HankB Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 Well... Cindy wanted "Cindy's Sea Pansy" but I told her that I would not post a thread with that title. Today we moved past he planning stage and brought home our Red Sea Max. After getting it set up we went back and got water, live sand and live rock. They were taking down a couple of their display tanks to make space for a big frag tank and I think we might have gotten sand and at least some of the rock from that tank judging by the coralline on some of it. Others have documented the package contents so I won't repeat that here. Instead I'll start out with a murky FFTS: So... that's my first aquascape. You can probably tell we were more concerned with stability than anything else so it is pretty compact. The rock itself seems to have a lot of nooks and crannies in it. Now we enter the stage of monitoring water parameters and looking for hitch hikers. Incidentally, this is Cindy's tank. I get to be her technical adviser because I have decades of FW experience. I think I'll also get to bring buckets of water up from the basement. Thanks for looking -hank Link to comment
tmantaylor18 Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 Cool tank man, looks like you got some pretty good rock there! Link to comment
CarterNichols Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 Are you planing on more rock? Link to comment
Toomin Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 more rocks would be good. can scape a cave and mountain Link to comment
HankB Posted May 19, 2008 Author Share Posted May 19, 2008 more rocks would be good.can scape a cave and mountain First I may have another go at making better use of what we have. For starters, I noticed that there is more space behind the rock than in front. thanks, hank Link to comment
airangel Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 How many lbs of rock is that? I've been eyeballing everyone's aquascaping as i'm about to redo mine (some rocks too large, scaping too flimsy, rocks not flat enough to lay corals) etc. Will tag along to see the progression of this long awaited tank. Link to comment
HankB Posted May 20, 2008 Author Share Posted May 20, 2008 How many lbs of rock is that? It's about 37 lb. Look for the next rockscape later in this thread. edit: actual weight. Link to comment
revaltion131 Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 I'm not sure. It's supposed to be 40 lb. If it's not taking up as much room as you want and you're willing to buy more you should. They always say the more the better, as long as you add true cured if your current rock already cycled. By the way, I loooove that big chunk that looks like it's just a big coral skeleton, on the left on the sand bed (I think?). The options with that piece are amazing! Link to comment
StevieT Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 To me, that looks like less than 40 lbs, but it is hard to tell with them just laying down. Looks like you could use some more. Link to comment
HankB Posted May 20, 2008 Author Share Posted May 20, 2008 I'm thinking about more rock, but we really need to work with the rockscape first. I need to figure out how to stack a bit more open. And yes, I like that piece off to the left too. And while I have the rock out, I might just weigh it. In another thread, someone commented about arranging the rock to look like a real reef rather than just a pile of rocks, so I'm trying to figure out how to do that. Wish I knew what a real reef looks like. But it has other problems as well. There is actually more space behind it than in front of it. What kind of n00b would do something like that! So now... I'm wondering how soon we should expect to see some critters from the LR. So far all I've seen is an Asterina star. The rock itself has two mushrooms and something that looks like the translucent white base of something. Leather? Xenia? Something is starting to grow out of it and it looks like it (as well as the mushrooms) have survived the move. thanks, hank Link to comment
smarsh Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 Check out my aquascape and see the height I got. The key is to have large rocks as your base. I have one 15 lb rock as my whole left side. this will help prevent an avalanche. Welcom to the enjoyment of having a RSM. Looking good so far! I even built mine up a layer this weekend for my SPS to be 3" from the light, It loves it! Link to comment
HankB Posted May 20, 2008 Author Share Posted May 20, 2008 Check out my aquascape and see the height I got. Thanks, I'm studying it. Also here are some pix of the mushrooms that came in on the LR: Are these just ordinary purple mushrooms? They have a nice green fluorescent sheen that I didn't quite capture. I think they're going to make it because they really respond to changes in water movement. I turned off the pumps for the picture and they came right out. Yesterday when I turned on the Koralia, they shriveled up from the extra flow. When I work on the rockscape, I need to try to find them a better spot. thanks, hank Link to comment
