There's something fishy about this build...

Slocke

I’m pedantic, ignore me
View Badges
Joined
Feb 3, 2022
Messages
8,563
Reaction score
30,287
Location
Atlanta
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I bought a tank. It's gonna have fish and water and stuff.
In all some seriousness, this tank is to replace my original tank, which was used, jerry-rigged together, and terrible. I hope to do better with this one.

The tank:
It's a ProStar 150 Peninsula. 48x24x24 110-gallon with a 30-gallon sump (as we all know, 110+30=150). It came with no instruction manual save a single image so hopefully it is that easy to put together otherwise I'm screwed as those who know me know what a useless plumber I am. For lights, I am starting with an AI Blade Grow and Glow. The plan is to get two more Blades, probably a Freshwater (to get red and more white lights) and another Grow. For flow, I am using Jebao because it is cheap.
IMG_0896.jpeg
IMG_0895.jpeg
IMG_0894.jpeg
IMG_0878.jpeg
IMG_3128.jpeg
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Slocke

Slocke

I’m pedantic, ignore me
View Badges
Joined
Feb 3, 2022
Messages
8,563
Reaction score
30,287
Location
Atlanta
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The fish:
In the old tank I have.
A domino clown
A tailless royal gramma (no idea how it lost its tail)
A common foxface
A Midas blenny
A firefish
A one eyed orange spot goby (the hawkfish in my other tank did that)
A blue tilefish
A banggai cardinalfish
A female mandarin

The wrasses:
Halichoeres marginatus
Halichoeres iridis
Halichoeres timorensis
Macropharyngodon bipartitus
Cirrhilabrus rubeus
Paracheilinus cyaneus
Anampses meleagrides
Labroides dimidiatus

Fish I am considering:
A second Anampses meleagrides
Macropharyngodon meleagris
Paracheilinus filamentosus
and probably any other fairy or flasher that catches my eye.
Perhaps an angelfish too.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Slocke

Slocke

I’m pedantic, ignore me
View Badges
Joined
Feb 3, 2022
Messages
8,563
Reaction score
30,287
Location
Atlanta
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The fish:
In the old tank I have.
A domino clown
A tailless royal gramma (no idea how it lost its tail)
A common foxface
A Midas blenny
A firefish
A one eyed orange spot goby (the hawkfish in my other tank did that)
A blue tilefish
A banggai cardinalfish

The wrasses:
Halichoeres marginatus
Halichoeres iridis
Halichoeres timorensis
Macropharyngodon bipartitus
Cirrhilabrus rubeus
Paracheilinus cyaneus
Anampses meleagrides
Labroides dimidiatus

Fish I am considering:
A second Anampses meleagrides
Macropharyngodon meleagris
Paracheilinus filamentosus
and probably any other fairy or flasher that catches my eye.
Perhaps an angelfish too.
I'd love to get a pencil wrasse too. @i cant think tells me they are real fish but I'm yet to see one.
 

i cant think

Wrasse Addict
View Badges
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Messages
19,120
Reaction score
38,554
Location
United Kingdom (England)
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Well I have to represent as one of the leading wrasse snobs on the forum.
You’re missing a few ;)
IMG_0785.jpeg


Guess I can now make it so one of the Meleagris is a male!
 

i cant think

Wrasse Addict
View Badges
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Messages
19,120
Reaction score
38,554
Location
United Kingdom (England)
Rating - 0%
0   0   0

i cant think

Wrasse Addict
View Badges
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Messages
19,120
Reaction score
38,554
Location
United Kingdom (England)
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Oooh, that’s a nice looking tank. I have to admit half of the reason I use AIO tanks is plumbing scares me.
I agree with this, working around fish shops you’d be surprised at the plumbing done and the nightmare when we run water through the first time. You never know if it leaks and you have to take apart the whole lot.

I hated plumbing my 5’ for that same reason, there was at least 4 times it began to leak. My nano however was nice and simple to deal with.
 

JoJosReef

10kW Club member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 27, 2021
Messages
11,693
Reaction score
40,105
Location
Orange County, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Oooh, that’s a nice looking tank. I have to admit half of the reason I use AIO tanks is plumbing scares me.
+10,000 to this. My tank is in my office and a surefire way to kiss my office tank goodbye is to flood it. When the water is all in one box, just have to worry about seam failures.
 
OP
OP
Slocke

Slocke

I’m pedantic, ignore me
View Badges
Joined
Feb 3, 2022
Messages
8,563
Reaction score
30,287
Location
Atlanta
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I did the plumbing last night and it seemed incredibly easy. Literally just screw in the two drain pipes and the return. Don’t know how I’ll test it other than to completely fill it up though. The issue is I have some extra bits that I don’t know what they’re for.

