New Tank for Balki! *again*

[sevenyearnight]

Thanks Salmon!

Well, everything came in today, and everything worked, and nothing liquid spilled, so all good to go. I just plugged the heater in this afternoon, so the temp is where it should be at around 76 - 77 F. I put one of the pumps in the chamber I made in the back where the heater also is, away from puffer teeth, and then the other pump in the display area, and I'm super happy with them. They are a new designed maxi-pumps so they can take on either a powerhead or circulation pump design, so the one in the back is set up like a powerhead, and the one in front is like a circulation pump. They are relatively quiet and they are way less bulky than I had imagined them to be.

I thought I'd post some pics of the back area where I have the pump and heater hidden away. Sorry they are caca photos, there is only about 10" behind the tank, so it's hard for me to photograph back there.

Here is the side view, yes the tank frame is metallic bronze, it came that way, I should have repainted it, but instead, I just painted the metal cabinet to match it. Sorry the shot is so blurry, I have a cabinet next to the tank and had to hold the camera at an angle with my unsteady hands.

It's kind of a P shaped area that's closed off, this is the only section behind the "lava" that is closed off. I didn't want Balki to chew on the cables or anything.
This is the top view:

And the best I could do very blurry partial back view:


I'm sorry the pictures are so awful. I'm pretty good at cooking though.
I will be moving the live rock, Balki, and his best friend Orangjello, over tomorrow morning, to give Balki the whole day to get used to his new home. He's probably going to be very scared and upset, but I hope he grows to love it. I'm thinking with fearless Orangjello swimming about with seemingly not a care in the world, it will help him feel more comfortable about exploring.

[Pufftastic]

Forgive me for not knowing this already -- who is Orangjello?

Really loving the background you did on this tank. And metal-framed tanks are wonderfully retro! Balki is going to love his new home once he's used to it.

[xrayjeeper83]

You should have stripped it down to the bare metal. Bloats tank looks just like that but is just metal no paint


Dont worry pufftastic I cant say that I remember any orangjello either

[sevenyearnight]

Oh yeah, Orangjello is his best friend, a creamsicle lyretail molly. It's rather bizarre, but I don't judge them.

[sevenyearnight]

It shows up a lot bronzier in the photos, my living room is only lit by fish tanks, so it pretty much just looks like a dark brownish gray.
I know I should have stripped it down, but this project was already taking longer than I wanted it too, and I wanted Balki to have a bigger home more than I cared about the color. I honestly don't really like doing things like stripping paint, resealing tanks, or utilitarian painting lol. I think it sucks, but it's necessary.

The story of Orangjello is a such, sorry it's a little bit long: Balki originally had a mean roommate named Pig Pig, a much smaller, much more aggressive GSP. I moved Balki to his own tank when Pig Pig started biting at him, at first they were "Ok" together. It was a combination of just not liking his personality all that well, and the fact that he went out of his way to bite me every time I had to do anything in his tank, I just didn't want to upkeep a somewhat largish tank for a mean fish I didn't like that well. So we took Pig Pig to the only LFS that would take him, since the other one said they'd flush him down the toilet (I don't go there for anything anymore)

Now alone, Balki pretty much paced constantly. I had raised his salinity, I had fake plants, live rock everything. He paced just a little less, but it was really unnerving. I kept rearranging things, and he'd be entertained for about a day, then back to pacing. I had a small tank set up next to his with the baserock that he was afraid of, it's that honeycomb rock, and I think he thinks the holes look like eyes. But anyway, he was super afraid of this rock, so I had to take it out. I just had a few snails, the scary rocks, and some live rock rubble, and small pieces. I bought a creamsicle lyretail molly, and acclimated him to marine, and put him in the small tank next to Balki. Balki would spend a lot of time looking over there at him, even though he had scary rocks, and then most of the other time he would pace. After a week or so of them being next to each other, I had an idea to put Orangjello in with him, thinking that maybe he needed someone in there with him, and Orangjello could eat the algae. I was ready to scoop him out if things turned ugly. Balki went over to Orangjello, he nudged him, Orangjello did nothing for a minute or two, then commenced eating algae. And Balki stopped pacing and started hunting the liverock, and sometimes he'd swim with Orangjello, and that's when he started taking super cute naps during the day instead of pacing madly just about constantly. But after about a month, I started getting concerned that maybe Balki thought Orangjello was annoying, and I didn't want him to get killed, so I took him out. Balki threw a fit. The whole day he paced, and circled the tank looking for him, it was really upsetting to watch. He was really frantic. I put Orangjello back in the next day, and Balki swam over to him, looked him over, and went back about his normal activity, occasionally looking around to make sure Orangjello was still in there with him. I'm definitely not taking his bestie away again. Hopefully he won't eat him one day out of the blue, but for now, I'm not going to upset him. The reason I don't mention Orangjello much is because I don't want people to think it's a good idea to keep mollies in with their puffers. I'd feel pretty awful if they posted about molly body parts floating around in the water. Most people don't have GSP's that are afraid of certain rocks if they look at him funny.

[jjj5311]

Looks awesome!

I have one of thsoe pumps i use for mixing sw and draining tanks lol they are aweome!

I am uber jealous of your background and your space back there to put all the gear, mine is righ tin the tank and i am a bit worried right now

Awesome job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[Reaperpilot2014]

I'm sorry the pictures are so awful. I'm pretty good at cooking though.

ROFL!

[sevenyearnight]

Thanks jjj!
This took me a while time to put together, mostly due to cost. if Balki were in a smaller tank right now and I was struggling to keep his nitrates down, I would have had to bare bones it. But he's still fairly small, and he and Orangjello have undetectable nitrates between water changes, so I wasn't ridiculously stressed out about moving him ASAP, just moderately ridiculously stressed out lol.

[sevenyearnight]

LOL reaper, I was hoping the awful joke would make up for the caca pics!

[Nuclear_Glitter]

For someone reason when I read the, "sorry for the horrible pics. i'm pretty good at cooking though." My mind just was like h, that's resonable." and I didn't think anything of it until someone else mentioned how funny it was and I was "ha! That's great. Why didn't my mind register it first ?" O_o

Anyway... I am really excited to see how big Balki gets! =]

[jjj5311]

ha seven before i didnt get a chance to read the whole orangjello story but that is hilarious, my gsp "big puff" does some very strange things. Today he made friend with a tiny hermit crab hitch hiker, he picked it up and put it on top of the live rock at the highest point. I have no idea where these fish get their ideas/personality lol

and the cooking joke lmfao rofl i didnt read that part before lol

[goldielocke76]

LoL what a cute story. Hey, if it works, it works. /Shrug. I wouldn't want to do anything to stress my future puffer out. I don't even like it when PZ is stressed-- it stresses me out LOL. You should post pics haha =)

[sevenyearnight]

LMAO N_G, that's too funny, "Oh that's reasonable"
jjj, I think Pfire's toby did that to a crab too, so silly!
Goldielocke, I will post pics when they are moved over tomorrow
Thanks pufftastic:) I was really happy to find a metal frame tank, I wanted one ever since xray posted a pic of his.

[Reaperpilot2014]

For someone reason when I read the, "sorry for the horrible pics. i'm pretty good at cooking though." My mind just was like h, that's resonable." and I didn't think anything of it until someone else mentioned how funny it was and I was "ha! That's great. Why didn't my mind register it first ?" O_o

Anyway... I am really excited to see how big Balki gets! =]

Most excellent, lol. Maybe my mind is superior, but I highly doubt it.

[xrayjeeper83]

Puffers are some really weird creatures