Modern Mangrove Reef

[falcona2552]

Hey Everyone,
I am building a new 60G tank (48Lx24Wx13T), that will be a coral reef on the left side of the tank, and a deep sand bed on the right. The nutrients of the deep water will be exported to the shallow end where the overflow will be, along with some mangroves and macros in a 7-8" deep sand bed. The nutrients that are not immediately caught in the overflow will serve to feed the mangrove forest.

The mangrove side of the tank will be next to a double door glass window, and receives direct morning to noon sunlight. The 6 mangroves will be transferred from my current tank and are around 1 years old and well established in the same spot the new tank will be. I will be running a humidifier line to the mangrove forest that will generate RODI mist/fog twice a day to them. More for aesthetics as I do not anticipate it to remove much salt creep on the leaves.

This way the leftside deep water section containing corals receives the cleanest water straight from the sump, and the right side mangrove forest enjoys more nutrients. The sand bed will slope upward along the length of the tank, and I will use shelf rock as vertical breakers to 'step up' the sand bed and have it serve as retaining walls. Some of the mangroves with smaller roots will be placed in bpa free airpots, filled with fiji mud, and sunk into the deep sand bed to help anchor it in place as a sort of retaining wall as well. If necessary I will make a sand waterfall flowing down a slope of shelf rock to mimic the look I want and keep the sand from shifting.

The cabinet will be molded with foam and hand carved to produce a semi natural,abstract/modern look. Almost like the abstract limestone or sandstone formations in nature you see (Arizona/Utah) and would swear are man made they are so smoothly weathered. Hopefully the pictures to follow will make it clear.

 

[Rython]

Sounds beautiful. Looking forward to seeing some pics!

 

[falcona2552]

Well I began the cabinet, it looks bad now because it is blue foam but once it is grouted it will take on a more natural look. I cut out the hidden side doors, one shelf for nutrients and one for mp10 and kessill controllers. Just need to cut the front door out and get it fitted as well. They slide into place like a puzzle but are locked in with very strong magnets for easy access. I also built up a rock wall behind the cabinet which encapsulates the tank into a 'tidal pool' and will post pictures shortly (not shown).

Will be painting inside of cabinets with killz, but there are also ventilation slots between the top of cabinet and walls for airflow.

Tank is ordered and will arrive in 4-5 weeks. 48x24x13 starfire with overflow on the right side.











Sorry about the sideways photos

 

[falcona2552]

 

[Charley Diesing]

subbed goodluck

 

[CafeReef]

gonna follow this one. awesome idea

 

[tjm9331]

I'm interested in following this one as well...

 

[falcona2552]

Thanks everyone, well I finally got 5 layers of grout on. Thin Non-sanded to start, then added sanded grout to non sanded 50/50 for layers 2 and 3. Layer 4 was sanded grout to add some roughness and make the foam lines disappear a bit more. Layer 5 was back to a semi thin non-sanded to smooth out the roughness of layer 4. Layer 5 I also incorporated some black and silver glitter of various size into the grout (about two TBSP per cup of grout, I want subtle not glitter glue finish).

The day after the 5th grout and glitter layer dried, I took a wet coarse sponge and rubbed the surface vigorosly, exposing the embedded specs of glitter at different angles and depths. The effect is a base layer of quartz/granite looking rock. When you walk past it a pin head or two of reflection beams back at you. It is hard to capture in a photo, but is a very cool finish as the light changes in the room throughout the day.

Next is using some watered down acrylic washes to paint the stand a realistic and natural stone pattern. I will use various shades of taupe/tan (dry rock color which happens to be really close to the color of my walls, this is the rock base coat color to blend in as best to wall as possible), greys, burnt browns, umber, earth tones, etc to achieve a natural color.

I will also start painting the interior and cabinets white with killz.



Foam pillars in center are removable and held with strong magnets. I will keep the stand door behind them hiding the sump area a surprise for later on in the build as its difficult to describe.


I read using grout is the art of making a mess and cleaning it up. They were correct.

 

[falcona2552]

Here is a shot of the stand with the last coat of grout. It is set in its final position, just pulled off the wall and column an inch to keep the plastic wrap protecting the walls for painting process. Center columns are removed for now so I could grout them separately. Painting the rocks with the acrylic washes will bring out the detail of the rock work some more and add contrast.




The glitter put in the final coat of grout looks very good, and not much like you see in the picture here. It is hard to photograph the effect it makes.




View of the top of the stand, the tank will have a few inches to spare in each direction, the surface left exposed will be filled in with crushed fire pit glass.

 

[C Dog]

Any updates??