Comments on aquascaping idea, pls.

Howdy,

I'm planning to aquascape my 20H in a manner similar to NAx0's brilliant tank, which can be seen at: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=40166

Here's what I plan to do with the eggcrate.

And then with the rock:

Comments? Suggestions? Will it work?

Thanks,

--Bucky

The wall in the middle will block the current I think ... You should keep in mind that there are more things to make a reeftank than the aqua-scaping.

But nice plan

i think it has potential.... figure it this way if you dont like it you can always re-do it. i feel like i am never satisfied when i aquascape. i think a lay out can almost always be improved in some way but it depends on what you want to keep. i really liked the deep canyon look of naxo's tank and think he made the best use of his space. but i have also seen a stare step style that looks amazing but it was mostly sps. the best aquascaping looks natural and not aquascaped at all. hth just my .01

That choirs you have thought to put ahi inside? measures?

Thinking about the colocation of the rocks is very well, but at the same time you should present you as will create the current necesari so that they remain not dead zones, where would be able to be remained detritus

Thank you all for your suggestions. Working on a pic of the powerhead setup. I've got two minijet 606s coming (153gph each), a prizm skimmer, and I think I've got a Rio 480 (200gph) lying around here somewhere too.

Dr. Saltwater-- I'm a chem major, so I understand that there's more to setting up a reef tank than arranging a few rocks. Arranging the rocks just happens to be the stage of tank set-up that I'm currently on. Thanks for the heads-up about the blocked flow.

oosurfin--good call on natural aquascaping. Not the easiest thing in the world to pull off, but worth working for anyway.

NAx0--working on a powerhead picture. Thanks!

--Bucky

Okay, got a pic with powerheads.

The left side wall is very similar to the walls in NAx0's tank. The powerhead driving it is a 153gph Mini-jet 606.

The wall on the right side is similar, but the mini-jet powerhead simply moves surface water downward into the "cave" area, to keep water moving through this hard-to-clean area of the tank.

This leaves the front right-side wall with lower flow. The protein skimmer's return flow will provide some flow to this area, however. Perfect for shrooms/ricordia.

The powerhead for the center wall is inside the cave (that is, to the right of the center wall). The pipe then goes through the wall (to the left side) and splits in two directions....upward along the back wall and forward across the bottom of the tank. This second branch then turns upward as shown (yeah, it's not perfectly clear....sorries).

All the pipes shown will have holes drilled, so they will be spraybar-like.

Hopefully this will take care of any detritus. Comments/suggestions?

--Bucky

t

I'm gonna aquascape my tank tomorrow. Like the cave - idea

Caves are fun for a lot of reasons. The main one for me is that you can put sun polyps, gorgonians, or other non-photosynthetic corals in them, and they won't get covered in algae. I also like the idea of shrimp hanging out upside-down in there. Just gotta keep the detritus out.

Going to Home Depot tomorrow night to get 5/8" ID pipe for the powerheads, zip ties, silicone sealant (the aquarium-safe kind) to assemble the shelves and pipes, and some epoxy (any brand recommendations? I'm thinking cyanoacrylate gel might work well, but something more space-filling might work better) to attach the rock to the shelves. Preferably something that can cure underwater without leaching a whole mess of chemicals.

Thanks again for the replies.

--B

Do you have the eggcrate yet?

Yeah, the eggcrate is all cut already. Got some neat shapes. It's kind of like "make your own live rock" only you're just making a skeleton on which your live rock will sit. Lots of fun. So much fun, actually, that my girlfriend helped out with it. Turns out she's better at cutting eggcrate than I am.

Incidentally, I also took a piece of scrap eggcrate and cut out pieces to make it look like a tetris game. Colored it and hung it on my door, and six ppl from my dorm have already asked where I got it.

Anyway, just found out all about aquamend, so I guess there's no need to answer the question above about epoxy. I'll be picking some up at HD tomorrow, too.

Still looking for more comments on the 'scape.

--Bucky

The shelf, the right side panel, and the center panel. The left panel was left out because it's boring. Just imagine a a flat piece of eggcrate standing straight up and parallel to the end of the tank on the far left side (in this picture, it would be inside the doorframe).

Apologies for the paint job. It's a dorm room, and therefore not my fault.

--Bucky

Nice idea...can't wait to see the results. Post em up, buddy!

i really like this idea... i hope you have success with it, even if i think its going to work better than other scapings, because all LR will have enough light and flow, but good luck

i think the 20 high is the best tank for such a project, good choice...

I'm about to aquascape as well. Where did you guys get the egg-crate?

Home Depot. Most hardware stores have it, but won't know what the hell you're talking about if you walk in and ask for 'egg crate'. You have to ask for "louvre" or "the stuff they use to cover fluorescent lights in the tops of elevators." Then they'll know exactly what you want.

--B

Any updated pics? Do you have the tank yet? did you scrap the idea?

I cant wait to see what it looks like when its done!

thats it! <_< i saw NaXO's tank and im seeing ur tank comin up. n guess wat?! m gonna be doing the same for my 119g.

2 questions tho:

1) how to keep the egg crate from crashing down, or warping/curving inwards with all those rocks hangin on them?

2) how will i go about cleaning the tank? if say in situations of a hair algae outbreak and the crates are invaded?

Originally posted by 255 255 255 0

thats it! <_< i saw NaXO's tank and im seeing ur tank comin up. n guess wat?! m gonna be doing the same for my 119g.

 

2 questions tho:

 

1) how to keep the egg crate from crashing down, or warping/curving inwards with all those rocks hangin on them?

 

2) how will i go about cleaning the tank? if say in situations of a hair algae outbreak and the crates are invaded?

I broke down also and I will be doing this with my 10 gallon hex dwarf seahorse tank:o

Hey...so I broke off doing this plan when I realized how incredibly difficult it would be. NaX0's tank worked really well because he had a lot of rocks with coral on them to attach, and because he had infinite patience in doing it. I sadly did not have either of these things, so I arranged my live rock the normal way, by stacking it all in a big pile o' rocks. Apologies to anyone who got really excited about this on my account.

I used the eggcrate for a number of art projects. It was fun.

--B