Dan's 90 build

[Lysa.anne]

My "helper" regularly helps herself to my RODI water... Apparently her bottled water isn't good enough! She's great around the tanks though, their like walls that she avoids!

Sorry to hear about your tank, should have waited Until I got to the end before commenting. Good luck with the next one!

[Youngster Dan]

Well, I'm back!

I moved into a new apartment, and I have a space waiting for the tank to be moved in. Basically, I just need to stop procrastinating and move the darn thing from where it is in storage and set it up again! New things in which I am going to work on:

Fish:

The only thing I have left from my old tank, is a flame angel and two clowns. I'm considering doing something a little different, if anyone has some suggestions I'm all ears. I was considering a fuzzy dwarf lion, or maybe even abandoning the fish all together and going for some dwarf cuttlefish. Hmmmmm

Corals

I am going to try mostly SPS in this tank, whereas my last tank was more LPS

Lighting

I'm thinking of putting three DIY LED "pendants" Details will follow, and I will chronicle their progression.

Maintenance

I would like this tank to be as low maintenance as I can afford. It may mean getting a doser, and an ATO. I spend 8 hours a day cleaning, feeding and just doing general fish related things. While this is awesome, coming home to more fish work is not exactly what I want to do.

I think I will accomplish this primarily through keeping a small fish bioload. I feel that this will keep my nutrient levels in check, and just keep most of the headaches at bay. Though, it will be hard to resist the urge to add "just one more fish" every time I visit the LFS.

[Blue World Aquariums]

Originally Posted by Youngster Dan

maybe even abandoning the fish all together and going for some dwarf cuttlefish. Hmmmmm

This.

[fishytime]

Welcome back mang!..... Now get that thing moved!

[chris121277]

Welcome back there Dan

[Lance]

Hey Dan. Good to see you back. Now get some water in that thing!

[Youngster Dan]

WOW do I know how to procrastinate or what?!

So, I have been busy the last couple weeks and it is time to share with you fine folks. I haven't really been active in terms of posting much for the last six months, but that isn't to say I haven't been quietly lurking in the back.


Anywho here she is as of last week!



which is a poor cry from how she was before:




Alas, life has its interesting little turn of events. Since I have been gone I somehow managed to get the coolest little job as an Aquarist at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Center (if you drop by feel free to ask for Dan, and I would be honored to show a fellow canreefer around. That is, if I am not busy of course). While that job is an absolute dream, there is one problem: the water is too cold!!

I'm ready to get my hands wet at home again, in some nice, warm tropical water!


What I have done so far:

Plumbing : Check



Ok, I don't have some good photos of the whole plumbing yet. But, I can always take some! (It is pretty straight forward, but what the heck. It's a good to journal all these things)

The real fun part has to do with the lighting. Firstly, I decided 6 T5 were great, but I just want to try something different.

So, I took apart my TEK light:









The plan was to do a T5 LED combo. I figured, might as well recycle. So I saved four of the reflectors and one of the ballasts to be incorporated into a LED set up.

So the LED building begins. I see a lot of people talking about LEDs and what have you. I want to point it out that I am certainly no expert on this matter. Really, I am just kind of hoping it works.





I hope you can see this photo, because after looking at this light I can barely see anything:



Note the water! Man, RODI takes forever to fill a tank I tell ya.



Hmm, I wonder which apartment has a reef tank.



I've decided to wait until I fire up the T5's and see how I like LEDs by themselves. I have made it so I can quickly set up the combination at a later date.