c_k_kuehne Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Tank build thread for my 9 gallon CADlights Bonsai Aquascaping. Phase 1 -- LR Shaping -- Page 1, Post 1 Phase 2 -- Bonsai Assembly -- Page 2, Post 23 Phase 2b -- One Last Shelf -- Page 3, Post 47 Phase 3 -- Stand -- Page 3, Post 49 Phase 4 -- Extreme Durso -- Page 3, Post 53 Phase 5 -- 7.5 Gallon Sump (cut down 10 gallon tank) -- Page 3, Post 54 Phase 6 -- Tank Prep -- Page 4, Post 62 Phase 7 -- Sump Prep -- Page 4, Post 63 Phase 8 -- Electrical and Plumbing -- Page 4, Post 64 Current FTS as of 01/05/2010 Phase 1 -- LR Shaping Ok i'll admit I was a little bored today After reading some posts last night about Bonsai style of aquascaping I thought I would see if it was possible to do for my 9 gal CADlights build I have coming up. So lets go grinding The project began with some rock, a paper footprint of my tank, a hand grinder w/ stone cutting wheel, some safety sunglasses and not pictured is a box fan to blow the dust away so I didn't have to breath it. I started with a really dense, heavy piece for my foundation and ground the bottom flat for stability. I ground a flat shelf on top of the foundation piece and did a little shaping. I ground a flat area on the bottom of this rock (right side) to match the flat shelf on the foundation piece. Did a little shaping. A little shaping on the bottom of a third piece for a nice snug fit. I also shaped a small fourth piece for a snug fit. I made a little bit of a mess. This is how it will look in the end. Front view from right side Another front view from the left side this time. The overhead view. Although it looks too big for the footprint that is just the camera view. It should fit nicely in the tank. Also the CADlights 9 gal have a slightly bowed front panel so there is even more room then whats showing with the footprint. For now I have the rock sitting in a bucket of fresh water since 2 of the 4 pieces came out of a friends tank. After A few days I'll leave the rock sit out and dry completely. Since I custom fit all the pieces, I should be able to just epoxy them together. This will make one huge piece of rock. Not really fond of that but I'll deal with it. Also to mount frags I will probably pop the frag off any plug it came on and glue directly to the rock structure. I did it this way in my last nano and was pleased with the results. You just have to be sure of the placement as you can't just move things around on a whim. Link to comment
travisurfer Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 I would take the one flat rock and grind some slits or contours into the bottom of it. Having it completely flat on the bottom of the tank will cause some nasty dead areas which is why some people suspend their rocks on a pvc structure. You could just grind it to make more contact points and keep it from just laying on the bottom. Other than that, the aquascape will look awesome in the tank! Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted November 15, 2009 Author Share Posted November 15, 2009 I would take the one flat rock and grind some slits or contours into the bottom of it. Having it completely flat on the bottom of the tank will cause some nasty dead areas which is why some people suspend their rocks on a pvc structure. You could just grind it to make more contact points and keep it from just laying on the bottom. Other than that, the aquascape will look awesome in the tank! Good idea travisurfer I hadn't thought about that. I only knew I had to have a nice heavy, stable foundation since it has to support the weight of the overhanging pieces without tipping over. Once I have it epoxied together I will probably have to do a little bit of extra grinding for a custom fit into the tank. Will grind some channels on the bottom at that time. Link to comment
JBM Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 i like that.... i really like that. power tools are awsome! Link to comment
clownfish617 Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 i like it too, we need a final product in tank fts to see how it turned out. Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 definitely waiting for an in-tank shot! Link to comment
imcosmokramer Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 cool. love nice aquascaping. Link to comment
JohnOTS Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 All right guess I will have to start a third tank!!!!! Will just epoxy be enough to hold the rock in place. I am going to have to give this a try! Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted November 18, 2009 Author Share Posted November 18, 2009 All right guess I will have to start a third tank!!!!! Will just epoxy be enough to hold the rock in place. I am going to have to give this a try! I used really light pieces for the upper rocks and with their small size I am hoping epoxy will be enough. They are really to small and thin to do any type of drilled in stabilizing rods. The other threads where I got this idea from were big tanks with really big pieces of rock so they drilled the rocks and installed acrylic rods along with epoxy I am going to take the rock out of it's fresh water dip tonight and let it start drying out. I want it dry so I can get the best hold possible with the epoxy. I figure a week or 2 to dry and then I will epoxy and post some pictures of the epoxy process as well as a in tank shot. Link to comment
spanko Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Okay following along here. Link to comment
yardboy Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Drilling and using acrylic rods is really a good idea. Epoxy putty won't work so good, though liquid may work better. Still, mechanical attachment will last longer than just the chemical attachment. I'd recommend not risking such a great job with iffy attachments. What if the Mona Lisa had been done with chalk on the sidewalk? Link to comment
