The Pondman's 560 Gallon Adventure

[The Pondman]

Added 2 Diamond Watchman Gobys to the tank and to say that they are very entertaining to watch would be an understatement. These two have clouded up my 560 gallons of water in about an hour's time. I know it'll all settle but dang, those little jerks!

I can tell where they are because I'll see a few bubbles float up the water column to be followed by a trail of very fine sand dust that looks like a smoke cloud. Because of this, these two have earned the most appropriate names of Cheech & Chong. Lol!

 

[The Pondman]

More additions to tank include a dogface puffer. Our dog is named Dexter so the puffer is Dexter 2.0

5 yellow tangs aka The Crew
A Sailfish tang aka Dottie
A Swallow tail angel fish aka Angelina

Update! The Bluefish Group lost a member so now they're The Blues Brothers.

 

[mattgsa]

You have a really nice tank, and an understanding wife. I love how you hid the skimmer.

 

[The Pondman]

You have a really nice tank, and an understanding wife. I love how you hid the skimmer.

Thank you! Yesterday we went to my LFS to get RO-Di replacement cartridges and we walked out with 5 yellow tangs and the Swallow tail angel fish. That was all 100% her. She's nuts just like me. Lol!

 

[CC13]

What kind of sand did you use for this build??

 

[The Pondman]

Sorry for the late response. I used a 50/50 Caribsea Arag-Alive Aragonite Special Blend and another Carbsea sand that was very white and very, very fine (like beach sand) but can't remember the name.

If you have gobys know that for a few weeks they will keep the water in the tank with a slight whitish smokey appearance from shifting sand around and loosening up the "dust" in the sand. After a few weeks they continue to shift the sand but don't fog up the water anymore. Because of this the gobys were named Cheech & Chong.

 

[Smarkow]

Gorgeous build, and I LOVE the skimmer cutout hahahaha. Wait... that thing better not overflow....

Any updates?

You do great work

 

[The Pondman]

Thank you. Update:

Lost all the fish but 3. The dog face puffer, sailfin tang and the marine beta were the lucky ones to survive. I learned the expensive and hard way to be more knowledgable than the LFS you deal with. The specific LFS we were going to only knows to say "YES" to everything asked in order not to loose a sale. We put fish together that shouldn't be together, put fish of wrong size in wrong order, etc., etc., etc. all at the guidance of this one specific LFS. We removed all the fish into QT & hospital tanks (purchased at same LFS) and kept treating with one med, then another, then a different one and little by little lost all fish except those 3. We got the "Well, that just happens sometimes", which I understand being that I've lost thousands of koi in one weekend. Hey, **** happens. But we started researching the meds and found out that they didn't treat the symptoms we were describing and taking them photos off. We let the tank sit empty for 76 days.

Fast forward to today.....
My wife and I are now junior chemists and after the 2nd drop into any test we can predict the outcome. Lol. We research every new fish to exhaustion, fresh water dip, and even done small surgery on porcupine puffer's fin and trimming of dog face puffer's teeth.

We've gotten to know which LFS is responsible in the way they quarantine, which love the hobby and which are in it for the money. We've made many new friends at LFS throughout Central Florida to the point that now we get calls of them checking up on us all the time. Pretty cool....

The tank currently has:
2 puffers:
Dogface
Porcupine

6 tangs:
Sailfin
Yellow
Hippo
Naso
Vlamingi
Achilles

4 angelfish:
Queen
Blue ring
Emperor
Regal

2 triggers:
Crosshatch - Male
Niger

3 wrasse
Dragon
Rainbow
Blue bird nose

1 fox face
1 parrotfish
5 blue damsels
5 moonies
3 cardinals

I'll be finishing the tank once I get 1 purple tang, a gem tang and 3 heniochus butterfly fish, or at least that what I'm saying to myself. Lol

Before you say, "WHAT?", I should mention that we're redesigning the room to have a 1,500 gallon tank or larger, once these guys start getting too big for this tank.

I'll post some updated pics tomorrow.

 

[The Pondman]

I forgot to mention, skimmer cup dumps through a pipe that goes tough the wall to a collection gallon under the tank. The existing sump under the tank sits inside a 4 inch "tray" with water sensor that sends text to our cells if anything overflows into that tray. The skimmer also sits in a tray that would overflow through the wall into the sump's tray and trigger the sensor.

Next week I'll be replacing the existing sump with this much larger, multi chamber refugium.

 

[The Pondman]

Sorry for crapy pics with too much glare but was in a hurry.

 

[Wrangy]

Dang man!!

 

[JMM744]

Impressive skills with those pond scapes. Water features seem to have gone by the wayside here in Ohio after an amazing run. Seemed everyone had a pond and waterfall in their back yards at one time. I think lots of people found it took maintenance to keep them going and gave up.
I just told my wife I would upgrade my fish only from 180 to a 10’ 300 plus tank so I could enjoy more fish. I had to get rid on my redsea sailfin due to its size which was a real bummer as it was a Gorgeous fish. Now I see you already planning bigger yet and wonder what’s going to be big enough for me. Beautiful set up and great eye for detail putting it all together.
Your front yard is a true work of art!!

 

[The Pondman]

Impressive skills with those pond scapes. Water features seem to have gone by the wayside here in Ohio after an amazing run. Seemed everyone had a pond and waterfall in their back yards at one time. I think lots of people found it took maintenance to keep them going and gave up.
I just told my wife I would upgrade my fish only from 180 to a 10’ 300 plus tank so I could enjoy more fish. I had to get rid on my redsea sailfin due to its size which was a real bummer as it was a Gorgeous fish. Now I see you already planning bigger yet and wonder what’s going to be big enough for me. Beautiful set up and great eye for detail putting it all together.
Your front yard is a true work of art!!

Thank you very much! The problem with most fish ponds is that the filtration systems installed are either extremely undersized or just wrong. Most contractors don't install bottom drains, pressurized filters or external pumps. Most start building little ponds and do ok using readily available DIY pond kits but the problem starts when they start building larger features and continue using the same 1-size-fits-all filtration systems and they don't learn and apply new construction methodologies and use bette filtration technologies available.

Funny thing is that we're not done with this tank and though the next tank won't be for a year or two, we're already excited about it. Lol!

 

[JMM744]

Keeping our eyes to the future keeps things exciting and keeps us moving forward. I think many hobbyists also need the challenge of new systems, new features or fish to keep the interest level up there.
Looking forward to seeing your tank completed.

 

[The Pondman]

Finally had time to install the My Reef Creations 6 foot refugium, new AquaUV 80 waft sterilizer and 4 AI Prime HD lights.

Refugium lighting and bio-media coming next......

 

[Smarkow]

Sorry for crapy pics with too much glare but was in a hurry.

Don’t you dare apologize, it looks awesome!
Thanks for sharing