PB_Smith
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well I finally managed to get the 50 I got off craig's list set-up over the holidays.
I made a DIY undergravel filter by taking corrugated plastic and using a cheap soldering iron I melted a billion holes in then used some PEX pipe to make a frame for it to rest on and drilled holes in the pipe. I have a small pump pushing about 100gph through it in a reverse flow. So far it seems to be working as desired in that detritus does not get sucked down into the substrate but gets kicked back up into the water column whenever the snails move around and stuff.
I should have taken pics during construction....oh well.
Drilled out the back for drains and have the returns coming through the holes already in the top.
Took about 14 hours to do the complete transition from the 30 to the 50, and that includes fixing and reinforcing the stand.
Have a sump set-up using two plastic storage boxes. Have about 30lbs of small lava rock and 4 liters of Matrix/Denitrate in there and a DIY chemical filter with carbon, Chemi-Pure, Purigen and Phosban. Only thing left to add is a protein skimmer.
I did lose a camel shrimp, it literally disappeared.
Aside from the expected diatom bloom and a little cyano outbreak, all is going well.
Got a couple new critters;
A longnose hawk;
an arrow crab;
a mandarin goby;
I guess I got lucky, within 30 minutes of being in the tank he was eating black worms and frozen brine very aggressively and has started to gain back some weight and is getting that nice fat, round look.
I do have a problem now though, it's this guy;
He was in a tank by himself for a while and he is the largest critter in my tank. you can see how big he is in the full tank shot with him sitting in his cave, and here compared to my damsel;
.
Problem is he is very aggressive and stalks the other critters. I'm pretty sure he killed a beautiful orange spotted filefish I had. File fish was doing great and then one morning I found him wedged into a crack in the rock dead and his sides were all scraped up as if something with claws was trying to pull him out.
Then that same morning as I watched I saw him grab the mandarin by the meat of it's tail and his face. I had to knock on the tank to startle the shrimp to let go. Now my mandy has a scrape across his head and tail.
This same shrimp gave my Bangai cardinal a hair cut before and is why he was alone. I guess moving to a bigger tank didn't do much for his disposition...LOL
Biggest pain is going to be getting him out, looks as if it's time to rescape whether I want to or not.
Really disappointed about the filefish, they look awesome and I don't see them available very often........stupid SHRIMP!!!!!!!
current stock:
Fiji Damsel
Percula clown
Fire goby
Mandarin goby
Bangai cardinal
Polka-Dot cardinal
Longnose hawkfish
male camel shrimp (female disappeared)
Banded coral shrimp (the killer)
emerald crab
2 orange fiddler crabs
LARGE green brittle star
Arrow crab
hermits and snails
Chocolate Chip star
I made a DIY undergravel filter by taking corrugated plastic and using a cheap soldering iron I melted a billion holes in then used some PEX pipe to make a frame for it to rest on and drilled holes in the pipe. I have a small pump pushing about 100gph through it in a reverse flow. So far it seems to be working as desired in that detritus does not get sucked down into the substrate but gets kicked back up into the water column whenever the snails move around and stuff.
I should have taken pics during construction....oh well.
Drilled out the back for drains and have the returns coming through the holes already in the top.
Took about 14 hours to do the complete transition from the 30 to the 50, and that includes fixing and reinforcing the stand.
Have a sump set-up using two plastic storage boxes. Have about 30lbs of small lava rock and 4 liters of Matrix/Denitrate in there and a DIY chemical filter with carbon, Chemi-Pure, Purigen and Phosban. Only thing left to add is a protein skimmer.
I did lose a camel shrimp, it literally disappeared.
Aside from the expected diatom bloom and a little cyano outbreak, all is going well.
Got a couple new critters;
A longnose hawk;
an arrow crab;
a mandarin goby;
I guess I got lucky, within 30 minutes of being in the tank he was eating black worms and frozen brine very aggressively and has started to gain back some weight and is getting that nice fat, round look.
I do have a problem now though, it's this guy;
He was in a tank by himself for a while and he is the largest critter in my tank. you can see how big he is in the full tank shot with him sitting in his cave, and here compared to my damsel;
Problem is he is very aggressive and stalks the other critters. I'm pretty sure he killed a beautiful orange spotted filefish I had. File fish was doing great and then one morning I found him wedged into a crack in the rock dead and his sides were all scraped up as if something with claws was trying to pull him out.
Then that same morning as I watched I saw him grab the mandarin by the meat of it's tail and his face. I had to knock on the tank to startle the shrimp to let go. Now my mandy has a scrape across his head and tail.
This same shrimp gave my Bangai cardinal a hair cut before and is why he was alone. I guess moving to a bigger tank didn't do much for his disposition...LOL
Biggest pain is going to be getting him out, looks as if it's time to rescape whether I want to or not.
Really disappointed about the filefish, they look awesome and I don't see them available very often........stupid SHRIMP!!!!!!!
current stock:
Fiji Damsel
Percula clown
Fire goby
Mandarin goby
Bangai cardinal
Polka-Dot cardinal
Longnose hawkfish
male camel shrimp (female disappeared)
Banded coral shrimp (the killer)
emerald crab
2 orange fiddler crabs
LARGE green brittle star
Arrow crab
hermits and snails
Chocolate Chip star
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