Stock Cat Entry
2.5 AGA
Tetratec PF150 HOB (for the surge effect)
Tetratec Heater
13W or 18W PC (running either 6700 or 10k bulb)
Digital Thermometer
DIY Autotop off

Currently building a foam background for the tank, out of egg crate and Right Stuff foam. Will take pics once its done.



-Mike

Go '04!

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...20&#entry624300

Ok,

Here is my first attempt at a foam background - mainly to hide the intake of the HOB and to provide more of a reef wall effect in such a narrow tank. Right Stuff foam over egg crate, coated with southdown sand. Once foam cures, I'll add SW some live sand and tons of coralline scrappings and hopefully jump start the growth.

Foam should provide a good place to mount frags and I will supplement with some smaller LR pieces.







-Mike

love the background looks grate

Is that even legal in the stock category? I thought we could only paint the backs for background?

That's freakin weird. LOL. Kudos for being different.

you'll know your great-stuff is cured when it's a sickening orange color

Yes, its called Great Stuff, I've used it before for house repairs - its always cured to a yellowish color. As for being against the rules, didn't see anything against making your own LR, which is basically what I'm doing - you can also do the same thing with Portland Cement #13 just takes a whole lot longer to cure. I believe the intent of the stock category was to see what people can do with a basic unmodified equipment set. People should be free to aquascape or stock how they like.

-Mike

i would think you'd want to preset some holes/tubes in that stuff. (e.g. straws) for flow tubes and circulation, rather than a large chunk.

the foam isn't porous, right? it's light (i.e. not dense) but i thought it's still impermeable or solid.

if you preset the foam with such tubes or pathways, you'd get tunnels (think lava flow tubes) throughout the structure. the trick would be laying it out beforehand. you could glue together some type of lattice/matrix for a skeletonal structure. that may also allow you to craft some caves and such too.

also, what tube material to use? hmmm... straws would be good but even better if you could remove them afterwards. imo tho slight damage wouldn't be an issue as you're looking to replicate a chaotic LR growth anyways. hth

Looks cool, I don't think it's against the rules, but it may fall in the "No False Walls" rule?

Hi,
Its actually one solid piece of foam around an eggcrate skeleton. I shaped it as it was drying and once it dried I used a kitchen knife to shape it to fit the tank. The stuff is a closed cell foam so its not porous unless a cell is cut. It has the same consistency as the spray in packing foam some companies use to ship stuff in. The foam LR has alot of nook and crannies so there is a high probability of detrius build up unless I have good random - turbulent flow. The Tetratec PF150, as bad of a HOB as it is is the only one that has a surge device built in, it actually works well as long as you keep the water level with a ATO. I'm hoping the turbulent flow will be enough to keep the detrius in suspension so it its captured by the supplied filter/carbon pad. The foam itself doesn't look that great - but if I'm able to jumpstart growth and once the tank is established for 4-6 months it should look like live rock. The foam would be good to tie together base rock as well or even fashion into small rocks. You would have to weight it down with something since it floats.

-Mike

thats very interesting...i never knew that the tetratecs had a surge device
thats just freakin a

Some updated pics

Added live sand, water, and one Tetratec carbon/filter pad to help clear the water. Pics were taken shortly after water was added. Tank lit by one old 13W 50/50 bulb. I'm still deciding what type of lighting to use, either the 13W or a 18W retrofit. The 2.5g nano is next to my 12g custom nano.

The surge effect is producing some pretty good flow - but its towards the right side of the tank. It also produces a good amount of bubbles.

Tank on its hogshood hood/base.





Crappy 13W Galaxy light for now.

Wow. I'm loving the foam idea. Way to go.

ps. please resize those pictures omg.

FateX9, I moved the posts about it to a thread with a poll in this forum. Please go vote.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=69758

I don't know if you're familiar with it--but there was a discussion about this a long time ago in RC, and I contacted the manufacturer of "Great Stuff". I inquired if it was safe to be in a saltwater tank--they said that over time the foam will diminish and break down...and they've confirmed that it WILL leech contaminants into your water thereafter.

