40 Gallon Recovery

[corruption]

Alright, so I guess its finally time to share some pics of my 40 gallon tank... As I mentioned in my introduction thread -- this tank took some serious abuse while I was simply too busy for a year and a half -- the last 4 months have been an uphill battle to get it back to a semblance of attractiveness.. Despite everything I believed when I started -- the tank actually has recovered quite nicely, and is once again a joy to view :D

Tank stats:

-40 Gal Custom -- former display tank from the original FinAddict location -- 33.5"x14.25"x19"
-Crappy pressboard stand, delaminated and dissolving from the surface... hence why this is all moving to my 75 gallon :D
-Odyssea 4x39w T5HO fixture -- 2 standard whites that came with the fixture, and BlueLife 420nm and 460nm for actinic
-Pro-Clear Aquatics 10 gallon wet/dry filter -- got it from jeffro when buying the 75 gallon, a big part of how I've been able to sparkle up my water
-1 Koralia 3, 1 Koralia 1, 1 Vortech MP10
-Tunze Nano 9002 skimmer

This tank has had a long life, and the stand shows it. While it still sturdily holds the tank, it doesn't reassure us -- all the inhabitants here will be moved to the 75 gallon tank once it has had some time to sit fallow.

On to the pics! :D

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Continued on the next post... too many pics :D

-Corruption

[corruption]

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Everyone, meet John Shaft... he's one bad mutha... :D

We named him based on attitude -- we understand the nature of clownfish sexuality, and realize he is a she, but we don't care... he's John Shaft. Here he is playing with the wife -- he likes to have splash battles at the surface of the tank with her:

http://binarybuccaneers.org/tank/DSC00553.JPG

I didn't take any pics of the tank before I began the recovery, because honestly it was too heartbreaking. I didn't want memory of that. :)

-Corruption

[Jordan N.]

It really has recovered nicely, every time I see it the algae has receded back a little further. The brain coral and the SPS look good; they will look even better in the 70 gallon. <.<

I'll need to get a picture of your starry blenny next time I'm over, I didn't relize I didn't get one.

-Jordan

[corruption]

Yeah, I thought we had gotten one too -- didn't realize til I was thumbing through the pics that we missed him..

In case anyone's curious, all the more square-sized images are taken with Servernode's Nikon DSLR camera, all the wider sized images are taken with my Sony point-and-shoot camera..

-Corruption

[corruption]

Erik -- a lot of this will look familiar to you :D Its the diatribe I sent you a month or so back via PM, somewhat edited for content :)

Here's the history of my tank -- feel free to read it or not :D

My setup and deep saltwater history is as follows: I broke my back 5 years ago, and 6 months after, I needed something to occupy my time, so I finally took all my reading and admiring and studying and applied it... bought a '40 gallon' tank on craigslist for a steal at 75... or so I thought. Then I got home, measured it and googled -- only to find I bought a 20. A one time mistake, not to be repeated again :rofl:

We got the 20 gallon set up hastily, went to Aquatic Warehouse and bought about 15 lb of Toku rock fresh off the plane, and started my curing process... about 3 weeks in, we got antsy and tossed in a chromis. We were brave with him too, in hindsight -- we walked into Fintique (great prices, a few cool workers, but wow is their saltwater stuff filthy!) and bought him out of a tank for 3 bucks, less than an inch in size, prolly 3/4".... We still have him today. 4 years and 2 tanks strong! :)

At first, we had no plans to do corals, especially after figuring out that we got way less tank than we wanted... we picked up a black combtooth blenny, and a black and white ORA tank-bred ocellaris... the wife adored the blenny -- 'black betty' (bam-a-lam-a.. whoa-oh black betty, bam-a-lam.) -- unfortunately, the ocellaris did not... He takes no guff, and is about as vicious with my hand as Rob's was... and he is forever John Shaft. I understand the dimorphics of fish, so I understand its a female... but its John Shaft. He's one bad mutha.

So, we had to split em up, the blenny was the wife's pride and joy... By this time, we were hanging out 2-3 times a week up at Fin-Addict with Sarah and Felipe.. We started talking to Sarah about any used tanks they may have.. I have an affinity against 55 gallon tanks -- no tank that big should be that narrow -- its just wrong... She did, however, have this very interesting tank, with a very ****ty stand -- very 'complete' and at a very good price... 40 gallons, with bizarre dimensions -- 33.5"x14.25"x19" -- but high quality, well finished glass in an industrial design... Sarah said that they had it built as a display before they put in their long raceways that inhabited the store on Nacogdoches.. The 'complete' portion, was with the exception of lights -- came with a hang on back Emperor 400 bio-wheel filter and a Red Sea Prizm skimmer... yeah, the pinnacle of success in marine aquaria :bigsmile:

We got it home, got it setup, ordered lights through Fin-Addict (130 watts of Power Compact power, baby!) , and picked up rock from them as well -- they gave us a ton of established rock for a steal -- ~50lb, 70 bucks.. Couldn't tell in their storage bin that it was literally wrapped in hair algae, everywhere.. and thus began my epic journey to kill hair algae... Scrub scrub scrub, dig dig dig, scrape scrape scrape, fruitless. It waxed and waned, off and on, off and on, for about 9 months -- as my tank cycled, go figure. Changed out the fecal material skimmer and hang-on-back filter, and got myself a CPR AquaFuge (hang on back fuge) and a Tunze Nano skimmer -- one of the first available ;) Once the cycle completed, we moved out of the apartment we were in, to the current house. Another quick 1 month cycle of the usual suspects, and we were good to go. At this point, it was about 3.5 years ago. The chromis and ocellaris were moved to the new tank and a rainfordi goby was added, the blenny was kept in the 20. We added a 6 line wrasse and a clown goby to the 20, and called it done -- it was a happy home for a year or so.

