Wendy's Old School Pico Reef

[Wendy]

7 hours ago, 748S911 said:

#2 the slope is cool and have a lot of ways to mount corals and stuff. 

Sure does!

5 hours ago, spectra said:

Agree with everyone on number 2............also could bust up the other rock and maybe try making something with the rubble.

 

I know when I made my scape it took a few runs with the rock to find something. Even in the end when I thought it was done I changed it..........

Picking your brain, what would you make with the rubble that would go with that big rock?

5 hours ago, minimal said:

I'd agree on #2!

 

With the corals you mentioned, this would look SWEET 🙌🏻

Thanks, I'll try my best (;

5 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

You will look at it more than anyone else. What do you like?

I really do like #2, but then I wonder if I have enough beneficial live rock in there!? I should probably just stop 2nd guessing that..

4 hours ago, Lostandfound said:

#2 with less sand. Be very conscious of livestock mounting space on both the rock and sand bed. Need the most area possible in these tiny tanks.

You think I should take some of the sand out? It's really only an inch...

4 hours ago, vlangel said:

I think scape 2 is perfect for zoas, acans and ricordia!

Awesome sauce!!!

4 hours ago, 748S911 said:

It reminds me of a pic I took in Cozumel with that slope. 

Love that scene, so beautiful!!!

 

I do believe the consensus is scape #2!

 

The little rock is covered in coralline, so I'll scrape some off before I take it back to the LFS -(;

[yoshii]

I also vote for scape #2!

 

You can scrub the coralline-covered rock in a container of SW then add than to your tank to get coralline growth jumpstarted

[Wendy]

The water cleared up well from filling it up yesterday.

Used my OLD little fishies magnet to clean up the glass a bit.

I put a piece of white corrogated plastic behind on one side of tank so that there's no background distraction.

Once I get my light mounted then it shouldn't be an issue.

 

The little rock IS coming out! 

We have family coming in for the weekend, so I won't get much done.

At least it'll be stewing...

[seabass]

I'm going against the consensus.  I kind of like the little rock better than the big one.  In fact, I might consider breaking up the big one (or chisel pieces off of it) to complement the little one.

 

I was thinking maybe take the left third off the big rock, and replace it with the smaller rock.  With a smaller, big rock, the sand bed will be more open, you'll maintain a taller piece, and you'll have more LR (as you were thinking you might want).  Maybe something like this:

 

[Wendy]

6 hours ago, seabass said:

I'm going against the consensus.  I kind of like the little rock better than the big one.  In fact, I might consider breaking up the big one (or chisel pieces off of it) to complement the little one.

 

I was thinking maybe take the left third off the big rock, and replace it with the smaller rock.  With a smaller, big rock, the sand bed will be more open, you'll maintain a taller piece, and you'll have more LR (as you were thinking you might want).  Maybe something like this:

 

Wow, that looks fantastic!!!

Doing that hadn't even crossed my mind, thank you!

 

With 2 rocks, 1 could be for zoas & the other for acans!

[Ratvan]

1 hour ago, Wendy said:

With 2 rocks, 1 could be for zoas & the other for acans!

That would look amazing 

[seabass]

A little canyon between the two often looks great (maybe an inch or two).  Especially if it looks like a natural split.  This would also give your corals a natural barrier from each other.

[ksadam]

I love that UN tank, I have a UN 1gal "planted" cube with shrimp. 

[Wendy]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

A little canyon between the two often looks great (maybe an inch or two).  Especially if it looks like a natural split.  This would also give your corals a natural barrier from each other.

So, I googled the canyon scape & saw so many amazing reef tanks with that scape! I also found this diagram...

Looking at the middle example..

Do you think it would look ok if the edges of the rocks at the canyon were more straight up? With the rock being chizzled down to size, it won't have a gradual climb back up.

 

28 minutes ago, ksadam said:

I love that UN tank, I have a UN 1gal "planted" cube with shrimp. 

Yes, this lil tank is very pretty!

I have a 5 gallon aqua from years ago & it's glass is very blue compared to the UNS. 

What does you planted shrimp cube took like? Picture please!

[seabass]

9 minutes ago, Wendy said:

Do you think it would look ok if the edges of the rocks at the canyon were more straight up?

I think it looks even better.  Kind of like a fault line.  Critters seem to like that kind of feature too.  Like I said, if the rocks line up really nice, pulling them apart a couple of inches is a really nice effect.

[Ratvan]

5 minutes ago, seabass said:

I think it looks even better.  Kind of like a fault line.  Critters seem to like that kind of feature too.  Like I said, if the rocks line up really nice, pulling them apart an inch or two is a really nice effect.

Exactly this. First image that came to my mind was an island shelf. As soon as I saw those images (and golden ratio) I wish I had done a couple of pillars of LR

[Wendy]

Just now, seabass said:

I think it looks even better.  Kind of like a fault line.  Critters seem to like that kind of feature too.  Like I said, if the rocks line up really nice, pulling them apart an inch or two is a really nice effect.

Ok, sounds good! I'll ponder on it a bit before I decide.

