animalkingdom
New member
Nice peninsula tank and good planning!
Just another SPS tank
- Thread starter kien
- Start date
Thanks everyone! I appreciate the encouragement 
Okay, next up, aquascaping!
I decided to break up my aquascaping into 3 sections. Each section would be aquascaped in a fashion that I saw appealing from other examples and my past history with rock work. It ends up being a little bit of a mash up but I liked the end result.
The first grouping, closest to the overflow is a stacking of rocks with bridges and caves. I call them, "the Caves". However, I didn't want to just stack the rocks like I did in the past. For one, I never did like the idea of putting live rock right on the glass. I know its fine and everyone else does it but i'm paranoid like that. I also wanted to stand the base rock up in more interesting stances rather than relying on their widest most stable side. Okay.. so how to do that? First I needed an anchoring system for my base rocks. What I came up with was the use of acrylic frag plugs, plugged into the bottom of the rocks, with the acrylic plugs glued to a sheet of acrylic that would sit on the glass. What I needed to do first was to make a some what level surface for my frag plugs. I simply rolled the rock around until I decided on which part of the rock I wanted to sit on the ground. If that part of the rock wasn't perfectly flat, I just took a chisel and made it flat(er). I used an acrylic sheet to test for flatness as I chiseld away.
Once I was happy with its flatness I choose 3 points where the frag plugs would go and proceeded to drill the holes for the frag plugs.
Note: If you ever try drill live rock, take it slow! Start out with a smallish pilot hole, then work your way up to your final hole size/drill bit. If you start off with your largest bit right away chances are you will end up fragging your live rock.
Once the hole was drilled I tested the hole to make sure it fit my frag plug snuggly.
Then I proceeded to do the remaining holes. Once all of my holes were drilled and plugged with the frag plugs, I lined up the acrylic sheet again to make sure it was still level/flat. It wasn't so I simply made some holes bigger and and filled them with epoxy to straighten the plug. At this point the plugs simply sit into the holes, they are not secured in the holes in any way. I wanted to be able to place the rock onto the plugs later after I had put the acrylic base sheet into the tank first.
..
Once I was happy with the fit I put gel glue (loclite from home depot) onto each of the frag plugs and place the entire structure onto the acrylic sheet where I wanted it.
I had to hold it in place for a few seconds to let the glue dry enough so that I could then lift the rock up from the frag plugs, leaving the frag plugs behind.
Okay, next up, aquascaping!
I decided to break up my aquascaping into 3 sections. Each section would be aquascaped in a fashion that I saw appealing from other examples and my past history with rock work. It ends up being a little bit of a mash up but I liked the end result.
The first grouping, closest to the overflow is a stacking of rocks with bridges and caves. I call them, "the Caves". However, I didn't want to just stack the rocks like I did in the past. For one, I never did like the idea of putting live rock right on the glass. I know its fine and everyone else does it but i'm paranoid like that. I also wanted to stand the base rock up in more interesting stances rather than relying on their widest most stable side. Okay.. so how to do that? First I needed an anchoring system for my base rocks. What I came up with was the use of acrylic frag plugs, plugged into the bottom of the rocks, with the acrylic plugs glued to a sheet of acrylic that would sit on the glass. What I needed to do first was to make a some what level surface for my frag plugs. I simply rolled the rock around until I decided on which part of the rock I wanted to sit on the ground. If that part of the rock wasn't perfectly flat, I just took a chisel and made it flat(er). I used an acrylic sheet to test for flatness as I chiseld away.
Once I was happy with its flatness I choose 3 points where the frag plugs would go and proceeded to drill the holes for the frag plugs.
Note: If you ever try drill live rock, take it slow! Start out with a smallish pilot hole, then work your way up to your final hole size/drill bit. If you start off with your largest bit right away chances are you will end up fragging your live rock.
Once the hole was drilled I tested the hole to make sure it fit my frag plug snuggly.
Then I proceeded to do the remaining holes. Once all of my holes were drilled and plugged with the frag plugs, I lined up the acrylic sheet again to make sure it was still level/flat. It wasn't so I simply made some holes bigger and and filled them with epoxy to straighten the plug. At this point the plugs simply sit into the holes, they are not secured in the holes in any way. I wanted to be able to place the rock onto the plugs later after I had put the acrylic base sheet into the tank first.
Once I was happy with the fit I put gel glue (loclite from home depot) onto each of the frag plugs and place the entire structure onto the acrylic sheet where I wanted it.
I had to hold it in place for a few seconds to let the glue dry enough so that I could then lift the rock up from the frag plugs, leaving the frag plugs behind.
I repeated the whole process for the 4 legs of my main support legs for the Caves.
Next I had to decide what the upper structure of the Caves was going to look like and how to attach them. Again, I didn't want to just lay or stack rock on top of the base rock. What I decided to do was to make acrylic dowels of various lengths. These are dowels made out of a 1/2" acrylic rod (hallow).
The upper rock was light(ish) so I didn't feel like I needed an entire rod inserted into the rock. Once I knew where I wanted a piece to attach to, I drilled a hole into each piece that was the size of the dowel. Inserted the dowel and set them together. For a little extra security I used epoxy and/or zip ties to fasten them together.
Finally, once I was happy with all my varous sub structures I put the sheet of acrylic into the tank and then started to position all of the base rock onto their corresponding support plugs. I'll admit, it was tricky to line up the holes again.
..
Next I had to decide what the upper structure of the Caves was going to look like and how to attach them. Again, I didn't want to just lay or stack rock on top of the base rock. What I decided to do was to make acrylic dowels of various lengths. These are dowels made out of a 1/2" acrylic rod (hallow).
