Aadler
New member
So I have not been happy with my 40g Oceanic Hex, It is my main reef tank. I had a 50g tub/sump in the basement along with a 40g breeder DSB/mangrove tank, a 15g tidepool that I ran as my sump, along with a 72g bowfront display, with one or two coral in it, mostly just fish.
This was my old reef/display:
For the last few weeks I have ripped apart my whole system. Bought a 75g from TJ and replaced the 50g tub with it, rebuilt my stand, cleaning out the 40g breeder DSB for a 20L DSB and turned the 40 breeder into a holding tank for the 40g Hex.
The bowfront has been the same this whole period, added the wrasse I had upstairs to it, and put the mandarin in the 40g breeder for the time being.
Well my whole reasoning behind this was I wanted a more natural looking reef. I don't like the pile of rocks look too much, and that is what you are largely limited too. I have in the past, recent and distant read about agrocrete rocks, and some people have done some nice things with them, however, mostly they make their own rocks to pile up.. with a little better success in some cases, but the whole thing looks like a headache to me.
So I ended up with foam/rock walls.
A few months back I gave it a try with a minibow 7 and made a background for that, while I never set the tank up, I was pretty happy with how it turned out and decided I may be able to do my 40g this way.
A few weeks ago I decided it was time, I wasn't happy with my current set up any longer and that was that. (I have a history of rash decisions, reef tanks came from one snorkel trip on the pacific coast of Mexico. and being unhappy with the unnatural look of my tank came from all the time spent in Hawaii this summer snorkeling.
Now that I have everything ripped up I have started to make some headway.
I added a glass box to the outside of my tank (previously I had a durso IN the tank (behind a overflow box), now I am going to have a siphon on one drain line and a backup drain hoping to make things silent. (my sump et al are in the basement, reef is 1st floor).
Here is the process I have following so far:
Emptied everything out, man catching a wrasse is hard even in an empty tank they hide in the sand so fast!
Cut eggcrate from HD to size to fit in the back of the tank, and around my now much slimmer internal overflow box (1.5" deep now was 3.5" deep).
One thing I may have done differently than other people, is I have access to a 10" skill saw with a diamond blade so I was able to cut a few rocks in half so they would lay right up tight on the eggcrate! This is very cool way of doing things and saving on the # of rocks you need!
This was my old reef/display:
For the last few weeks I have ripped apart my whole system. Bought a 75g from TJ and replaced the 50g tub with it, rebuilt my stand, cleaning out the 40g breeder DSB for a 20L DSB and turned the 40 breeder into a holding tank for the 40g Hex.
The bowfront has been the same this whole period, added the wrasse I had upstairs to it, and put the mandarin in the 40g breeder for the time being.
Well my whole reasoning behind this was I wanted a more natural looking reef. I don't like the pile of rocks look too much, and that is what you are largely limited too. I have in the past, recent and distant read about agrocrete rocks, and some people have done some nice things with them, however, mostly they make their own rocks to pile up.. with a little better success in some cases, but the whole thing looks like a headache to me.
So I ended up with foam/rock walls.
A few months back I gave it a try with a minibow 7 and made a background for that, while I never set the tank up, I was pretty happy with how it turned out and decided I may be able to do my 40g this way.
A few weeks ago I decided it was time, I wasn't happy with my current set up any longer and that was that. (I have a history of rash decisions, reef tanks came from one snorkel trip on the pacific coast of Mexico. and being unhappy with the unnatural look of my tank came from all the time spent in Hawaii this summer snorkeling.
Now that I have everything ripped up I have started to make some headway.
I added a glass box to the outside of my tank (previously I had a durso IN the tank (behind a overflow box), now I am going to have a siphon on one drain line and a backup drain hoping to make things silent. (my sump et al are in the basement, reef is 1st floor).
Here is the process I have following so far:
Emptied everything out, man catching a wrasse is hard even in an empty tank they hide in the sand so fast!
Cut eggcrate from HD to size to fit in the back of the tank, and around my now much slimmer internal overflow box (1.5" deep now was 3.5" deep).
One thing I may have done differently than other people, is I have access to a 10" skill saw with a diamond blade so I was able to cut a few rocks in half so they would lay right up tight on the eggcrate! This is very cool way of doing things and saving on the # of rocks you need!