spanko Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Agree here, also i have seen the use of plastic coat hangers for this purpose too. Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted November 23, 2009 Author Share Posted November 23, 2009 Agree here, also i have seen the use of plastic coat hangers for this purpose too. I was reading about plastic coat hangers this past weekend. I am going to put all the LR together this Thanksgiving weekend. I have some plastic coat hangers and will see what I can do. Will post pics of it going together along with a FTS hopefully by Sunday evening. There is really only one piece of LR that is of real concern and that is the left side, it is the one that sticks out the most with the least amount of attachment area. I defiantly don't want my Mona Lisa falling apart six months down the road Link to comment
Deep Thief Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Just hurry up, POKEY!!!! You spent way tooo much time on pics and not enough on your reef. Hurry up already, we want pics of the reef, damn it. Link to comment
Mike Maddox Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Looks cool, but I wouldn't want to start a tank with dead rock. Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted November 25, 2009 Author Share Posted November 25, 2009 Looks cool, but I wouldn't want to start a tank with dead rock. Yes that is a big draw back but ............ I am planning on doing a corner overflow w/ full sump and a separate refugium so I will add some fresh LR to those filter areas and let it seed the "base rock". Of course this method takes a bit longer to get really nice looking LR in your tank but I have the patience. I feel in the end the time it will take will be well worth it. Link to comment
yardboy Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Looks cool, but I wouldn't want to start a tank with dead rock. You often surprise me Mike, and that is the biggest so far. The dead can be brought to life with the proper rituals. Link to comment
JBM Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 even if you add a small piece of lr to the main display. after your cycle is going you can either remove said lr or move it to the sump. Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Looks cool, but I wouldn't want to start a tank with dead rock. eh, not a big deal. Link to comment
yardboy Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Can't wait to see the final product! Link to comment
DrCooper Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 That is going to look real nice! great job Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted November 28, 2009 Author Share Posted November 28, 2009 Phase 2 -- Bonsai Assembly After running into a minor problem Phase 2 is complete. It actually came out better then I expected with a removable right side. I am going to use this as my tank build thread so stay tuned for more after the Holidays. The tools needed for Phase 2. Got to use fire in this Phase I used plastic kitchen spoons for the support rods since they are stronger then coat hangers and food grade. The drill bit I actually used was a 3/8" cement bit. I made a new, exact footprint. This project actually took 4 tubes of epoxy. Here is the bent and cut support rod. I drilled and channeled the base piece and reshaped piece 1 a little more on the bottom to accept the support rod. Closeup of the support hole and channel. While I had the grinder going I also made some groves in the bottom of the base piece to help alleviate any dead spots underneath. Epoxied support rod onto the base. Epoxy is still workable so I can attach the top piece all at the same time. I had to work fast as you only get 5 mins work time with the epoxy. Here is the top piece after being epoxied to the base. Unfortunately the piece is so thin I broke it during this process. I used a bit of epoxy on the top to help fix the problem. This is the bottom view. The support piece is there under the epoxy. I used a little extra epoxy since the piece broke. Continued with next post ............................................... Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted November 28, 2009 Author Share Posted November 28, 2009 A few more tools to complete the job. All good projects require a hammer and chisel I started by epoxying piece 3 and 4 together making a right side assembly. Piece 4 is so small and light that epoxy alone should do the trick. It also fit into/onto piece 3 like a puzzle piece. I drilled and epoxied a support pin into the base to accept the right side assembly. The natural hole in the middle where the support pin will go up. This is the bottom view of the right side assembly. Here is the left side w/ base piece inside the tank waiting to accept the right side assembly. By doing this with a support pin and custom fitting the right side assembly the two halves do not need to be epoxied together. I was not happy having one big rock for the tank so this was a much better solution. I usually glue frags directly to LR so being able to take the two pieces out separately should make this task much easier. The front view with right side assembly sitting down onto the support pin. The structure as a whole is very stable. Front view looking left. Front view looking right. View looking in from the left side. View looking in from the right side. Overhead view. There is enough space that a Mini Mag Float will clear the rock all around the front and 2 sides. Also I still have some room down on the sand. Overhead view near the overflow. The black lines represent a round corner overflow and the bulkhead hole. I left a little room to play since I have yet to cut the overflow or drill the tank. Once again the front view. The pictures really do not do this project justice. Starting with base rock will take a bit of time to get Coraline encrusted but eventually you won't even be able to see the epoxy. This was one of the funnest LR projects I have ever done. I got to use a bunch of fun tools and the result was a unique LR look better then I expected. With Christmas fast approaching my funds for this project has dried up till after the 1st of the year. Stay tuned for more updates in Jan. Link to comment
asting Posted November 28, 2009 Share Posted November 28, 2009 are you going barebottom? or are you submerging/setting on sand? Also, it looks great, but maybe a little more height would help? I'm a fan of minimalist rock scapes, but it seems short (not minimalist as in minimal work put in, but a few scaped pieces of rock rather than a mountain). Link to comment
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