The upper rock was light(ish) so I didn't feel like I needed an entire rod inserted into the rock. Once I knew where I wanted a piece to attach to, I drilled a hole into each piece that was the size of the dowel. Inserted the dowel and set them together. For a little extra security I used epoxy and/or zip ties to fasten them together.
Finally, once I was happy with all my varous sub structures I put the sheet of acrylic into the tank and then started to position all of the base rock onto their corresponding support plugs. I'll admit, it was tricky to line up the holes again.
Next up was the middle section of the tank where I wanted a bonsai tree like structure. I knew that this pieces was going to sit funny and be very top heavy so i didn't want to rely on the previous method for securing rock to the acrylic sheet. Instead I just picked out the largest and heaviest rock I had in my collection and used it as my base rock. I then epoxied and zip tied various flat pieces together to make the arms or branches of the tree.
Here again I am using an acrylic dowel to help secure an arm of the bonsai tree.
There are two arms in total with a vary large flat tonga piece that sits on top. Huh.. I thought I had taken a picture of of the entire structure but I guess I didn't. I guess you'll have to wait until the full tank shot to see it. Sorry, here's a shot of me drilling live rock, enjoy.
Here again I am using an acrylic dowel to help secure an arm of the bonsai tree.
There are two arms in total with a vary large flat tonga piece that sits on top. Huh.. I thought I had taken a picture of of the entire structure but I guess I didn't. I guess you'll have to wait until the full tank shot to see it. Sorry, here's a shot of me drilling live rock, enjoy.
Finally, in the last section I wanted to make a lagoon with low(ish) terraces that hovered over the sand. One criteria here is that I did not want the appearance of a heavy base rock supporting the terraces. Instead, I used a slab of tavertine as my anchor and drilled holes into it where I would insert very long and thick rods to support my terraces. If you've never seen or worked with tavertine, it is a very very dense and heavy rock! They use it to build buildings! I would then cover up the exposed acrylic with rubble epoxied to it. The tavertine is a tan colour that perfectly matches the sand bottom.
Here's one of the terraces drilled.
And here they are built up.
Note: When dealing with live rock you have to work quickly. What I had on hand was a tub with heated salt water from the tank that I could use to dunk the rock into every now and again to keep them moist. Unfortunately this made for a very messy rock building session.
Here's one of the terraces drilled.
And here they are built up.
Note: When dealing with live rock you have to work quickly. What I had on hand was a tub with heated salt water from the tank that I could use to dunk the rock into every now and again to keep them moist. Unfortunately this made for a very messy rock building session.
Finally, once all the rock work was done and in the tank I started to perform my tank transfer by pumping water from my old 90g tank into the new 150g with the addition of NSW made up before hand.
To continue with the tank transfer I moved all of my livestock over from my old 90g into the 150g. This went fairly smoothly without any issues (thank goodness).
Unfortunately at this point my new 72" light fixture had not yet arrived so I had to make due with my old 48" fixture until the new one arrived.
Here is my first FTS of the tank (still with the 48" light fixture). Keep in mind that this is back in 2009 when the tank first went live.
To continue with the tank transfer I moved all of my livestock over from my old 90g into the 150g. This went fairly smoothly without any issues (thank goodness).
Unfortunately at this point my new 72" light fixture had not yet arrived so I had to make due with my old 48" fixture until the new one arrived.
Here is my first FTS of the tank (still with the 48" light fixture). Keep in mind that this is back in 2009 when the tank first went live.
trueblackpercula
New member
Now that is something I wished I did. Your tank is looking spectacular and can't wait to see it fill in
frankyrivera
FUP&A Member
Daaaaannggggg!!!!! This tank is sick I love it
toofrigginswt
New member
Very quick progress!
Henry Colf
New member
Thats pretty cool. I have seen other people in the past do this as well. Tank looks great.
aqua80
New member
Thanks! Progress appears brisk because the tank was set up 4 years ago LOL. This is kinda like time lapse build. Just a few more posts and this journal should be caught up to present day.
Haha! Well played! :-D
Fsurocks99
New member
Very intuitive. Awesome Ideas with the aquascaping! I'm saving this thread for when I start my next tank and I need something to remind me of what to do before adding water.
Thanks again everyone
So a few more details about my build...
To cover the tank I made one of these mesh screens.
Works great and has kept my fish safely inside the tank.
Here is a shot of the tank with the 72" Sunlight Supply Maristar fixture. It's black and I hated that so I spray painted it silver
Here's what my control centre looks like, neatly tucked underneath the tank.
Also tucked underneath is my dosing station.
So a few more details about my build...
To cover the tank I made one of these mesh screens.
Works great and has kept my fish safely inside the tank.
Here is a shot of the tank with the 72" Sunlight Supply Maristar fixture. It's black and I hated that so I spray painted it silver
Here's what my control centre looks like, neatly tucked underneath the tank.
Also tucked underneath is my dosing station.
To help keep the tank cool I installed one of these bad boys into the canopy.
And finally, just for $#!t5 and giggles I have a GHL LED module for moon lighting as well as lightening storms that are programmed with the controller.
Here's what my sump looks like.
From right to left there's the reactor chamber which houses my bioPellet reactor, skimmer, controller probes and pumps for my GFO and Carbon reactors. The next chamber is the return chamber which has the return pump and the ATO float switch.
And finally, just for $#!t5 and giggles I have a GHL LED module for moon lighting as well as lightening storms that are programmed with the controller.
Here's what my sump looks like.
From right to left there's the reactor chamber which houses my bioPellet reactor, skimmer, controller probes and pumps for my GFO and Carbon reactors. The next chamber is the return chamber which has the return pump and the ATO float switch.