I think it's a cool idea but just be wary that it's not something you'd want to keep in your tank for a very long time.

Tank generated a lot of discussion which is good. In terms of long term implication of foam, its generally agreed that UV will cause the foam to fall apart after several years of exposure - depending on how much UV. The various types of foam have been used for years for pond building, etc. There are many opinions on this so its best to take it to another thread.

Here are some updated pics - I've added 2 small pieces of LR the rest will be from mounted frags. I adjusted the output so that the surge goes against the front glass producing a nice wave effect, water level rises about 1/4" when this happens.
And now I don't have a problem with the sand being dug out on the right side of the tank.

-Mike

2.5g has completed its cycle. The 13W retrofit kit I ordered from AH supply arrived today so I put it in to replace the 13w galaxy light I had before. The reflector is quite nice - still using the old 50/50 bulb, will swap that out in a few days.

Will do a water change tomorrow and add a small frag and see how it does.



Top shot of reflector and 2.5g glass canopy cut down (replaced the acrylic one I had on there before).

Update - frags added 2 weeks ago are doing fine. Will frag out some mats and add them to the foam wall later this week and also frag a gorg for the left side of tank. Will look at adding in a small snail or hermit in a week or so.

Added 2 LPS frags, some very small ric frags, a small umbrella mushroom, and some polyps, two small xenia frags (brown and pink)

Added DIY ATO, 2 water changes so far, aprox .5 gallons each time.

Looking good.....

If that background will grow coralline algae, you will have found a winner!!!!!

Nice! I love the foam back

What is that Foam called? Where can I find some? Tanks

Hi,

Thanks - the foam is called Great Stuff you can buy it at Home Depot or Lowes. Coralline will grow on it just takes longer. The concept is similar to using dead rock (www.hirocks.com) and seeding the tank with LR. In time the dead rock -> live rock.

Here is a pic of a hirocks dead rock, that has been in my other tank for about 2 yrs, it has decent coverage and looks pretty close to standard Fiji liverock, albeit a bit less porous.



Here is a nice tank that using relatively low light and a foam background
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-02/totm/index.php

A link on other reefer's that are trying the foam experiment
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=447292

Ok, thanks.

As for the www.hirocks.com, I will be buying a 30 lb. box of their "Best" for my up coming tank

The foam backdrop kinda stands out now but when it's covered with coralline and corals it'll look cool.

The tank's coming along nicely.

Best regards

Ann

Tank Update

Added more LR rubble to mount stuff on and just finished super gluing some mats to the foam wall and rubble.

Added a few more small ric frags, a gorg frag, several mushrooms, and a single paly polyp.

Will take a FTS again when everything is out, but wanted to post up the new rockwork. Will wait a week or two before adding more stuff, thinking about adding in some more colorful zoas, need to frag them out from my other tanks. And adding in another frogspawn (different type) but it will be hard to find space. I am going to try a very hardy brown acro, that I've had for years - the only one I found to grow well under PC's, I have a frag in my prop tank waiting to go in
we'll see how it does under 13W PC.



Toad stool and purple mushroom added about a week ago


Small Kenya may move to right of tank eventually


Macro of one of the rics I added


New mushroom


Green center paly - will find better place once rockwork is finalized


Candy cane polyp extension, can go about double this at night under the moonlight


-Mike

nice

Thanks,

Here is a FTS now that most of the mat coral (GSP/Bri)'s I glued to the foam / rubble are out now. I also took a corner shot and a series of shots to demonstrate the surge effect the Tetratec filter provides.
Foam is starting to show some life - various worms and such are now making their home on the surface, dusters, etc.

-Mike


Corner shot


Surge sequence

Looking very, very good. Nice selection of corals you've got there so far!

