OK a 65 G Slowly but the best i can make it

[Jeremy0322]

The duck made me jealous...and really hungry...

[Basile]

Originally Posted by Jeremy0322

The duck made me jealous...and really hungry...

Lol , well last nigh to cheer me up because of my bad day i had ; i ate wild boar. But i have no pics, my cam is shot. Will have to borrow my buddy's. So no pics for a few day sorry about that, but its a bit better today, i placed the sculpture in the tank and its cool. I need more rock however to continue, got to wait a few days.

[lcstorc]

See, I told you it would be good.
You might want to check out this thread.
System Design
It sounds somewhat similar so you might be able to trade ideas.

[ReefLady]

Wow, I haven't seen this thread before. Very nice! 45 days in the city then 45 days at home? You're going to have to set up a webcam so you can watch this tank from your job. ;-)
It's going to be beautifu ~ love the thread; can't wait to see it all come together.

[Basile]

Originally Posted by ReefLady

Wow, I haven't seen this thread before. Very nice! 45 days in the city then 45 days at home? You're going to have to set up a webcam so you can watch this tank from your job. ;-)
It's going to be beautifu ~ love the thread; can't wait to see it all come together.

Actually, its 45 days at work; on a ship and then its 45 days at home paid vacation. So i work, 6 months and paid 12 months.Another words i get 6 months paid vacation each year.I have a friend who come every second day feeding my tanks, and doing my test every week. and a water change every week, on one of the other tank, so every 2 weeks kinda, for each 2 tanks now, it will be 3 tanks after this ones finish.We'll work out a schedule for the third water change. My parameters are very good. Max nitrates get to 10, or 20 if the water change is every month. The rest are at 0 ppm.

[Basile]

Originally Posted by lcstorc

See, I told you it would be good.
You might want to check out this thread.
System Design
It sounds somewhat similar so you might be able to trade ideas.

Thanks Lynn just connected, he seem to be going where i'm going lol.

I'm also, contemplating hooking my return pump to one of my structure, This one; you see the top pipe, that would be the connection pipe and would fill and create a flow throughout the network and behind the panel as well. Course it wont be a full panel but a flat one, with a space behind the tank wall and the structure.



And the space between the wall and sculpture





I just have to drill holes in there. teri is concern about the holes clogging up with detritus. I'm not convinces yet. Its true when i clean the tube from my return pump of my biocube its a bit gritty, but not bloked. And it would be lots of holes in there, plus the second and third pipe( the one on the left, not installed yet) would be without caps so thats 3 possible hole for the water to escape. What do you think?

[Basile]

By the way i'm working on a little surprise for everyone. Something i only saw once in all the threads i've seen. Its about sculpting rocks, thats all i'm saying hihi.

[Jeremy0322]

uh oh

[Basile]

Originally Posted by fishkisser
Several thoughts:
Have you researched whether or not the rain bucket will leach harmful chemicals into tank? IF YOU HAVE PLEASE TELL ME WHERE YOU GO TO DO SO! I need to do my homework!

I would get a handle on what actual corals weigh, add to that a growth factor and currents and hang equal weights off of the rods. Obviously my concern is that the shear and lever forces will be too great for the support structure.

Will you be able to remove the whole structure? What happens if you get a hitchiker that refuses to be trapped or caught and is detremental to other tank inhabitants?

You and I are certainly on the same page re: open sand bed surface area. My setup is probably going to be overkill with 2 fuges, 1 sump and sandbeds in fuges and main tank. One fuge for macro algae scrubber, other fuge for plankton/micro fauna habitat.

On your first tank: did you ever identify source of nitrate buildup every 45 days?

keep going sir, your quest is a noble one!!

By the way: what is the ID of that BLACK coral with what looks like whiskers???

The rain water tank is the same as a rubbermaid tank, no leaching chemical, lots are used by the pros on this site. You'll see them on their threads.

As for the weight of corals you got me, but what i can tel you now, is this sucker weighs a lot! So those branches aren't going anywhere lol. And the faom has really stabilised the hole structure. Its one big piece now. What i was worried about is the accrylic rods bending. But with the rocks and foam i got on the rods now ; there's hardly any weight on them. please note that i'll be starting most of my corals from small frags and let them grow. So the addition of rock will be minimal;especialy on the branches end.Thats where most of the small SPS frag will go actually.

In my other tank a usually cought hitchiker really easy. But here there wont be any. Hitchiker come from live rock; and i wont use any. And i never had problem removing what i saw. And no that structute will be there for EVER ! LOL. I don't intend to redo this every year or so, lol.

The nitrate question, well i was gone for 45 days and with no water change, it whent up. It come from feeding, the bioload and all. When you do water change you remove the nitrates from your water. And yours will come from the same source, food and fish excrements lol. No mistery there. Thanks for your message, lets connect on are threads, these question can also be beneficial to others, agreed? How do you plan to hook up your pipes to your sculpture.