Just before we moved, we picked up this amazing ricordea florida from Aquatic Warehouse, and we had this awesome, but strange, flakey and spongey growth on the back of the rock.... And here's where good ol Fenner comes into the picture. I snapped a nice pic of the ricordea, which featured a big chunk of the gelatinous mystery goo, as well as a couple macros... Bob loved the pic, made it pic of the day, and struck up a conversation (along with identifying said goo --a Rhodophyte I believe?)... Asked me eventually to join the crew and/or write an article or two.. for pay. Pay won, and I wrote a couple articles to further fund my aquariums.. after writing the 2nd, Bob asked me to join the crew again, I accepted...

ANYWAY -- we move, tragedy strikes on the 20 -- in the course of the move, we forgot to float our blenny, goby, and 6-line in the 40 that's already set up before we go grab another load... by the time we get back, their bucket is down to 60 degrees, and they're all gone. :( The 40 does fine though -- tank cycles nasties for another month, then runs fantastic for about 1.5 years... many corals added, removed, fragged, 4x39w T5's added (just over an inch over water level), things were great. Then, my physical therapy post-injury ended (oh yeah -- I'm a partial paraplegic from the accident, no walky without a walker, and its a pain in my butt to do it.) so it was time to get a job.

Enter Rackspace, my future, and where I shoulda been 8 years ago -- the IT world. I joined the team as a low-level backup administrator, was quickly promoted to the top-level tech and trainer of my team, and am now administering the high-end hardware and networking portion of the backup environment... So with this greatness, comes a ****load of responsibility, and thus the last year and 8 months have been wrought with neglect for my tanks... 2 water changes in that whole period, only scraped the glass clear of cyano or hair algae once every 3 months, and would get depressed at the state of the tank, and let it fuzz over again. We still fed the fish, but corals almost all died off and everything was essentially an unkempt jungle...

When I got promoted to my current job, 4 months ago, I instantly had a TON of free time on my hands -- the new role is a higher end position, but requires much less daily input, and drags much less out of me -- I adore my new job... the previous position had lost its shine a long time ago. This let me finally get my hands wet and start again... at this point, I figured my 40 was a lost cause, and bought jeffro's 75 gallon with T5 lights and hang-on-back wet/dry filter he had listed on here back in October.. The next week I bought $500 in dry goods and such from Gabe's Fish to get it all back in shape (new test kits, some kalk just in case, a refractometer, some other stuff... and Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt.) The salt is what I always wanted to use, but was too poor to buy. Brought it home, and bought a new RO/DI from Air Water Ice and set up an auto-storage out back. Decided, "Eh, I'll let my fish live in good water before I get the 75 running", and set up 20 gallons of saltwater... Strapped on the wet/dry I got from jeffro, and put some chemi-pure and poly-filter in it... changed it all with a massive rock scrubbing festival 3 weeks ago... did another 20 gallons the next day. Another 20 gallons last week... another 10 gallons this week is the plan.. I didn't think I could make it look attractive again, especially after one of my 2 light fixtures burned out, but amazingly, its looking fantastic... Tropic Marin is some awesome salt, I tell ya what.

My NEW plan, is to make the 75 what I wanted in the first place... I drilled the tank with 1.5" bulkheads, 2 in 2 out (my first time drilling and plumbing, and I didn't think through the size I needed for returns... d'oh!).. begged Ace to build me a 36x14x15 sump and a 36x7x3.5 calfo overflow... Its drilled, the bulkheads are sealed, and the overflow is in place, but my plumbing's not finished... I'm getting that this weekend (payday, baby!) and will be ready to start up the fun -- gonna let it cycle til about January before I strip the 40 down and move it all over. Once the 40's stripped, we're gonna build a new stand and sump for it (just need the tools, otherwise I wouldn't have begged Ace -- I'm just impatient ;) and its gonna become the ultimate Port Aransas biotope... Jetty wall built into the back (I think I'm gonna go with epoxy after more thought, I used to do fiberglass so I know it'll work awesome.) and a SCWD or Oceans Motions 2-way on a decent sized-return pump (mag 9-12 range...), no other flow in the tank. I'm from Corpus, my wife adores Corpus, and we got married next to Horace Caldwell pier -- the place holds our hearts, so a home-built, home-caught port a biotope is a dream.


So thats it... the epic journey that is my 40 gallon aquarium. If you made it this far, I applaud you for your patience! :D I hope I didn't bore you to tears! :rofl:

-Corruption

[snfkotara]

Love the mushrooms they really cool looking.

[hobogato]

what ever it looked like before, it is looking really good now :)

i like the columns in the rockwork, will look great when things grow in

[corruption]

Thanks Ace :D

You remember the shaggy forest pics I had on the old FinAddict board? Yeah -- thats pretty much all the same rock. 4 years later, I'm still fighting that hair algae :bigsmile:

-Corruption

[corruption]

Due to some unforseeable circumstances, the 40 gallon has now been brought down... Water is still in the system, and I still have a few last things to move to the 75, but the 5 year legacy that was this 40 gallon tank is now over :)

Lighting issues have been the biggest factor -- the light is going to need to be warrantied due to faulty ballasts (overdriving bulbs to the point of burning them out in less than a week).. it was either, figure out lighting quickly for a tank that I'm breaking down in 2 months, or, break down the tank sooner than I really wanted to and just cope... I opted for choice 2. :)

-Justin

[justahobby]

At least the 75 is running. :bigsmile:

[corruption]

Indeed -- it had run for just shy of a month before moving stuff over... some maturity is better than nothing :D

-Justin