Max's 125g -First Saltwater Tank
- Thread starter Max125g
- Start date
Oh yea, my hands were tore up. I'll never do that again without a proper pair of gloves.
I even stated
" am thinking about taking them to the local self car wash and running the pressure washer over them to blow out the rest of the sediment/sand because my hands are just to raw from individually cleaning/poking/rinsing each rock."
:)
I even stated
" am thinking about taking them to the local self car wash and running the pressure washer over them to blow out the rest of the sediment/sand because my hands are just to raw from individually cleaning/poking/rinsing each rock."
:)
ggNoRe
Reefing newb
Looks like some great rock! I'll give it to ya you're definitely dedicated! :mrgreen: Can't see myself putting that much work into rocks. :p
Started to shape the egg crate last night. Started on the left side of the tank. I started by making a curved cut to simulate a crack in the rocks. My plan for the cut is to give the tank an illusion of depth. I will be putting a piece of shadowed blue paper behind the section where the egg crate is cut. I will also put a break in the main rock structure part of the tank which will add more depth.
Made a pocket for the smaller overflow which will flow into the refugium. I plan on using a lot of filter media to prevent any organics making it into the refugium. Still not 100% on the placement of the return nozzle so I have not made that a pocket yet.
Still have not started shaping the left side of the tank because I don’t know which overflow to use. A weir design or dual u tube design. anybody know pros/cons of each? Is there a better one?
Made a pocket for the smaller overflow which will flow into the refugium. I plan on using a lot of filter media to prevent any organics making it into the refugium. Still not 100% on the placement of the return nozzle so I have not made that a pocket yet.
Still have not started shaping the left side of the tank because I don’t know which overflow to use. A weir design or dual u tube design. anybody know pros/cons of each? Is there a better one?
troybuckle
Reefing newb
That wall is going to be cool, can't wait to see it!:bounce:
reeffreak
Reef pro
I need to see all of this come together.The eggcrate on the back wall and surrounding the overflow is baffling my mind.
Bifferwine
I am a girl
Yeah I'm wondering what's going on too! Can't wait to see more updates.
reeffreak
Reef pro
Secret,huh?Are you using the spray foam to make it look like a rock wall?
reeffreak
Reef pro
That was going to be my second guess.
I saw it here awhile back and on another reef forum
Aquascape supplies - Bonding/ Mortar
I saw it here awhile back and on another reef forum
Aquascape supplies - Bonding/ Mortar
andersoned14
Reefing newb
I just found this post and need to see more. It has been two weeks since a post! Your rock wall is very intresting and looks like it will be awsome once it is done. I can't wait to see more. Nice work so far on everything, you have way more patience then me. I think I added water the day I got my tank off craiglist. Great Job so far, one day I hope to upgrade to a 6' tank so I can have larger angles. You have given me a lot of great ideas thanks for shareing.
Cottonwood
Lets move to Basketball..
I want to see more as well. I just got a 125 and am trying to figure out Rock placement etc...I was in a hurry because I was supposed to get a bunch of LR tomorrow. That fell through so I'm going to slow down and plan this out better now. I cant wait to see what you did, it looks sweet.
lilreefgirl
Reefing newb
I'm with you guys, I want to see more!!
Specifically how you build that rock wall...I am doing a 60g build and trying out the foam wall thing using a 10g to see if I can do it and how it looks...so far it looks too "pillowy" - I'd like to see how you're doing yours & maybe rethink my plan...?
cant wait to see more....
Specifically how you build that rock wall...I am doing a 60g build and trying out the foam wall thing using a 10g to see if I can do it and how it looks...so far it looks too "pillowy" - I'd like to see how you're doing yours & maybe rethink my plan...?
cant wait to see more....
sorry for the delay everybody. a one week work tradeshow put me back a bit. Finished the other side of the plastic frame and placed all my rocks to find out i was a bit short. Had to order another 20ish lbs of Marco rubble to fit it. I'll have some updates/pictures this week, hopefully. lol I get to sidetracked so easily. spent a bit of time working on my sump system.
Hey everyone, it’s been…well a long time. But I’m back and ready to rock this thing.
I never got the tank set up before because of a few reasons, mainly laziness but also my living situation was up in the air. Was trying to buy a house and didn’t want to renew the lease aka-no reason to set up a semi-permanent fish tank if I knew I was going to be moving in a few months anyways. Regardless I didn’t buy a new house and I found another apartment and here I am, ready to set this thing up after nearly 2 years!