Thanks, pretty much all the corals in the tank with the exception of the frogspawn and the paly are 3rd or 4th gen aquacultured frags from my other tanks.

-Mike

i agree with ice, very nice selection and placement. it's doubly great since they're all home-grown too!

i like the surge pics as well. i had forgotten about that unit/model. is it silent?

Thanks, Its a Tetratec PF150 with the integrated heater. Not silent, since it uses a bell siphon, so you get that air sucking/bubbling sound on each surge. Its a interesting HOB, really needs an ATO to work properly long term. It comes with two filter carts that you can re-use, I run one cart at a time, and use black diamond carbon. You can adjust the flow to control the surge interval, and in the pics the right nozzle is really the main surge outlet, the left is pretty much constant.

-Mike

looks good! I was considering getting that filter for my tank, but was concerned with the amount of flow it gives off. Are the corals happy with that much flow?

Thanks, Most of the corals seem to be ok with the surge flow, the frogspawn and pink xenia could use a little less flow. Since the main outlet is pointed towards the front glass, the surge gets spread across the length of the tank and down - when I had the main outlet pointed towards the corner it ended up digging out the sand. The main thing with this filter is that it takes up a lot of space on a 2.5g tank so you are limiting yourself on lighting options if you go with this HOB.

-Mike

Tank update

Fragged large mushroom in center since it was getting too large for this tank. Left small frag on foam wall and its doing well. Larger frag has grown 2x in my other nano with the halide (pics in the members tank forum). Removed frogspawn since it wasn't doing well in the 2.5g - its recovering in the larger nano.

Added few more polyps to the wall and along the base. Will add in more frags after the holidays. Not a huge amount of growth, some of the corals are slightly larger like the toadstool and mushrooms and mats (GSP/Bri). Gorgonian is doing well with good polyp extension and the current is sufficient to keep it happy. No feedings required for tank since everything is photosynth, though I'd probably get better growth if I fed at the cost of more water / filter pad changes. Overall very little maintenance to tank beyond 10 min for the weeklyish water changes.

Awesome! What would be really cool is if those gsp's take over the back wall. Everything is looking great.

Thanks - growth is a bit slow with just 13W PC but its happening

I took a few more pics to try and document the growth in the tank as it ages. Same shots I've taken previously so there is a reference to compare to.





A few new polyps have formed


Pink Xenia grew slightly


Large ric filled growth pic

I am so looking foward to watching this tank mature!

Tank Update

Added a few more frags over the holidays, still waiting on some mushrooms to attach to rubble so I can add in some different colors. Added in a few monti frags - if these do ok I'll stick in some more colorful ones and see how long they take to brown out Briarium on left wall is growing down for some reason, I thought it would have grown up towards the light - but the mat is growing down. Removed the caulestrea since it was taking up too much real estate on the top portion of the tank, I've fragged out a more appropriate sized frag of it and glued it to a reef plug, I plan on putting it on the sand bed on the right side. Added a few more zoas and a small cabbage leather frag that I attached to a bit of shell.

Decided to take a few night shots under a 1 watt Coralife moonlight for something different. Not the best pics since it was dark but it does show some of the motion from the surge (the blurry corals due to motion captured by longer camera exposure) and the polyp extension on the cabbage and other corals.

Added 100mL of Purigen in addition to the carbon if things look good after a week or two I'll add in a small chromis I got for free over the holidays.

Pics taken now that lights are on







Cabbage


Cabbage Macro


Various tester Montipora Digitata frags if they fair well I'll add in the more colorful digi's. Just an FYI the Miro-4 reflector / bulb is about 1-2 cm above the water line so all the SPS are really close to the light source.







Tiny Candy frag


More pics

New Zoas


Growth pics
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/melbourne0/orangezoaxeniagrowth.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/melbourne0/brigrowth01.jpg[/img]

Tank is really coming along nicely.

in all reality, this tank is pretty awesome. If you can get those frags to grow significantly enough, its gonna look amazing! The foam backwall is an awesome idea, as long as it doesnt poison the tank in the long run. Keep up the good work. Where the heck do i get some amazing frags like that!?!?!?

tanner g.

