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Kat's badass BC14, retired


metrokat

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This tank was retired on March 11th 2012. What a great little tank it was.

 



FTS: Nov 23 2011

IMG_3434.JPG

 

Details:

  • Oceanic BioCube 14 Gallons

  • MJ900 pump

  • Stock lights
    Ecoxotic Panorama Pro 12K/453nm + Magenta/453nm stunner strip

  • Removed false floor in chamber one to fit Oceanic Skimmer and Submersible heater

  • Removed bio balls, chamber cover & false floor from chamber 2

  • Used a zip tie to suspend chemipure to false floor of chamber 2

  • Purigen on top of False floor

  • Floss on top of that

  • Koralia Nano

 

Macros

  • Red Glacilaria

  • Halimeda Incrassata

  • Chaeto

  • Flame Algae, (Bryothamnion sp.)

 

Inverts

  • 3 Virgin Nerites

  • 3 Nerite Snails

  • 2 Nassarius Snails

  • 3 Scarlet Hermit Crabs (murderers)

  • 1 Blue Porcelain Crab (
    Dufus
    ) (Dingbat)

  • 125 Dwarf Cerith Snails

  • 9 Astrea Snails

  • 1 Zebra Pistol Shrimp at large, armed and dangerous

  • 1 Black Pistol Shrimp! most like a HH

  • 3 Dwarf Planaxis (eeny, meeny, miny)
    (presumed dead)

  • 1 Sexy Shrimp (Bubba)
    banished to pico

  • 2 Limpets

  • 1 Zebra hermit crab
    presumed dead

  • 2 Light blue hermit crabs

 

Fish

  • 1Yasha Goby (Piggy)

  • 2 Blue Neon Gobies (pair) (Mater & unnamed)

  • 2 Baby Ocellaris (Max & Ruby)

 

Corals

  • ORA Green Birdsnest

  • Caribbean Rose Coral

  • Blue spotted mushroom

  • Green Stripe mushroom

  • Blue mushroom

  • Eagle Eyes

  • Neon Blue Zoas

  • Blue Hornets

  • Orange Zoas

  • Pink Zoas

  • Hidden Cup Corals

  • Blastomussa

  • Kenya Tree
    sent to pico

  • Neon Green Leather

  • Various unidentified zoanthids

  • Red mushroom

  • Orange Ricordea (was supposed to be yellow)

  • Purple palys
    gifted to the trash bin

  • Green Leopard Palythoa

  • Unidentified palys

  • Green Paly

  • Yellow Sea whip

  • Yellow ball sponges

  • GSP

  • Duncan

  • Superman rhodactis (meh)

  • Rainbow Monti

  • Tangerine dream Acan
    some red acan

  • Sympodium

  • Hellboy Favia

  • Pink Gonipora

  • ORA Spongodes

 

Hi everyone, this is my first post, I'm very excited to be here. I'm a newbie, my first tank (a friends actually) was set up over thanksgiving in 2010, I learnt a lot over the months and my brand new shiny BC14 is up and running with 10lbs LR, 10 lbs live sand for about 4 days now. I am awaiting a shipment of gulf-view's premium decor rock.

 

With the first tank I realized that it was so important to have a good aquascape design, a composition. The first tank has some beautiful corals and 3 fish and I can spend hours watching it but it doesn't make me go "wow". I don't know if mine will either but it wont be because I did not try. I googled pictures of peoples tank to death, most favor the "wall" look, "valley" look, some feature arches and of course that amazing bonsai scape is just to die for. In my little 14G it is a bit of a challenge.

 

i started out looking for "shelf rock". Shelf rock is thin flat LR that resembles a ledge. You can use it to display coral especially if you have a tank suited for SPS (mine is not, it's a stock biocube). I traced out the shape of each rock on paper.

 

Then I made a framework out of plastic straws (I was showing pictures of it to my LFS guy and he went "wow you are nerrrrdy!" you have to understand what a huge complement that is, I'm a girly girl, pink nails, branded handbags, in the fashion industry blah blah) anyway. Here's a picture of my straw-scape:

IMG_20110711_143522.jpg

 

Then I added the traced outlines of the shelf rock to see how I like the height etc. (I made a paper pattern of the BC footprint to work on too). Finally I took a 1/2 inch PVC pipe and every kind of do-hickey that you could use (cross, elbow, 3 way connector 45 degree connector, I bought like 100 of these things!) sawed the PVC into bits and different heights (didn't know I had a saw in my apartment!). This is what it looks like:

IMG_20110712_130838.jpg

 

Now that i am expecting the deco rock the scape will change, I read online that using acrylic rods is better (first of all they are skinnier so i dont have to drill mega holes in my LR. Plus the skinniest PVC (1/2") is too big for a 14G tank. In the pic above the exposed pvc was going to be covered up with live rock etc but it would greatly reduce the open space design of the aquascape.

