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Cultivated Reef

Hey's 50 rimless (fts update 9/10)


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Small update to show what work I have gotten done in the sump department. Baffled the 20 long, attached all plumbing and got my hydor 200w inline set up in my return line. Also got the skimmer put together, very impressed with its build quality, heres to hoping the romance doesn't fade with time.

 

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Next I got the start of my landscape being laid out. Really trying to do something different saltwater wise with it by using the live rock essentially how FW uses very deep sloped substrate. Long way to go on the scape but I guess this is a teaser. More to come on this later. The MH bulb is on in the pic and I am very happy with the color its an ushio 14k and the pic is white balanced correctly and color is pretty representative of what I see. Havn't decided on my t5 supplements yet though. Open to suggestions.

 

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Heres the next phase on my aquascaping, the idea I am playing with is that once covered with corals your aquascape looks nothing like how it did when you laid out your original rockwork due to variances in shapes colors and textures. I am hoping to preserve these branches shapes by sparsely placing only very small polyp types of corals on them and leaving the bulk of the branches exposed. The hillside however will be eventually covered with hopefully very considerate coral placement with attention paid especially to growth patterns.

 

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Still got a few more things I plan to do to this before it gets wet but hopefully this is an idea of the direction I am headed.

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Wow, this tank looks incredible! That scape is crazy ! Can't wait to see it filled ;)

 

Tagging along. The rock scape looks amazing. I always liked the "pile" idea if executed well.

 

Everything looks so clean and crisp! Can't wait to see this tank wet!!

 

I appreciate the comments, this is one big experiment in aquascaping for me, the rockwork I fear will be the easy part.

 

As for the getting wet eta, still need to order a switching psu and mount all my hardware and clean up the wires. Hopefully painting the under tank hardware mounts tonight and ordering the psu.

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Looking very good! I think that light is going to be awesome for you. Very similar to the combo I run. Can you provide some detail on the white background, what is the purpose, how'd you come to that design?

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Looking very good! I think that light is going to be awesome for you. Very similar to the combo I run. Can you provide some detail on the white background, what is the purpose, how'd you come to that design?

 

The white background is a 36x48 canvas actually. I just don't want any distractions in the background from my wallpaper when looking at the tank. I feel like the vertical lines of the wallpaper would have thrown off my horizontal lines in the tank.

 

As for how I came to this design, It really bothered me that rockwork no matter how gorgeous it looks without coral with all its interesting textures and overhangs ends up just being completely covered in coral. The coral becomes the new shape of the landscape. I decided that the surface where I place my coral will become covered and to not worry about tiny details that make it interesting before it has coral on it.

 

Now as for the tonga. I do enjoy seeing live rock in a tank naked or exposed to a good degree. I went to my lfs and picked out these pieces and paid whatever ungodly amount they wanted per lb because I was only putting these in to add visual interest and direct the eyes in the motion I want when you look at the tank. Starting with the heavy rock pile being led to the upwards right into a large amount of negative space. I killed the live tonga btw in a method I havn't seen anyone use before so hopefully it turns out. Soaked them in rodi water overnight then took a heat gun and blasted them all thoroughly at 1200* temperatures.

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I like your concept of focusing on the overall composition for the rock work and not stressing over the details, it looks great.

 

What are you thinking for sand?

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I like your concept of focusing on the overall composition for the rock work and not stressing over the details, it looks great. What are you thinking for sand?

 

Thanks, I am going with caribsea special grade. My other tank has fiji pink and I hate how it blows around. Still need to rinse it out before I place it. next phase of my rockwork is going to be the area where the hill meets the sand so I need the sand in there before I can finalize the scape.

 

BTW, I want that rimless calc if you finish it hehe.

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Thanks, I am going with caribsea special grade. My other tank has fiji pink and I hate how it blows around. Still need to rinse it out before I place it. next phase of my rockwork is going to be the area where the hill meets the sand so I need the sand in there before I can finalize the scape.

 

BTW, I want that rimless calc if you finish it hehe.

Done. It should be 10mm (3/8) IMO.

 

Calculator in works....

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Yeh it isn't hard plumbed except for the bit of hard plumbing to attach the ball valve so I could use a mag 7. It actually works at 4.25 feet of head with the mame but it will gurgle too much for my taste. Cleaning every other week to a month is going to be pretty necessary aswell even though I can probably just let the ball valve open a bit more as biofilm builds up.

 

The only PITA of the plumbing is getting the tubing disconnected from the mame. I have found the easiest way is to take a hairdryer to the connection and it will pop off pretty easily. I actually considered ordering another mame just to be lazy and take my time cleaning the alternate. Maybe in the future.

 

It is a good day today, my son turns 2 today. He loves fish as much if not more than me right now and I couldn't be a happier dad. Next tank I do will probably be a more kid safe set up for his room heh.

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I couldn't see hiding spots for the fish. Do you plan on making those? Or do you plan on adding more rocks across from it?

 

There is actually a cave on the slope of the right side of the hill, I'll get a pic later but it can't be seen from the pic, also the rock work itself is pretty easy to get behind and hide in. I used big rocks to frame out the hill and small ones to cover the face on the front.

 

I left enough space behind and on the left between the rock and walls so I could get a siphon down in there because I am sure it will be a detrius collection area so hopefully I can keep it cleanish. I am a fan of more bold fish personalities as well I won't be putting anything in this tank that would be scared of the openness.

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So I got under the tank all wired up and cable managed minus my osmolator but ya get the idea. Tank is in the process of being filled but with 55* water my rodi is pushing out something like 5 gallons every 3 hours, may take a while. Should have a wet shot soon though.

 

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I got it filled with rodi currently figured I would snap a few shots since the muck died down from last night, still a bit dirty though.

 

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On a side note my mag 7 is the biggest piece of crap ever, not only did it come with a chipped impeller shaft making it quite noisy I find it absurd the housing around which the impeller spins has a few tiny bumps that needed to be sanded off from the plastic mold. For what one of these things cost I can deal with the 60 hz buzz I can't however deal with the obnoxious sound of an impeller clicking.

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looks like a planted tank build almost, can't wait to see it with coral floursishing

 

That's where the inspiration came from, I'm lookin forward to the coral part too, may be a while my last cycle took a solid 2 months from dry rock to diatoms.

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