Thanks for the compliments. The majority of the corals in the tank I grow myself. Most originally came as frags from other reefers/coral swaps. Since everything is a common / regular color morph they should be easily found anywhere there is a good concentration of reefers. They are all easily propagated and grown and in some cases (kenya tree) self frag

As for the foam wall, its a bit of an experiment for me. I hope it holds out long term, since its cheap and readily available. Working on this small tank is fun, I never had to place frags with a tweezer before

BTW: I just realized that my reflector is in the wrong place, so the right side of the tank is darker than it should be. I moved it to do the night shots with the LED but forgot to move it back. I'll take some pics later this week to show what it should look like with even lighting.

Looks great, love the pics. Tank is starting to look a lot more Natural with the the backwall becomming more "seasoned"

Thanks, hopefully I can establish coralline growth in this tank. Have never had an issue with coralline growth but it hasn't picked up yet in this tank - I'll need to do some param comparisons to my 12g nano and see what is different.

FTS shot with the reflector in the correct place. The last shot I took had the PC socket blocking light to a right side of the tank. You can see a slight difference in brightness on the right side now.



Old FTS for comparison, shows how important a good reflector and its position is.


Also I have a red zoa frag on the bottom middle/right that hasn't opened for 2 days now - since I added a Kenya frag above it, most likely some chemical interaction between the two corals. I'll relocate the Kenya if things don't change.

I'm also considering removing the float switch on the top right since it degrades from the tank view, and blocks some valuable wall space where I can mount more corals. Still deciding if its worth doing, since I'll have to manually top-off once I remove it.

STOCK CAT. WINNER: Melbourne!!!!

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Thanks, I think I'm a long shot for the win but thanks for the support. Lots of nice tanks out there. Removed the ATO to free up some space
on wall. Added a spotted mushroom frag last night, its still recovering on the upper right wall. Moved the red Zoa's to the far left corner they
are now opening. Going to add in some more mushrooms and some other stuff soon.

AGA 2.5 gallon reef wall

Photo #1 (with new Current USA 18w 50/50 retrofit)


Photo #2 - FTS Jan 06 (with old AH 13w 50/50 retrofit)


[Livestock]
Florida Tan Gorgonian
Pink Pom Pom Xenia (Red Sea)
Elongata Xenia (Silver Branch)
Pink Anthelia
Green Star Polyp (Long) (Briareum)
Pink Star Polyp (Long) (Briareum)
Brown Zoanthus (ultra rare )
Orange Zoanthus
Red Zoanthus
Tan Zoanthus
Green Zoanthus
Green Eye Zoanthus
Orange Center Zoanthus
Green Center Palythoa
Tan Cabbage Coral (Sinularia dura)
Green Ricordea Yuma
Yellow Polyp (Colony zoanthus)
Brown Kenya Tree (Capnella)
Cream Toadstool (Sarcophyton)
Cream Montipora Digitata
Purple Montipora Digitata
Brown Montipora Digitata
Green/Blue Candy Cane (Caulastrea furcata)
Blue Striped Mushroom
Purple Dot Mushroom
Green/Tan Mushroom (Rhodactis)
Misc featherdusters
1 Cerith Snail

[Equipment]
2.5 AGA glass tank
Tetratec PF150 Filter
Tetratec Heating Capsule
AHSupply Miro-4 Reflector
AHSupply 13W PC 50/50 Retrofit
Hogs Hood Canopy/Base
Corallife Digital Thermometer
DIY ATO (currently removed)

Updated pics

Rics are growing / small baby ric on upper branch.


Kenya - hard to photograph due to current


Lime Green Zoas - don't look so hot under 13w PC, used a snail shell instead of rubble to mount, got lazy.

looks great! they're all growing in nicely.