A Living Room Reef: 90 Gallon Mixed Reef Build

[biggles]

Sorry Troub i didn't realise you were waiting for the mortar, once you get that and can start cementing some solid base structures it will be a lot easier for you to tinker with shelf and outcrop ideas. Smashing up larger pieces is a good idea unless they are really cool shapes already. You can make a boulder into something special :thumbsup:
No probs keeping a few cleaners together along with a blood shrimp. I want to end up with 2 skunks and a blood but at $120 & $175 respectively i will be happy with my single skunk until i stop buying new corals - like that's ever going to happen :lol: Pretty sure you can get them much cheaper over your way though so go for it mate.
Those Black Ice Snowflake's look very cool, my little picasso isn't anything amazing but when i last kept a reef you only had percs and occy's available in the typical colors so to me his extra white color pattern is super cool and i was happy to pay $100 for him. How much are fish like black ice clowns ?
I don't think rics move as much as shrooms do but tbh i have no idea. That ric moved up and sideways about 1/4" when i stuck his rock where it now resides, there's a strong surge flow along the front wall and he was in low flow prior and at one point looked like he was going to blow off the rock lol. Took him about a week to settle and open in a round shape. I think you can get much more colorful versions there and i think you'd love a ric garden somewhere in your reef, they're a very pretty coral. Check out MedRed's tank journal as he has a beautiful mix of colorful corals and knows a thing or two about aquascaping - lots of inspirational eye candy there :thumbsup:

 

[Bello]

Troub, I've marked down what I like about the scape . Dunno if it will work for you though

Rics are always a good idea. If they spread, frag 'em and sell 'em :lol:

 

[raynist]

#1 is easily the best of those three.

I would go with that for sure.

 

[troubadour11]

Hi kain57reef and raynist, thanks for dropping in and the feedback!

Biggles: Thanks for pointing me towards some good inspiration. MedReds journal was pretty cool to check out! I've got a new balancing act for you all to see coming up in a few moments. That's a hefty price for those shrimp over there. I think I'd be more interested fish and corals then shrimp at those prices. I haven't seen the black ice snowflake clowns at the LFS's. Usually they have standard percs and occys ($15-35). Sometimes Picasso's at a little higher price ($30-55). I'm sure my usual store could order them for me. I see prices on black-ice snowflake occys that I can order off the web typically between $80-150. When it comes time, I may check if my LFS can order me a pair direct from ORA and see what their price is. I like them since they have the same extra white in the pattern that yours has, but I also like the thicker black outlines the black ice get. In the end though, any perc, occy, picasso with a cool pattern is what I think we're in for.

Bello: Thanks for taking the time to mark those photos for me. :thumbsup: The left circle in the top-down view pointed something out to me I hadn't been paying attention to lately that was really good about that layout. The footprint of the rocks over by the overflow was really cool. The mortar should be arriving sometime today. So I think I've got time for at least 1 more set up before I start making things a little more permanent.

And I think there will be some Ricordea's getting added to the potential coral stock list now. Things can always change along the way, but it's good to start getting things planned out as I get closer to getting it cycling! :rollface:

 

[troubadour11]

So I just finished some Jenga with about 80 lbs of rock! Does anyone have thoughts about this layout?

I kept the base arch structure on the right hand side. But redesigned the top of it a bit. In this layout, I tried using some of the prime cut to make some shelves and overhangs on the left and center. 1 to make a low raft at sand level, then 2 more of the flat pieces spiraled up the left pillar. Attempted a rock outcropping jutting out towards the center of the tank behind the arch.

In general, I tried to keep structures thinner with more outcroppings, overhangs, shelves, etc. Does having that prime cut piece floating (the one on the orange cup) look to artificial with the flat cut on the bottom like that? Should I break up one of the boulders I have left and put a piece that isn't cut flat in it's place? Or just don't worry about it, it will look good once there's life around it? Now for the pics :bounce3:

Front:

Top down:

Right 3/4:

Right Side:

Left 3/4:

Left Side:

 

[Bello]

Whoaaa.... that's some balancing act :lol:

I like the central and the right structures. If you could rearrange the top L on the left structure, probably add another smallish rock, it may work?

Don't worry about the flatness of the prime cut rocks, a cap, ric etc would cover it :thumbsup:

 

[troubadour11]

Okay! My Jenga rock tower fell down on me the other night. :facepalm: Luckily no damage to me or my house. You had to know it was coming! :lol:

Thanks for the feed back Bello. After the collapse, I re-stacked most of it the way I had it. I made a small alteration. I pulled one of the little overhang pieces I was going to attach to the right arch structure and added it to that middle column.

I think we are getting pretty happy with this layout. I expect to :hammer: bash apart 1 or 2 of the bigger boulder pieces I have leftover. When those break apart, I might get a few new pieces to play with. But in general it's starting to work. I just need to start sticking them together. The mortar is in, now I just need some time to get to building it. I need to make some rubble so I can then fill in around some of the joints and such. Maybe add a few small pieces for "natural variations", like one on that top left structure. And I'd like to make sure each structure is of a different height. It's bothering me slightly that they all feel about the same height in the tank.

