Dary's tank!

[Gregcoyote]

Just bought another clam. A 4" blue croacea. I always like buying live stock better than hardware!

 

[Dary421]

Just bought another clam. A 4" blue croacea. I always like buying live stock better than hardware!

It's been awhile since I've bought any live stock ..I'm just trying to get everything that I have going and growing ,so I'm really enjoying getting other do dads for the tank,..but this skimmer was a MAJOR investment so for me getting everything setup,plumbed and functioning was very rewarding.
Tomorrow,I'll continue with the cabinet extension and probably another trip or two to home depot.,...so far everything going along as planned,...loving the skimmer!
Good luck with the new clam,...you'll have to post some pictures.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Will do. Have you measured any phosphate levels to see if the new skimmer has made a difference? I guess if it produces more skimate than the old one, that's an automatic improvement. I wish my collection cup bubble riser didn't need scrubbing every 4-5 days.

 

[Sqasnatch]

Speaking of clams I just seen the nicest maxima clam ever. It was at aquariums by design in London Ontario and it was 300 bucks. I didn't. Have the cash available or I woulda picked it up. It was a beauty. As you walked by it, it would turn lime green to a glowing neon blue and there wasn't a dull spot on the entire mantle

 

[Gregcoyote]

There are some really spectacular ones.

 

[Dary421]

Will do. Have you measured any phosphate levels to see if the new skimmer has made a difference? I guess if it produces more skimate than the old one, that's an automatic improvement. I wish my collection cup bubble riser didn't need scrubbing every 4-5 days.

My tank's starting to look really good since the implantation of the new skimmer,..I had a small algea problem on various parts of my sand bed which now have really diminished a lot ,.. My phosphate test kit ( red sea ) was old, cap wouldnt tighten etc and as far as I'm concerned useless,..any test results given were totally absurd,..then I remembered that I had purchased a refill kit and those test resulted in a much more realistic value,..just a tad high but acceptable,..I'm thinking that maybe during the next BRS group buy I may check into a Hana test kit , I guess from what a lot of you guys say they are pretty good and accurate.
I've been working hard on my tanks cabinet extension and it's coming along very well,..so good in fact that I'm thinking of rebuilding my old tanks canopy , building new doors and reskimming some new surface wood on the old cabinet .,I'm just trying to recalculate how much new lumber to buy BEFORE I go back to homedepot.
I'm also experimenting on a formula that i found online that tuns new wood " gray" which'll make it look alittle more " nautical ".., years ago I had made a gret looking aquarium cabinet using old gray weather beaten wood taken from one of our dock lockers at work and I've always wanted to recapture that look again,..wether this expirament works will determine wether I go with it or just repaint things again in jet black.

 

[Gregcoyote]

That sounds excellent. The grey wood tone will accent the tank nicely.
Just became a Rapid LED seller and will be testing their new Onyx lights next week for my own use. They include a few green, red and UV violet Cree LEDs, so will be interested in how much PAR they have in comparison to our Chinese panels many of us are using, but they are priced attractively. My son has me convinced I need a touch of warmer light to make my corals look better, we will see. He is also a fan of the Cree LEDs.

 

[Dary421]

Taking a little break from working on the tank's cabinet.., this is really turning into a major endeavor but i decided to just take my time , make a million trips to home depot for everything i forgot to pick up on my last visit there and do a nice job.
I took a few more pictures of the construction along the way but there's a long way to go before its done. The experiment with the " graying" of the new wood came out better than i thought it would so i decided that itll be some shade of gray upon conclusion.
The skimmer continues to be a beast and so far I'm totally thrilled that i bought this monster...gotta get back to the project for now., i'll update later sometime

 

[mr_X]

Is that Magnum P.I. you're watching?

 

[Dary421]

Is that Magnum P.I. you're watching?

Absolutely !!! Prob my favorite show of all time !!! ( dvd's ..,have them up thru season six so far)

 

[Gregcoyote]

LOL, good catch on the video! Cabinet looks great.

 

[Sniperhank]

Dary, that is simply amazing. I can't wait to see it after you grey it out. You are demonstrating a skill that is simply lost to my generation.

 

[Dary421]

Dary, that is simply amazing. I can't wait to see it after you grey it out. You are demonstrating a skill that is simply lost to my generation.

That is soooo cool for you to say,...my girl friend Laura thinks I'm kinda a nut too butt loves what I'm doing,...so far my new dewalt table saw has left me with all my fingers intact and I'm loving every single minute of this whole project,..every day I learn something new from this forum,.. I still find it amazing that you can actually have a " reef" in your living room , maybe I'm just "old school" but I love it !

 

[Dary421]

LOL, good catch on the video! Cabinet looks great.

Thank you Greg !

 

[Keithhjs]

Fantastic Dary. Everything is coming along nicely. Very happy for you.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Absolutely !!! Prob my favorite show of all time !!! ( dvd's ..,have them up thru season six so far)

I really loved his performance in Ike. The acting from everyone was brilliant. If you haven't seen it it's definitely worth a grab on Netflix. I actually bought it twice after a friend lost the one he borrowed. Easily his best acting (that I've seen) and the guy who played Churchill was better than I ever thought possible.

Sorry for the movie review. Your cabinets are looking wonderful. Can't wait to see them greyed out! I may have to steal that woodworking technique. lol

 

[Dary421]

Fantastic Dary. Everything is coming along nicely. Very happy for you.

Thanks Keith,.,..after work today ( and another trip to home depot at 6 am ) I made the 6 foot long door for the canopy,...hopefully If nothing comes in the way of things,,I'll be graying out everything by Tuesday / Wednesday ( ?) , I'm expecting to hear about you ordering the "orca" before too long also.

 

[Dary421]

I really loved his performance in Ike. The acting from everyone was brilliant. If you haven't seen it it's definitely worth a grab on Netflix. I actually bought it twice after a friend lost the one he borrowed. Easily his best acting (that I've seen) and the guy who played Churchill was better than I ever thought possible.

Sorry for the movie review. Your cabinets are looking wonderful. Can't wait to see them greyed out! I may have to steal that woodworking technique. lol

I'll have my girl friend pick it up on our next movie night .

 

[Dary421]

Small update on the cabinet build...i was kind of proud of myself today when i made it once again to home depot with a list of supplies needed for completion of the cabinet.., i actually got EVERYTHING I needed and checked out and went to the car only to discover my bag of parts were missing a few items when i looked at it quickly., i returned to the store and asked the checkout girl if i had left anything behind.., a quick trip back into the hardware section again and i was homeward bound.. Once i got home i found that i actually was missing a bunch of stuff , she must have failed to give me a second bag ., im sure the next guy in line must be wondering where all this stuff came from :-/. So i guess ill be making another trip back there in the am to straighten things out..... Frustrating !!! Anyway, here's a couple more pictures taken along the way... Hopefully i can wrap this thing up pretty quick but theres a ways to go yet

 

[Gregcoyote]

Self check out at Home Depot is usually faster and at least you have no one but yourself to blame if you forget anything. I always end up making multiple trips to the old hardware store.