Keith

"Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy." Wayne Dyer

I recently purchase Guitar Hero Would Tour for my wife and it rocks, we rock, the little frag rocks and the aquarium rocks!  Wait the aquarium rocks!?!  Holy S#!t!!  I then sat in front of my aquarium noticing that it rocked from Left to Right very slightly while a single EcoTech Vortech Pump in Wave Mode and then front to back when my wife started jumping while rocking to Ozzie's Crazy Train in Guitar Hero World Tour.  Not the type of thing you want to see when their currently over 1,000 lbs. resting on it.  Now I don't care if my landlord gets wet since he charges me too much rent already but I was concerned that my little boy, wife and little Yorkie Puppy.  And so a plan is born!

Photograph - Tuesday, November 03, 2008 - 120 gallon Iron Aquarium Stand.

I figured that this iron stand is constructed using L shaped iron beams yet the structure have some flaws.  Their are no cross beams to resist flexing and rocking of the stand and all the weight is distributed to 4 L shaped feet.  So my idea is to take advantage of the L shaped Iron Beams as guides so that I can use 2x4's to add a sturdy structure around the iron.  Think if it as a metal skeleton surrounded by wood.  Then I can use the wood to secure sides and even doors to create a better stand.  So off to Home Depot I go.

Photograph - Tuesday, November 03, 2008 -Ryobi 10 inch Blade Saw (sorry I didn't have room in my apartment for the Dewalt).

Photograph - Tuesday, November 03, 2008 - 2x4's from Home Depot.

Photograph - Tuesday, November 03, 2008 - Me cutting the wood with the new lazer guided Ryobi Circular Saw.

To Be Continued...

My marriage is perfect! My job is great! But why are my tank parameters all out of whack??? 

Maximum Length: 9.1 in.
Care Level: Expert Only!
Family: Acanthuridae
Reef Compatibility: Good
Minimum Aquarium Size: 120 gallons
Range: Indian Ocean
Diet: Herbivore- herbivore preparations, macro algae
Water Conditions: 74-80° F; sg 1.020-1.025; pH 8.1-8.4

Well as everyone knows I'm addicted to Tangs.  However, with a nano aquarium I was never able to keep one.  Well know with this 120 gallon All Glass Reef Aquarium build I wanted to keep both.  According to reading the best chance of acclimating two or more tangs together would be to introduce them to the aquarium at the same time.  Well the odds of finding both a Power Blue Tang and an Achilles Tang in one store in New York City would be... well lets just say I could catch a taxi quicker then getting these two fish at one store and the same size but I found them.  So I bought them home and acclimated them over a period of 4 hours each in seperate containers.  Then they were introduced and immediately is was battle royal!  The scuffle lasted about 15 minutes and now there playing nice.

Photograph - Sunday, December 07, 2008 - My Powder Blue Tang "Acanthurus Leucosternon" drip acclimating over a period of 4 hours.

Photograph - Sunday, December 07, 2008 - My Powder Blue Tang "Acanthurus Leucosternon" swimming alone.

Photograph - Sunday, December 07, 2008 - My Achilles Tang "Acanthurus Achilles" drip acclimating over a period of 4 hours.

Photograph - Sunday, December 07, 2008 - My Achilles Tang "Acanthurus Achilles" swimming alone.

Photograph - Sunday, December 07, 2008 - My "Acanthurus Leucosternon" & Achilles Tang "Acanthurus Achilles" swimming nicely after a 15 minute scuffle from being intoduced together.  Now there playing nicely.

My marriage is perfect! My job is great! But why are my tank parameters all out of whack??? 

As most of you know I have a love affair with Deltec and other High End name brands within the aquarium hobby.  Well I have been in the market for a new Protein Skimmer for this aquarium and all that could think of was Bubble King or Deltec.  But I remembered seeing an a review for the Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer on ReefBuilders.com and decided to give it a try.  What is the worst that could happen?  I could have positive evidence to convince my wife that this Protein Skimmer blow more then just bubbles and that I have to purchase a Bubble King.  So I made a trip to my local Fish Store and picked it up.

Setup was extremely easy since the majority of the unit comes assembled with the exception for the Recirculation Pump, Air Line Tubing, and Feed Pump (not included).  You have an option for the feed pump you can have a powerhead connected or you can tee off from your return pump.  I personally choose to connect a powerhead to the feed input (I am using a Maxi-Jet 1200).  The feed line states that it must be between 300 gph to 400 gph in order to get optimum results.  I played with the skimmer for 2 days making minor adustments to the air intake as well as the control of the water outlet which adjust the height of the Foam.  The Neck washing system is a real plus but it doesn't have a squeegee like the $1,000.00 Deltec a Bubble king counterparts.  So placing the Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer in an accessible area is a must since the neck washing system is manually controlled and should be done daily.

My overall opinion of the Protein Skimmer is that it is large and give you the most bang for you buck.  The foam and Micro bubbles are amazing and as you can see in just 4 days it's pulling out some nasty stuff.  I say Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe FTW (For The Win)!

Photograph - Friday, December 12, 2008 - Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer.

Photograph - Friday, December 12, 2008 - I'm a big guy so you can see Santa came early and left me a big gift.

Photograph - Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - 4 days running and look at all the nasty stuff it removed.

My marriage is perfect! My job is great! But why are my tank parameters all out of whack??? 

As promised I took some time out of my crazy schedule to take some videos of the Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer in action.  I also took a second video to display the Neck Washing system in operation,  Unfortunately the skimmate has gotton to think in the Foam View Window to  really show how the Neck Washing system normally performs.  It's great at removing small clumps of think skimmate.  I also zoomed in to show you the size of the bubbles being produced and I am quite impressed... you may be as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXaqML7HR4U

Movie - Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer in normal operation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWNapuqK63Q

Movie - Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer in neck washing operation.

My marriage is perfect! My job is great! But why are my tank parameters all out of whack??? 

50g softie tank
125g FOWLR

I finally managed to get my wife and son out of the apartment for a while in order to rev up the saw and start to cut the some of the peices of wood for the reinforcement of the iron stand.  However, I ran out of materials again and need to make another run to home depot.  Here are photographs of the project so far.  I haven't completed it and already their is a dramatic increase in the rigidness of the iron stand, there is almost no movement.

Photographs - Sunday, December 21, 2008 - Wooden skeleton to reinforce the iron stand.

I looked at my aquarium recently and my wife said that I really needed some more rock.  So with permission from the misses I began to do some searching for rocks online, within the local reef clubs and on Craigslist.  Well lucky for me I stumbled upon an ad within Craigslist from an individual who was just starting a setup but decided to get out of the hobby in anticipation of his new child.  So for an amazing deal of $175.00 I found myself in the possession of 200 lbs of some of the most beautiful pieces of Marco Rocks that I have ever seen.

The rocks were delivered on Saturday, December 27, 2008 and layed out for the the aquascaping project in my living room.   Now I recently lost both the Powder Blue Tang and the Achilles Tang to a massive outbreak of saltwater ich so their is no worry to the animals within the aquarium with the exception of my Ultra Grade Maxima Clam which has been exposed to this type of cycling in my previous setup.  I know what many would say but I just don't have the infrastructure in place to house him in a seperate aquarium.  With guidance from the Mrs. the project began within a simple idea of how the layout would be.  I hope everyone enjoys.  Please excuse the massive algea outbreak which will be dealt with shortly.

Photograph - Sunday, December 28, 2008 - Marco Rock aquascaping within my 120 gallon All Glass Reef Aquarium.

My marriage is perfect! My job is great! But why are my tank parameters all out of whack??? 

What type of corals are you planning on?