Some things have changed…
I ended up finding a good deal on a 115 Acrylic tank with a built in overflow. I bought it for 275 bucks in great condition. Fit my stand perfectly. Figuring I can sell my glass and overflows for around 150-200 bucks. The 100-150 hit I took on the new tank was worth it for the simple fact that I never have to worry about hang on back overflows, constant siphons’ and tubes/pipes behind the tank. Since there will be no hang on back overflows my main reason for the back rock wall is void-I no longer need to hide the overflow boxes. So that scraps my “rock wall” idea I was so excited about. This also changes the actual filtration process I had intended to do so minor adjustments to my refugium setup will be needed, but ill get into that later.
Now with no rock wall I still wanted to do something unique and different and I had already spent all this time on my current supply of dry rocks that I decided to make some PVC frame/rock structures.
Basically this is what I did (or I am doing, still only ½ done on the first one).
I started off with some ½” pvc. Bought a few lengths of it along with a bunch of random fittings. I laid out very basic shapes and drew out basic ideas of what I wanted them to look like but 95% I was basically winging it. I heated up the electric stove, turned the kitchen sink on cold and grabbed a few oven mitts.
I rotated the PVC over the heating elements until it got very hot so I can manipulate the PVC.
Using the oven mitts I would twist and bend the PVC into what I thought/think I wanted.
I would then run it under cold water to harden the PVC again.
After a few beers and some time playing with hot stuff and bending pipes I ended up with some crazy looking pvc pieces.
I then took the PVC pieces and made them look like Swiss cheese by drilling holes everywhere.
I followed the drilling by sanding each and every piece to create a rough surface to work with.
After each piece was molded, drilled and sanded I glued them all back together in similar shapes from what I had originally. (as I mentioned earlier, only 1 is in the works right now). So now I have this weird looking PVC structure.
Into the garage I go!
Started by zip tying some of the rock to each piece, leaving gaps in between each rock.
After zip tying I then mixed up some Motar mix I got from Marco (marcorocks) and started filling in the gaps with smaller pieces of rock. I’m trying to use small pieces so I can keep as many holes exposed and keep the overall weight down. And here is my progress so far on the first piece. I’m leaving the bottom bare because it will be covered in sand up to about 2-3 inches. This way the rocks are actually sitting on top of the sand and not in it, hopefully preventing some of those dead areas.
So it’s a start, ill be working on them every day and see what I end up with. I love letting my creativity just go free!
Just a quick photo of my makeshift work station
I’ll keep you all updated, very excited to get back into all this J
I never got the tank set up before because of a few reasons, mainly laziness but also my living situation was up in the air. Was trying to buy a house and didn’t want to renew the lease aka-no reason to set up a semi-permanent fish tank if I knew I was going to be moving in a few months anyways. Regardless I didn’t buy a new house and I found another apartment and here I am, ready to set this thing up after nearly 2 years!
Some things have changed…
I ended up finding a good deal on a 115 Acrylic tank with a built in overflow. I bought it for 275 bucks in great condition. Fit my stand perfectly. Figuring I can sell my glass and overflows for around 150-200 bucks. The 100-150 hit I took on the new tank was worth it for the simple fact that I never have to worry about hang on back overflows, constant siphons’ and tubes/pipes behind the tank. Since there will be no hang on back overflows my main reason for the back rock wall is void-I no longer need to hide the overflow boxes. So that scraps my “rock wall” idea I was so excited about. This also changes the actual filtration process I had intended to do so minor adjustments to my refugium setup will be needed, but ill get into that later.
Now with no rock wall I still wanted to do something unique and different and I had already spent all this time on my current supply of dry rocks that I decided to make some PVC frame/rock structures.
Basically this is what I did (or I am doing, still only ½ done on the first one).
I started off with some ½” pvc. Bought a few lengths of it along with a bunch of random fittings. I laid out very basic shapes and drew out basic ideas of what I wanted them to look like but 95% I was basically winging it. I heated up the electric stove, turned the kitchen sink on cold and grabbed a few oven mitts.
I rotated the PVC over the heating elements until it got very hot so I can manipulate the PVC.
Using the oven mitts I would twist and bend the PVC into what I thought/think I wanted.
I would then run it under cold water to harden the PVC again.
After a few beers and some time playing with hot stuff and bending pipes I ended up with some crazy looking pvc pieces.
I then took the PVC pieces and made them look like Swiss cheese by drilling holes everywhere.
I followed the drilling by sanding each and every piece to create a rough surface to work with.
