My DIY Rock/Foam Reef

[Kannin]

Put one of your pictures up jerdog... a close up.

 

[JMaxwell]

I didn't read all of this thread, but why the sand and epoxy? Is it just to hide the color of the foam? I've used Handi-foam on my tank. Its grey right out of the bottle and looks indistinguishable from live rock after a couple of weeks. No sand or expoxy necessary. For pictures of hanid-foam & no sand/epoxy, see the June '07 TOTM. (The January '07 tank uses great stuff w/ sand and epoxy.)

 

[Kannin]

These are for you Jorge

 

[alpine]

Thanks Kannin.Those diagrams look like they would make a really nice aquascape.

Unfortuneately the diagram has a 18" width on it and I only got a 13" width on my tank.I wish it was 18" wide.

I am talking to a lady now for a 120 that she is selling.Actually she has a bunch of tanks for sale for $1 a gallon.If the 120 is the 4ft version I think I am going to jump on it.

I dont know what is it but I perfer to have a wider then longer tank.

 

[alpine]

Hey Kannin, Vinnie what do you guys think of this peninsula style 55 gallon?I found this pic on another forum I was browseing yesterday.

I think if I took a sheet of egg crate and did the foam & rock on both sides with small rocks it could probaly look pretty sweet.

 

[alpine]

Oh yeah all the rock in that tank is DIY as well.

 

[Vinnie71975]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11790420#post11790420 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by alpine
Oh yeah all the rock in that tank is DIY as well.

Looks pretty sweet, my rock work is done and its kinda a tight fit in the tank, its a good thing that im planning on smaller fish, cause there wont be alot of open swimming areas.

 

[Kannin]

It looks great.

 

[alpine]

You see Vinnie I am the total opposite.I love having a lot of open swimming space for the fish,like Kannin has in his tank.I also like to have a nice sandbed for sand dwelling inverts.

This whole 13" front to back is driving me nuts.I have never had a tank setup that was so thin.Actually I dont have it setup,but you guys know what I mean.Hopefully I will hear back from this lady with the 120.

Besides, the 80 I have would make a really nice glass sump .

 

[ReefingBuddha]

That's a damn nice looking 55.

 

[Jerdog]

Hey kannin, the foamed areas with sand came out darker in color

 

[Jerdog]

 

[alpine]

Dont worry jerdog it will be covered with coralline in no time .Heck i've had some dried up figi that looked like that before.

 

[Jerdog]

 

[alpine]

Thats looking really good jerdog.I like how you implemented the rods at the bottom.

Side note
The lady with the 120 emailed me back and its the 6ft long version.Looks like I will have to look around for a tank that I like.That or build my own.

 

[Jerdog]

Thank you jorge-

 

[Vinnie71975]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11791712#post11791712 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jerdog

Dude looks AWESOME!

 

[Jerdog]

The dremel is the key, it chews up the foam fast and leaves it full of holes. There is a number of different bits you can use for this, also when using epoxy i used a real small brush to apply so I could get into small places for sand to stick. The epoxy makes the foam hard as rock.

 

[Kannin]

Jorge... Sorry that tank didn't workout. You could still do it with the 13" you just have to make sure the reef is no wider than 7 inches which would give you 3" on each ide for scraping.

Jer... i'm excited to see water in there. And, fish. And, corals.

 

[Kannin]

I put sand in last night and it really makes it look good. Because the structure covers much of the bottom... I was able to get away with only 80lbs.

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