Bonsai Aquascaping a 9g Nano - 7.5 gallon sump

[c_k_kuehne]

Was figuring a 1" sand bed. I might add some acrylic blocks underneith the base to raise it up the 1 inch.

 

It's hard to tell but the top of the upper rock to the water line is only about 5".

Right side overhang about 6 1/2" to water line.

Left side overhang about 8 1/2" to water line.

Sand to water line about about 11"

 

I have an Eco-Lamps LED lighting system for this tank so any corals up top will get plenty of light especially as they grow up in height.

[corallineadam]

eh, not a big deal.

actually starting a tank with aragocrete or base rock of some kind mitigates drastic impacts to the coral reef ecosystem by avoiding taking natural live rock from the reef.... IMO base rock or homemade aragocrete is the future of reefing -- we cannot continue to enjoy the hobby at Mother Nature's expense, we must work WITH Her...

[spankyleatherlips]

I like it!! Nice job

[violinist]

This is really cool. Did you use all the rock you had laid out in the first pic with your grinder and goggles? The end result looks more compact than I'd have thought.

[fishieCJ]

WOW, looks great! now lets see some water!

[lakshwadeep]

Nice overhangs! It's hard to get nice rock shapes if you're only limited to "authentic" live rock.

[Nano sapiens]

actually starting a tank with aragocrete or base rock of some kind mitigates drastic impacts to the coral reef ecosystem by avoiding taking natural live rock from the reef.... IMO base rock or homemade aragocrete is the future of reefing -- we cannot continue to enjoy the hobby at Mother Nature's expense, we must work WITH Her...

 

Nice sentiment. However, virtually all live rock is collected in easily accessible waters such as the 'rubble zone' behind reefs since this is where it is easiest and most economical to collect. No need to dive, chip, hammer, etc. You can think of LR as 'leaves' that have fallen off a tree, in a sense, and have been 'blown' by storms and wave action towards the shore. If not collected, this LR and rubble is eventually turned into sand by wave action and organisms.

 

It can be argued that the transportation of LR is an environmentally unfriendly act since it currently requires fossil fuel (added CO2 to the atmosphere, indirect funding of terrorist activities, etc.) to transport it half way across the world. But, same can be said of the many goods that we regularly consume.

 

I feel that the choice of which rock to use in our aquariums is more a personal decision than an environmental one. I've used both 'man-made' rock and LR with good results.

[c_k_kuehne]

This is really cool. Did you use all the rock you had laid out in the first pic with your grinder and goggles? The end result looks more compact than I'd have thought.

 

No -- I originally had 6 pieces laid out so I could pick and choose what would work. I ended up using 4 of the 6 and some got ground down a bit

 

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.

 

I did want to have a minimalist look in the tank. The pictures make it look really minimalist. It does NOT look so minimalist in real life. I did want to leave some room for growth and maybe a few more small pieces of LR if I got a nice coral on LR.

 

There is room for one more piece up a little higher. It would come off the top of the right hand assembly and go towards the middle of the tank but back up against the back wall. If I can find the right piece of LR sometime I will go for it.

 

Future plans for this setup (subject to change as I have already chaged the plans a couple of times):

 

• Eco-Lamps KR91-14 LED lighting -- already have this
  
• Drilled w/ round corner overflow
  
• Drilled return w/ loc-line
  
• MP10 power head for movement
  
• Sump w/ refugium ............ or
  
• Sump w/ external refugium
  
• RKL for pump control, ATO, heater control and monitoring
  
• etc ....................... LOL (leaving this list wide open)
  

 

Unfortunatly I have no money in my budget for this till after Christmas. Will post more updates sometime in Jan as things progress. Yup it's killing me that I can't just slam this thing together and get it up and running but ................. it's taken a while to get to this point so whats another couple of months anyway

[violinist]

Makes me want to re-scape.

 

For the 10th time.

 

This weekend...

[JBM]

looks good.

 

i hope mine turns out 1/2 as good. I just placed an order with reefcleaners for some of there base rock.

All in due time

[imcosmokramer]

excellent tutorial.

[TheNordCelt]

Nice sentiment. However, virtually all live rock is collected in easily accessible waters such as the 'rubble zone' behind reefs since this is where it is easiest and most economical to collect. No need to dive, chip, hammer, etc. You can think of LR as 'leaves' that have fallen off a tree, in a sense, and have been 'blown' by storms and wave action towards the shore. If not collected, this LR and rubble is eventually turned into sand by wave action and organisms.

 

It can be argued that the transportation of LR is an environmentally unfriendly act since it currently requires fossil fuel (added CO2 to the atmosphere, indirect funding of terrorist activities, etc.) to transport it half way across the world. But, same can be said of the many goods that we regularly consume.

 

I feel that the choice of which rock to use in our aquariums is more a personal decision than an environmental one. I've used both 'man-made' rock and LR with good results.

 

Those live rock beds do eventually turn into sand, but not for quite some time. In the meantime, they serve as a nursery and as their own little ecosystem separate from the reef. If it was there before we started taking it, it probably serves a purpose and we can't expect that we make no impact by doing so. Having said that, I'm sure there is a sustainable way to harvest it, but I think aquaculture is probably the way to go.

[Trolldoll]

Nice sentiment. However, virtually all live rock is collected in easily accessible waters such as the 'rubble zone' behind reefs since this is where it is easiest and most economical to collect. No need to dive, chip, hammer, etc. You can think of LR as 'leaves' that have fallen off a tree, in a sense, and have been 'blown' by storms and wave action towards the shore. If not collected, this LR and rubble is eventually turned into sand by wave action and organisms.

