Low vision build

[fishmandan]

Rocks are soaking in water.
I added microbacter 7 and some ammonia to the water. All of the parts, pieces and supplies are here. Hopefully we will have the tank plumbed and ready soon. I will update original post soon with updated equipment.

 

[OrchidMiss]

Haven’t worked on the tank in a week plus due to this little guy deciding to come early. Shep’s little brother Ellery decided he wanted to come help.

Congratulations!!!!!!!!

 

[fishmandan]

Congratulations!!!!!!!!

Thank you, one month old today! Now if he would just sleep at night.
Lfs owner is scheduled to come in the morning to help me plumb everything and get the show going.

 

[djstud]

Following along and really looking forward to watching this "very special build" progress.

 

[fishmandan]

Progress made today. Drilled the tank and added the overflow. We also have the sump baffles in place and curing. Hopefully by weeks end we will have the plumbing all finished.

 

[fishmandan]

Plumbing is finished! Tomorrow I will be spending my birthday getting the electrical run and tidy. I’ll also be filling the tank and setting the rockwork up!

 

[OrchidMiss]

Plumbing is finished! Tomorrow I will be spending my birthday getting the electrical run and tidy. I’ll also be filling the tank and setting the rockwork up!

What an exciting birthday!!
I can't wait to see more!

 

[fishmandan]

Slowly filling up. I decided to simplify the rockwork. I am still uncertain if the corals or fish will be more visible for Shep.

I’ve opted for 2 cove structures. When Shep is in his wheelchair his lateral head movement is limited. This was I can set his chair in front of one of the two or in the channel between.

There will also likely be more islands than one would typically have. Shep currently sits at the bottom 8 inches of the tank so island structures will be at his current eye level. As his grows the structure can grow vertically with him. Definitely open to suggestions on changing the designs I haven’t glued/epoxy anything for finality yet.

Our 5 yo bought me a magnifier for the tank for my birthday, he’s an awesome brother/son!

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Nice aquascape! Have you considered a school of 3-5 yellow tangs? They would be good for your purposes.

 

[fishmandan]

Nice aquascape! Have you considered a school of 3-5 yellow tangs? They would be good for your

Nice aquascape! Have you considered a school of 3-5 yellow tangs? They would be good for your purposes.

We have, either yellows or purples. We also plan for convict tangs as black on white is one of the highest contrasts possible.

 

[fishmandan]

It’s all about the good and the bad. Well the pictures and tell the story on both. I spent last weekend and Monday getting everything tuned for the tank. Today I was filling RODI jugs we use for Sheps medical equipment. I hear a small pop, think odd but keep filling thinking I bumped something. Then a very loud pop and wet feet as the back panel on the sump blew out.

The good is that I had redundancies and a plan. First I cut all power to the tank and sump. Dropped the transfer pump from rodi into the sump and attached a garden hose. In another chamber I dropped a second garden hose and started a siphon. Countless towels and shop vac cycles later the floor is dryish. Also glad that the tank was filling in the garage instead of its old position in the living room. Also very thankful it happened when it did because I am heading out of town in the morning. Thankful for problems for another day and that we are all healthy and no one was injured.

Time to get my heart rate down.

 

[OrchidMiss]

Wow! Glad you had all those redundancies in place!
Sorry to hear about the setback, but certainly a blessing that it happened the way it did!

 

[fishmandan]

Wow! Glad you had all those redundancies in place!
Sorry to hear about the setback, but certainly a blessing that it happened the way it did!

It was definitely a full adrenaline rush! I’m just glad no one was hurt and I was home.

 

[fishmandan]

It’s been a bit since an update, so here we go!

The old broken sump has sump has been removed and a new 75 gallon sump added. All the equipment is moved over easily. Now we are waiting for everything to cure.

The old sump broke as we were preparing to
Go out of town. Now we are back from the beach and time to get the tank setup back rolling.

