Here are some pictures that Klaus (the man behind Bubble King) posted on RC, showing off his sump creations. Although Royal Exclusiv is well known for their skimmers being the best, not much love is given to their sump designs. Looking at these pictures and you wonder why not? I’m sure these sumps cost more than a typical mortgage payment, but oh how lovely are thee…one day…
Neptune’s long awaited Aquacontroller Apex System has started shipping and I should be getting mine in a week or two. Neptune has added the owner’s manual onto their website. Here’s the link to the Apex Owner’s Manual.
I like to feed my fish and corals a mixed diet of dried and frozen foods. I feed frozen mysis(mysid), freeze dried cyclopeeze, small pellets (Oceans Nutrition Formula 1 & 2), flake (Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef), nori (dried seaweed), DT oyster eggs and cut up raw shrimp. I don’t have a set schedule on what gets fed, just whenever I feel like it. In general, only pellets and flakes get fed daily. When I feed the other foods, I feel like it makes my water dirty, so I time these feedings with my water change schedule. I’ll feed the ‘messy’ foods and then I’ll do my weekly water change, about an hour later.
I also use an automatic fish feeder because I keep anthias, which like to be fed a bunch of times a day. This feeds a mix of pellets and crushed up flakes twice a day. The best feeder I’ve ever used is the eheim 3581. It’s on sale on Drs. Foster right now for $33. Best price you can get for these. Here’s a link: Eheim fish feeder.
My acan lords (LPS) get spot fed w/ cyclopeeze and mysis a couple of times a week and my anemones get fed raw shrimp, once every few weeks. I also use some Zeovit suppliments for the corals, such as amino acids. Other than that, I’ll feed the tank whatever I have lying around. If I have fish roe (eggs) for my sushi, I’ll feed the tank this as well.
I finally started building my hood to cover up my lighting rack. It’s anchored to the wall by 3 sets of door hinges to allow it to swivel upward. When it’s down, there are wood blocks that stop the side of the hood from rotating to far. In fact, the hood doesn’t sit on the tank at all. Also, my light brackets prevent the hood from falling down, in the event that the hinges fail. The hood was designed to be as light as possible. 3″ x 1″ boards were used to built the frame, 1/8″ paneling was used to cover it and standard baseboard trim was used to overlap over the tank edge. Everything is painted gloss white, with a bunch of liquid nail and silicone used to seal things up right. The top is open to allow air circulation and prevent heat buildup.
The stand uses the same baseboard molding and will blend right into the wall baseboard molding. I added a 5″ lip to finish the top and allow drinks to be placed there. Since the stand cover literally slides out from the steel stand, no doors were needed. I’ll add a waynes coating type treatment on it to make it look like there are panel doors on it. I used pocket holes to screw the 3/4″ mdf boards together, along w/ liquid nails glue.
I still need to add a crown molding, up top, to complete the look I’m after. I’m happy with it so far. Just need to add some more trim pieces to finish her up.
