400 gallon project - Page 51

untamed · #**501** 03-09-2008, 10:47 PM

The female Blue Throat has eluded me on every capture technique. I spent last evening trying to fish her out with a hook...but she's too cautious (or not yet hungry enough!)

Meanwhile, the male Blue Throat has been delivered to the Vancouver Aquarium. Here he is in quarantine. In typical Trigger fashion, he refused to be removed from his vase. He even stayed put when the vase was emptied of water and held upsidedown! So...I left the vase with them. They can return it later when he decides the world is not ending.

Here is the tank he'll be moving to. It is their nearly 11,000 gallon tropical fish display. I'm confident that he'll be much happier there. I'll have to go back and see him 30 days from now.

michika · #**502** 03-10-2008, 01:00 AM

A nice sweet happy ending for them!

wiszmaster · #**503** 03-11-2008, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by untamed

...
The final big step was just completed. I gave up on being able to design the light lifter so well that I could have some aluminum fabricator build it perfectly....so I built it from 2x2.

Here's the completed frames. This is a picture of both the upper and lower frames with the actuator fully lifted such that the lower frame is squeezed up against the upper frame. The actuator slides 30" horizontally, while the cables and pulleys tranfer the horizontal movement into vertical movement.

That is great ... i've been thinking about doing something similar ... are you still liking the design as is, or would you do something different next time around?

Great looking tank!

Thanks,

marco

untamed · #**504** 03-11-2008, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wiszmaster

That is great ... i've been thinking about doing something similar ... are you still liking the design as is, or would you do something different next time around?

Great looking tank!

Thanks,

marco

That light lifter has worked perfectly and I think it might be the greatest technical achievement of the tank design. The only thing I would do differently is to make it out of aluminum. The wooden 2x2's are a bit flexible and one of the lights hangs slightly lower than the others.

Delphinus · #**505** 03-11-2008, 08:32 PM

Any luck catching the female bluethroat yet?

That's way cool that the aquarium will take them though. I had sort of figured that you can't approach them with requests to take livestock as it sort of opens up a precedent you'd think they would rather avoid. (eg., "So I have this 6 foot blacktip shark that needs a home..."

) But still, it would be really neat going to the aquarium and seeing your old "friends" like that.

There was a time I was contemplating approaching the aquarium to donate my ritteri as it's quite a large monster, and the cost to keep a tank running that's dedicated to it, keeps me from running a single "really nice" system. On the one hand, I'd hate to give up on it, after so many years it's sort of become my "one true identity" in this hobby ("the guy with the ridiculously large anemone") and it's the one thing I can truly post about with any authority on the subject over at RC .. but on the other hand, I look at tanks like yours and wish I could do something close to it ... but I'm more or less anchored unless I give it away. If the aquarium were interested, that would be a really cool send off knowing that they went to a facility where the public could enjoy seeing such a display.

Anyhow sorry for the off topic rambing. Very nifty, next time I make it to the aquarium I'll be looking for the big pair of bluethroats.

BC564 · #**506** 03-13-2008, 08:54 PM

That tank is very impressive.....I first saw your tank thread a year ago ......Im glad I got to finish reading it today...and look forward to continued posts on it.....I have my own thoughts of a XL tank one day and automating it ......your thread has helped alot in the process mechanical end of things.....

Thanks

untamed · #**507** 03-14-2008, 05:41 AM

Some fishy photos...because I was practicing in preparation for the photo seminar this weekend.

Am I supposed to have the fish swimming to the left...or to the right?

Chowder · #**508** 03-14-2008, 03:43 PM

I think your supposed to mix it up.

BC564 · #**509** 03-14-2008, 03:46 PM

From the second pic...it would appear your urchin is getting quite big or very close in the foreground.

untamed · #**510** 03-14-2008, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BC564

From the second pic...it would appear your urchin is getting quite big or very close in the foreground.

Yes, that hatpin urchin is probably 10" in diametre. When I got HIM, he was maybe 2". There are two urchins in the tank. One hitchiked in on the LR. The hitchiker urchin is smaller, with generally shorter spines. That one has grown from <1" to about 3". Both eat coraline.

There is a display of Bengaii Cardinal Fish with Hatpin urchins at the Vancouver Aquarium. The young Cardinals are supposed to hide in the urchin spines, but I saw no evidence of that in the display. None of their urchins were as large as mine, and they are clearly the same species.