I agree with this, working around fish shops you’d be surprised at the plumbing done and the nightmare when we run water through the first time. You never know if it leaks and you have to take apart the whole lot.

I hated plumbing my 5’ for that same reason, there was at least 4 times it began to leak. My nano however was nice and simple to deal with.
I witnessed them turning on the water in Lahaina for the first time. Lahaina is the town in Maui that was leveled by the fire. Essentially they turned it on one section of the town at a time and then would send a ton of technicians to run around and try and fix the million leaks. Fountains of water just suddenly shot from everywhere and these guys in trucks were driving around like headless chickens trying to fix the million leaks.

Of course they didn’t bother telling me as they washed away the work I was doing and almost washed away our rest area.
 
OP
OP
Slocke

Slocke

I’m pedantic, ignore me
View Badges
Joined
Feb 3, 2022
Messages
8,563
Reaction score
30,287
Location
Atlanta
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Boring build thread stuff. TLDR I won’t be adding anything anytime soon.


I am going to take this one slow. For one I have to wait for the light mounts and two I realized my in-tank skimmer won’t fit so I have to buy a new traditional one. I also have a bit of an issue that I’m not sure how I’ll solve:
One of my biggest gripes with my old tank was the aquascape it was ugly but also unstable and didn’t utilize space well. As you can see I got two massive rocks and I considered starting completely from scratch but most of my corals are well stuck to their rocks. So my plan now is to use a combo of old and new but I’m worried how I am going to assemble a better aqua scape without killing the corals.
 

i cant think

Wrasse Addict
View Badges
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Messages
19,120
Reaction score
38,554
Location
United Kingdom (England)
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Boring build thread stuff. TLDR I won’t be adding anything anytime soon.


I am going to take this one slow. For one I have to wait for the light mounts and two I realized my in-tank skimmer won’t fit so I have to buy a new traditional one. I also have a bit of an issue that I’m not sure how I’ll solve:
One of my biggest gripes with my old tank was the aquascape it was ugly but also unstable and didn’t utilize space well. As you can see I got two massive rocks and I considered starting completely from scratch but most of my corals are well stuck to their rocks. So my plan now is to use a combo of old and new but I’m worried how I am going to assemble a better aqua scape without killing the corals.
It depends - you can take off the main piece of coral. Or, if your old rockwork isn’t glued together you can work around the coral. Coral can be out of water for hours as long as they’re kept damp. I normally use a wet paper towel over the coral and just spray them with salt water every few minutes when I was doing the rocks in my nano.
 
OP
OP
Slocke

Slocke

I’m pedantic, ignore me
View Badges
Joined
Feb 3, 2022
Messages
8,563
Reaction score
30,287
Location
Atlanta
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It depends - you can take off the main piece of coral. Or, if your old rockwork isn’t glued together you can work around the coral. Coral can be out of water for hours as long as they’re kept damp. I normally use a wet paper towel over the coral and just spray them with salt water every few minutes when I was doing the rocks in my nano.
Thanks. Mostly it’s just a few pieces of SPS that will be difficult but they are mostly on a few rocks. That I can move.
Would a dremel work at getting them off?
For some but for things like my plating Monti and other encrusting I think I just have to move the whole rock.


Hmmm
Maybe I buy one more base rock. Use the three pieces as a a base skeleton and then add the other corals and rocks once the tank is ready.

I should probably let the dry rock grow some bacteria before I put any strong light on it.
 
OP
OP
Slocke

Slocke

I’m pedantic, ignore me
View Badges
Joined
Feb 3, 2022
Messages
8,563
Reaction score
30,287
Location
Atlanta
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I got a giant arch, and hopefully, with these three rocks, triple arch, big arch, and even bigger arch, I can have a cool-looking base for the tank. I also got some giant turbos for both of my current tanks. These zebra turbos are even bigger than mexican. Should be tough enough to handle my big wrasse.
IMG_0905.jpeg
IMG_0904.jpeg
 
OP
OP
Slocke

Slocke

I’m pedantic, ignore me
View Badges
Joined
Feb 3, 2022
Messages
8,563
Reaction score
30,287
Location
Atlanta
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Looking good, I’d add a couple more caves for the wrasses to scout throughout.
That’s just using the 3 giant new rocks. Will be more complex when I add the other coral/rocks from my tank.

Is it too tall though? The top of the rock is basically level with the weir slots.
IMG_0911.jpeg
 

HAVE YOU EVER KEPT A RARE/UNCOMMON FISH, CORAL, OR INVERT? SHOW IT OFF IN THE THREAD!

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
Back
Top