Glenn's 55g Corner Bowfront build thread, pictures!

[gmate]

My snowflake still isn't feeding. I've tried frozen mysis, brine, medium sized krill, silversides, pellets. He just isn't interested. It's been a week and only once have I gotten him to nibble krill. It's now been 7 days without a real meal. There's no competition for food in this tank, and both Eels have shown zero aggression issues. They regularly hang out in the same cave and I haven't seen any problems. The green wolf still feeds normally and after he's had his fill I try to spot feed the Snowflake. Zero interest. I'm worried about losing him.

Any recommendations?

[skinpuppi]

Any chance it has white stringy poop? I have seen this a lot lately. If it does, it has internal parasites.

[gmate]

I spoke too soon! I tried to feed it again and my Green Wolf, being the fat monster that it is, intercepted before the moray could get to it. I was frustrated to say the least. But then the girlfriend pointed out the moray in the other end of the tank. I was able to get him to take four medium sized krill. I'm going to be happy with that, as it's the first time he's truly fed in a week.

And no skinpuppi, I haven't seen the eel do his 'business' yet. My Green Wolf does it right in the open, but I haven't seen the moray. But I wasn't aware of that, and I'll definitely keep my eye out for that. Thanks

Full tank shot. Nothing crazy, corals aren't in full extension as my hands were in the tank just a minute before.

Bottom left corner...green wolf is hiding

[gmate]

Special thanks to Erica in North Haven for hooking me up with a HOB fuge / pump / light combo for a crazy deal! I'll set this up with my next big water change; I need to get sand and rubble rock for it + chaeto. Maybe next week I'll stop at Puppy Center and do a pickup

[scolley]

Hey pal! The tank's looking great!

Sorry to have not stopped in sooner... Busy with my own adventure. But I'm kinda glad I didn't see you thread until now, 'cuz it was a fun read. You've done a good bit in a short time.

Slow and steady is the easiest path to success, so IMO you might want to enjoy those cool eels for a while, add corals slowly, and just give everything a little time to settle in. Looks like there's lots of fun stuff to watch.

Great job!

[gmate]

Originally Posted by scolley

Hey pal! The tank's looking great!

Sorry to have not stopped in sooner... Busy with my own adventure. But I'm kinda glad I didn't see you thread until now, 'cuz it was a fun read. You've done a good bit in a short time.

Slow and steady is the easiest path to success, so IMO you might want to enjoy those cool eels for a while, add corals slowly, and just give everything a little time to settle in. Looks like there's lots of fun stuff to watch.

Great job!

Thanks again Steve, it was such a pleasure to meet you! I'm sure your tank is coming along as well. I can't thank you enough for what help you've given me, I really can't. Thank you

I'm definitely 'done' for a while. I'm just doing my water changes, my dosing, and letting what I have grow out. The eels are a riot to watch together and they're great aquaria species when they're not being clumsy and knocking corals around (I'm going to have to get off my butt and do some super gluing soon).

Hope to see you at a local meeting soon. Keep in touch,
Glenn

[Fishnthecorner]

It looks great! Gotta love the Corner bows!!! Sub'd

[gmate]

Earlier last week I did some fancy work with the HOB fuge. I had to use a hammer and chisel to make it fit in the tank, as my rock wall was in the way of the intake, return, and pump. And in doing so I had to put the skimmer on the other wall, which meant more work. It was fun, and apparently I didn't stress out anything in the tank too much.

I've been moving coral around trying to get the optimum flow/light for everything. Put all the SPS was higher up and they already are showing more extension. If all goes well tonight, I'll grab some chaeto from BubbaBoBobBrain at the PC sale and I'll put the fuge online.

Been shopping around for LEDs too, hoping to find something nice and cheap (maybe DIY) to use. Getting incredibly sick of my T5 fixture.

I'll post some new pictures later. This tank looks different every week. I'm so indecisive with aquaplaning and coral placement.

[gmate]

Nitrates are really high. Brewing water now, I'll be doing 50% water changes the next few days to get it down. They tested at roughly 80. My leather coral has shriveled up. I know it's an indicator coral, so it's probably pretty upset right now.

Everything else is growing like crazy. Frankyrivera's frags have taken off. The Kenya/BlueSolomon tree frag that wasn't doing well has fully grown and is taking off in all directions. The number of mushrooms on my rock has doubled. The candy cane coral has sprouted new heads and is growing.

My acans are showing new heads, my frogspawns are all showing BIG new head extensions as well as new polyp growth around the stoney base, which means it's going to start becoming a nice sized mother colony! My hairy mushrooms are going to have to be fragged soon, as they're almost 3 inches in diameter.

The green wolf eel was brought to Puppy Center for store credit because I couldn't have him killing frags by knocking them into the sandbed anymore. So now it's just a clown pair and a Snowflake moray.

My HOB fuge is in place and ready for water. Until I can get a good sand bed I'm not going to put it online. My chaeto is being kept in an in-tank mini fuge / arcylic box. It's growing in there so I know once it gets that 'sweet spot' for low flow it'll grow in the CPR HOB fuge. I have to order a bulb for my fixture though so I'll do that on amazon with a gift card I have.

I wish I had a nice camera so I could take macro pictures.

[IMG]http://i39.*******.com/535y0x.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i44.*******.com/1qinbl.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i41.*******.com/npg7pk.jpg[/IMG]

Full tank shot:
[IMG]http://i44.*******.com/1pttlf.jpg[/IMG]

[gmate]

Did a big fat 50% water change last night. Nitrates read 80ppm - ridiculous. Then I realized I hadn't done a water change in three weeks. I went to make more for another water change today, and I'm out of salt! I don't get paid until Thursday, so I guess it'll have to wait. Been so dang busy lately I've done nothing but daily feedings. Gives me a reason to go to Puppy Center though

[gmate]

CPR fuge broke (oh well) so I guess it's a sump-less fuge-less system for me. Did three large 33% water changes, Nitrate is down to 40ppm. Going to do 3 more this week and try and get it below 10. Then I'll start staying on top of things weekly to keep it down. The leather coral is nowhere near his former glory, but I'm going to get him back to happiness.

[illjoshlli]

Careful with those huge water changes. You can shock your system doing so much so quickly. You may get down to 10PM nitratates but you'll also be down to about 10% original water.

40PPM isn't horrible mostly if you don't have SPS in your tank. I would spread the changes out a bit or do 3 smaller ones.

[gmate]

I'm lazy with mixing water anyway since I have a ghetto mixing station, so I'll just mix some today and do it tomorrow to space it out a few days. Thanks for the post

[gmate]

Gonna update with some pictures soon. Had a yellow tang in here for a month, he was healthy and happy until a sudden and swift case of black ich. Thanks to Steve from the ARKSC forum to taking him off my hands and QT'ing him.

I've picked up so much coral and the tank is getting crowded. I've been perusing around and will be upgrading to a 90 within the next few weeks hopefully. Can't wait to get my feet wet. I'm considering going Barebottom and definitely going to pass on the rock wall this time around. Don't plan on bringing my Snowflake eel over to the next build so I may end up selling him soon...I'll have to break the tank down to do it though so it'll probably wait a few more days.