 

So that's my first post. I know you all have more experience than me, so I would appreciate your comments.

I'm currently also awaiting a shipment of acrylic rods from us plastics. Can't wait!

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Hi everyone, this is my first post, I'm very excited to be here. I'm a newbie, my first tank (a friends actually) was set up over thanksgiving in 2010, I learnt a lot over the months and my brand new shiny BC14 is up and running with 10lbs LR, 10 lbs live sand for about 4 days now. I am awaiting a shipment of gulf-view's premium decor rock.

 

With the first tank I realized that it was so important to have a good aquascape design, a composition. The first tank has some beautiful corals and 3 fish and I can spend hours watching it but it doesn't make me go "wow". I don't know if mine will either but it wont be because I did not try. I googled pictures of peoples tank to death, most favor the "wall" look, "valley" look, some feature arches and of course that amazing bonsai scape is just to die for. In my little 14G it is a bit of a challenge.

 

i started out looking for "shelf rock". Shelf rock is thin flat LR that resembles a ledge. You can use it to display coral especially if you have a tank suited for SPS (mine is not, it's a stock biocube). I traced out the shape of each rock on paper.

 

Then I made a framework out of plastic straws (I was showing pictures of it to my LFS guy and he went "wow you are nerrrrdy!" you have to understand what a huge complement that is, I'm a girly girl, pink nails, branded handbags, in the fashion industry blah blah) anyway. Here's a picture of my straw-scape:

IMG_20110711_143522.jpg

 

Then I added the traced outlines of the shelf rock to see how I like the height etc. (I made a paper pattern of the BC footprint to work on too). Finally I took a 1/2 inch PVC pipe and every kind of do-hickey that you could use (cross, elbow, 3 way connector 45 degree connector, I bought like 100 of these things!) sawed the PVC into bits and different heights (didn't know I had a saw in my apartment!). This is what it looks like:

IMG_20110712_130838.jpg

 

Now that i am expecting the deco rock the scape will change, I read online that using acrylic rods is better (first of all they are skinnier so i dont have to drill mega holes in my LR. Plus the skinniest PVC (1/2") is too big for a 14G tank. In the pic above the exposed pvc was going to be covered up with live rock etc but it would greatly reduce the open space design of the aquascape.

 

So that's my first post. I know you all have more experience than me, so I would appreciate your comments.

I'm currently also awaiting a shipment of acrylic rods from us plastics. Can't wait!

Any time you want to be "needdy" you can scape a tank for me :). Nice job

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:welcome: and very cool! There is a guy on my local reef club that does all kinds of incredible scapes with acrylic and a mix called Emaco (sp?) It's like a cement that is reef safe. He is on here as well... I believe his name here is jestersix - might want to look him up he may have some advise for you if you PM him. I don't know how often he actually visits the forums here though.
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There is a guy on my local reef club that does all kinds of incredible scapes with acrylic and a mix called Emaco (sp?) It's like a cement that is reef safe.

 

 

I believe a company called Fauna Marin makes a product called 'Reef Scape Foam' which would probably accomplish a similar effect. It could be used to coat the PVC and give it more of a rock-like appearance until it becomes covered in coralline, while still maintining an open aquascape.

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Fiberglass works much better than acrylic. Emaco 400 will do wonders. I'll send you a ton of info (probably way more than you want) from work tomorrow.

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Maroon Clown
Thanks everyone! Now how do I get notified whenever someone replies?

to the right of the thread title it says options, click there, then track topic. and :welcome: to NR

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pico-reefer
hey pickle thanks for the tip, I PM'd jestersix.

EDIT: oh wait, he replied here too! doh.

 

 

very nice! may i ask where you got that shelf rock?

