There are three or four types. All the tall ones in the centre are the same and I've begun to take frags from them to keep them under control.

I have a question! Being so gigantic, do your fish have hiding spots? Do they even bother to hide at night? I suspect maybe the littler fish do? Asssuming you even have caves for them to hide in. Just curious :-)

The blonde Naso seems to just hang around all night. All the others have set sleeping spots. Right at lights out, there is a lot of disputes over sleeping places. It never ceases to amaze me how you can look in that tank and see almost no fish at night.

Brad, I can't remember. Did you stain the bar before attaching it, or did you stain it after the fact?

Also, for the river rock, did you attach that direct to the plywood, or did you go through the process of putting up tar paper, then the metal grill, then the mortar, etc.?

I think Brad's boulders are fake Tony. Don't read too much into that but I don't *think* they required mortar =)

Yes, the bar got multiple coats of stain, then multiple coats of spar varnish all before installation.

The river rock is fake stuff used on exterior of houses. Because it was an indoor install, we skipped the tar paper...but it is installed over a metal grill, then cemented in piece by piece.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0494.jpg

Oh ok, thanks. Yeah I know the stuff is fake, I thought it was the same kind of stuff that you can put around fireplaces, of which you can get "river rock" (which looks *just* like what Brad has there) or a host of other kinds of things. I don't know if the stuff I was looking at was for both indoors and outdoors but the literature showed indoors only - but I was just reading up on the technique for how to build that stuff, and well, it sounds basically the same. They said you should do tar paper even for indoors though.

Alternatively drywall would be a quick and easy way to skin my tank stand and canopy, but also kind of boring. But at the same time I don't want the tank finish to take away from the tank itself. I'll never be in the silver orb or pheasant ball or artsy red chair with concrete walls kind of interior design category that some looloos are in but at the same time I'd like to try to at least say I put some thought into how it would look. :p I don't think I'd want river rock since that look has been done now but there are a number of other kinds that are pretty nice.

Anyhow just things I'm thinking about. Thanks for the info.

Two things wrong here:

1) Brad never made any perverted comment in response to mine. His thread so I'll respect that.

2) Tony...looloo? Come on dude that was as lame as my orb.

That said I love the rock Brad! Tony I don't think it's a good fit for you since this rock will weather away over the next couple hundred years due to dust and debris blowing over it in your basement. You're going to want something that will be intact for when your tank is done.

The rock was a pricey...and really permanent. Those would be the downsides of it.

Yeah, I priced it out to around $500ish for the surface area of my tank stand. I'm still undecided on it.

Would you do it again if given the chance?

I really like how it looks. It fits really well into the style of the house. If I did it again, I would look around at wall panelling. I'm sure there must be another way to get the same look without the expense and permanence.

Sort of like another Lance we all know :lol: :razz:

The tank looks great!

I may strut Laurie, but my horn is most definitely not on my forehead. :lol:

And here we all thought that was a unicorn in your pocket. Hot damn dude.

:pound: I'm laughing so hard right now I'm tearing up and I almost fell out of my chair!

Ich problems..
 

Here's the sequence of events...draw your own conclusions:

1) SpG of the tank falls from 1.025 to around 1.022
2) Pulsing Xenia self distructs completely! Total meltdown. This, of itself, was not really of concern to me. I've seen Xenia do this before. It usually comes back, but if it doesn't I'm not going to get upset about it's loss.
3) Achilles Tang breaks out in worst ich ever. Won't eat.
4) I've rapidly adjusted the SpG back up to 1.025.

The Achilles became so lethargic that I was able to reach in and basically hand-catch him. Those of you who are familiar with achilles tangs would know this is REALLY lethargic. I dropped him into a bucket of FW (at tank temp) to try to relieve him of some of the parasites. This puts the fish into some kind of rigor and I could only stand to leave him in there for about 1 minute.

Thinking he was basically frozen still, I was only holding him loosely in my hand when I removed him from the FW. He exploded in violent flipping and I was lucky to throw him across the top of the tank where he bounced off the top of the light fixture and back into the tank!

He seems much better this morning. I suppose we'll see.

Wow, I hope he makes it.

Hey Brad...
when are you going to change the title of this thread from "project" to "masterpiece"?

Brad, IMO I don't think the lowered SG made the Ich worse as the Ich parasite needs higher SG levels. I believe the lower SG stressed the Achilles and thus made it a target for the parasites in your system.

Difficult photos to see...Achilles with ich.
 

Well...Achilles is one tough fish. At this point, he has not eaten anything for at least 7 days. He still looks pretty solid at this point. Just as I start to think he is behaving a bit better, he turns for the worse. Lately, he's become the target of attacks by my yellow tang and ABT.

So...he's been moved to the refugium for some refuge. He may not make it, but at least now he won't get harrassed and he has unlimited food all to himself if he wants it.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/100_0772.jpg

In this photo you can see the extent of the parasitic attack. The large spot near his gills is just coraline on the glas, but everything else you can see is ich. You can also see some damage done by the yellow tang on his mid/upper back.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/100_0774.jpg

Since I know everyone loves a challenge.... See if you can spot the algae blenny in the following photo of Achilles in the 'fuge. This blenny has been living in the 'fuge now for almost a year.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/100_0772.jpg

BTW...if you see a frag that you really like, everything in this tank is available...cheap as always.

Hope he recovers

Poor guy! Get better Buddy.
Brad, I give up, I can't find the Blenny. :noidea:

Good luck with the Achilles.

I can't see the blenny either. Only thing I'm not sure of is that blob under the eggcrate but that could be a snail shell too for all I know.

I hope your Achilles gets better, and for the life of me I can't find the blenny :twised: Which is annoying because I'm usually pretty good at finding hidden items in pic.'s.

Edit: never mind I found him, he looks to be covered in green fuzzy algae (looks almost like gsp) he's right behind the egg crate on the right side and you can just make out his face poking up from the egg crate hiding partly behind the orange sps frag.

Get well soon......Is he curled up under the shroom on the right?

Nope read my edit above

Oh yeah, I see him now. Good eyes Laurie!

Well done! Yup, that's him. If anyone wants some TomR GSP, I seem to be in the same business now.

Hope he pulls through that fish is too beautiful to see like that.

Yay I figured it out, do I win a prize? :lol:

Go
 

beautiful fish!
________
LadyPosh live

Free behind the scenes tour. No expiry date.

hahaha... Im sure you would love to give the tour to anyone geek enough to listen.. :razz:

Sweet :biggrin: If I ever get out that way I will definitely take you up on that, and yes Ryan, I am geek enough to want to listen.

Yes... I know, as are all us regulars on Canreef. :mrgreen:

LOL, Ya some wouldn't call it Geek. I show them the door hahaha

wow, i am just getting into this i have a 70 gallon osaka that i thought looked cool, but this is just amazing, i started reading at about 7 and just finished now at 1245, awesome job looks incredible. I am just starting up my tank so this gives me a lot to look forward too.

Welcome to Canreef tony_3a!!
Make sure to start your own build thread and ask as many questions as you need to. :smile:

thanks! just added some fish so im excited to go from here.