Tower of Doom

[Justin MD]

Right, be bad news for any coral above the drain water line in the event of a long term outage. Check valves will allow slow creep of water over time and how big is your return pump going to be. Check valves will reduce the flow considerably.

 

 

Not just being negative for the hell of it, just all things that need to be considered as it could get expensive stock wise first power cut you have.

The pump is a Eheim 5000. Fortunately I live in an area of the country that very very rarely has power outages. And since I work from home if there is a power outage I do have a generator out in the garage that I could turn on within 10 minutes time.

[Jay Wee]

Tower of Doom is like mad sick!

[Justin MD]

Right, be bad news for any coral above the drain water line in the event of a long term outage. Check valves will allow slow creep of water over time and how big is your return pump going to be. Check valves will reduce the flow considerably.

 

 

Not just being negative for the hell of it, just all things that need to be considered as it could get expensive stock wise first power cut you have.

Im just going to quote this one from you Ben. I like your idea. I don't have much room behind the tank. There is an external 4"x4x18 overflow. Bean animal. But I can make enough room for a u turn at the bottom of the overflow box. This will at least limit the drain back to the top 4-5 inches of the tank and I know the sump will hold that.

 

I will need to find a check valve that is SW safe and I can run the vent tube up to the overflow in case of a check valve failure.

 

The stand is 24"x48. The tank is 24" deep with the overflow box.

[Justin MD]

I was able to pick up the acrylic rod today so I drilled a few holes and made some progress. I plan on drilling a couple more to make it stronger and easier to replicate. It's actually starting to take shape. It's looking less and less like a bunch of stacked rocks. The last picture is of the remaining rock I have available to use. And I have a bunch of rubble that will be used to cover the exposed outlets as best as possible.

 

Any other ideas of critics please chime in. I am open to all ideas.

 

The cardboard in the back is the same size as the back wall of the tank.

 

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These 4 pieces I have left over at the moment. Oh the possibilities.

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And a little video so you all can see a bit more angle. You can see in the video I balanced the tonga piece up top. I kinda like it. Might break the water surface too. But I'm ok with that.

http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Big_Jay_D/media/34g%20Solana/31E9E663-B54A-4986-98F8-FAAD29FB4471.mp4.html

 

 

[Justin MD]

After staring at the rock formation for a long time I decided that the lower shelf just look like a sore thumb. I like the idea of the lower shelf and the possibilities it provides but it just doesn't flow with the tower. So I decided to try to add my Tonga in a fashion that would break up the amount of protrusion by the shelf.

 

[jaynkeel]

Love it. Scratch building these island tanks is fun as hell. Oh the challenges. Take others advice though and worry about those lower return outlets during power outage. Electronic valve that shuts when power is cut always seemed the safest to me. I did a similar build a few years ago only setup in reverse. Still up and running today, but is being broken down for a rebuild. http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/312945-custom-65-gallon-pillar-system-build/

 

Following for sure.