my new project-Aquarium keeping part 2

[MrJavi]

i just bought Butch's breeding group of star sapphires!!!!!!!

should be picking them up sometime next week. i'll keep you guys posted on when i will get them......so excited!!!!!!!!

now of course i will drip them like i did last time.

now saturday will be my project day. i'm installing a ceiling fan for my room and then if i have enough energy after that i will be sealing up the sides of the 3d background. and since it is the 4th of July celebration, i will be grilling up some food as well.....GONNA BE A BIG DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Oops , hadn't read this before I posted the previous message lol.

 

[ocnbrze]

Oops , hadn't read this before I posted the previous message lol.

its all good ....i get it. yeah it is the entire group that is in the video towards the end. i believe it is something like 18 or so fish.....with two outstanding looking males.

it is a lot of money, i know. but after this purchase....the 180 is done!!!!!! LOL

i will just have to save up again towards the reef tank.....unless congress can provide another stimulus check....crossing fingers

 

[MrJavi]

its all good ....i get it. yeah it is the entire group that is in the video towards the end. i believe it is something like 18 or so fish.....with two outstanding looking males.

it is a lot of money, i know. but after this purchase....the 180 is done!!!!!! LOL



i will just have to save up again towards the reef tank.....unless congress can provide another stimulus check....crossing fingers

8

I'm sure they'll make a wonderful addition to your aquarium. When do you expect the star sapphires?

PS: Happy 4th of July @ocnbrze

As "Spock" would say " May your star sapphires live long and procreate "

 

[ocnbrze]

ok so an update.....i am a tad injured so i'm not sure how i am going to do this:

yesterday i had my finger get slammed by my company's van door. it is pretty smashed right now. it is not broken but very bruised. it was slammed so hard by the wind the my finger pretty much burst open with blood. its splinted right now and hurts like a motherf......er.

so i'm gonna see how grilling goes first before i try anything on the tank. i might still do it later on this evening.......maybe tomorrow.

i think i'm picking them up friday afternoon. we were just discussing when on friday i can swing by the airport to pick them up.

and it will be over 18 not 8.....lol

 

[MrJavi]

ok so an update.....i am a tad injured so i'm not sure how i am going to do this:

yesterday i had my finger get slammed by my company's van door. it is pretty smashed right now. it is not broken but very bruised. it was slammed so hard by the wind the my finger pretty much burst open with blood. its splinted right now and hurts like a motherf......er.

so i'm gonna see how grilling goes first before i try anything on the tank. i might still do it later on this evening.......maybe tomorrow.

i think i'm picking them up friday afternoon. we were just discussing when on friday i can swing by the airport to pick them up.

and it will be over 18 not 8.....lol

Sorry that @ocnbrze Had that happen to me as a child and remember it very painful. About 9 years ago I was in an car accident. I had a broken ankle and two broken fingers. Apparently the hospital staff didn't set my index finger properly so a month later the Orthopedic told me he needed to break and reset it properly. He broke it and tuged, pulled and twisted my finger for 2 or 3 minutes. I took it took it like a man but dam it hurt like hell !!! Come to think of it I should have drank some "Wellers" beforehand

 

[ocnbrze]

Sorry that @ocnbrze Had that happen to me as a child and remember it very painful. About 9 years ago I was in an car accident. I had a broken ankle and two broken fingers. Apparently the hospital staff didn't set my index finger properly so a month later the Orthopedic told me he needed to break and reset it properly. He broke it and tuged, pulled and twisted my finger for 2 or 3 minutes. I took it took it like a man but dam it hurt like hell !!! Come to think of it I should have drank some "Wellers" beforehand

well the good thing no bones were broken. my fingernails are bruised pretty bad. i have a pretty deep cut that is scabbed and sealed. luckily it is only the nail and tip of the finger that is injured.

i am draining down the tank as i type this. i'm gonna scoop some gravel and the fake rocks and will move them to a 29 gallon tank to keep the fish in temporarily.

 

[MrJavi]

You were lucky the car door wasn't locked when that happened. Ouch!!!

I'd be anxious but shacking in my boots receiving a group $650 Star Spheres.

 

[ocnbrze]

You were lucky the car door wasn't locked when that happened. Ouch!!!

I'd be anxious but shacking in my boots receiving a group $650 Star Spheres.

i'm not now that i have been thru this already. the only thing i worry is how quickly the water quality will be. that is going to be a lot of fish. i might have to do a weekly or even a bi-weekly water change.....you can bet i will be testing the water like crazy for the first few months. by then i should have a feel for the tank and will not need to test so often.

so right now i removed the background and did a little cleaning. i sprayed a diluted amount of bleach just to kill off the algea growing on the background. all the fish have been moved to the smaller tank. right now i'm just relaxing and waiting for the background to dry off in the L.A. heat. once dry i will then re-install the background and silicone the sides. i still do not know if i should try the foam first or silicone. or i might use both.....we shall see in a bit.....i'll let you guys know.