 

[fishmandan]

Not a big update but here we go.
We have all been feeling sick the last week so not much progress. I have a friend coming this weekend to help me hang lights, everything else is up and running. Tank is cycled and breaks down ammonia. I am also slowly adding some rock from the nano tank to add biome/ all the beneficials from the established tank.

Stocking plan update. I have to keep reminding myself to think what life allows and what is best for Shep. Between many hospital stays and days where nursing isn’t covered we need to keep the tank simple. So I am now leaning towards a large group of damsels for color and activity, convict tang, purple tang, and bristletooth tang of some kind, then a few wrasses for pest control, and the possibility of a final centerpiece fish. Even though it’s a big tank, we need color and movement spread out with Shep’s limited movement. So a smaller number of larger fish seems counterproductive.
As far as coral stocking the plan is still to do stripes of color. I am going to mostly go with lps, softies, and a nem.

 

[fishmandan]

Pardon the poor phone edited version of this. Highlighted colors show the predominant color for each section. There will obviously be tons of green and green will likely end as the dominant color with the other colors as the supports.
I am using my gardening experience to go with basic complimentary colors purple/yellow and orange/blues. Purple will be zoas and goni. Yellow and orage(also a bit of red) will be a bridge of shades. The plan is for ricordia mushrooms and zoas as a field with taller lps such as candy canes rising above like trees. Blue is a bit more complicated but the idea
Is hammer and acans.
Remember the theme is large area of similar colors for Shep’s damaged vision. The other major consideration is that we are trying to keep it simple. Between hospital stays and all the complicated medical stuff we are not going to be experimenting or pushing boundaries. I am definitely open to suggestions, criticisms, etc…

 

[fishmandan]

Spent a couple of days in the hospital post surgery so not much progress. Here is what we have so far. 4 azure damsels, 10 hermits, 10 astrea snails, and 5nassarius snails. As the picture shows I messed up programming one of the lights and need to fix it.

I am a big fan of the flipper magnifier, it’s perfect for Shep! Our 5 yo loves it too, he moves it around searching for inverts.

Lastly the discharge hose on the rodi system came out of the drain. Small flood in the laundry room. Remember mistakes happen and life moves on. Our lives aren’t perfect and neither is our hobby.

 

[OrchidMiss]

It's really coming along nicely, Dan!!!
Everytime I come check this thread, it just makes me smile and makes my heart happy!!!

 

[fishmandan]

Shep getting to do his first day of vision therapy with the tank with big brother moving the magnifier for him. I’ll do an update tomorrow on changes I’ve made to the tank and it’s new inhabitants. Today is just about celebrating getting to the point to start the dream we had for the tank!

 

[fishmandan]

So I am a few days late with an update, life gets in the way. Last month Shep had a planned hospital stay for several surgeries that had been put off. I spent the time at the hospital planning and reprioritizing. It was hard enough exposing to my wife how to care for two tanks in my absence, much less if she needed to make rodi or mix salt. So I decided to break down my ~15 gallon cube and move its inhabitants into Shep’s tank.



Shep’s tank now has 4 springeri damsels, 6 line wrasse, single black Oscellaris clown, 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 sally lightfoot crab, and a cuc of 100+ various snails and hermits. The plans to finish out the tank are add a total of 100-125 damsels, pair of Japanese angels, sail fin tang and either a convict tang or like tang. Possibility of a pistol shrimp goby pair or a diamond goby for utility.



For corals I’ve been doing tons of back and forth. On the left island I have about 15 zoa frags and on the right island I have the few encrusting corals that were either donated or purchased. I am planning to trade in the encrusting corals for either some leathers or Xenia.



The original idea was several monochromatic areas of the tank but more importantly is something to help with Shep’s vision therapy and enjoyment. With that in mind a zoa garden on the left, some acans and rock flower nems down low, and a brightly colored Xenia or gsp right island. Simple, easy to care for, and most importantly some large bold colors for Shep. It’s so easy for me to overcomplicate this with what I think is cool when he will enjoy simple the most.