Looking for suggestions or advice...

[museumguy]

So we have two large overflow pipes that are in our 1700g tank here at the museum. They are about 8 inches in diameter I believe. You can see a picture of one on the left side of this image..

They don't really add much to the tank and I've been kicking around the idea of getting things to grow off them to improve aesthetics. Anyone have much experience getting things to grow on a completely verticle surface? I'm not looking to attach anything to it that will plate out like acros or montipora. I'm thinking more along the lines of zoanthids, mushrooms, or encrusting things but before I sunk too much time into this I wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions about what might grow better on a flat verticle surface.

The next thing I have to figure out is how to attach things without it looking ugly. In my mind attaching all sorts of small zoanthid frags and letting them grow into a mat would look super cool but I don't know if they would do well in this setup.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Cheers!

 

[chuckawd]

I have no trouble growing pulsing xenia up the glass in my tank. It wouldn't look as good as zoas but it would be fairly easy to do. And it grows like a weed as we all know.

 

[museumguy]

Thanks for the input on the xenia. I've strayed away from it in the past because it can get so invasive but I'll keep that in the back of my mind if nothing else works.

 

[block head]

i'd run your idea by tom, he really has great artistic abilty and tech knowledge to make it happen.

 

[museumguy]

i'd run your idea by tom, he really has great artistic abilty and tech knowledge to make it happen.

Yeah, Tom is the best. I've discussed it a bit with him in the past but figured I'd ask on here too since the URS has so much combined experience.

 

[Capt_Cully]

That's a lot of surface area. I'd be afraid of whatever you got to grow on there either taking over your tank, like cloves or Xenia. OR something like GSPs that would add too much of one thing, stealing focus from the reef.

 

[Willistein]

How difficult would it be to change the overflow design by removing the standpipes and having overflows on the back wall up high somehow? I'm thinking that anything you grow on them is going to draw unwanted attention.

 

[lcs]

I like the idea of the small, blue cloves. I don't know if they will attach to the plastic, but they would provide subtle movement and color, enough to notice, but not take away from the rest of the tank (like anything could take people's eyes away from the unicorn tang!) Yes, they can become invasive, but I don't think they'd grow on the sand, so you'd just have to scrape them off the glass if you didn't want them to spread.

Here's a picture of what I'm talking about. They're slightly darker in real life.

From a distance:

 

[naprestsleep]

How about growing out the zoanthids or such on some type of flexible sheets(screening or such), then when encrusted you could wrap the pipe and secure with adhesives or some type of straps.

 

[museumguy]

How about growing out the zoanthids or such on some type of flexible sheets(screening or such), then when encrusted you could wrap the pipe and secure with adhesives or some type of straps.

This is not a bad idea and similar to the idea I've had in the back of my mind but can't come up with the exact material to use that would be ok long term. I thought maybe I could make my own very thin reef plugs that were rounded to fit snug against the rounded pipe and attach zoanthid frags that way, but I just don't know how well that would work or how it would look.

 

[museumguy]

That's a lot of surface area. I'd be afraid of whatever you got to grow on there either taking over your tank, like cloves or Xenia. OR something like GSPs that would add too much of one thing, stealing focus from the reef.

Yeah, I'm a little nervous about anything that can get invasive like yellow zoanthids, zenia, etc. or anything that really is distractingly colored like GSP. And I know if done wrong it could become more of a distraction than is already is, its a tough decision. I still feel like there could be a happy medium in there somewhere though.

 

[museumguy]

How difficult would it be to change the overflow design by removing the standpipes and having overflows on the back wall up high somehow? I'm thinking that anything you grow on them is going to draw unwanted attention.

Unfortunately the overflow design can't really be changed much for a few reasons, a lot of it having to do with the space behind the tank. I hear what you are saying about the unwanted attention though, thanks for the input.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

I've found gel sg adheres very well to acrylic, I think it would bond well to pvc as well. I have duncans and candy cane glued to my cpr overflo and they are very hard to remove. I think you could do just about anything you wanted. Low growing brain corals platygyra, goniastrea, favites... would be cool.

 

[lcs]

This is not a bad idea and similar to the idea I've had in the back of my mind but can't come up with the exact material to use that would be ok long term

What about that 1/4" netting that people often use to make a tank cover? Or some kind of thin plastic sheeting?

 

[naprestsleep]

What about that 1/4" netting that people often use to make a tank cover? Or some kind of thin plastic sheeting?

Or that plastic netting like material used for needlepoint, that is what I used in my reactors, as have many. Guessing its "safe". Not sure if you want solid sheets as it may cause dead zones behind it.

 

[block head]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCdk9gqS_CM

maybe a little cheezy , maybe tie an oil rig /artificial reef theme into the display. could work as edu, conservation, environmental teaching aid