After each piece was molded, drilled and sanded I glued them all back together in similar shapes from what I had originally. (as I mentioned earlier, only 1 is in the works right now). So now I have this weird looking PVC structure.
Into the garage I go!
Started by zip tying some of the rock to each piece, leaving gaps in between each rock.
After zip tying I then mixed up some Motar mix I got from Marco (marcorocks) and started filling in the gaps with smaller pieces of rock. I’m trying to use small pieces so I can keep as many holes exposed and keep the overall weight down. And here is my progress so far on the first piece. I’m leaving the bottom bare because it will be covered in sand up to about 2-3 inches. This way the rocks are actually sitting on top of the sand and not in it, hopefully preventing some of those dead areas.
So it’s a start, ill be working on them every day and see what I end up with. I love letting my creativity just go free!
Just a quick photo of my makeshift work station
I’ll keep you all updated, very excited to get back into all this J
Well that idea didn't work. The problem i was having was that no matter how many zip ties i used there were gaps left where you could see the PVC, which i was not a fan of. I would take smaller pieces and mortar them in the gaps but if the zip ties were not 100% holding the rock, any give an the mortared pieces would break off. It was a huge hassle and i spent a lot of time and hate to admit failure but... oh well....
Here is the update
So here I am after about 6 months of collecting select pieces from, well all over, this is what I had to start with. (note that some of my smaller and “custom” pieces, meaning mortared together, are not in this picture)
The dry rock I used includes:
4 pillars from Marco Rocks (roughly 12-20 lbs each)
A few select pieces from random LFS (plenty around here in south florida)
55lbs of Pukani from BRS (after all was said and done used about 45 lbs due to pieces breaking off during manipulation, hammer/chiseled)
5-8 pieces of “custom” rocks using Marco’s mortar mix weighing anywere from 1 lb to 5 lbs each
Being a 72” long 125g, I don’t have much depth to work with but I still wanted to create the illusion of depth in the tank which was going to be tricks. Again it’s a bit hard to tell from the pictures but you should get a general idea. Also, being a marketing director, I tried to stay close to the rule of thirds.
Here is an overview of the tank (front)
Looking at a closer view of right side (chiseled the hole in the big rock). I was trying to create the illusion of a broken reef so there is a distinct separation in the “right” island vs “middle” island.
Looking at the center island and left island. Here is where I really tried to create some depth having the left island go behind the center island and creating a few viewpoints where you can see through the center island
Here is the right island, but not really an island. I tried to create the illusion that this was the “main reef” and the middle and right were broken off portions of it. It’s hard to tell but there is a huge cave structure with many different ledges also going for some depth.
So that’s it. Just got my tropic eden aragasnow in today so ill be putting the sand in the tank tonight with hopefully water over the weekend. I seek your criticism/advice/comments/suggestions
Here is the update
So here I am after about 6 months of collecting select pieces from, well all over, this is what I had to start with. (note that some of my smaller and “custom” pieces, meaning mortared together, are not in this picture)
The dry rock I used includes:
4 pillars from Marco Rocks (roughly 12-20 lbs each)
A few select pieces from random LFS (plenty around here in south florida)
55lbs of Pukani from BRS (after all was said and done used about 45 lbs due to pieces breaking off during manipulation, hammer/chiseled)
5-8 pieces of “custom” rocks using Marco’s mortar mix weighing anywere from 1 lb to 5 lbs each
Being a 72” long 125g, I don’t have much depth to work with but I still wanted to create the illusion of depth in the tank which was going to be tricks. Again it’s a bit hard to tell from the pictures but you should get a general idea. Also, being a marketing director, I tried to stay close to the rule of thirds.
Here is an overview of the tank (front)
Looking at a closer view of right side (chiseled the hole in the big rock). I was trying to create the illusion of a broken reef so there is a distinct separation in the “right” island vs “middle” island.
Looking at the center island and left island. Here is where I really tried to create some depth having the left island go behind the center island and creating a few viewpoints where you can see through the center island
Here is the right island, but not really an island. I tried to create the illusion that this was the “main reef” and the middle and right were broken off portions of it. It’s hard to tell but there is a huge cave structure with many different ledges also going for some depth.
So that’s it. Just got my tropic eden aragasnow in today so ill be putting the sand in the tank tonight with hopefully water over the weekend. I seek your criticism/advice/comments/suggestions
JustinsReefTank
Reefing newb
Looking really good. Love the Aquascaping!! Can't wait to see it wet.
Mr.D
Reefing newb
Really nice!
lilmatty5dimes
Reef enthusiast
Wow that looks really good.
