Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank) - split

[arctictwist]

Havent been on in a while, love the video! The tank is looking great! Your entire setup is an inspiration for what i want to do in a future home.

[chingchai]

Originally Posted by nineball

Thank you so very much. Chingchai is truly a Grand Master and representative of the best values this hobby can produce. I am sure with all we have in common that neither of us feels competitive in the least. I am sure I can speak for both of us that all we can hope for is to keep learning and benefiting from our experience. I also believe we share the belief that sharing our enthusiasm with this community is the best part of this whole experience.

Thanks again.

Peter

Peter. Very well said.
Sharing is the least we can do for this community.
Seeing beautiful tanks in this forums or anywhere else makes my heart beat faster.
We don't want to be the best. But we just want to do the best out of this hobby. Right?

[Rybren]

Originally Posted by nineball

I enjoyed meeting Ret for the first time in front of the fish tank. He is a gentleman and I look forward to meet his wife (artist) possibly in Texas. We had an informal conversation about the hobby and supporting industries and I have to admit he is extremely well informed and well balanced in his perspective.

As far as invites go you are always welcome to a tour whenever you slide into Toronto. As noted in the previous post, sharing is the best part of this hobby.
Stay tuned to more videos......

Peter

Ret brought some of his wife's artwork with him to Ottawa. She is a truly gifted artist.

Thank you for the invitation. Now that my son has moved back to Ottawa from Oakville, I don't get down that way very often. I will, however, try to contact you the next time I head down there. You and your tank are an inspration to us all.

Jerry

[nineball]

Originally Posted by arctictwist

Havent been on in a while, love the video! The tank is looking great! Your entire setup is an inspiration for what i want to do in a future home.

Thank you very much.........Make sure that you find yourself a Mr Wilson to help along the way when you are ready to embark on the journey. Oh and make sure you make a build thread. We will be watching for it........

Peter

[arctictwist]

I will def need a Mr. Wilson....and itll be some time so dont hold your breath! Still working on my masters and then hopefully ill get a real job!

[nineball]

Originally Posted by arctictwist

I will def need a Mr. Wilson....and itll be some time so dont hold your breath! Still working on my masters and then hopefully ill get a real job!

Not to worry.......with your masters 80% of the time you will be overqualified, 15% of the time you will be underqualified, and 5% of the time you will be making due "just for now". This last point seems to somehow take over your career as a central guidepost for much more that you want for longer than you want. Patience is a virtue ..........

Peter

[fla2341]

Peter,

I just sent you a PM. Please take a look.

[dallasg]

nineball and MR wilson i dont know where to start, i have been following this for a while and i thought to myself that this is just another , lets throw money at this thread, and see what we get etc, well i was wrong its good to see that your level of involvement, dedication, research and hand-ons has made this one of the "Greats" of fish keeping!

mr wilson you have my utmost respect for treating nineball like a friend and not just a customer, this relationship beats any i have seen when it comes to business. very rare here in South Africa to have this between LFS and customer, infact our whole community should read this thread. i do hope that sometime i can visit canada and see your shop and chat reefing!

and i agree with your theme and philosophy behind your thread and i look forward to following this for the years to come!

i have been keeping marines for over 10years and was overwhelmed with what i still learnt from your journey over the last 2 years, i am starting my epic build in the next few weeks, 1000g based on the image i saw on The Coral Reef Shop website background, there is a very similar part of the ocean i love to dive that looks very similar and i hope to have the patience to complete the journey

i hope to reach across the continents and get advice in the near future!

[nineball]

Originally Posted by dallasg

nineball and MR wilson i dont know where to start, i have been following this for a while and i thought to myself that this is just another , lets throw money at this thread, and see what we get etc, well i was wrong its good to see that your level of involvement, dedication, research and hand-ons has made this one of the "Greats" of fish keeping!

mr wilson you have my utmost respect for treating nineball like a friend and not just a customer, this relationship beats any i have seen when it comes to business. very rare here in South Africa to have this between LFS and customer, infact our whole community should read this thread. i do hope that sometime i can visit canada and see your shop and chat reefing!

and i agree with your theme and philosophy behind your thread and i look forward to following this for the years to come!

i have been keeping marines for over 10years and was overwhelmed with what i still learnt from your journey over the last 2 years, i am starting my epic build in the next few weeks, 1000g based on the image i saw on The Coral Reef Shop website background, there is a very similar part of the ocean i love to dive that looks very similar and i hope to have the patience to complete the journey

i hope to reach across the continents and get advice in the near future!

First, We thank you for your enthusiastic support. It continues to make this place a very positive experience for all that come here. Neither Mr. Wilson or I take this kind of encouragement for granted so thank you very much.

We are hoping that the video episodes to follow soon will strengthen the value of this journey for us as well as the long term members of this thread.

I look forward to watching you move toward your build and encourage you to share it here as well on the forum. Sharing, it's the very thing that makes this place work so well.

Best of luck on your build.

