A Carib.Castle: Naughty Nibblers... June '15 pics/vid, Razors, 125g, diy LR

[eitallent]

You'll have a seriously large amount of weight concentrated into eight 1" areas. I would reconsider using that type of stand and go with something with more surface area, otherwise the tiles might break from such pressure on such a small area.

 

I am glad you brought this up. Husband and I were thinking the same thing as we were leveling on Saturday. I mentioned your concerns and we are sleuthing it out right now. I will post what we decide.

 

Thanks for your suggestions and ideas, Ben.

You must make your family proud; being a Jedi master, so smart, handsome and all.

[eitallent]

I've been thinking about the kind of reef I want to keep in this tank. The three fringing reef types or biomes I have read about are lagoon, patch and wall or fore reef. Each has it own lighting, current, and temperature environments. I am inclined to go with a patch reef for the 125g.

 

Here is a cool article from ufl.edu with a description of a patch reef in Florida; what corals and fish reside in one.

 

This is a great noaa.gov site called CoRIS on corals, reefs and fish.

 

This is a video of a patch reef off of Elliot Key in Florida. The video is fast and jerky but it shows a great amount of corals and fish I would like to have for this new tank. I see gorgs, Blue Neon Gobies, Porites, maybe brain corals. Would you guys help me out and list some of the life you see in the video? I wish there was a slow setting on this video.

 

[Felicia]

I'm glad you commented on my thread so that I'd go check out yours. This is a great build! I'm going to be following along now.

 

You're super creative with how you're building the stand and your handmade rocks. I love how its all turning out. I can't wait to see it all put together!

 

Also, I like that you post as many kitty photos as I do. Your cats are adorable!

[eitallent]

I'm glad you commented on my thread so that I'd go check out yours. This is a great build! I'm going to be following along now.

 

You're super creative with how you're building the stand and your handmade rocks. I love how its all turning out. I can't wait to see it all put together!

 

Also, I like that you post as many kitty photos as I do. Your cats are adorable!

 

TYVM! I am working on this now. Rinsed 120 lbs of sand. Made some more rock shelves and plugs. I will post more pictures soon.

[rev138]

Can you describe your process for making that artificial rock? It looks better than most I've seen.

 

Thanks.

[eitallent]

Can you describe your process for making that artificial rock? It looks better than most I've seen.

 

Thanks.

Hi, rev138. I used YouTube, Garf.org and nano-reef.com forums to guide me on making the LR.

 

Here is what I am doing to make the LR:

 

Ingredients:

 

I use the araganite sand not play sand. Play sand is cheaper but in most cases it is silica based (some say this encourages diatom blooms IDK, better safe than sorry). I prefer to spend more and get the benefits of the araganite sand (corals like calcium carbonate).

 

I also went through the effort of finding the white portland cement. I bought it at a brick yard and lucky for me they had the regular size sacks which did not need to be bought by the pallet! I like the look of it much better than the gray cement. If anyone knows about cement I would like to read more about how they make white cement and is it more "pure" than the gray.

 

For the aggregate portion of the LR I use oyster shells that can be bought at farm supply stores (Tractor Supply Co.).

 

Also, for some pieces, I used salt pellets that are 99.8% salt. This type of salt is usually used for water softening. Salt is used to form holes in the LR. During the curing process the salt dissolves and leaves behind voids which make the rock light and increases surface area.

 

Last, I got seashells from a hobby store to embed in some pieces. Although I have not seen anyone else do this, I really like the look of the shells poking out of the rock. It almost looks like fossils.

 

I have made about 50 lbs of LR so far and have used 1/10 of the portland, 1/3 of the sack of oyster shell. I started out with a 40 lb sack of sand and need another 20 lbs b/c I use it for the molds too.

 

Here is the process:

 

I use wet sand in a container that is smaller than the depth and width of the tank. This leaves no doubt that I will make a rock with enough room for me to clean the glass in the aquarium. I used a cardboard box with a trash liner to put the wet sand. I form the shape I want and start on the cement mix.

 

The proportions I use are two parts cement, two parts oyster shell, three parts sand and about one part water. First I blend the OS and sand thoroughly, add the cement and mix again to coat the OS and sand. There should be an even look to the dry mix, where there is no large part of cement without sand and shell. It is critical not to add too much water. Too much water make for dense, heavy rocks. Add enough water to create a moist (not soupy) crumbly mix that sticks together when you squeeze it in your hand but still crumbles apart slightly. Add as much/as little salt as you feel you need now and do not mix too much or it starts to melt in! I only use the salt for round rocks not shelves.

 

Working quickly you place your wet cement mix into the mold and do NOT pat down or compress the cement into the mold. This eliminates the air pockets and makes the rock look unnatural. I place more wet sand on top of the rock to help even curing. In 24 hours the rocks are cured enough to handle carefully. They still have some hardening to do in the water soak so they are still brittle.