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Wow ur like my dream girl ;) but really..... way cool rock work and the fact that you thought it out so much is even cooler :D good luck and have fun with it

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WillWork4Frags

Ah, reef girls :wub:

 

You could also try to hide the rods/pvc by using foam and aragonite. So the columns would look more natural.

 

Another idea would be to get rubble and run the rod through them so they have a "stacked" look. This would also give you more support for the shelves.

 

Here's some inspiration!

 

new.jpg

fts218.jpg

side216.jpg

bonzai-tree-aquascaping.jpg

ftsbefore.jpg

 

Good luck!

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I like your ideas about elevated rock work and shelves. You have a great concept going there. Stacked rocks would help hide the rods without losing height on the elevated rocks but might take the spacious feel. Foam with sand around the rods would look nice but not sure if you wanted to do that. Good luck on the stacks people here are very helpful.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ima reef girl! yeah! :)

 

So! I'm finally done aquascaping. Thank you to John who sent me a care package of marco rocks and lots of advice. I shall name my first fishie after him.

 

Voila!

IMG_20110806_223031.jpg

 

I worked on my scape for probably 6 hours at a minimum. I wasn't the best with the marco rocks, in fact after letting it set for 30 minutes the structure didn't hold. I added more rods and more mortar and also used aquamend (home depot does not sell the other epoxy anymore). I made the marco rocks mortar dry consistency and it almost set right in my mixing pail! Made it wetter and it wouldn't dry so I had some noob issues. All good.

 

I'm actually quite pleased with myself! As for drilling, I bought a masonry bit but some of these rocks were so dense it was impossible to drill and I didn't have the courage to continue before I broke something. I ah have like a small hole in my carpet and another one in the ah wooden floor :wub: even tho I used thick cardboard protection.

 

The most challenging part was my concern over keeping my hitchhikers alive. I have a rose coral, several yellow sponges, 3 anemones, lots of clams (one giant one!), hidden cup corals and more. We shall see in the coming days if anything dies. I found a baby brittle starfish in the middle of it all. And a red bristle worm too but he's in the bucket.

 

Have 10 lbs live rock left over! Any takers?

 

I did not end up using the PVC as they were far too thick. I used an acrylic rod 1/4 inch which was easy enough to cut and given my troubles with drilling, I'm glad it was only 1/4 inch size that I needed to drill.

I'm mostly pleased with the placement, but I'm still tweaking.

IMG_20110807_130923.jpg

 

(yes I made a little cave, you can see that at the bottom right, might need to get a goby or something for it :rolleyes: )

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WillWork4Frags

Zomg a reefer girl that uses power tools too? :o:flower: The scape looks great! It's unique but somehow has a natural look to it. And your corals/macro look good together. I like the 2nd picture personally. Keep us posted!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Builder Anthony

Just do your nails? :)

 

I think it be cool to have somehing overlap and hang from the top of the two rocks on the right but i cant really figure out what would do that.

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Builder Anthony

Well nothing wrong with being in style i just like girls nails when there all done up.Hope things go good with your tank i was messing around with mine for a long time today since i had the day off.The left side looks really neat.Id add something to the right side though ..........maybe something that overhangs the cliffs.Im not sure what but i guess the hunt for things like that makes this hobby fun.

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looking good so far better then i can say for my self..lol me and aqua scape just dosent work

 

 

NO ONE IS EVER TRULY HAPPY WITH THEIR OWN SCAPE

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N00 pitchurs!

 

FTS (yup, lots of Chaeto, thank you bighead278)

IMG_20110823_132917.jpg

 

Humpty, the humongous clam

IMG_20110821_132542.jpg

 

Need an ID on this red macroalgae

IMG_20110823_135117.jpg

 

Also need an ID on this green macro algae tuft (no it's not hair algae!)

IMG_20110823_105236.jpg

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Any higher resolution version of those pics? Hard to get a look at the unidentified macro.

 

 

And nice liverock, btw. Looks like tons of stuff came on it.

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I love how the tank changes with each new addition

FTS

 

IMG_20110826_154611.jpg

 

I need to get rid of that clump of green macro that is on top of Humpty. It's blocking my view.

The left and right sides of the tank along the glass get the worse diatom blooms during lights on. The right side I stir up and blow away with a baster and less light. The left side has patched of thick gelatinous blacking slime. There is good flow that side, the GSP and anemone are waving about as if in a hurricane. Stirring does nothing.

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