Jordan's 55 Gallon Reef!

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Look into drilling it, we have a petstore here that drills tanks for 20 bucks a hole. Just make sure you tell if it's tempered or not, if there's no sticker saying it is.. There is a way to test your glass.. I just drilled a 125, for a upcoming reef tank. Using a 55 gallon for sump.
 
fishfool58 said:
Look into drilling it, we have a petstore here that drills tanks for 20 bucks a hole. Just make sure you tell if it's tempered or not, if there's no sticker saying it is.. There is a way to test your glass.. I just drilled a 125, for a upcoming reef tank. Using a 55 gallon for sump.
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Awesome! Thanks. That's the only number I've heard. At that kind of rate it shouldn't be a problem. Just have to wait to find out whether its tempered or not! I would definitely prefer drilling it.

aadair22 said:
You need to convince your bf that you need this tank.. God.. I WISH my wife would find a tank like this and talk me into buying it... Lol
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He's a keeper alright! He tolerates my obsession well and tries to be excited about it. Lol. Too bad my apartment complex would probably freak! But it would be so fun! One of these days... They sell bamboo sharks all the time at my lfs. It usually breaks my heart when one is sold because I wonder if its actually going into the 300 gallon MINIMUM it requires. That craigslist post gave me a little bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, they're actually going in a proper tank.
 
If your curious to know how to tell, YouTube how to identify tempered glass.. You basically take 3D and look through the glass, with a laptop screen on the other side.. I took videos, but I can't post them.. Check it out, it worked for me.. I can post this though. It's the center piece cut out of my tank. Where it was drilled, pretty cool stuff..
 

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fishfool58 said:
If your curious to know how to tell, YouTube how to identify tempered glass.. You basically take 3D and look through the glass, with a laptop screen on the other side.. I took videos, but I can't post them.. Check it out, it worked for me.. I can post this though. It's the center piece cut out of my tank. Where it was drilled, pretty cool stuff..
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Use 3D glasses? I will def give it a shot. That is pretty cool. Lol.
 
Yes.. It's neat, try it at night.. If you do outside.. If you're not sure what tempered glass looks like.. Do you car window first.. I had a tank I knew was tempered, (snake cage) so I used hers first, then tested the empty tank to look. Pretty neat. On the YouTube they use a polarized filter. Basically the same thing.. You can also use polarized sunglasses..
 
fishfool58 said:
Yes.. It's neat, try it at night.. If you do outside.. If you're not sure what tempered glass looks like.. Do you car window first.. I had a tank I knew was tempered, (snake cage) so I used hers first, then tested the empty tank to look. Pretty neat. On the YouTube they use a polarized filter. Basically the same thing.. You can also use polarized sunglasses..
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Really awesome! I'm not even sure what polarized means, so I was worried about trying to find polarized sunglasses. Lol. I literally refuse to pay more than $1 for sunglasses, so I know that I don't have any. However, my parents own a 3D TV so I bet they'll be willing to let me borrow some of their 3D glasses. Smart idea with trying the car windows first. I was wondering how I was going to gain a little bit of perspective. Thank you so much! :) So, trying it at night... does that mean my lights in my apartment need to be off when I check my tank?
 
Also, do I just leave my screen a solid color? Or do I watch a video or something? I don't want to make a mistake and destroy this tank. That's my biggest concern!
 
Yeah, turn your lights off, & the best thing to do us bring up paint, & make the tablet or whatever a light blue color or even white.. & then you can see, pm me you're email, & I'll send you the videos I took of a tempered glass tank, & the tank we wanted to drill which turned out not to be tempered.
 
fishfool58 said:
Yeah, turn your lights off, & the best thing to do us bring up paint, & make the tablet or whatever a light blue color or even white.. & then you can see, pm me you're email, & I'll send you the videos I took of a tempered glass tank, & the tank we wanted to drill which turned out not to be tempered.
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Message sent. Thanks! :)
 
Definitely siphon as much of that algae off the glass as possible. If you just scrape it off it will float around and start growing in a different spot. Not sure what's fueling all that algae if your only feeding twice a week. Your sand looks great as does all the coral. Where do you get your top off and saltwater again? How often are you changing/cleaning your filter pads? What lights are you running? If its t-5's they may need to be replaced, as they get old they cross over to the red spectrum which fuels algae growth. Your green star polyps and what looks like toadstool leather corals shouldn't kill each other. The polyps may choke them out for space though, they grow fast.
 
My pulsing xenia stopped pulsing for some reason. It's the third bunch. Yours are so active. I know a lot of people do not like the coral because it tends to become a weed, but i'm curious to know why it stops pulsing and tends to thin out.
 
apet66 said:
Definitely siphon as much of that algae off the glass as possible. If you just scrape it off it will float around and start growing in a different spot. Not sure what's fueling all that algae if your only feeding twice a week. Your sand looks great as does all the coral. Where do you get your top off and saltwater again? How often are you changing/cleaning your filter pads? What lights are you running? If its t-5's they may need to be replaced, as they get old they cross over to the red spectrum which fuels algae growth. Your green star polyps and what looks like toadstool leather corals shouldn't kill each other. The polyps may choke them out for space though, they grow fast.
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I didn't know that about the lights! Thanks! Some of them were new in January, some in February, and one is only a couple days old. I have some replacement lights handy, so I will change them out. I will also siphon the algae out soon. I'm planning a water change for probably Tuesday and I will do that then. I rinse the purgen when I do water changes. My protein skimmer also probably needs a good cleaning. I just don't know what is safe to clean it with? When the leathers get a little bigger I may try to move them to another rock. I mix my own water with water from my brother's RODI system. He changed the filters in it recently, so i don't think it could be that. Thanks for the compliments on the corals and sand. I have 30-40 ish hermit crabs and they keep it pretty clean. :)

TommyP said:
My pulsing xenia stopped pulsing for some reason. It's the third bunch. Yours are so active. I know a lot of people do not like the coral because it tends to become a weed, but i'm curious to know why it stops pulsing and tends to thin out.
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I love the xenias because they grow so fast. Lol. I love the movement they add. Mine got really upset for a while and I thought they were seriously about to die. So I tried moving them to different places in my tank and they finally found a happy spot. It took about 2 weeks of moving them around for them to get comfortable and start pumping that way. Now they're growing like crazy. I found they like a low flow spot. Which is odd because at my lfs they're always in a high flow area and thriving.
 
Your bulbs are not that old but 6 months is about as long as you should run them, from what I've heard.
 
Since I'm starting to get into the planning phase of my 100 gallon reef, I'm going to start a new thread for it. I will do it as soon as I post this comment. I really hope y'all will follow and help give me good advice! I have a lot to learn so I will have a lot of questions. Lol.

I will continue to update this thread as long as my 55 is still running, which might be well into this December or January of next year. :)
 
Went to my lfs today. I had to share a picture of this guy. I wanted him so bad! I wish I could have a species saltwater tank. He'd be mine. Lol.


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