 

I was recently in Fiji for work and dove three times. There are corals in this so called rubble zone all the way up to the beach. Some are exposed when the tide goes out. Full blown SPS colonies were in 3' of water.

 

OP scape looks very nice.

[c_k_kuehne]

This LR originally was aquacultured LR from Gulfview. Eventually I broke down that tank, cleaned and dried out the LR and set it aside in a tub in my house. I have since given away most of that (now Base Rock) to friends but I did keep a little for myself which is what I used to build this setup.

 

I sort of agree with both sides of the argument. Yes the world would be better if all LR was aquacultured but .....................

 

I have also personally helped in the harvest of wild LR from the FL Keys back when it was legal to do so. The rock was taken from the reef flats area. The rocks were lone rocks 1/2 buried in the sand. We did not take any LR that had stoney corals growing on it. I don't see where that hurt anything.

 

Now if there are collectors out bustin up reefs or taking wild LR from the main reef zone then that would be a different story and some collectors probably do this

[HecticDialectics]

i'd be willing to bet much more "live rock" is destroyed in the production of cement than it is in the aquarium trade...

[yardboy]

^Dat's a fact.

[TheNordCelt]

i'd be willing to bet much more "live rock" is destroyed in the production of cement than it is in the aquarium trade...

 

 

How? Portland Cement is made primarily from limestone.

[Mike Maddox]

You often surprise me Mike, and that is the biggest so far. The dead can be brought to life with the proper rituals.

 

There is no such thing as "seeding" dead rock to the same quality of rock taken from the ocean the biodiversity simply isn't won't be there, as Anthony Calfo puts it (correctly). This is one area where my marine bio degree comes in handy Although of course not necessary, it's not something I'd want to skimp on.

 

Looking forward to the project from an aesthetic perspective, though!

[HecticDialectics]

How? Portland Cement is made primarily from limestone.

 

You ask how, but then you answer yourself... Calcium carbonate.

 

There is no such thing as "seeding" dead rock to the same quality of rock taken from the ocean. The biodiversity simply isn't there. This is one area where my marine bio degree comes in handy

 

What kind of species diversification are we looking at, say, fresh out of the ocean, versus a month into cycle, versus, say, a year down the road?

 

Would you consider any of them keystone species? And if so, why can't they be introduced? How long is their lifespan? Do they reproduce?

[c_k_kuehne]

There is no such thing as "seeding" dead rock to the same quality of rock taken from the ocean

 

I can somewhat agree but only to a point. If you put a few pieces of high quality "Fresh" LR in the tank then eventually all the little feather dusters and tube worms and pods and Coraline etc... will migrate over to the base rock although it does take some time.

 

Also I have seen a lot of premium LR that didn't look much better then base rock as far as micro organisms go. The wholesaler or LFS cured it so long it was no longer really "Fresh" LR.

 

If it takes a year or more before the LR really looks right that's OK too.

 

I did add one more small shelf going from the right top rock over towards the middle of the tank along the back wall. Makes a big improvement for the straight on view. Unfortunately I couldn't really get a nice picture. My camera skills aren't that great but will try again tomorrow.

[TheNordCelt]

You ask how, but then you answer yourself... Calcium carbonate.

 

 

 

Sure live rock is limestone, But limestone for cement comes from quarries, They're not out harvesting it in reefs to pulverize it into cement!

[c_k_kuehne]

Phase 2b -- One Last Shelf

 

Ok I made a new small shelf on top in the middle. I used 2 small pieces of rubble matched to fit for this. I only had to do a little grinding to get a good fit. Since they were so small I just used epoxy to cement them in place. I first epoxied the 2 pieces together and after the epoxy setup I epoxied it the the right side assembly. This took 1 tube of epoxy.

 

I put some brown paper for the background and a fake blue poster board overflow. The picture came out decent so everyone should get an idea of the size and height of the bonsai structure compared to the tank size and water level. When I actually finish the setup it will be a black round overflow and a painted black background but this should give you an idea. I think the new small shelf is a big improvement for the front on view.

 

 

 

I also needed to cut away a small bit of the tank support molding so the lights will sit back just a little farther. I marked the plastic and then used a small hacksaw to carefully cut through the plastic. I used a razor blade to cut back the Silicone under the cutoff plastic. I did this on both sides. Here is before and after pics.

 

eeeeeeeekkkkk I guess that ruins the warranty but then again it will be ruined once I drill the tank anyway.

 

[TheNordCelt]

looking good, can't wait to see it wet.

[c_k_kuehne]

Phase 3 -- Stand

 

I'm not much of a wood worker but here goes ..................

 

I started with a solid Oak stand made for a 10 gallon tank. I have had this stand for years just sitting around.

 

 

 

The problem with this stand -- it is only 20" tall. To add a little more height I made a 7" riser using standard framing lumber scraps and painted it black.

 

 

 

Since the stand was built for a standard 10 gallon tank I had to make a top adapter. This is the underside so you can see the bracing I used (hard to see) and the hole for the bulkhead. This was made from plywood and some 2 x 4 pieces ran through a table saw. Painted it black.

 

 

 

I also needed to raise the light a little off the rim of the tank so I cut these from 6" diameter PVC and painted them black using Krylon Fusion.

 

 

 

So here is a current FTS of the stand. The bottom of the tank now sits 28" off the ground -- a perfect height for sitting at my computer desk and watching the aquarium. Would also make a good height for in the living room. The project is moving forward slowly but making progress.

 

[Deep Thief]

Using the old and making it new again. Sweet, I like it.