Sniperhank's UPGRADED 55 gal Build

[needmorecowbell]

Looking good, wish I still had my emerald crab, they are great scavengers.

[Sniperhank]

I wish my second hadn't arrived dead. Shrug. I wouldn't struggle so much with clean up crews if I could actually buy them near me. Even petco doesn't usually have hermits or snails.

[needmorecowbell]

Check out reef cleaners.com, they are amazing and really cheap. It will probably be cheaper than buying from petco lol.

[Sniperhank]

Oh im quite aware. Was more trying to state the annoying point of this. It gets expensive making all these orders. Would be nice to go to get groceries and make
a quick stop at the lfs if i needed something other than disappointment.

My order with my coral should be shipping tomorrow. I sent an email, which they requested, on how i want things to arrive. I openly stated i want my entire order, even if it is late and that i want all of it. Having store credit with every order is stupid.

[needmorecowbell]

Yeah, I could see how that would be annoying, especially since there are so many that are a little too far away. Do you know of them all? There are a few that you might be close too. I keep finding out about the smaller ones and they just keep getting better than the lfs before.

[Sniperhank]

Well that depends. I know of one around slippery rock, but that's about it.

[needmorecowbell]

Yep that's a good one, cheap clean up crews there too.

Try Dave's aquastock in Ambridge, it's about 20 minutes up the road from aqua world. Theres also Elmer's, but I'm sure you've heard of them. Oddballs on 677 Joseph street?

It's creepy how I know the addresses, I know lol.

[Sniperhank]

I used to hit up Elmer's when I was...well your age running my freshwater tanks. I'll have to check them out next time I'm down around there.

[Sniperhank]

Oh, and just snagged a quick order off of reefcleaners. Quick 55 gal pack with a penny macro algae and some red mangroves.

[needmorecowbell]

Yeah Elmer's is cool. I want to go there soon for some sps frags, my new addiction lol.

Tell me how the mangroves work out for you, I love how they look, it would be cool to stick them out of my overflow or something.

[Sniperhank]

Hm...overflow...that's a neat idea. I was thinking sand in a plastic butter container in the fuge.

[Jlsardina]

I have acrylic Rods and zip ties holding my mangroves up in my fuge. When the first started I hung them in a breeder box with sand to start the roots

[needmorecowbell]

I've been reading more about them, Anthony Calfo wrote an article about caring for them. It seem that keeping them in an overflow box isn't very healthy. My fuge is bare bottom so I have to use a container I guess. They aren't very good for filtration, i wanted them because they are pretty so I probably won't get them.

[Sniperhank]

Well, The sump is up and running! Everything is transferred over. A small trickle leak from the ONLY connection I didn't silicon...flex tube coming from the overflow. I'll try to figure out how I'll fix that later...

I was scrambling to get everything hooked up and then realized...my pods were still in the other sump...dang it. So I was pulling them out of the sump with sponges and was tearing other things down only to find pods through everything I have. Kept dumping them into the fuge until I just said screw it. I have more pods coming in with my mangroves and CUC. I'm pretty excited now that it is going.

Have both aqualifters hooked up, one for my ATO and the other on the overflow. Just have yet to see the ato in action. It'll make sure I know it's working. I then pulled the butter container out of the cupboard and filled it with sand from my 36. It is in the fuge awaiting the mangroves .

[needmorecowbell]

Sounds great! You really don't need to take all the pods out, theyll reproduce fast with a fuge. Couldn't you just take a cup and remove some water from the tank to get the ato to go? Just dump it back in to get the same salinity whenever it evaporates again.

[Flreefer]

Glad you got it all running Sniper!
What ATO did you go with? I would like to set one up myself pretty soon.

[Sniperhank]

I have a jbj going on mine. Going to need to fiddle with it since pulling the float out if the water didnt kick it on.

Oh, and coral beauty has ich. He keeps trying to eat the algae the clowns live in and they kick the crap out of him. Well see how that turns out as i dont have a qt large enough for him.

[Flreefer]

Jbj huh, cool. I haven't looked at them yet, but I'd like to add one. Figure it would make things a little easier anyway, and a little more automation too, always love that.
I've had 2 Coral beauties in my salt career, lost both fairly quickly and kinda swore off of them, although I was pretty new at it then. Same thing with Grammas, had 3 of those. Just so darn timid, guess my tank was too lively for them.
Of course all of these fish came from Petco, and mine isn't so hot.
Anyway, hope your Beauty pulls through for you, my track record with them is pretty poor!
PS.- I had all above mentioned fish, one at a time, in a 135, but still one at a time.
Best of luck!

[Sniperhank]

Gramma's timid? It is the most aggressive fish I own...It runs my 36. This of course is after it was booted out of the 55 because it was bullying my 2 black clowns.

[Flreefer]

Well I guess it depends on what other fish they are with. Mine would barely come out to eat. But they were with a few damsels, Coris wrasse, Niger trigger, yellow tang, Coral beauty and a Clarkii clown... Kind of a tough neighborhood!! Like I said though, this was in the beginning of my aquatic endeavor, and I had never even had a fresh tank. (2005)