Day 487

RTC-Red Tailed Catfish ate another half piece of shrimp last night, had to hand feed him again, the Pacu won't give him a chance to eat. He is really getting chased by Upsidedown Catfish, I'm going to have to watch. Not damage to his fins, keeps him active a guess. Arowana still not eating, but looks real healthy.
Going to do something related to 388gal. set-up, and some tank cleanings today. Also breakdown those 55gals. for John.
*Update-I had trouble with the ground fault in the new line, my Dad and Roger came over and figured it out for me. Think I had one ground that wasn't connected. Ground fault protected now!
Logged on to http://www.aquariumadvice.com/ posted for people to check out my blogs, moderator deleted my posts said I was plastering their site with blogs for profit...made me want to attack him! But I didn't...still a good site. Keeping a cool head is a good thing...
*Update- I waited for someone to post a response, and I posted "I agree. Good advice". Must have made someone mad, now I've been warned...no one liners allowed. Still staying calm...don't know how but I am...I didn't respond...
Tanks #2 & #6 will be sold to John, they are 55gals. with all the accessories.
Worked this afternoon moving tanks #3 & #4 into the fishroom and these are the pics...

Draining...

Moved and filling...

Done!

*update-Bree and her Mom dropped off three red eye or lamp eye tetras today. Thanks for the fish gals!

Tank #6

One of the Flowerhorn Rob and I ordered in a group buy out of Thailand, he's coming along nice!

388gal. Back in the day!

Too many electrical pictures, this is when I brought the 388gal. home!

8"RTC ate 1/2 of a shrimp last night also, after a 25% water change.

Day 486

Running power

15amp breaker to the box

More power!

Took today to finish power hook up. This is part of the hit list that have to set up 388gal., try to do one thing a day! Ran the rest of the outlets from back of fishroom to the main, put in 15amp breaker...and more power! Four 55gal. tanks will sit on back wall, where new outlet were installed. This will also feed power to second pump on 388gal.

Now I will get two 55gals. ready for John to buy, after that he will buy Arowana tank, once Arowana and tank mates are moved to 388gal.

Beat for tonight, will call Bree to see if she will drop off three Lamp Eyed Tetras, tonight.

Day 485

RTC did good through the night, swimming more now. Hand fed him half a shrimp...no problem, he went after it right away. Medication for tank#2, is done. Did a 50% water change, vacuumed gravel, and cleaned out filter. Old Flowerhorn had a bacterial infection on his head and into right eye, almost like hole in the head , but worse. He doesn't look good, but he is doing better than he was. I just want him to start eating again.
Arowana stopped eating five days ago. Got a little concerned, so I googled it. Turns out Arowana's have a slower digestive system, when they are full from eating...they fast. Site said don't worry it will eat when it's hungry again, this is common in Arowana's.
More tank cleanings again...try to run more power to fish room.

*update...more power! Ran three plugs on back of fishroom wall today, need to run four plugs in future bedroom then tie them together with these, then to main and drop in a new breaker.

Day 484 New RTC

On the ride home

With the big boys now!

In 380gal.

Good start to the day, contacted the guy in Burton,MI from craigslist with the 8" Red Tail Cat(RTC). Nice cat, got some gill curl but I think he will do fine, did 25% water change prior to his arrival. His new home is the 380gal., with the big boys. Thanks for the nice fish!

Acrylic Hex

The story behind this one is...I rubbed out this 50-70gal. acrylic hexagon tank,and black acrylic stand and hood, years ago for a guy. He paid me in tanks, two 55gal. and all the accessories. Years later he needed some painting done in his house, and wanted to pay me with this tank. Me having a paint business, and an aquarium nut, I agreed. This tank sat in my basement for awhile...empty, just never got around to filling it. In April of last year I sold it either on http://www.craigslist.com/  or http://www.michiganreefers.com/ , hated to see it go. Got a hit on a forum page from this guy...I'm bad with names. Turns out he set it up and did a great job! Thanks for the update and pictures, it looks alot better at your place than in my basement, empty. Great work!

Day 483

Jimmy called me...wanted to know how the fish did, he gave me,after the move, this is the video I sent him. Thanks for the fish Jimmy, they are doing great! These fish, plus giant Pacu will go into 388gal. when it's done.

Found an add on craigslist for an 8" Red Tail Cat near my house, going to look at it this afternoon, $20 seems like a good deal. More tank cleanings today.

Got a 400w heater replacement in the Stealth Pro recall from Marineland. It stopped working, contacted the company and those heater have a lifetime warranty. They are sending out a FEDEX tag for a replacement...nice to see such a quick follow through! The power of e-mail.

Day 482

Picking up light at 1pm from John. Treating tank#2 with sick old Flowerhorn, 1000mg penicillin for 3 days, then 60mg tetracycline for 3 days, then a 50% water change. This is the third day, seems good so far. Tank cleanings up to tank#7...more today maybe.


Update 9pm...388gal has been fully siliconed on the inside! I started tonight as just putting thin layer of silicone on inside to fill gaps from removal of old silicone, and got carried away, now it's done. Next step is to take tower in and have sandblasted, then silicone that piece in center of tank. I will update with pictures as it goes. Picked up light, great light thanks John! Cleaned tanks#1-7,15,16,&18.

Day 481

The story behind this fish is...A guy in the New Baltimore area got my number from someone, he had a Red Devil, an Oscar and about four fry(F1&F2). These fry were a result of the Red Devil and a Jaguar breeding. He wanted to give me the Red Devil, which killed the Jaguar after breeding. The Red Devil is currently in 380gal. doing great! About 6 months later he was selling his tank and wanted to get rid of Oscar and the Red Devil/Jaguar fry. This is one of the fry F1, this was the worst one...tail was bit off when it was small. It is turning into one of my favorites...yellow with black markings on it's back. It is about 4", and eats like crazy. It lives in tank #7 with the same large Oscar 12" divided with Red Terror. The other Red Devil/Jaguar fry is in 155gal. bowfront tank...both F2 fry perished, sorry to say. This would have been a fish that someone would just discard, because of the condition, no tail...but he is really turning into something to look at! Thank you to that guy...can't remember your name, but if you read this, drop me a response...Joe.

Day 480

The light! Nice tank John!

Picking up Coralife light from John Friday, this will replace shop light on Red Devil colony tank(180gal.). Shop light will go into fish room, running the electric to it today. Thinking about doing a fine strip of silicone in 388gal. along bottom to fill in any silicone that was pulled from underneath glass, I know silicone doesn't stick to silicone but it's not even going to stick to whats already there. This would be fine...like 1/16", pushed in, to fill any space that was created from cutting out old silicone. Start water changes and filter cleanings today...yea!Ugh!

Dream Bedroom!

Day 478

Ok...Happy New Year...back to the 388gal., removed the rest of the silicone in this tank. the bottom was a challenge...used razor blade, hard on the fingers.

Each side glass panel had two of these plastic pieces under glass, looks like a mini popsicle stick. This leads me to believe this is an older tank, when they built older tanks they thought a space between glass was good.

On left side of tank at bottom I heard a pop sound when I was removing silicone...seal ok?!!! 

This is the tank silicone free on the inside. Time to seal up the inside! And water test!

This is outer back corner of tank, there is a L-shaped metal piece on the corner. It was siliconed on for decoration, I assume there were four of these, one on each corner when the tank was built. I took some plastic shims(in picture,to left of metal piece), and pried this piece off, removed old silicone that was holding it on. Considering painting tank back and half sides black.