[Basile]

Originally Posted by Jeremy0322

uh oh

Ya, its a risky thing but whats life without a bit of risk. it will be the last thing i show on the thread, probably because its the last thing to be done lol

[ReefLady]

Okay, I have a couple questions..sorry if I'm a little behind here.

Help me understand the concern with sand surface area. Why is the goal to increase this? What is the purpose? Let me know what I'm missing here.

Second, - why 2 fuges?

One fuge for macro algae scrubber, other fuge for plankton/micro fauna habitat.

Your macro algae "scrubber" can also be a home for plankton/microfauna. I don't get the need to separate?

In my other tank a usually cought hitchiker really easy. But here there wont be any. Hitchiker come from live rock; and i wont use any.

No live rock?? Huh? And you'd be surprised what can "hitch" in on corals and other stuff you buy & put in the tank.

I guess my fundamental concern is with not having the base structure sealed off. I'm pretty positive any holes will clog (if they're big enough not to clog, then water is just going to run out the holes and not flow through), and I think they'd also be a "trap" for not only hitchhikers, but accumulated detritus, etc. Just brings to mind thoughts of all the problems of the old UGF's.
The no live rock thing, I am not understanding.

[Basile]

Originally Posted by ReefLady

Okay, I have a couple questions..sorry if I'm a little behind here.

Help me understand the concern with sand surface area. Why is the goal to increase this? What is the purpose? Let me know what I'm missing here.

Second, - why 2 fuges?

Your macro algae "scrubber" can also be a home for plankton/microfauna. I don't get the need to separate?



No live rock?? Huh? And you'd be surprised what can "hitch" in on corals and other stuff you buy & put in the tank.

I guess my fundamental concern is with not having the base structure sealed off. I'm pretty positive any holes will clog (if they're big enough not to clog, then water is just going to run out the holes and not flow through), and I think they'd also be a "trap" for not only hitchhikers, but accumulated detritus, etc. Just brings to mind thoughts of all the problems of the old UGF's.
The no live rock thing, I am not understanding.

Ok , that post is a message i received from fishkisser, and he asked me to post it here.

-The 2 sump thing, is his brainchild lol.No ideals on that one.

-The sand surface thing is; if its the same as me is, i think its about not having rocks touching the sand by having flow underneath the rocks.

- The hitchickers ; well like i said my frag will be small bits, i want to start them small so they take the shape or fill the gaps properly according to growth, so i wont be buying large pieces on rock.

- The no LR, is that i'm starting from dry rock instead of LR. So since its dry i don't foresee any hitchikers either. And he was hinting i would have to take out my rocks to get rid of undesirables.....

- The Hole thing HA! well thats me lol. I understand they'll be some clogging of some holes, that much is certain. But in the entire sculpture i'm not conviced and 3 of the hole are big, the ends of the pvc tube that is. On may be clogged after maybe a year, but all 3. And i can always reach and put my scrubber i use to clean my tube in the biocube 29g. so i'm not really affraid of that.How ever i'd like you to explain to me what are your reserve of putting holes in the structure and your suggestions. thank.You can see my desing up there, with the primary hole on top where it would be hooked on the return pump an exit via many little hole throughout the structure and 2 major hole.The main ideal behin this strategy is the concern that Lyn had about stagnant water in the pipes. Using them for the return water seem to be an ideal to make use of the return water.

[Basile]

Ya! thats what it looks like in the tank. Still missing the last 2 branches. But you get the general ideal. Still have to coat it with resin and add crush coral on the foam and cure. I have to start the second structure because i can't put the last branches of the first one until the second sculpture is finished. Long story short its not finished.







Like i said its not exactly what i was going for but, its my first. I got the ideal of starting all over again lol.



You can see here; the base will be mostly invisible; 1 inch down from the base will be the sand.Lots of space for water flow and critters crawling to clean.

[Basile]

The top details, hopefully the crush coral will take care of the plastic look lol. Ya right...








Here you can see the second structure, will do some mods a bit to accomodate more rocks, but the look will be the same.





The eggcrate will be shaped to follow the rock work so it won't be the hole panel. Of course that would solve my rock Lb problem in one shot.One thing i found out about the foam ; it doens't do what you want it to do lol. It explode and fills really fast. And if you try to shape it , it looses its filling propreties all together so you have to add more to get the filling part again. so you can't shape it.Thats what i tried to do and didn't work. The other thing; use gloves. That thing is like liquid plastic, it sticks like hot candy. But again i wanted to use that to my advantage, and stick some more smaller rock to the spots with lots of foam. No, don't work either; its sticks but don't hold anything. It however solidifies the hole structure into one, no more moving. So its solid .For those worried about tipping over, no chance of that. Even with the rest of the branches to come, no sir its very sturdy?? i think is the word.If you have any other question about how things whent, just chime in. I'm trying to make an accurate description of what you'll face and what are the limitation with this approach. So if you have specific, shoot.

[Willie McDaries]

Basile,Its looking great