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Good morning

Scoop said:
Good morning to Meanie and Elbert and Shooter13 and MikeD and CQ and DJ and Rip and all the other morning visitors.
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Yep...story of my life!

Mornin' my fellow Mossbergers!

'Sposed to be a soaker today...yay! I'm so excited. :sarcasm:
 
I have not regretted sleeping in late since I retired.

I was up late last night trying to upload photographs and I'm going to try and finish it now.

But I have been on a round-robin quest to finish my new aquarium stand and have a stocked aquarium running, before Thanksgiving.

Should be fairly simple, because I have plenty of bacteria Laden stuff all ready to stock it with.

My stand is all assembled but the glue on the top is not dry. I'm going to give it several more hours before I try and put the aquarium on it.

I got to go move 300 lb of lead off of the top of it before I can put on the aquarium. I wanted everything weighted down solidly while the glue dries.
 
Well it didn't leak and it came out perfectly level. I took great pains making everything level and it really worked out.

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You can see that I still haven't aligned the doors yet. One is sticking out pretty funny. The heck with that let's get some fish in this thing!
 
Thank you Rip. It's coming along nicely. I started with a pre laminated bar top and two ordinary overhead kitchen cabinets. Overhead cabinets are only 12 inches deep. It came out about 32.5 inches tall after adding the feet and a top.

But they're not made to a support a huge aquarium so I added oak and poplar reinforcements between them, and on the back.

Here it is lying face down in my hall, covered with lead weights in plastic bags and lots of ammo boxes, while the glue dries overnight.
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Some of the boards you can see are just for clamping purposes. That big hole is where my electrical power will come through. I'm going to put the lights and pumps on a timer.
 
You can see that the backs on those cabinets are just particleboard and I sealed the snot out of them 3x at every point. They are tied together top and bottom with Poplar stringers, and I've added four Oak legs into the framing where you won't see them. Everything else is solid hardwood or hardwood veneer, except the four door panels. Those are manufactured wood epoxy product framed with red Oak.

The top is set with silicone to the cabinet so no water can run into the cabinet or the framing, and the top is sealed to the wall with Alex painters caulk. It matched the color of the wall perfectly and I didn't have to repaint anything.
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Well I slapped it all together as fast as I could and here it is with fish and water, two heaters, three lights, a hang on filter, three canister filters with air stones & a powerhead, and a partial reverse flow undergravel filter with buried power head that feeds from one of the canisters to slow the flow.

You can see Bobby Big Fish my fifteen-year-old silver dollar. Betta Alpha, the blue and red betta, is in the upper left corner of the tank and near the very top. Morton the plecostomus and baby Morton the baby plecostomus her both clinched up in camouflage down in the gravel there and very hard to see in this photo.

I wouldn't normally want all that massive filtration but I wanted the water to clear as soon as possible, as I moved all my fish half way through the transfer of water. I had a bacteria tank (from the 15 year old tank I just retired) going this whole time just to provide extra biology for the new tank and that all went into this tank.

I washed the tank 3 times while filling and draining. I had 35 gallons of water prepared and 30 lb of live rocks and gravel. I only had to add about 18 gallons of water.

The water is still very full of Tiny Bubbles so it looks milky but everything has settled out by the time I took this picture and the water was practically clear except for the microbubbles. These usually clear up in a couple days, and I'll post another photo when the water is really clear & the fish are showing off.
 
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Congratulations on an outstanding build. I'm glad to see you used the mandatory ammo boxes during the construction....:D
I'm amazed with your having had a fish for 15 years.
I always found aquariums relaxing and almost hypnotic. Enjoy! :cheers:
 
Good Morning Mossberg Forum !!

How about them Philadelphia Eagles...!?

37-9 vs the Cowboys last night...still the best in the NFL on Week 11 !!
 
Well it's almost Tuesday morning here. I spent some more time cleaning up the wiring & decorating the new aquarium. I got rid of that hang on filter.

I spent the rest of my day cleaning, moving and reassembling 30 a gallon aquarium. Then I went out shopping for some more gravel and aquarium plants & I picked up a new lemon oscar.

I've never owned an Oscar before, because you need a really big tank once they grow up. Generally 50 to 100 gallons is required to keep a full-grown Oscar.

This is Felix the Oscar. He doesn't look like much but he is like a largemouth bass when he feeds. He will eat almost anything but they like worms and crickets.
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This fish will probably get 8 to 10 inches long, but now he's only about 3" . When he gets to about 5 in I'll have to transplant them into the 55 gallon aquarium. If Bob the silver dollar is still alive, they may have to fight it out to the death.
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Felix is probably going to be more aggressive but Bob is tough.
 
Rico said:
. . .
I'm amazed with your having had a fish for 15 years. . .
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I'm amazed too. I've ever been this successful. I set this 30-gallon tank up 14 years and 10 months ago. At the time I stocked it with the variety of inexpensive fish. I started with 30 1" fish. There were some tiger barbs some platys some mollies some swordtails & black skirts, and the silver dollars which I had never bought before.

Those fish fought it out for 10 years and the survivors were five big silver dollars and large plecostomus.

Over the past five years they've all passed away except for Bob who is celebrating his 15th year of captivity.
 
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Good morning to all my buddies at the Mossberg Owners forum. It's 5:30 in central California and I'm coming to life. I have to finish the shelf that matches my aquarium stand, so there is some sanding and varnishing left to do. I have to mount four iron brackets and hang it from the wall.

Rico said:
"Felix the Oscar"......Funny! I enjoyed their TV show.
The 55 has cleared up nicely.
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I couldn't resist a bad joke. :rolleyes:

By using four in-tank canisters, a hang on filter, two powerheads and an undergravel filter, the 55 cleared up perfectly in just one day.

I switched that big hang on filter to the 30, ran it 12 hrs with an undergravel filter, with 3 small canister filters, & two powerheads in the tank. I filled it 18 hours ago and it's looking very clear. Felix is loving it, as he was in a 10 gal tank at the store.

I also bought a new betta: Betta Beta, who went into the 16 gallon with 9 serpae tetras, three corydoras and a small pleco. Betta Alpha seems to be doing well with Bob and the two plecos, so I threw in a school of neon tetras to keep them company.

Or as a snack. I guess it's up to Bob to determine which. I wasn't going to put them in with the Oscar because that would be a Feeding Frenzy.

Bob is an herbivore but Oscar's like live food.

I found that if I have everything all ready to go, including 50 gallons of cycled water, substrate, and biological media, all well aged, I can populate a tank in under 1 day without any danger.

Oscars are tough and I put him in after only 1/2 day. Because of that I'll probably do a partial water change after just two days. He got lots of cycled media but I only gave him about 5 gallons of green water. When I do a fast cycle I like to have at least 50% well-aged water.
 
Good morning Mossberg lovers. It's 43 this morning under partly cloudy skies. The weather for Thaksgiving week is just awesome.

Have great day.
 
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