The Stony Shallows

Wrangy

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Spent a few hours at Deer Park today just chilling and chatting with Mark and Dave, didn't buy anything but I had nothing better to do so it was the best way to blow 4 hours :p haha poor buggers!
That being said I did get to check out the kick ass range of Aquaforest products now in the store and given how amazingly priced they are, I'll be moving to AF for my big 3 dosing and some trace as well I think. Might give some of the other crazy products a go down the line too! :)

The real highlight of the trip was getting to see my sump in a near finished state :D D holy crap it's going to be soooo amazing to have a play with!! :D Dave has done a marvelous job with it and I was certainly not wrong entrusting the sump to him! I cannot wait to have this bad boy running! Everything looks fantastic and it's going to be a breeze to work with as well :) There's so much room lol frag tank/acclimatisation tank is going to come in a great deal of handiness with all new additions too! Anyway I took a couple of snaps of my sexy new sump!






I do feel a little ad for the tank builder :p (not really :rofl) haha
 

Wrangy

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Fish list time! With a new tank and some truly unfortunate losses comes time to make some changes and get the tank pumping with fish again! Yes the tank will be heavily stocked but with a metre of space I'm looking forward to some bustling movement!
- Halichoeres melasmapomus (Earmuff Wrasse) (in tank already)
- A pair of captive bred gramma loreto (Royal Gramma's)
- Any species of liopropoma I can get! lol
- A pair of wetmorella albofasciata (White Bar Possum Wrasse)
- Paracheilinus carpenteri (Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse)
- Paracheilinus filamentosus (Filamented Flasher)
- Paracheilinus attenuatus (Diamond Tail Flasher)
- Anampses lennardi (Lennardi Wrasse)
- Chaetodon burgessi as tinkeri and mitratus are too expensive :(

Should make for a nice kickass tank methinks :)
 

rostervandross

Active Member
Cool list man I had to look a few of them up. but you always have some unique fishes .

And then the sump! I had a bit of a mental exercise trying to imagine how it flows :) aha!
 

Wrangy

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Heavy on the wrasse lol should have plenty movement

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Yep lots of movement and colour :) Already crossed some off my list too ;)

Cool list man I had to look a few of them up. but you always have some unique fishes .

And then the sump! I had a bit of a mental exercise trying to imagine how it flows :) aha!
Cheers man :) I do like having unique and interesting fish! Plectranthias longimanus was in store when I was there yesterday and if it weren't for the $250 I would have bought it in a heartbeat!! :D

I feel sorry for the builder hahaha
 

Wrangy

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As most of you know I recently lost my beloved bellus angel and kole tang well to add salt to that wound I came home on Wednesday night to my darling little possum wrasse caught in the powerhead and torn in half :( What a heartbreak it was coming home to that destruction! That left me with only my gorgeous little h. melasmapomus (earmuff wrasse) left in the tank and she was very lonely. Unfortunately I couldn't buy some more fish as none of my list was in and I had no money to order any more as it was all budgeted for the sump and vectra.

As I was chatting to Dave of the lovely @Deerpark Aquarium I asked what was coming in this week and if there was anything of intrigue coming in and I got this reply lol:
"Ill never tell
1f642.png


Ok maybe....

Umm.....
Rainbow trachys
Master scollys
Insane 60 something sps
Mega chalice
Plectranthias
Rainbow rics
And many many more"

With some more questioning:
"That's just some of it. 26 clams!"

Needless to say I wet my pants with excitement, even with the fact I couldn't buy anything! Just going to see the plectranthias longimanus was worth going to be worth the trip out! And with just a few clams in store it sounded like my kind of day to visit!

So off I set after dropping Georgia off at work over to Dave's! I got there and H.O.L.Y S.H.I.T the goods were THE GOODS!! (as they usually are ;) lol). So off I set, dribbling and drooling while bouncing around the store from tank to tank, coral to coral and fish to fish. Catching my eye on a few pretties in the store! P. longimanus, lori anthias, juvi empropers and the teeny tiniest Regal that hadn't even develop full colours yet it was so cute, stunning lps:






Christmas tree rocks:




And acro's!






It was glorious but I paused at one particular tank that a blue and rose flash caught my eye in! Two stunning little wrasse were in this tank, a terminal phase male cirrhilabrus rubriventralis (Longfin Fairy Wrasse) and a small sub phase male paracheilinus carpenteri (Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse)! And two that were on my list (well carpenters is but the longfin fell into my category), just my luck, fish I want with no budget for them.
While admiring these beauties, Dave comes over and tells me the longfin was super expensive and that immediately knocked it out of the park for me so a little disappointed I decided I spare the cash for the carpenters and not eat for a few days instead.