 

[MrJavi]

i'm not now that i have been thru this already. the only thing i worry is how quickly the water quality will be. that is going to be a lot of fish. i might have to do a weekly or even a bi-weekly water change.....you can bet i will be testing the water like crazy for the first few months. by then i should have a feel for the tank and will not need to test so often.

so right now i removed the background and did a little cleaning. i sprayed a diluted amount of bleach just to kill off the algea growing on the background. all the fish have been moved to the smaller tank. right now i'm just relaxing and waiting for the background to dry off in the L.A. heat. once dry i will then re-install the background and silicone the sides. i still do not know if i should try the foam first or silicone. or i might use both.....we shall see in a bit.....i'll let you guys know.

I see your getting good use out of the drip acclimator.

 

[ocnbrze]

ok all done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sides are now siliconed, fish have been dripped and released back into the tank. i'm leaving the canopy off as it is a bitch to put back on. i'll leave it off until i get the new shipment. i feel much better now that there are no fish living in the back of the background, and even better knowing that the sides are sealed.

 

[ocnbrze]

DISASTER STRIKES PART II

so i guess i should not drink and do projects at the same time. i have been trying to avoid mentioning this to you guys, but i think this good to point out mistakes even from professionals such as me. and yes i'm using alcohol as an excuse.....LOL

anyways so here is what happened on the 4th. so friday i smashed my finger. i was in pain and decided that alcohol works great numbing the pain....LOL after drinking some beers and bourbon i proceeded to empty the tank so that i can seal my background to the sides of the tank so that my fish will not roam to the back of the tank behind the background. i decided to use the black silicone to seal the sides to the tank. i thought i did a very good job at it. it looked really good and you cannot tell that i siliconed it to the tank. i then started to fill the tank up with water without waiting for the silicone to fully cure in the tank. after the water was filled i then dripped my fish (that was removed before fully draining the tank) and released them.....this was around 8pm. everything looked great. they were swimming around and i thought so far so good. i then drank a lot more and chilled outside watching all the illegal fireworks go off while sipped some more bourbon and smoked a cheap cigar.

i finally passed out and woke up the next morning and saw that all my fish were gasping for air and looked like they were going to die. i still had my 29 gallon tank running as i was using it to treat the one fish that was not eating.....so i dumped all the fish gasping for air and did a water change. i drained about 80% of the water and dumped my fish back into the tank. they seemed to be ok. they even looked like they wanted to eat, so i added some food which they ate......so i thought maybe crisis averted. i went to the supermarket and came back to find they most of the fish died. i said most......the survivors were the two bushynose pleco's i rescued from the back of the tank. the two baby bushynose pleco's, 1 green phantom pleco, and 3 of the poli cats.

so what happened? at first i was confused on what i did wrong. it seemed very similar to my first disaster i posted here before......nope. it seems that i just did not wait for the silicone to fully cure. even though the silicone i used does say that it is safe to use with fish, you have to wait for it to cure. during the curing process ammonia is produced. ammonia is very toxic for fish....and i used a lot of to seal the background. i tested the water and sure enough there was ammonia. on an established tank, ammonia should always be at 0. so seeing ammonia in my tank suggested that the silicone did not fully cure when i added my fish back. i should have waited at least 24hrs before releasing them back into the tank......or i should have let it air dry in the tank before filling it back up.

the silver lining is that the background is secure and that i still have a decent cleanup crew to keep the tank looking good. i have since did a few more water changes and added more buffer to get the hardness up to where it should be.

so the tank is ready for more fish.....which i am getting tomorrow. very excited, nervous, and anxious about it.

 

[MrJavi]

ok all done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sides are now siliconed, fish have been dripped and released back into the tank. i'm leaving the canopy off as it is a bitch to put back on. i'll leave it off until i get the new shipment. i feel much better now that there are no fish living in the back of the background, and even better knowing that the sides are sealed.

I knew there were a couple of snails but fishs managed to squeeze their way in as well? Perfectly understandable why you decided to seal the backing.

