A very large aquarium in a very small condo!

[Newbie Aquarist]

Thing are progressing slowly.
Finished the two holes for the exhaust vents, inserted the lovers and used expanding foam to seal up the openings around the louvers.
We have now started to line the walls with ¾" marine grade plywood. The plywood will be stained & coated with DD varnish. DD varnish is a two part varnish that holds up well in a moist environment. This plywood will make installing lights, pluming & hardware in the hood much easier.

I'm using a Sony Alpha NEX Cameras to take my pictures. I keep getting these two toned pictures. Does anyone know why & how to stop it from happing?

Can anyone recommend a good camera for taking nice aquarium pictures? I'm not really into photography that much. What I'm looking for is a camera that takes great auto everything pictures, if it exists!

I have heard the Nikon 3100, 5100 or the 7000 is good depending on your budget. They even come with a kit with camera and lens. You can also use sony SLT A37, A57 or A65 depending on the budget.

 

[captngreg]

There has been some progress.
Finished the exhaust vents.
Finished putting the plywood up on the ceiling & walls. The plywood has been stained and two coats of two part DD varnish have been applied. The end panel that will be placed next to the glass wall will not be added until the tank is in its final position.
The tank will remain on its wheels until the lights and exhaust fans are wired.
I have also painted the wall behind the tank. I started with a can of white paint with a little bit of dark blue added, as I painted the wall, starting from the top, I kept adding more blue. It's hard to see in the photo, but the blue background progressively gets darker as you move down. I tried to simulate the way water changes color with depth.

We are also installing two overflows, one on each end of the tank. The piping to the overflow along with the discharge from the filters will be covered by black acrylic which egg crate has been siliconed to it, then a veneer of cement & thinly cut base rock will be applied

 

[captngreg]

Newbie Aquarist

I have heard the Nikon 3100, 5100 or the 7000 is good depending on your budget. They even come with a kit with camera and lens. You can also use sony SLT A37, A57 or A65 depending on the budget.

Thanks for the recommendations, I leaning towards the Sony A65

 

[captngreg]

Spirofucci

El Capitan! What a great build thread! I like how you documented your philosophy first and then the build. Very interesting so far!!

deepblue68

awesome build. good luck with everything!

Geraud

Beautiful build! And congratulations on not letting administration problems stop you from creating this work!

Thank you for the kind words and encouragement.

captngreg

 

[captngreg]

I'm doing a little upgrade on the mangrove refugium.

I ordered a dozen acrylic boxes to replant my mangroves from a new acrylic manufacture. They arrived a few days ago. I wanted to repot the mangroves for two reasons.

My mangroves where original planted in plastic food containers that have started to disintegrate.

Secondary, I wanted to get a firsthand look at the quality of this new acrylic manufacture's work, before I ordered another two sump-refugium-filter boxes, to replace the first two that leaked and where poorly constructed.


The old plastic food containers;

I'm transplanting the mangroves in to their new containers.
The containers appear to be well constructed and look quite professional. I feel confident that this new manufacture will be up to the task of building my new sump-refugium-filter boxes.

Old refugium;

New refugium:

I'm using an Ehime pump to keep the saltwater circulating in the mangrove refugium until I can reconnect it to the new tank.

 

[Hypsophrys]

Really like the sunlit Mangrove setup. Have you considered linking an RODI mister system into your ATO to keep the leaves clean? I've thought about doing this, but I use Kalk ATO. However I might do a seperate reservoir dedicated to the mangroves, but with the pump running on the same float switch(es) as the ATO.

 

[captngreg]

Hypsophrys

Really like the sunlit Mangrove setup. Have you considered linking an RODI mister system into your ATO to keep the leaves clean? I've thought about doing this, but I use Kalk ATO. However I might do a seperate reservoir dedicated to the mangroves, but with the pump running on the same float switch(es) as the ATO.

I thought about a mister system but decided against it. I only have 12 plants, and could not come up with a design that looked pleasant & would not spray water on the porch or over the banister. It never rains on the coast of Peru but we do get occasional heavy fog that seems to do a pretty good job of keeping the leaves clean. When that's not enough All I do is spray the leaves with a spray bottle containing RO water & wipe them off. I'm happy you liked the setup. I would highly recommend it to anyone who lives in location where it is possible to grow mangroves using natural sunlight. My plants are still quite young, but I have notice the leaves appear to grow much closer together. Than mangroves grown under artificial lighting.

 

[the real fishman]

wow this is a great project. great work so far. love the outdoor mangrove refug. good luck with the rest of the project. will tag along to see how it goes

 

[texasrainman]

I like this build.