Once I'd finished my standard rounds and mopped up the dribble, I started chatting with Dave and Mark and that was when Dave looked over and said
"Hey Mark, can you go and get the little blue thing from behind the counter for Dom"
The alarm bells started immediately, "who's leaving me things with Dave?". Those bells got louder as I saw what it was, a box wrapped in blue wrapping paper with a ribbon and the works...
"what the fuck...??"
So off I set, with everyone in store watching me unwrap this present and what do I find...? A box with ten goddamn layers of DUCT TAPE!! and a note
"To Dom, Love Georgia"
Well at least I know who it's from so I start peeling and Mark just hands me the razor so I start hacking through to find a box with no markings I recognise and I have no idea what's happening!
"thank fuck that's over"... at least I thought!
Out comes the inner bloody box and what's that got... MORE DUCT TAPE and two layers of CABLE TIES!! Mark and Dave just burst into laughter along with everyone else haha so with everyone laughing at me off I set cutting my way through the ties and hacking the tape off and I finally get to inner box (15mins later lol) and that's when I notice the final bloody layer! A ball of duct tape!! Well by now everyone is having a right old time watching me so I start to unravel this bloody ball and that was when Dave finally put me out of my misery:
"Did you check the other boxes?"
No Dave, I'm too busy with the metres of tape on this thing!
So Dave very enjoyably pulls out a little note from the inner box that I completely missed.. lol


My heart dropped, I was left completely speechless and nearly cried in the middle of the store but I was strong lol. It turns out that Dave and Georgia (my amazing partner) had been plotting behind my back since I lost my bellus and kole to do something nice to cheer me up again! I was and still am completely blown away by the generosity of both them to take the time to surprise me like this. It turns out the gorgeous longfin had only come in on Thursday night so they'd organised it the night before and Georgia and paid for everything so I hadn't had to worry when I got there!

Well off I set with gusto, agonizing over which clam I was going to take home, I chose this little guy on the right in the end! No bigger than half your pinky!


And of course while I'm happily prancing around the store in utter joy, Dave comes over while looking at the wrasse and says:
"He's yours if you want" turns out he was only making me believe I couldn't get the fish just to say that with the biggest grin lol. So not only did I get to come away with an AcroAl clam!! But I also got the longfin AND the carpenter's because well it was on my list and I'd already prepared to buy it haha.

They're both in the tank and I now have three fish and movement in my tank again after a devastating couple of weeks! They're both eating and settled and my female earmuff doesn't care about either of them lol. Here's a crappy of them in the inspection box before being released into the tank:

I am just so blown away by both Georgia and Dave doing this for me and I couldn't have better friends in my life! And Dave is hands down the best in the business!
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
In the time I have been on this forum, I have seen you set up three different tanks. That clam of yours survived them all. The fish, not so much. Sorry to hear of the recent losses. Who says that fish are hardier then inverts - that clam of yours is a beast.

Now back to this new tank set-up... three set ups and many changes to your tank :ponder2: I'm thinking that what you really like to do is tinker with the tank instead of getting it mature and letting it grow. That said, you may want to consider a new side job, building and/or maintaining tanks as a side hobby (that can pay for your hobby)? Again, just a thought! :chunky:
 

Wrangy

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Good stuff all around sir, thanks for taking all the pictures you do and time to post and share them. :couch: nice "LFS" you have and "mates" for sure!
Thanks matey :) I do enjoy my stories so I always love posting and sharing them :)

In the time I have been on this forum, I have seen you set up three different tanks. That clam of yours survived them all. The fish, not so much. Sorry to hear of the recent losses. Who says that fish are hardier then inverts - that clam of yours is a beast.

Now back to this new tank set-up... three set ups and many changes to your tank :ponder2: I'm thinking that what you really like to do is tinker with the tank instead of getting it mature and letting it grow. That said, you may want to consider a new side job, building and/or maintaining tanks as a side hobby (that can pay for your hobby)? Again, just a thought! :chunky:
I don't know what you're talking about :p
It hasn't exactly been the ride I've been hoping for but you take it as comes. I've not had great luck with fish in the past but I'm hoping that that all changes from here on in! I really do want to keep my fish for the length of time that my maxima has been around! Lol She is the absolute champion of the tank and I adore her completely for it! :D

I really do want to have this tank and watch it mature over the years and hopefully I'm not forced to move out this time! I was on a good run last time, well until I moved out that is....
I do enjoy tinkering a lot and playing with things and experiment but this tank is going to be a lot less of that and a lot more stability and maturity I hope! Who knows how well I'll keep to that though :p
 

Wrangy

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Got the camera back finally so took some nicer pics of the tank finally! lol
FTS:
The little cave on the right side will be surrounded with nice deepwater pieces for the lower light and also the gentler flow that will come from the back draft of the gyre :)


Left side of the tank:
Low and open, lots of swimming space and plenty of places for acro's to be mounted! The reason for the sparsity and the pushed back scape is so that I can copy the Biggle style scaping with smaller pieces of rocks with acro's mounted for ease of movement and organisation.


