Prof, I have done the base rock cutting thing in the past, took the smooth side and put it to the wall and the rough side out, as an alternative to that foam mess some use. It would work fine with a tile saw (I'm more masochistic and used a hack saw!) Home Depot and Lowe's sell the coral rock tiles, the name escapes me (something Italian) but it comes in a box of 4"X4" tile to total a sq. ft. for about $4.50. It took an extra tile so rounded up to $5 on the budget. I've used the stuff for some years as frag tiles (I'd divide a tile into 4 or 9 pieces with a cutoff wheel on my Dremel. It's pretty soft
If I were you, with a tile saw, I'd cut some rock. Only trick is fitting it together, but with a Dremel in addition you could puzzle it out, which would break up the straight liens I had to use. Any small gaps can be filled with "grout" made with superglue and oolitic sand. On my wall the gaps were somewhat bigger, and I used aragocrete (4parts oolitic sand to 1 part cement) and since I used so little it didn't increase the pH of the tank water.
On another note, this food for thought from Delbeek and Sprung, Vol. 3 "The Reef Aquarium p. 41,
"...the position of corals on a reef is not like books on a vertical wall of shelves. It is more like bushes growing in a field." This was in justification for shallower, more cubical tanks, but gives the suggestion of how tile cut from baserock (or even liverock which is much softer) could fit into that philosophy.

A buddy bought this Superman Montipora cheap, thinking he'd got a great deal. Turns out it's the "other" Superman, the one that doesn't hold color except under special conditions. When he gave it to me, the polyps were red, but the blue base was brown. I put it under T-5's and he came over one day to see the base had turned blue! So jealous. Then he came over again and the base had bleached white, so he didn't feel so bad. I've put it here because it's only a little over an inch (the plug is 2") and if it changes to it's proper color I'll have scored with a "cheap" frag. If it doesn't change, I'll still have some pretty red polyps.

I'm so used to heavy topoff I was surprised to find how little this tank uses. Measuring after two days gone to my parents for Thanskgiving, I decided to try using one of these, as it's got just over two days volume. Either the search engine on this site is lacking, or I'm shocked no one has tried this before.
It seems to work as good as a hamster waterer, and looks cooler.
On sale at Bed, Bath, and Beyond at $5 for 2. - Aqua Globes

That is exactly what I was thinking for another little tank I am working on. Trying to get away from that vertical look and get something more natural working. I think I am going to crank up the saw and cut some rock today. I need to cut a 10 gallon tank down as well so I can do it all at once.

BTW, Great idea with the aqua-globes. My wife uses them for her plants. She's already threatened me with my life if one went missing and ended up on a tank.

-Prof

So I have my stocking "wish" list, now to figure how to get it all in with my budget. I pruned $15 off this red millepora and jjust kept the base.



My montipora pedestals look pretty goofy right now, but after some grow in and pruning they'll elevate that end of the bommie while having some swimming space for a fish, if I can afford one!

Lookin gooooood! I cant wait to see tose montis grow in some. Thats also a great idea on the ATO you have, very creative!

Earlier I was at an lfs looking at ORA stuff, bought a Red Planet but while the staff was bagging it up, the nub of a yellow tipped deep water acro was accidentally broken off and fell to the sand bottom. I asked how much and they threw itin the bag! It was no more than a 1/16" in size, but now has grown to nearly an inch, finally showing a yellow tip.


This Seriatpora hystrix has always held its pink color, even when conditions were "less than favorable" and it branches well. Due to financial restraints, I had to prune it heavily to keep on budget.


These orange faced zoanthids have been around forever. As far as I know they have no name and they grow like a weed, but fluoresce very nicely under the Royal Blue Actinics.


Technically these are hitchhikers but I saw them on the rock beforehand and I have access to a lot of rock, so I will budget for them.

get those corals in there.

Just ooooooone more (ORA Red Planet). But then I've got to take either the Acan or the Favia out.

shot for aquascape entry ^^ are you ok with this one

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=217175

In case anyone wants to have more of an idea about my lighting system, this thread discusses it.
Light fixture

That Superman is looking nice....
I think I'm going send that guy an email for more info on those LEDS!!!