 

[MrJavi]

DISASTER STRIKES PART II

so i guess i should not drink and do projects at the same time. i have been trying to avoid mentioning this to you guys, but i think this good to point out mistakes even from professionals such as me. and yes i'm using alcohol as an excuse.....LOL

anyways so here is what happened on the 4th. so friday i smashed my finger. i was in pain and decided that alcohol works great numbing the pain....LOL after drinking some beers and bourbon i proceeded to empty the tank so that i can seal my background to the sides of the tank so that my fish will not roam to the back of the tank behind the background. i decided to use the black silicone to seal the sides to the tank. i thought i did a very good job at it. it looked really good and you cannot tell that i siliconed it to the tank. i then started to fill the tank up with water without waiting for the silicone to fully cure in the tank. after the water was filled i then dripped my fish (that was removed before fully draining the tank) and released them.....this was around 8pm. everything looked great. they were swimming around and i thought so far so good. i then drank a lot more and chilled outside watching all the illegal fireworks go off while sipped some more bourbon and smoked a cheap cigar.

i finally passed out and woke up the next morning and saw that all my fish were gasping for air and looked like they were going to die. i still had my 29 gallon tank running as i was using it to treat the one fish that was not eating.....so i dumped all the fish gasping for air and did a water change. i drained about 80% of the water and dumped my fish back into the tank. they seemed to be ok. they even looked like they wanted to eat, so i added some food which they ate......so i thought maybe crisis averted. i went to the supermarket and came back to find they most of the fish died. i said most......the survivors were the two bushynose pleco's i rescued from the back of the tank. the two baby bushynose pleco's, 1 green phantom pleco, and 3 of the poli cats.

so what happened? at first i was confused on what i did wrong. it seemed very similar to my first disaster i posted here before......nope. it seems that i just did not wait for the silicone to fully cure. even though the silicone i used does say that it is safe to use with fish, you have to wait for it to cure. during the curing process ammonia is produced. ammonia is very toxic for fish....and i used a lot of to seal the background. i tested the water and sure enough there was ammonia. on an established tank, ammonia should always be at 0. so seeing ammonia in my tank suggested that the silicone did not fully cure when i added my fish back. i should have waited at least 24hrs before releasing them back into the tank......or i should have let it air dry in the tank before filling it back up.

the silver lining is that the background is secure and that i still have a decent cleanup crew to keep the tank looking good. i have since did a few more water changes and added more buffer to get the hardness up to where it should be.

so the tank is ready for more fish.....which i am getting tomorrow. very excited, nervous, and anxious about it.

That sucks

Im glad you hadn't received the $650 Star Sapphires yet.

 

[ocnbrze]

no snails in my tank thank you much.snails can breed worse then rabbits. it just takes two to breed and have thousands of babies........no thanx......lol

yep. gonna test the water tomorrow and everything should be ok for the new fish.......crossing fingers.

 

[MrJavi]

@ocnbrze my friend, I'm hoping to hear some good news. Man, Im really hoping to hear some good news. Wishing you all the best

 

[ocnbrze]

ok sorry for the delay, been kind of a crazy few days.

my mom fell last night while i was dripping my fish. i had to take my mom to urgent care. so i had to speed the process up by throwing them into the tank and hoped for the best. after spending many hours at the hospital i finally got home late last night,,,,,the fish were asleep.

woke up this morning and everything is just fine. no deaths....crisis averted!!!!!!!!

been spending most of the day helping my mom with her broken arm. she just went to bed so i can relax now. currently drinking some Basil Hayden bourbon, but no cigar. might run out tomorrow to get some for the week.

update on the finger. finger is still black and blue. but the cut is still there and super sensitive.....nothing like a good drink can't cure......LOL

 

[MrJavi]

Good the hear your mother is out of the hospital. May see have a speedy recovery.

Glad the fish are ok too

 

[MrJavi]

How is everthing @ocnbrze my good friend. Looking forward to any updates you care to share.

 

[ocnbrze]

How is everthing @ocnbrze my good friend. Looking forward to any updates you care to share.

yeah everything is great. the fish survived the quick acclimation i did loose another exo to malawi bloat. according to Butch they are very succeptible to malawi bloat which affects their digestion. basically if they over eat too much a small organism called heximita can infect them. they will at first try to eat, but then spit the food out. they will then become listless and not swim much. they will have really thin and transparent poop coming out which i think is them shedding the organism, but i'm not completely sure of that as there is no literature as to what this thin, stingy poop like actually is.

and sorry about no updates, its just that with my finger smashed and helping my mom out with her broken arm has been taking most of my energy. yesterday and today my finger has improved 100%. it still stings if i graze my finger against something. i am now able to get my hands wet and i do not need to use a bandage any more.

i also cannot find one of my emerald phantom pleco's.....so maybe this weekend i might go to my lfs and see if i can find another cool pleco to add to the tank.

other then that the 180 is done for now. if these exo's keep getting malawi bloat, i might need to find another fish to add to the tank. but i'm done for now....especially financially....LOL

