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Gumby
Fishnologist


Registered: 06/13/01
Posts: 26,656
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Re: coolest fish tank ever [Re: Prisoner#1]
#9078985 - 10/14/08 10:29 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Holy Christ that's a lot of custom acrylic work. I don't even want to imagine how much that cost the guy. I've done my fair share of building acrylic tanks and that shit isn't easy or safe (acrylic dust causes cancer).
If you saw that tank in GA, chances are I know who did it. The people in the fish "industry" all know each other.
peterluber: As far as keeping saltwater goes, I've had about 4 tanks. I would have had more but as you said, shit is retardedly expensive. Live rock is what gets you. I think in the Atlanta area it's up to about $7-$9 per pound for qualiy Fiji rock. You can't even get Tonga Branch anymore.
When you consider that in a reef tank you want almost 1 pound of rock per gallon of water, the cost gets astronomical. Then you have to factor in the costs of high intensity lighting and complex filter systems (plenums, refugiums, skimmers, sumps, calcium reactors, etc) and it ends up being one of those things only the rich can afford.
Then again, if I'm keeping a saltwater tank, I just can't do a fish only system. If I'm gonna invest the money, I'm going balls to the wall and do a reef tank.
That said, my mom has a nice 8 gallon nano reef that I taught her how to take care of it. She actually does a better job with it than I ever would (she's more dedicated).
Here's a pic:

Unfortunately that's the only pic I have. I'll get a full picture of the tank next time I'm home. It should look pretty freakin awesome because I got my mom some Xenia coral and neon green star polyps last time I was home in August.
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peterluber

Registered: 12/04/07
Posts: 231
Last seen: 8 years, 3 months
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Re: coolest fish tank ever [Re: Gumby]
#9079636 - 10/15/08 01:34 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Nice nano. Yeah, live rock is expensive. I live in San Diego so I paid considerably less for mine, IIRC ~$3-4/lb. And yes, I totally agree, you just can't not have a reef if you're going saltwater.
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Gumby
Fishnologist


Registered: 06/13/01
Posts: 26,656
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Re: coolest fish tank ever [Re: peterluber]
#9079662 - 10/15/08 01:44 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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You guys on the west coast have it good as far as saltwater goes. I used to work for a company outside of Atlanta that imported coral and fish from Asia. Because of the layover and customs in LA, the delay was so hardcore that we'd lose up to 40% of our orders. We eventually stopped getting fish, coral did better being in the box for up to 72 hours.
If I ever move to the west coast I will have an insane reef tank. For some reason they can get just about anything you want in Cali, regardless of law.
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peterluber

Registered: 12/04/07
Posts: 231
Last seen: 8 years, 3 months
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Re: coolest fish tank ever [Re: Gumby]
#9079686 - 10/15/08 02:05 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Yes, it seems that we can. I haven't had a tank for a few years, but someday if I have the time/patience/money I'd love to have another reef.
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Mojo
Stranger

Registered: 07/12/07
Posts: 1,676
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Re: explane how this works [Re: Coaster]
#9079698 - 10/15/08 02:14 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Coaster said: the same way if u fill up a cup of water underwater, then u can lift the cup upside-down still filled with water above the surface of water this is due to surface tension
Same concept, but neither are due to surface tension.
You can think of it in this way. Liquid water is almost negligibly compressible. Atmospheric pressure is pushing down on all of the water around the column (cup). Because the cup is sealed, the water inside of it has no pressure baring down on it, instead. It forms a suction, if you were to poke a hole in the top of your cup, the column of water would fall back into the tub as atmospheric pressures filled the space above the water with air. The seal is key.
If you broke the seal on the top of one of those fish tanks, you'd have fish all over your living room. Seeing how they pump air into the column is a little baffling, all i can think of is that there is a device that pumps the air out of the column as they feed it in. If this wasn't the case, the water level would drop as those air bubbles collect at the top
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