Hey all, tank is still up and going, along with the others.
I actually changed my filtration on the 450. The sump was too tall which made it difficult to clean. Plus I woke up to a puddle the day after Christmas because my automatic drip was going while the drain wasn't draining. D'oh! For right now I'm using 3 FX5's with all the baskets out and loaded to the gills with media. I had to turn my fans back on to push the poo around the tank and into the filters. My old pump did a much better job of moving water, but the FX5's do keep it clean and clear. Hopefully I can find a better sump for it soon.
I actually have my female ray in the 210 at the moment. She is due to have babies in a month. It's her first time being pregnant so am not too sure what to expect. I was a little nervous moving her, but did it the same weekend as the "deed" - woke up one morning and she honestly looked like she had been rode hard and put away wet. Everything went smoothly, so hopefully I didn't disturb things too much. She seems to be doing well and eats like crazy.
The Koi will be ready for the pond come spring. They're still a little small at the moment, not doing bad though.
For my stand, I just have a wood wrap - basically a shell. The original plan was to attach magnets to the wood and have it stick to the metal. The wood would have been too heavy. I had the metal stand custom made and then the wood wrap is just 3 sides with the back side open. It just sits on the floor and is screwed to the stand. The screws aren't really necessary. It's exactly the perfect size to sit flush around the stand and high enough where you don't see the metal. When I need to work under there (less now than when I had the sump), I pull the whole thing straight out and then lift it out of the way. It's fairly light. For normal maintenance, there's 3 sets of doors that open pretty wide to make everything accessible.
The only thing I would have done differently is the hood. Right now it's hinged and you have to lift everything open - basically the entire front of it. If I did it again, I would just make the top sheet of wood open. I would also skip sand and just use tile. The rays move it around and you can see the bottom of the tank at times. If I was smart I would have painted the bottom, but I still think it would look best with tile. I may change over at some point just to make life easier.
I actually changed my filtration on the 450. The sump was too tall which made it difficult to clean. Plus I woke up to a puddle the day after Christmas because my automatic drip was going while the drain wasn't draining. D'oh! For right now I'm using 3 FX5's with all the baskets out and loaded to the gills with media. I had to turn my fans back on to push the poo around the tank and into the filters. My old pump did a much better job of moving water, but the FX5's do keep it clean and clear. Hopefully I can find a better sump for it soon.
I actually have my female ray in the 210 at the moment. She is due to have babies in a month. It's her first time being pregnant so am not too sure what to expect. I was a little nervous moving her, but did it the same weekend as the "deed" - woke up one morning and she honestly looked like she had been rode hard and put away wet. Everything went smoothly, so hopefully I didn't disturb things too much. She seems to be doing well and eats like crazy.
The Koi will be ready for the pond come spring. They're still a little small at the moment, not doing bad though.
For my stand, I just have a wood wrap - basically a shell. The original plan was to attach magnets to the wood and have it stick to the metal. The wood would have been too heavy. I had the metal stand custom made and then the wood wrap is just 3 sides with the back side open. It just sits on the floor and is screwed to the stand. The screws aren't really necessary. It's exactly the perfect size to sit flush around the stand and high enough where you don't see the metal. When I need to work under there (less now than when I had the sump), I pull the whole thing straight out and then lift it out of the way. It's fairly light. For normal maintenance, there's 3 sets of doors that open pretty wide to make everything accessible.
The only thing I would have done differently is the hood. Right now it's hinged and you have to lift everything open - basically the entire front of it. If I did it again, I would just make the top sheet of wood open. I would also skip sand and just use tile. The rays move it around and you can see the bottom of the tank at times. If I was smart I would have painted the bottom, but I still think it would look best with tile. I may change over at some point just to make life easier.