Nearly finished stocking my tank. Since I'm testing to see if LED's are viable to use on reef tank, I decided to forego most of the lps (an Acan and a brain frag), as much for the budget as anything. I can get a lot more $5 sps frags than expensive lps. No problem as the sps usually require more light anyway.
First, I've got this purple rimmed Monti that I grew out in my PC lit jetties nano over a short period,
From this:


To this, in 7 months


Off to a good start 120909

for the aquascape shots if you did'nt like the one you had PM me a new one

Every time I sit down by this tank I wonder why I didn't start with a new one. This one is scratched to hell and back, but it's been used a lot too, as a quarantine tank and as a sump, and will be used for the same purposes again. With the scratches I won't be tempted to keep the tank up for a long time, as this is just a test and contest tank. If this experiment is successful I will do a peninsula on the 40L I've got set up so I'm excited about that too. But right now I'm watching this tank, and the corals or light don't give a darn if the glass is scratched or not. It may be ghetto, but it's my ghetto. And yes, the corals are growing. Now to see how fast.

I think you better give him a call too. 120909 and it's definitely getting darker

the aquascape is just incredible! it looks much larger than a 10g

Thanks! Here's a better perpective.

Oh Peninsula. Where have you been all my reefing life?

Here's a shot of my "tiny table", Acropora efflorescens, blue-tipped. I found it between two larger tables, nearly shaded out, but I'll see if it can make a go of it. The bleached area has begun to color up and show polyps. Used my "ghetto light box" to get this topdown shot

Another topdown showing the very end of the bommie. when the superman overgrows the plug it'll look a lot better. the green with brown polyps A. setosa below it was bleached by T5's but it's color is returning. I'm hoping for a layered effect similar to the pedastals (note the apple green one which was also bleached, but is "recoloring") with the encrusting superman above the setosa, whose plate will extend the bommie.
Oh, the Acan, while one of my favorites will be leaving, as my budget can't "afford" the whole piece and I can't bring myself to trim off just one polyp for this tank.

I can barely set up a tank without adding at least a frag of my Green Bali Slimer, Acropora formosa.
This species can grow in huge thickets, a favorite habitat of mandarins. Some day I may make a tank with just these corals, with a colony of krill eating greens

wow this tank is so awesome. i love all your SPS! makes me want to go buy more SPS for my SPS tank. Mmmmm.

I know this shot looks quite similar to previous ones, but it's the "good" side, less scratches and reflections. We've got a new camera but we're still trying to figure out how it works so I had to go back to the old Olympus for the 15th FTS. Every coral is showing very positive signs of growth. I've been leaning on alkalinity as I'd learned that to get good encrustation with Pocillipora you have to favor bicarbonate.
I've got the calcium at 400 ppm and the alkalinity at 150 ppm carbonate equiv. Not way out of whack, but I don't want to see snow in the tank. as it is, the Pocilli has about 6 new growing points so it will likely be very bushy!

ok just trying to catch up from vacation so I am a bit late on some of these lol. That monti is nice looking. Mine was sold to me as a rainbow monti but under my LEDs it morphed into a superman monti. Those things do crazy stuff you know lol. Everything else looks good too. I still like the scape and its coming along nicely.

wow your tank looks so good and clear.
I love your red mushy

Maybe because it sits prominently on a rock outcrop I've been focusing on the Seriatopora to learn how to use our new camera. It's developed 12 new growing tips. Amazing.

My little hawkfish. Eating pods and frozen krill bits.

tank is lookin great man!!! i like everything you have done with it

Wow! I love the pygmy hawk I had one a while back but it disappeared one day
Tank is looking beautiful!

Now it's down to 15% water change every week,
dosing of calcium and alkalinity 1-2 times a week, according to tests.
a dose of reefplus once a week
a pinch of Golden Pearls day before WC
Krill on a stick for the hawkfish once a week
Daily prayer to Avlakete, Voodoo goddess of the sea. (I hope that's not considered cheating)

u have to budget for the sacrifices tho

A ten gallon sps peninsula! Wrow, I wish I had dedication for a tank like that. Its going to look pretty cool with all the corals in a few months!

I've been keeping a close eye on it. It sits between two chairs in my tank room, crowded too with my wife's orchids, as we've had very cold weather for Florida the last few weeks. My little topoff aquaglobe is working well, since I figured out an easy filling routine I can mix my Ca and Alk in a flask and siphon it in, so not such a hassle to do.
Everything is growing well. We got a new camera for Christmas but the learning curve is pretty steep and I haven't gotten many shots I'm pleased with.

Well get with it man!!!

