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Mr. Microscope's Cube 2.1


Mr. Microscope

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Mr. Microscope

Hey there Nanoreefers!

 

My dry rock came in the mail today from ReefCleaners. In addition to the 15 or so pounds, I also purchased a box of dry rock rubble to use as filler pieces. Here's what I got. John Maloney hand picked these pieces for me and I couldn't be happier!

 

DryRockPieces.jpg

 

I'm really impressed with how clean and porus these rocks are. They fit together very well. I was playing around with them here. As you can see, they are standing on their own quite well. Though, I'm still planning to use some acrylic rod to keep everything in place.

 

DryRockPillar.jpg

 

After I have the pillar built, I'm going to put it in the frag tank to stew until I'm finished with all the plumbing and ready to get the tank wet.

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Mr. Microscope

I placed an order with Tap Plastics last night. I'm getting a 13" x 13" sheet of 1/2" thick acrylic for the base and three feet of 3/8" fiberglass rod to piece together the rockwork. I was going to go with acrylic rod, but read on another pillar building thread that fiberglass rod holds up better than acrylic. I'm not super worried about strength because the rocks I got practically piece together on their own, but there is one on top that will be doing some acrobatics. Plus, I want this thing to be solid. I can't tell how many hours I lost completely restacking rockwork in my pico after I decided to move something, "just a little bit".

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Congrats on your new frag, he's cute!

 

I'm also loving that sculpture. I used fiberglass rod as well, but only because I couldn't find acrylic!

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Mr. Microscope

It Begins!

 

pillarbegins.jpg

 

 

I'll also be drilling this weekend. Wish me luck! I'm planning to drill a practice hole or two on my old picotope first.

 

With luck, this thing will be wet in a few weeks!

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cant wait to see this tank take off. Congrats on the baby Mr. M, my fiance is pregnant and she is due around august 11th. I cant wait, my build is being pushed back as well due to the bun in the oven but I cant wait to get the 120 gallon up so Ican sit in front of it with my kid. Congrats.

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It Begins!

 

pillarbegins.jpg

 

 

I'll also be drilling this weekend. Wish me luck! I'm planning to drill a practice hole or two on my old picotope first.

 

With luck, this thing will be wet in a few weeks!

'Scape sucks.

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Deleted User 4
Hey there Nanoreefers!

 

My dry rock came in the mail today from ReefCleaners. In addition to the 15 or so pounds, I also purchased a box of dry rock rubble to use as filler pieces. Here's what I got. John Maloney hand picked these pieces for me and I couldn't be happier!

 

DryRockPieces.jpg

 

I'm really impressed with how clean and porus these rocks are. They fit together very well. I was playing around with them here. As you can see, they are standing on their own quite well. Though, I'm still planning to use some acrylic rod to keep everything in place.

 

DryRockPillar.jpg

 

After I have the pillar built, I'm going to put it in the frag tank to stew until I'm finished with all the plumbing and ready to get the tank wet.

Nice, scape fixtures really like the 1st one. :D

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Mr. Microscope
cant wait to see this tank take off. Congrats on the baby Mr. M, my fiance is pregnant and she is due around august 11th. I cant wait, my build is being pushed back as well due to the bun in the oven but I cant wait to get the 120 gallon up so Ican sit in front of it with my kid. Congrats.

Thanks jgp, and congratulations to YOU! We now have a new roommate who sleeps all day, keeps us up all night, and pukes all the time. It's like a college student or something. It's a lot of work, but well worth it. I can't wait to show him the exciting world!...and the tank. :)

 

'Scape sucks.

:lol: :lol: :lol: !!!

 

Nice, scape fixtures really like the 1st one. :D

Me too. I'll be shooting for something like that.

 

Scape that bish so I can get an update on your fiberglass rod. :eek:

I really like the rod. It seems much stronger than acrylic rod.

 

wow congrats on both your new tank and micro jr.!!

Thanks jdl! Good to see you again!

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Mr. Microscope

Progress is being made!

 

I successfully drilled the tank last weekend. I also drilled holes in the stand to make way for the plumbing. There is a nice piece of acrylic on the top of the stand as well. This will only show for about an inch on each side, but it's the little details that give a setup that extra boost.

 

standtop20111222.jpg

 

stand20111222.jpg

 

I also spray painted the back of the tank as well as the overflow and back of the fuge.

 

Finally, the rock work is coming along very well! I've successfully drilled holes in the rock and cut pieces of fiberglass rod to stick the thing together. I just have to get some superglue and two part epoxy to secure the whole thing together. Then, it's into the frag tub to start cooking.

 

Plumbing time!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Mr. Microscope

So, I'm continuing to work on the plumbing which is almost done, but nothing work taking a photo of yet. I have, however finished another aspect of the build. The rock pillar!

 

I used this stuff from Premium Aquatics:

TER-12GL.jpg

 

At $20, it's a little expensive for epoxy, but I'm extremely happy with how well it works. It cures incredibly fast! Between kneading together the two components and being rock solid occurs in just two minutes. My favorite aspect of this glue, however, is that it doesn't have any smell. That meant that I could take my time and really enjoy the building process in our apartment without my wife complaining that everything about my hobby stinks up the place.

 

Here's what I built:

rockpillarconstructed.jpg

 

These rocks came from Reef Cleaners. As I mentioned before, John Maloney helped pick out the pieces for me. This is mined stuff. So, I'm not going to have to worry about additional crap during the cycle.

 

I planned out several areas with intended purposes. First, I decided to make more than just the mushroom shape. Although, I kept this aspect of the build, there would have been no space for other corals on the bottom. So, I came up with this little arch.

Fun fishy swim through zone!

rockarch.jpg

 

It has lots of space for corals. Frag plugs fit perfectly in little holes here.

bottomarchsiderocks.jpg

 

Again, I made this area on top to serve as an SPS garden:

toprocks.jpg

 

Finally, it's hard to tell from the photo, but this area is recessed underneath the SPS garden. Since it's in the shadows, I plan to eventually use it for some Sun Corals. Though, that won't be until the tank has been nicely established and I'm ready to crash it. LOL!

underrockspace.jpg

 

I took a little time to draw in the corals.

coralsonrocks.jpg

 

coralsonrockstext.jpg

 

I have most of these corals going in my frag tub right now. The only ones I'm lacking are the Torch, the Sun Corals, and the Tub's Blues. I want the Torch for my clowns to enjoy and for some added movement to the tank.

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Mr. Microscope
Love those superman Yumas! :D

Here's a better shot. This image is from a while ago. They look about twice as large now and there are like three babies.

yumas20111127.jpg

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Love the drawing the corals on the rock!

 

Okay how do you get your red Yumas so pretty, the frag I got finally melted away last night after putting it right where it should have been happy.

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I really like the scape you've got going there; mainly because you did decide to put that little extra bit on the bottom. I'm curious though, what did you use to do the drilling? When I setup my pico I drilled some of the rocks and had a lot of issues with them breaking due to the vibration on the dremel. It may have just been the size of my rocks and the bit I was using though.

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