Angled shots and a good view of down the tank :)




And lastly, this beauty! My absolute joy of the reefing world and possibly my favourite inhabitant that has been with me through thick and thin, tank changes and restarts, my muck ups and every day when I look into the tank!
There is nothing more that I love than being able to see my maxima every day and know that's she is happy! She's also my canary for a great many things, usually when I forget to turn the ato back on :p
 

Wrangy

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Beautiful new tank! Lots of luck with it! And your clam is a beauty! Hope little Iggy is still doing well!
Thanks mate :) Iggy is doing well, still as silly as ever but happy and ALWAYS hungry lol

There's some very exciting news but not quite acro related yet
The sump is in, it's nearly full with RO and almost ready to come online! Just waiting on the return to come in and hopefully that will be today!! It's a bloody amazing sump and the RO reservoir is just fantastic! No barrels or anything next to the tank and it's out of the way under the sump.
I've done some cable management, mounted the Kore, the cabinet lights and organised things in general but I can't finish cable management until the sump is online and things are in the sump to route. I'll snap some quick pics today of how it looks :)

The really exciting news is fish related though, one fish I've been chasing for about 2+ years has been caught by one of the suppliers :D and I have a wrasse that I never thought I'd own but no pics on him until he's settled and happy as he cost me more than my liver is worth

Things are progressing along really well and aside from the new tank uglies which got a good cleaning with a 25L water change done on Tuesday and yesterday everything is happy and growing! I can't wait to have the sump online and to fill it with crap lol
 

Wrangy

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Well I suppose I've left it long enough now, we're nearly there now!! I spent two weeks ago adding salt and temp to the sump and it's all mixing and circulating now :) The Vectra will be in on tomorrow and by then all the plumbing will be set and cured so we'll be completely running! I'm looking forward to the smoothness that will come with the sump running and everything going again, I'm going to change up to component 1, 2 & 3 for the dosing as it's easy to get hold and just a cost effective as Randy's

I suppose some pics of the sump might be nice ;) this is the left side with the shelf, doser and frag tank, I'm so glad the Kore has holes to be screw mounted!


Then there's the right side which houses the overflow, skimmer and heater in the first chamber, the RO section underneath which I LOVE! lol. Along with all of that is the power management centre of two powerbars for 16 plugs lol not that I currently use them all! I still need to finish the wiring but that needs to wait for the equipment to be in the sump lol


Then when have the shelf where I've got the ballast living and it will also hold the dosing containers and other misc sh!t lol


As you can see I've mounted some led's down the guts of the cabinet and they work a treat :)


As some of you may know I've got a once in a lifetime fish currently being held in the acro tank at Deer Park and I am beyond excited to get this gem of a cirrhilabrus! Of course once I put down my liver to ensure my name went on him, I got a message from Dave a few hours later with a screenshot from one of his suppliers....


The bugger had finally sourced a l. susumi for me after three years of chasing one! It doesn't help that I have to pay half a kidney to get this guy too, he's gorgeous though, waiting patiently in store till they remove my kidney :p looks like I can manage without some vital organs and food for the next month hahaha
 

Wrangy

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Alrighty so there's not much from a fish food point of view that usually gets me overly excited as most foods are very much on a similar level but differ a little bit here and there. Buuuuutttt Dave got in some really groovy foods and supplements that I've been wanting to give a go since he told me about them :)
It's a range of fish/coral foods that are also suitable for breeding as well (well that's what they say on the packaging lol) from a company called Aqua-Tech Co. (http://www.aquatechco.com/SELCO.php) and they all sound really cool.


Now out of the range the two I've been wanting to try are Marine Frenzy, an imitation fish egg that's from the sounds of it a pearl of some pretty sweet ingredients, and the S.E.L.C.O Boost which is a food soak/additive. Now as some of you know I feed my babies fairly liberally lol with 3-7 pinches of my pellet mix a day and a cube of mysis every second day with some pellets as well lol. This has achieved me some fairly nice results in having nice fat fish with some good colours but as the tank is going to have and already has some very colourful wrasse and fish with subtle colours I want to get another level from my food. Sooo aside from changing up my pellet mix soon I got a small bottle of the S.E.L.C.O Boost to try out. The reason being is they have all the good things going on:
  • OMEGA 3 & 5 Fatty Acids
  • EPA & DHA
  • Garlic for immune systems and appetite
  • Vitamins C & E for immune systems and slime coat
  • Important carotenoids for color

This wonderful little mix should result in some nice reactions from the fish and they seem to be enjoying the pellets soaked in it so far :) The only down side is the stuff STINKS! lol but that's what you'd expect being a fish soak with tasty goodies! Looks pretty potent too, need to work out the right ratio as this is waaayyy too much for my liking for a small pinch of pellets lol


Aside from the fact that it looks fantastic on paper and looks gross enough to be doing something lol I've only had it in two feeds so far so I'll keep things updated over the coming months with how I find it's going in the tank and with the fish! I'll also try and get some decent shots of the fish for comparisons sake too.
 
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