats really good to hear i'm glad your having good success with your thank cause i'm going to set mine up something like that and i've been asking around to people that has done it like that for awhile to see who has had succes and so far lots of people have had great success ........ wish i had anything to take over my 55gal hahahaha

[first-chevalier]

Well, we've had our ten gallon Travis Tank up and running since February and it's still going. I'll try to post the new pictures with the before pictures so you can see the progress without paging back in the thread. More pics to follow...
Current tank
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719Tank-19-Sept.jpg

Six months ago http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/4531/144719tank-after.jpg

[first-chevalier]

Well, the tank is two years old this month and still running strong. Two weeks ago we had to get rid of our serpent star because we caught him eating our purple fire fish. Now we know what got our six line wrasse too.

The pom pom xenia has become a weed in that tank so we setup a 29 gallon just as a propogation tank and now that tank has a pair of false clowns in it, which we hope will be fruitful and multiply as well. I have some new pics of everything I'll post soon.

[first-chevalier]

Here's the front of the tank
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhoto&albumID=481223&imageID=2053728&MyToken=56e3d70f-ebb4-442a-9a7e-29058d12be9f

The tank on the stand
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhoto&albumID=481223&imageID=2053892

The refugium
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhoto&albumID=481223&imageID=2054032

The left side with the green star polyp closed after I irritated it arranging things.
[/IMG] http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhoto&albumID=481223&imageID=2054181

The right side of the tank
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhoto&albumID=481223&imageID=2054299

Shot of the Yasa Haza and his tiger pistol shrimp
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhoto&albumID=481223&imageID=2054409

Close up of the Yasa Haza and pistol shrimp
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhoto&albumID=481223&imageID=2054512

Another of the Yasa Haza
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhoto&albumID=481223&imageID=2054610

My favorite Zoo
[IMG]http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhoto&albumID=481223&imageID=2054733

I'll post some pictures of the 29g prop tank that's been started just to deal with the green star polyp and xenia growth.