30gal Hex Rebuild

[lemures-ex]

I have a 30 hex up and running right now but it's a bit sparse. I plan on drilling it, painting the stand, making a hood and lighting and doing some major rock work.

For the rocks I am going to make a framework of PVC or acryllic and attach the rocks with epoxy to form and arch or two, a freestanding tower that will branch off a bit, and a lot of small branches using Tonga branch.

My favourite part (most of the idea came from my girlfriend) will be the night time spot lighting. I plan to take some acryllic rod ( 1/4" or so) and heat/bend it so that it will be pointing where I want and then I will paint it black and use it to pipe LED light to certain areas. I will have 4-5 rods running down the back of the tank behind the rocks and they will only be visible where they bend out to light an area. I can also shape the tip of the rod so that I can adjust the dispersion of the LED spot.

In the end I will have my Goby/Pistol combo and a couple of clowns and whatever else I think will go well, plus the obligatory cleaning crew and hopefully a lot of lettuce slugs because the 2 that I have are laying eggs like crazy. For coral I want Xenia and Sun Coral and other such softies.

I am probably going to move the fish to the temp tank (the current refugium ) today and start on the project so I will have photos soon.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jared

 

[lemures-ex]

Here are some before photos.

The ugly tank:

The three back panels will be painted black and the rock structure will go almost to the top and be against the back pane. The light pipes for the LED spot lighting will be run behind the rocks and I will somehow seal the back area off so no fish can't hide in there. I havn't figured that one out yet.

Tank and stand:

Stand will be black as will the canopy that I am going to build. The lighting will be Actinic and whatever daylight bulbs I find to produce the best color.

My homemade weir:

I'm proud of this but it must go! It will be replaced by a bulkhead and a small overflow box around the bulkhead. The return will be via a PVC "ring" inside the canopy with a couple of downpipes to minimize visible plumbing in the tank.

Just for good measure, a shot of the current inside:

The rock structure will be built in a manner similar to Marc's DIY 900 gallon (see links below) only I'll use epoxy for the rocks.

Marc's tank: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=686757

PVC framing:

Again, any suggestions would be great!

Jared

 

[lemures-ex]

BTW the walls aren't quite that yellow. The white balance for the flourescents oversaturated the walls a lot but they are still very yellow and they make an ugly tint in the tanks. That is the reason for painting the back panels. I will try to isolate the tank from the yellow walls as best I can.