Has anyone ever kept any pistol shrimp? A goby/shrimp pair may be a stocking option, and I wasn't sure on the depth of the sand bed needed for the shrimp? Can you get away with a 2 inch bed and have them thrive?

I was also curious about picking up a few ceramic tiles that I could mortar the rock bases to in order to make a stable/flat foot for stability of some of my structures... Good idea / bad idea???? :idea:

Anyway... here's the variation I think I'll be building my final scape off of unless I hear any ideas that send me back to the drawing board.?.?. Which would be ok if that's what it takes. :bigeyes: Anyone see any potential long term down falls in a design like this as a mixed reef grows in? Thanks a bunch for any feedback!

 

[Bello]

I expect to :hammer: bash apart 1 or 2 of the bigger boulder pieces I have leftover. When those break apart, I might get a few new pieces to play with. But in general it's starting to work. I just need to start sticking them together. The mortar is in, now I just need some time to get to building it. I need to make some rubble so I can then fill in around some of the joints and such. Maybe add a few small pieces for "natural variations", like one on that top left structure. And I'd like to make sure each structure is of a different height. It's bothering me slightly that they all feel about the same height in the tank.

That sounds like a plan, get the mortar in there, get it permanent.... Then, break of some of the remaining leftover, to add texture.... sort of iron out the sections that you may not like

I think with this scape you should be good to go. In any case, you always add more rock down the road if you need to :thumbsup:

I've never kept a pistol shrimp/goby pair, so can't help with that.

The ceramic tile idea is a good one, although, I'm not sure reef safety. Ideally, find someone on RC, who has done the same, and buy the EXACT tile. That should be ok. Another option is you can DIY your own tile, for complete safety. Look up DIY frag plugs/live rock, and extend the method :thumbsup:

 

[RIGUY314]

good luck with aqua-scaping. for what it's worth, I think Bello's suggestion on the rock is spot on and the last structure looks like a great place to start. If you don't mind, How do you like the Macro rocks? Were they easy to break and work with? are you also using Macro Rocks mortar? I just ordered some for a new build and would like some feedback on them. thanks in advance. by the way, nice looking build. tagging along for the ride.

 

[biggles]

Looking good Troub :thumbsup: nearly time to start sticking it all together mate. I use 10mm thick acrylic sheet glued under any rocks that aren't stable resting on the glass alone so there is always that option Troub and it's reef safe, that flubber rock on the right in my tank is attached to a 4" dia acrylic base to keep it sitting vertical. I just sliced the rock base flat with a grinder and used epoxy and super glue to attach it. I sliced grooves into both the acrylic and the rock so the glue could get a good hold. Just letting you know what worked for me
Keep the updates coming mate as it won't be long until that rock is wet :thumbsup:

 

[Bello]

+1 what Biggles said.... and thanks to that, I just, and I'm guessing you did too, realize that you could just use the prime cut pieces for your bases, if there are enough :lol:

 

[troubadour11]

good luck with aqua-scaping. for what it's worth, I think Bello's suggestion on the rock is spot on and the last structure looks like a great place to start. If you don't mind, How do you like the Macro rocks? Were they easy to break and work with? are you also using Macro Rocks mortar? I just ordered some for a new build and would like some feedback on them. thanks in advance. by the way, nice looking build. tagging along for the ride.

Hello, hello to RIGUY, thanks for jumping in with some feedback and tagging along! So far I'm really liking the Marco rocks. :thumbsup: I described the design I was hoping to accomplish in the comments section when I ordered. I don't know if it truly mattered or not, but I got some really good pieces right out of the box that would work well for my design goals. I haven't got around to mortaring anything together... yet. Hopefully this week/weekend maybe. I did order their 15 lbs mortar kit. After looking around at different options and reviews, I decided it looked like the best bang for my buck since I was starting with dry rock. The designs you've seen so far are just me re-scaping with the rocks straight out of the box. There hadn't been any chiseling yet. But last night I was home along with the doggy, and since you asked about the ease of breaking pieces up... I grabbed a few pieces for some hammer time :hammer:

- I chose this regular piece to try and break up. That's a big, really old screw driver I used in place of a chisel (since I don't have one). The goal was to break it up into hopefully 2-3 fist size chunks.

Here's the results... Not a failure.

- I got 1 good solid core piece left (it had some cool tunnel work and old skeleton I tried to keep, top left). Then I got 1 great organic piece that will be usefull to fill in the base design, top right. I was hoping to keep the bottom 2 pieces as one, but it cracked in 1/2 while I was chiseling it off (can always cement it back together) but they'll be useful pieces too. Total hammer swings, I'd say about 15-30 solid taps per piece to get all of them... Pretty easy. I'm sure with lighter taps, a chisel, and more planning you could sculpt out some organic shapes fairly easily.