 

[MrJavi]

yeah everything is great. the fish survived the quick acclimation i did loose another exo to malawi bloat. according to Butch they are very succeptible to malawi bloat which affects their digestion. basically if they over eat too much a small organism called heximita can infect them. they will at first try to eat, but then spit the food out. they will then become listless and not swim much. they will have really thin and transparent poop coming out which i think is them shedding the organism, but i'm not completely sure of that as there is no literature as to what this thin, stingy poop like actually is.

and sorry about no updates, its just that with my finger smashed and helping my mom out with her broken arm has been taking most of my energy. yesterday and today my finger has improved 100%. it still stings if i graze my finger against something. i am now able to get my hands wet and i do not need to use a bandage any more.

i also cannot find one of my emerald phantom pleco's.....so maybe this weekend i might go to my lfs and see if i can find another cool pleco to add to the tank.

other then that the 180 is done for now. if these exo's keep getting malawi bloat, i might need to find another fish to add to the tank. but i'm done for now....especially financially....LOL

You've had a busy week, I can imagine how hectic things must be. I was just curious how things were with you, your mom and your project.
I just thought I'd touch base and let you know I enjoy reading your posts . Your an interesting guy, Your a pretty cool dude, Your a smart man and you're my friend @ocnbrze

 

[ocnbrze]

You've had a busy week, I can imagine how hectic things must be. I was just curious how things were with you, your mom and your project.
I just thought I'd touch base and let you know I enjoy reading your posts . Your an interesting guy, Your a pretty cool dude, Your a smart man and you're my friend @ocnbrze

its all good and thanx for the compliments.

i did forget to mention that on sunday i cleaned my filters and added in new carbon. now i have two Fuval FX6 running the 180. they do a great job on keeping the tank filtered and clear. however the clips that keep the lid closed are starting to break. as great as the filters are they used some very cheap plastic to keep the lids from leaking. to replace them, they are $16 a piece. there are 8 clips per filter......that's a shit ton of money to replace them!!!!!!!!!

 

[MrJavi]

Dam!!! that is a lot, way to much for a little piece of cheap plastic. I'm guessing they'll break just as easily as the original ones. I hate manufacturers that do that kind of BS just to make a buck.

 

[ocnbrze]

Dam!!! that is a lot, way to much for a little piece of cheap plastic. I'm guessing they'll break just as easily as the original ones. I hate manufacturers that do that kind of BS just to make a buck.

yeah it sucks. i might change the filtration at some point if those clips become an issue......but that is another project for another day......LOL

 

[ocnbrze]

3 STRIKES AND I"M OUT!!!!!!!

not really. but i have been putting off posting this. but i figured enough time has past that i can talk about it now. so my 180 had been the tank of death. after the initial loss and Butch from SEC sent me his breeding groups of star sapphires, i had more tragedy strike. i ended up losing not only all of the exo's, but also all of the male star saphires. it turns out there was some kind of disease that wiped them all out. still not sure what it was, but it definitely was something. apparently it also effect Butch's fish back east as well. anyways long story short, he was able to give me 10 baby exo's. i'm still waiting for more males to come in, but those will be mine when they do. i have a video i made of how my tank looks now and will post that later......probably over the coming weekend. the algae in the tank has calmed down now and my 3 plecos are doing a great job of keeping it under control. the algae makes the 3D background look more real.......so once i have some male sapphires in the tank the 180 will be done!!!!!

on an other note, i finally drained and removed my old tank. i still need to get rid of the stand and sump. i might try to do that later tonight after i smoke a cigar and have a glass of whiskey to chill out.......so we will see how chilled i get....LOL

i also will be getting a quote from a company that makes aluminum stands, hopefully by tomorrow. once, i get that and if the price is right, i shall proceed with the next part of my project for the reef tank. this last piece of my project will be much slower as i have to accumulate more funds to keep the project going so bare with me on this one. i'm guessing maybe by X-mas, it might be finished, but we shall see.

 

[ocnbrze]

ok guys, so i have ordered the stand. it is going to be a black aluminum stand made from https://www.alufabinc.com/. it is going to be a kit that i have to assemble myself. i'll keep you posted on when it arrives and the build process and then my final review of it. i only saw it on a youtube video and i really liked how it looked.

secondly, i just bought this sump and return pump:

Spoiler: click this to see what they are

Trigger Systems Sapphire Sump - 34 inch

Vectra M2 DC Aquarium Water Pump (Mobius Ready) - EcoTech Marine

here is the list of things i will need next:
1. the tank
2. the lights
3. the rocks
4. plumbing parts
5. and lastly the protein skimmer

the lights and the protein skimmer will come much later