Peter

[dallasg]

thanks , i plan too, still in the planning phase

[mr.wilson]

Originally Posted by dallasg

nineball and MR wilson i dont know where to start, i have been following this for a while and i thought to myself that this is just another , lets throw money at this thread, and see what we get etc, well i was wrong its good to see that your level of involvement, dedication, research and hand-ons has made this one of the "Greats" of fish keeping!

mr wilson you have my utmost respect for treating nineball like a friend and not just a customer, this relationship beats any i have seen when it comes to business. very rare here in South Africa to have this between LFS and customer, infact our whole community should read this thread. i do hope that sometime i can visit canada and see your shop and chat reefing!

and i agree with your theme and philosophy behind your thread and i look forward to following this for the years to come!

i have been keeping marines for over 10years and was overwhelmed with what i still learnt from your journey over the last 2 years, i am starting my epic build in the next few weeks, 1000g based on the image i saw on The Coral Reef Shop website background, there is a very similar part of the ocean i love to dive that looks very similar and i hope to have the patience to complete the journey

i hope to reach across the continents and get advice in the near future!

It's always nice to hear kind words from the other side of the planet. Peter is always a pleasure to work with.

[dallasg]

great...
look forward to some more interesting updates

[Acronic]

Great video fellas! Peter your aquarium is vivacious, so much energy and life. Outstanding work, coming along very well.

PS: My favourite part of the film is at 5:03. There appears to be a water droplet rolling down the exterior glass as a bengaii cardinal races up to catch it and "Bonk" it goes head first into the glass!! Just spectacular

Kevin

[bboudreaux]

Originally Posted by chingchai

Peter. Very well said.
Sharing is the least we can do for this community.
Seeing beautiful tanks in this forums or anywhere else makes my heart beat faster.
We don't want to be the best. But we just want to do the best out of this hobby. Right?

chingchai, by no means did i mean to infer anything negative about your tank as i see as a masterpiece itself. i have read your thread from start to finish just like peters. i respect both of you as men that have been much more successful in life as well as in this hobby than myself.

i just think peter needs to take a little more credit for the beauty he has created. i just think how peter's team solved the flow problem of an L-shaped tank was amazing. okay maybe more credit goes to shaun, but every great CEO knows how to put a good team together. i just wanted you to know i really admire your tank as well and only wish to have half the success you are having.

please accept my apology for making this seem like a competition.

one more thing. i was born in bangkok, and someday hope to return. maybe some day i will look you up.

OFF THE SOAP BOX

[chingchai]

Originally Posted by bboudreaux

chingchai, by no means did i mean to infer anything negative about your tank as i see as a masterpiece itself. i have read your thread from start to finish just like peters. i respect both of you as men that have been much more successful in life as well as in this hobby than myself.

i just think peter needs to take a little more credit for the beauty he has created. i just think how peter's team solved the flow problem of an L-shaped tank was amazing. okay maybe more credit goes to shaun, but every great CEO knows how to put a good team together. i just wanted you to know i really admire your tank as well and only wish to have half the success you are having.

please accept my apology for making this seem like a competition.

one more thing. i was born in bangkok, and someday hope to return. maybe some day i will look you up.

OFF THE SOAP BOX

No offense at all.
Please don't apologize me.
Let me know when you visit Bangkok. You are welcome to see my tank.

Cheers,

[SAY]

Peter,

I will join my congrats to the hundreds of others on a beautiful tank. In the beginning you had a flame scallop in there and I haven't seen it in any of the recent pictures. I have always heard that they are difficult to keep and wondered if yours survived.

Also, can you still see the teeth on the dinosaur?

[nineball]

Originally Posted by Acronic

Great video fellas! Peter your aquarium is vivacious, so much energy and life. Outstanding work, coming along very well.

PS: My favourite part of the film is at 5:03. There appears to be a water droplet rolling down the exterior glass as a bengaii cardinal races up to catch it and "Bonk" it goes head first into the glass!! Just spectacular

Kevin

The day we shot some of the video the brothers Grimm were doing maintenance on the tank. When they do the sohal and and sail fin have a tendency to splash. The drop of water you correctly spotted caught the cardinals attention who for whatever reason decided it should be chased. This is NOT typical cardinal behaviour. We have six active breeding pairs in the tank and about forty 'offspring' in the mars bars. I am trying to decide what to do with them. All 50 Cardinals have started from the three original wild caught adults. I may try an experiment to see if they will breed in the Mars environment.

Thank you for the continuing enthusiastic support. The team appreciates it very much.

Peter

[nineball]

Originally Posted by SAY

Peter,

I will join my congrats to the hundreds of others on a beautiful tank. In the beginning you had a flame scallop in there and I haven't seen it in any of the recent pictures. I have always heard that they are difficult to keep and wondered if yours survived.

Also, can you still see the teeth on the dinosaur?

Thanks and no the flame scallop finally gave up the ghost but he was the last survivor of that group. Yes you can still see the teeth but you really have to know the history of this tank to know where to look.


Peter

[SAY]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry to hear about the scallop. I put one in my tank early on and it didn't make it either. I always found them interesting and wanted to try one again some day. However, I won't do it until I am pretty confident that I know how to keep it alive.