smarsh Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Those are some awesome hitchhikers! You will find many mushrooms have the green sheen to them. They love your water obviously. I posted new pics of my SPS and a current full view, Tonga branch rock is key for good flow behind the structure. Link to comment
StevieT Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 might want to soft cycle the tank now that you have those hitchhikers Link to comment
HankB Posted May 21, 2008 Author Share Posted May 21, 2008 might want to soft cycle the tank now that you have those hitchhikers To some extent it is soft cycling itself. We have no detectable ammonia or nitrites. Nitrates test at 20 ppm which seems high, but water came straight from the dealer's system (as did the LS and LR.) Today we went in and redid the rockscape, trying for more open space. In the process we found two snails. one looks like an Astrea and the other looks like some kind of Cerith. The rock had been so tight they must have been trapped. I just bumped the light from 10 to 14 hours to encourage algae growth and we'll get some salt so we can start with the water changes. thanks, hank Link to comment
bluesky Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Congratulations on your new RSM ... oops sorry ... Congrats to Cindy on her new RSM ... and you getting the job of changing water ... lol Great looking rock ... but I think you should stack it higher and have lots of holes and swimming space ... I just slightly re-did my aquascape ... not perfect ... but I am loving it ... so I will share some pics later in my thread ... Keep us posted and happy reefing ... did you plan to put a shark in there? Link to comment
HankB Posted May 21, 2008 Author Share Posted May 21, 2008 Congratulations on your new RSM ... oops sorry ... Congrats to Cindy on her new RSM ... and you getting the job of changing water ... lol Great looking rock ... but I think you should stack it higher and have lots of holes and swimming space ... I just slightly re-did my aquascape ... not perfect ... but I am loving it ... so I will share some pics later in my thread ... Keep us posted and happy reefing ... did you plan to put a shark in there? Thanks bluesky, We worked on the rockscape last night and it looks a lot better. Of course as soon as I have water in there and things are clear enough to see, I spotted some areas that still need work. We are planning on picking up some more rock to fill in a spot or two. Shark? thanks, hank Link to comment
HankB Posted May 21, 2008 Author Share Posted May 21, 2008 As promised, rockscape 2.0: There are still things I need to improve. From some angles the rock liiks like it is suspended in the water so I need to get some more pieces and fill in some gaps. But this looks a lot better than the previous version, even if it is hard to tell from the pictures. I think we may be starting our diatom bloom. There's a dusting of brown that can be seen on the sand (but not in this picture.) thanks, hank Link to comment
ThiefofAlways Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Awesome Looking tank there mate! Grats on the the shroomys! I only got nasty bristle worms in my LR * Link to comment
bluesky Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 How about some tonga at the back wall to push up the rock work ...? I suggest tonga because those crabs and worms can't really drill holes into the rock and break it apart ... at least I have not see it yet ... one of my base rock is full of holes now ... I am worried that it will collapse one day ... fingers crossed .... aquascape 2.0 is definitely nicer than 1.0 ... waiting for v10.0 =) Link to comment
noobofreefs Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 How did I miss hank finally getting a tank! Link to comment
HankB Posted May 22, 2008 Author Share Posted May 22, 2008 How did I miss hank finally getting a tank! Probably because it's really Cindy's Red Sea Max! And it has only been since Sunday. Now watch it or you'll get me in trouble! thanks, hank Link to comment
CarterNichols Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 How did I miss hank finally getting a tank! because you never come around anymore Link to comment
HankB Posted May 24, 2008 Author Share Posted May 24, 2008 Quick update - we definitely have a diatom bloom and we're starting to get pods. Not enough yet for a Mandarin. Yet. 5 days after setup. Time to add some CUC. At the moment all we have is one Astrea snail and one lame Cerith snail. -hank Link to comment
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