 

I have an old utility sink out in the back that I filled with water to harden and cure the rock. It has been about three weeks since the first rocks went in and the pH has gone from 10.5 to a little over 9. I am adding some of the pellet salt to the water to make sure the rocks will not react when placed in the tank. It will take a while but I am not in a hurry. Plus I will get the shapes I want and my imagination is the limit!

 

 

 

[rev138]

What do you think about the idea of taking existing dry rock that has a nice shape and pressing it into the sand to form the molds?

[eitallent]

What do you think about the idea of taking existing dry rock that has a nice shape and pressing it into the sand to form the molds?

 

I like that idea. I think it should work. If you try it let me know how it goes.

[eitallent]

The tank is level and the tiles are safe from all the weight being focused on one square inch. To avoid the weight being focused on such a small area we added a 1"x4" board under each side of the stand. Using shims to level the boards.

 

 

The sand was added and the levels were checked again. It was all perfect! So in the water went with level checks at regular intervals.

 

 

AC110 and two heaters.

 

[Felicia]

Yay water!

 

Good solution for the stand. Any chance we could get a photo of the whole set-up including the stand?

[SeahawkReefer]

Sha weet! When r u adding your rocks and scaping?... ah just read the not in a hurry to add rocks bc of the ph drop... do u change the water in your utility sink every few days? Patience is a virtue...

[eitallent]

Yay water!

 

Good solution for the stand. Any chance we could get a photo of the whole set-up including the stand?

Will do. I will post it as soon as I get a good one.

[eitallent]

Sha weet! When r u adding your rocks and scaping?... ah just read the not in a hurry to add rocks bc of the ph drop... do u change the water in your utility sink every few days? Patience is a virtue...

 

I know! I am so eager to get it all in order.

 

I am letting the tank "cycle." There will be no cycle technically. I am letting the sand grow bacteria slowly. I added Dr. Tim's One and Only Reef bacteria. There are two happy clown fish and a Bangaii cardinal in there to fertilize (wee wee in) the tank. With about 100 g of water I am sure it will take a while for enough bacteria to populate the sand and eventually the rocks before I feel ready to add corals or too many more fish.

 

Daily tests show the pH has consistently been around 8.1 the Alk has remained around 9 and no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates detected. The fish are eating and in general look great in a huge aquarium to play in. I added some aquarium decor ( castles from my daughter's older betta tank) for them to hide in and only the Bangaii uses it to hide in once in a while. Funny the clowns have staked out opposite sides of the tank. I guess the division of property has begun. They love the live newly hatched brine shrimp.

 

As for the DIY live rock I change the water out every day! I want those to hurry up and loose all that alkalinity! So yes patience is a virtue which is not in abundance around here.

[rev138]

As for the DIY live rock I change the water out every day! I want those to hurry up and loose all that alkalinity! So yes patience is a virtue which is not in abundance around here.

 

I think I'm going to give this a shot myself soon. I'm going to use the toilet tank method.

[eitallent]

I think I'm going to give this a shot myself soon. I'm going to use the toilet tank method.

 

LOL What is the toilet tank method? I can't wait to hear about it, it sound gross! Ha Ha Ha

[rev138]

You put the rocks in your toilet tank so that every time someone flushes it gets a water change.

[eitallent]

You put the rocks in your toilet tank so that every time someone flushes it gets a water change.

That is ingenious! LOL Not gross at all. I have too much rock to use the toilet tank. There would not be enough water left in the tank to flush!

 

Thanks for sharing that.

[capitolcityreefer]

Hahaha toilet tank... it really is a great idea! Especially for the amount of rock needed for a nano tank!

[jedimasterben]

Talk about adding ammonia!

[DrAndrew]

It is very beautiful tank and interesting idea with rocks, I look forward further

 

I know some people who use toilet tank for drown a snag (for freshwater tanks)

[gena]

That patch reef video was sooo cool!!! Even if it was fast and jerky I saw tons of porites and I'm sure there were some Christmas tree worms in there as well. My favorite was seeing the pair of neon gobies though. I like the idea of a Caribbean patch reef for this tank!!!!!

[zhuangcg]

This looks great so far! And I love your kitty, Mellow Jello is a great name.

[Hexadron]

Can't wait to see more!

[Blubbernaut]

This is gonna turn out to be one beast of a tank! Say sorry to mellow jello for me!

[eitallent]

Hi, everyone! I am so happy. I got my new lights in and set them up last night.

 

Moonlight this morning:

 

They are Maxspect Razor 27" 160w 16K LEDs. I have the preset 2 running for now. I like these light a lot!

 

The DIY live rocks are coming along better than I expected. I really like adding shells to the mix. I will post pics as I stack them up.

 

The bacteria have set up shop in my tank and it has cycled fully. I used the CaribSea seaflor special grade reef sand #5. It looks great. Hooray! Finally.

 

I will be adding some macro algae first just because I love it! It will also help establish a home for pods and other good little tank critters (and hopefully no FLATWORMS!). Reefcleaners.org here I come.