[swissgaurd]

Originally Posted by nineball

The day we shot some of the video the brothers Grimm were doing maintenance on the tank. When they do the sohal and and sail fin have a tendency to splash. The drop of water you correctly spotted caught the cardinals attention who for whatever reason decided it should be chased. This is NOT typical cardinal behaviour. We have six active breeding pairs in the tank and about forty 'offspring' in the mars bars. I am trying to decide what to do with them. All 50 Cardinals have started from the three original wild caught adults. I may try an experiment to see if they will breed in the Mars environment.

Thank you for the continuing enthusiastic support. The team appreciates it very much.

Peter

excellent work on the bangais peter ,it takes great dedacation to breed cardinals.
one of the most interesting species i find.
there is a big study on preseving the cardinals at the moment as there numbers are decreasing in the wild.
looks like you have found a good balanced diet for the cardinals.

how and what are you feeding them.

That just brings to mind what are you feeding your main display.
do you have a particular routine for feeding.

thanks
vic

[fla2341]

Good job on the Bangaii's I wanted to get a couple of pairs going but when I bought them they succumbed to the vibro infection which is prevelent in the wild caught right now. I've some ideas on breeding them in larger #'s if you're interested.

[nineball]

Originally Posted by swissgaurd

excellent work on the bangais peter ,it takes great dedacation to breed cardinals.
one of the most interesting species i find.
there is a big study on preseving the cardinals at the moment as there numbers are decreasing in the wild.
looks like you have found a good balanced diet for the cardinals.

how and what are you feeding them.

That just brings to mind what are you feeding your main display.
do you have a particular routine for feeding.

thanks
vic

Thanks Vic but I'm not sure I can take that much credit on the cardinals. All I have done is provide them with a large enough environment where they can stake out territory and keep an eye on each other. With six actively breeding pairs there is always fry to be harvested. My concern at this point is one of in-breeding. I'm not sure how many generations get produced before I get into trouble. I did start with 3 so the math might be favourable but not for too long. However as Ret Talbot noted during his recent visit to our tank, the entire species lives in a 13 square mile radius and apparently even within those boundaries they don't tend to wander to far from the nest. Without more diversity this is not a great formula for longevity for the species.
I know about the study Vic, I contributed to the B. Cardinal Kickstart program!
My feeding is not very complicated. When we find the fry in the filter bags in the sump we move them into the mars bars. I feed them decapsulated shrimp eggs and cyclopeeze for a couple of weeks with a very modest amount of brine shrimp. The fry are too small to eat the shrimp but they quickly get primed for the taste. They can see older cardinals eating the brine shrimp mixed with Mysis in the next tank so it doesn't take too long for the whole group to move to the shrimp mixture.

The food routine for the main tank is also fairly simple but time consuming. I feed every day about a cup of thawed brine and Mysis that I painstakingly filter with RO/DI water to remove excess juice. Mr. Wilson doesn't think its really necessary but our phosphates are really low so I'll keep doing it this way.....why tempt fate. I also feed Cyclopeeze and reef roids for the coral. I also offer the fish spirolina once a day which they love. My fish are very healthy and apparently happy judging by the amount of breeding going on in the tank!!!! My maroon clowns are also laying eggs every two weeks.

Having said all that about feeding process I know its far removed from a best practice and its somewhat frustrating for me. I am very sure I know what the best practice for my tank should be but the technology doesn't exist to enable me to do it....at any cost!!! The best practice is to feed very often if not constantly but very prudently. Every once in a while you can throw in a special treat but for many reasons a steady but prudent diet would ensure basic nutritional requirements are met while still encouraging normal hunting behaviour on the reef. That is the best practice but for the most part it only takes place in the ocean as its just not possible with todays technology. For the most part 'do it yourself' solutions are just too...........I can't find the right word other than just too much 'do it yourself' for my taste.

Oh and I also occasionally feed phytoplankton but not often enough for Mr. Wilsons recommended routine.

Peter

[dave.m]

Originally Posted by swissgaurd

there is a big study on preseving the cardinals at the moment as there numbers are decreasing in the wild.

If you are referring to the Bangai Rescue Project being co-odinated by Coral Magazine editor James Lawrence and funded through the web site Kickstarter, Coral has already published that Peter is one of the major supporters of this project. Peter is probably too humble and circumspect to publish this but I think it is important to point out that we who gain the most benefit from these projects should also be involved in their support.

Dave.M

[nineball]

Originally Posted by fla2341

Good job on the Bangaii's I wanted to get a couple of pairs going but when I bought them they succumbed to the vibro infection which is prevelent in the wild caught right now. I've some ideas on breeding them in larger #'s if you're interested.

Thank you but I am not about to go beyond what this display tank can produce naturally. I barely have time to properly feed the 26 tanks and perform the basic maintenance........nope, this environment is not going to be commercialized. Its too much work, but you know this already!!!

Peter

[ragvette]

Peter, great build

Still reading the entire thread.

How do you heat the setup? Sorry if I missed it in the thread if you mention it.