I really like the current shape of the big rock, so I'll have to amp myself up to chizzle on it!

 

Thanks for the suggestion, definitely gives something "different" to do!

[ksadam]

Here’s the cube as requested, it’s actually my 9yo tank and he picked what he wanted in it

[Wendy]

56 minutes ago, ksadam said:

Here’s the cube as requested, it’s actually my 9yo tank and he picked what he wanted in it

 

Awww, so cute & CLEAN!

What kind of shrimp did your 9yo choose?

 

I got the neighbor kids across the steet into aquariums. Gave them a 10 gallon & hob filter 2-3 years ago. They still have it going & the kids are still interested  (:

[ksadam]

Oh just some ghost shrimp, I do a outdoor summer tub every year and he caught the shrimp out of there and then put them in the cube. He only wanted one plant too 😂

[seabass]

3 minutes ago, ksadam said:

He only wanted one plant too

I like how simple and clean it looks.

[Wendy]

Over the weekend while observing the lil pico at night, I saw a few brittle starfish crawling on & sticking their legs out of crevices of the small rock.

 

With that knowledge I decided to be a bit adventurous, why not right!?!?!

Ummm... it DID NOT go as planned!!!

 

 

I was just trying to chizzle off a little bit of the big rock & it ended up breaking in half, ugg...

 

On another note, the gooseneck tablet mount arrived & I was able to get the Fluval nano set up. The fixture is working great for this little light!

 

The fluval nano is programmable with sunrise, day, sunset & night settings.

I cranked up just the blues to 100% & it made the little rock's coraline glow pink.

 

Also, you can see the blue pill bottle surface skimmer, I'm working on a different item that's clear.

Also, the heater will go into the ac50 as soon as I mod the media basket.

Just couldn't get much done over the weekend with family in town.

[kimdawg]

I never got a picture of my surface skimmer for you, sorry.  The one you made looks like it except my is longer, it goes down to the bottom of the tank.  I think yours looks great!  It should work just fine.

[Noah C Peterson]

I actually really dig the split scape look, happy accident maybe?? 

[Lostandfound]

[MetaTank]

@Wendy I hope you get the new clear skimmer figured out! Part of why mine doesn't run dry at full power on the AC50 is because it goes all the way to the bottom of the tank, so there is a larger volume of water available. Also, the square box I'm using appears to be wider than the pill container you have, so more available surface area for the water to be drawn into the box. But you said you have something clear in the works anyway, so eager to see what you come up with! 

 

If you wanted to run the filter at full power, I suggest maybe making a hole or two lower in your skimmer box, so some of the water is drawn from the middle of the water column, and the rest is skimmed off the surface. It may help if your skimmer box is running dry when the HOB is turned all the way up. And you could always plug the lower hole with a little piece of sponge or something to restrict the flow if it's drawing TOO much from the center water column, and not enough off the surface.

 

And fiddling around with the height on my skimmer box within the tank helps.

 

 

 

 

[Wendy]

1 hour ago, MetaTank said:

@Wendy I hope you get the new clear skimmer figured out! Part of why mine doesn't run dry at full power on the AC50 is because it goes all the way to the bottom of the tank, so there is a larger volume of water available. Also, the square box I'm using appears to be wider than the pill container you have, so more available surface area for the water to be drawn into the box. But you said you have something clear in the works anyway, so eager to see what you come up with! 

 

If you wanted to run the filter at full power, I suggest maybe making a hole or two lower in your skimmer box, so some of the water is drawn from the middle of the water column, and the rest is skimmed off the surface. It may help if your skimmer box is running dry when the HOB is turned all the way up. And you could always plug the lower hole with a little piece of sponge or something to restrict the flow if it's drawing TOO much from the center water column, and not enough off the surface.

 

And fiddling around with the height on my skimmer box within the tank helps.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the extra info! I did work on another skimmer box yesterday & it didn't work out either. It was bigger in diameter & taller... I kept cutting & burning & just royally jacked it up! 

The next one I'll make the teeth longer & then put holes further down if needed.

It would be nice to figure this out... My husband is attending college right now for electrical engineering & he was doing some math last night to help me figure out the linear flow length or something... bluhhh...

P.s. How do you do the @name?

 

[MetaTank]

2 hours ago, Wendy said:

Thanks for the extra info! I did work on another skimmer box yesterday & it didn't work out either. It was bigger in diameter & taller... I kept cutting & burning & just royally jacked it up! 

The next one I'll make the teeth longer & then put holes further down if needed.

It would be nice to figure this out... My husband is attending college right now for electrical engineering & he was doing some math last night to help me figure out the linear flow length or something... bluhhh...

P.s. How do you do the @name?

 

Just type @ and then the persons name

 

@MetaTank

@Wendy

[This guy is extra salty]

What kind of sand is that?

[Wendy]

@MetaTank Tank you!!!

 

@This guy is extra salty To be honest I'm not real sure what kind. It was sitting in a bucket, left over from my 46 I had taken down a few years ago. It's a larger grain & not so easily blown about by the current. In the past I've been known to make snow storms with the finer grain sand, which is irritating to me as well as the corals.