Thank goodness it's right in front of my face, or I wouldn't even see it! I've set up an additional tank (This time a rubbermaid container) on the ghetto frag system for holding the anemones in my 150 so I can do battle with the majanos. Then there's this thing called a "major outage" on Unit 3 that is killing me. I came home from work yesterday, showered and went straight to bed. Now it's after midnight and we're wide awake. I had to take my RO/DI system in from outside. It's supposed to get to 17 tonight. Yikes. My citrus are not happy. I HATE FREAKIN' COLD WEATHER (checks 401K to see when he can retire) but I guess I'll have to put up with it a few more years.
Note to self: Never complain about hot weather ever again. Nearly all day Friday I was up 130 feet in the air inspecting boiler drums. The wind up high is much greater velocity than it is on the ground. My face and hands are so dry, even after Genie slathered me with lotion. Arrrggh. Pictures today, I promise.
Oh, Jeff from Coralsky swapped me out the 10000K LED engines for 18000K. The 10K were 5 white/ 1 Blue. The 18000 are 3/3. I'll try and get comparison's. With the old camera even the 10000K looked blue in the pics. I'll try to figure out the white balance adjustments with the new camera. Hopefully get more accurate color.

I heard it's so cold in S. Fla right now that the iguanas are dropping out of the trees cause they're going into hibernation.
Is it true?

Yep, but what can you expect from non-natives. Actually they don't hibernate. They just get so lethargic when the temp drops to some low level that they get kinda catatonic and lose their grip on the trees. PLOP!
What are you doing up at this hour! Oh, yeah, kids in bed. Only time to yourself?

I think I'm going to watch "The Day After Tomorrow".. This cold has me in a doomsday mood. Brrrrrrrrrrr.

You nailed it!!
I was actually getting ready to head to bed and was just gonna do one last check of N-R for 5 mins, and surprised myself by finding some interesting topics open at this hour.
I'm out soon though...

Yardboy,
You have a great thread here and a super tank. Keep up with it, I really enjoy your humor

Phil

Well, my tank made it through the cold snap. Hopefully no more of that this winter.
For the 1000th time, I'm lamenting the scratches in this tank. Makes it really hard to take pics but an obligatory FTS is tomorrow, so I better get it posted.



This zoanthid is changing colors somewhat due to the LED's, maybe?


The red mushroom has thrown off a baby, that is growing well. I'd never observed at such close range their method of asexual reproduction. A tendril of flesh grew out from the base and a knob formed at the end. It anchored, the tendril broke off and retracted and viola', a babe is born.

What kind of coral response are you seeing to the LEDs over this tank?
What are your thoughts on the LEDs you are using?

Lisa, I would have to say that at this stage it's a qualified success. Growth has been substantial, but not sure if it couId have been faster with feeding, brighter light, skimming, etc. I used frags, most of which had broken edges. All the corals quite quickly healed over the raw areas. I have an ORA "Red Planet" and an A. tortuosa "Blue Cali tort" that have encrusted and are beginning to put out branches. The "Monti's on a Stick" are growing under the plate, which might indicate that they are actually getting too much light, but not sure since two others on the hill are growing quite well but I consider them to be somewhat lower light. We are only into the second month of the corals. I think I will see much more growth in the next four months. I'm keeping up with dosing, but am only feeding gloden pearls very lightly, as this tank is skimmerless, only uses sunlight from a West facing window for the chaeto (which is shrinking) and some activated carbon. Corraline has only recently begun to grow.
Short growth sequence for the Seriatopora
12-1-09

12-20-09



01-14-10

That's some pretty good growth!

What really surprised me while compiling the growth sequence is how much the corraline grew on the rock!

I'm really challenged with the camera right now. Not sure why, but I'm not getting what I want. Some of the other corals have grown even more, but I just can't get a decent shot, yet, of them.

what an amazing tank! love the look! love your personality too! I'm definitely gonna be following this!

Looks great Roger! my favorite tank in the contest

Next to your own of course!

I really like his tank...for real for realz

Thank you so much Maria.
What I see when I look at your work is someone with an artistic eye. Two stones set in a small glass box elicits an image of the Caribbean.
In comparison mine is just a science experiment, wondering if a pile of rocks can become a reef. I do love it though, and am willing to give of myself to care for it.
I'm also glad this contest is in the winter so I can transfer my energy from diving and the seashore to this tank, because it's too darn cold to go there now!

After seeing that pic, you don't have to say it. Remember a pic is worth a thousand posts.