A lot of planning (proper planning) goes a long way.
I'm with the rest, I like the separate mangrove fuge.

 

[Hypsophrys]

Hypsophrys

I thought about a mister system but decided against it. I only have 12 plants, and could not come up with a design that looked pleasant & would not spray water on the porch or over the banister. It never rains on the coast of Peru but we do get occasional heavy fog that seems to do a pretty good job of keeping the leaves clean. When that's not enough All I do is spray the leaves with a spray bottle containing RO water & wipe them off. I'm happy you liked the setup. I would highly recommend it to anyone who lives in location where it is possible to grow mangroves using natural sunlight. My plants are still quite young, but I have notice the leaves appear to grow much closer together. Than mangroves grown under artificial lighting.

Thanks, good info. I've seen some amazing documentaries about that fog/mist and how much of the life in the Atacama depends on it.

 

[Lpabsolute]

Wow

 

[captngreg]

Rock work !!!!!
This is the part of the build I fear the most!
How could I ever aquascape a tank that would even come close to the likes of chingchai's tank?
chingchai Have you ever thought about a vacation on the Peruvian seashore? Hint Hint!!! LOL
I had to solve a few problems right from the start. Here in Peru we do not have accesses to live rock. I can't import it due to the time it would take to get it through customs. It took three week to clear my new bulkhead fittings and over two months to clear the shipment of sand & salt! That being said I found a supply of dry rock that is used here for construction & embellishing facades. It is mined from an ancient coral reef in the north of Peru. The most pores light rock come in rather large boulders, sometimes weighing in at between 50 to 100 lbs each. The only solution is to cut this rock up.

 

[Ldagger]

sweet pic, got to love big power tools running.

 

[tson]

I see a lot of pumps will they create a lot of noise? I have 2 pumps on my small tank and it is very noisy and can't sleep in the same room.

 

[captngreg]

tson

I see a lot of pumps will they create a lot of noise? I have 2 pumps on my small tank and it is very noisy and can't sleep in the same room.

Should not be a problem. The Dolphin pumps I am using are extremely quite.

 

[captngreg]

I'm under the gun!
In just three days I have to go back to sea!
In the three days I have left, I need to finish the rock work & water test the tank!
I'm starting the aquascaping with four ¼" black acrylic sheets 24" by 24", with a hole drilled in the middle.

Next I'm silicon sheets of egg create to the acrylic. This allows me to cement the base rock in place & will also protect the bottom glass from any pressure points from the rock work.

I have built a work table that is as wide as the aquarium and has two hole drilled in the table that will except 1" & ½ bulkhead fittings. These fittings are spaced the same distant apart as the closed loop outlets in the tank.

I can use this work table to experiment with rock design & pluming placement before moving to the finial construction stage inside the aquarium.
Each of the four closed loop outlets will have four 3/4" induction nozzles that need to be hidden inside the rock work.

 

[roczero]

Great build. Love all the pictures. I lived in Lima, Peru myself and met my wife there. And we actually just got back from a long trip there a couple weeks ago. Have family in the Pachacamac area which cant be too far from you.

 

[ccuk]

great build subscribed ...
stew

 

[captngreg]

roczero

Great build. Love all the pictures. I lived in Lima, Peru myself and met my wife there. And we actually just got back from a long trip there a couple weeks ago. Have family in the Pachacamac area which cant be too far from you.

Next time you are in Peru PM me. I'm in Naplo

Captngreg


ccuk

great build subscribed ...
stew

Stew I happy to have you along for the ride.

 

[captngreg]

Just one more day before I have to head back to work
Times is running out:headwally:
I want to get the rock work in place & the tank freshwater tested before I head back to the ship.
I will be using special cement "œ Emaco S88 CI "œ to attach the rocks when ever epoxy is not suitable. This cement has fibers so it extremely strong and can be applied quite thinly without cracking. I mix the Emaco S88 with Tropic Eden Reeflakes Aragonite Sand to make the mortar.

My living room is full of rock :worried:

My aquarium is going to have a deep sand bed. I like DSB because they produce a lot of live food for the corals & I plan on keeping several species fish that either sleep or burrow in the sand.

I'm using the square rock that where cut from the middle of the large dry rock as a base. This part of the rock work will be covered by the sand and will give me a stable platform to build the rest of the rock work on.

Trying to get this rock to hide the piping & inductors is not working out as I hoped !:headwalls:

This does not look like what I was thinking of. !:spin1:

This was my inspiration.
This is what I had in mind.

This not what I have !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!