I also tried to break up a piece of their prime cuts. Not a failure, but not as successful with the hammer and screw driver chisel. It broke up fine, but it was difficult to chop off large chunks. I got a lot more fracturing into smaller pieces then I would have preferred. But then again, the 1 really good piece I was trying to get out of it, I dropped and shattered into 3 :angryfire: But I was going for smaller pieces I can fill in with, I got some cool shapes I can use, so it's still a success in my book. I'm still expecting to break apart at least 1 more boulder to get some more rubble and a few smaller pieces.

Biggles: that's cool to know the grooved acrylic, super glue, and rock worked well. I can go that route if needed. Thanks for the tip :wave:

Bello: Tying into that note... yes, I did think about using the prime cuts as my base pieces. At the time, I was going with the DSB in the display which would mean I'd have to build about 3.5 inch risers to lift the flat cuts up anyway. So I thought, why not just use the big rocks on the base. Now, after chatting about it with the wife, I think we're leaning more and more towards 2 inch display and DSB in the fuge. She said "why take up all that room with a 4 inch bed all for 1 or 2 shrimp that are about 2 inches combined. I think I'd rather have more room for corals/fish and give up that 1 animal." And as I pointed out, we can always add to the bed over time if we decide. Still more :reading: into the pistol shrimp pair with a 2 inch bed. It might work with a prime cut raised up to the top of the sand bed. The shrimp/goby could tunnel under the flat rock and it wouldn't collapse all the time... maybe... :reading: And now I've only got 1 piece of prime cut left that isn't already in the design after the hammer session last night. I will probably attempt to break that up as well and see what I get from it. It's to big to fit in anywhere as is.

Next up: :hammer: hammer time 1 more boulder and that leftover prime cut to see what I get... and at the same time start cementing the big archway piece on the right. Got to get all this rock nailed down so I can work towards getting it all wet!!! :celeb3:

 

[RIGUY314]

thanks for the information. looking forward to working with it.

 

[Bello]

How's it going Troub? Done with the scape?

Been taking a bit of break with the tank, went overboard :lol:, got the flu etc...

Looks like biggles's been pretty quiet too

 

[troubadour11]

How's it going Troub? Done with the scape?

Been taking a bit of break with the tank, went overboard :lol:, got the flu etc...

Looks like biggles's been pretty quiet too

Hey, hey. Funny you mention it just now. I finished up a job contract last Fri. So I was really busy all last week hitting the delivery. Then I had a busy weekend getting some much needed house work done & going out for fun :beer:

Now I'm on some downtime & ready to get some tank work done! I was just sitting down to mortar some rocks together right now I should have some updates & maybe plumbing questions quite soon...

 

[biggles]

Hey guys, nothing new my end except i'm actually coming down with the flu - obviously Bello gave it to me somehow.........:thumbdown
Looking forward to seeing some bogged up rock work Troub and a wet tank cycling soon :thumbsup:

 

[Bello]

So you done yet, Troub? Pics? I don't know why I'm being pushy, I'm feeling too lazy to post what I've been upto :lol:

Hmmm, biggles, maybe I shoulda EMAILED you the flu virus :ape:?... Too bad about the flu though, hope you get up and running soon :thumbsup:

 

[troubadour11]

Ok, ok. Here, I'll try to put up some "work in progress" pics to satisfy you for now ;-) I'm doing this all from my phone so be kind if it doesn't work well. Hehehe. The Mrs. has the computer off at work today.

- 2 chiseled prime cut feet cemented to a prime cut base. This will sit in front of the overflow at sand level. More to come on it. But I raised the bottom up 1 and 3/4 inch so it should sit just below the 2 inch sand bed. Maybe a burrow spot for pistol/shrimp pair.

Ahhh, I can't get the pic to attach through my phone. I guess you'll have to wait till I get my laptop back. Well there is a text base teaser of what im working on. LOL

 

[Bello]

Well there is a text base teaser of what im working on. LOL

Troub, you do realize that in these days of the internet, one seeks instant gratification via pics and refuses to use one's imagination in interpreting a text description of said item? :ape:

j/k I got it, sounds good :thumbsup:, though pics are always appreciated. Hope you get some stuff done over the weekend, and you're a lucky guy, that your Mrs. understands, and is even interested :thumbsup:

 

[troubadour11]

Ok... here's the pictures I was trying to put up yesterday. They are now a little out of date though as I've continued to add to it.

Here's the one I described in my last post:

Starting to work on a tower with shelves for the left hand side of the tank around the overflow. Got a foot attached for balance and starting to build upwards. You can see the back side of the last photo drying behind it:

Starting to build the arch off a pillar for the right hand side of the tank:

Building upwards off the back corner of the arch. It's tough to see depth, but I tried to build a terrace with each piece. Putting an overhang or little pocket cave under each shelf spiraling up the pillar.

Another angle of this piece. You can see one or two of the little overhangs a little better here.

Here's a bit more of a close up on the mortar joints for that arch tower.

And as I said, some of these are now out of date. I'll be building more today :thumbsup: