A few months ago I purchased a red sea reefer 170 as a bit of a graduation gift for my family. I justified the purchase as both an increase to my children's' education and an exposure to new things. I have slowly put this together as I have an incredibly busy life and can't just jump on things at the exact moment I would like to.
I will skip all the boring building part as we are all aware of how to put an IKEA style cabinet together, and instead start with the part anyone truly cares about in a build thread: The Aquascape.
I have decided to go minimal with this build and really open up what space is available. My goal is truly an sps heavy tank with good flow and lots of negative space. One of the most important aspects for me is reducing wasted space, a challenge that presented itself after the tank arrival. I wanted to focus on a vertical piece that would draw your eye and finish with an open space for movement and color. Originally I had planned out the aquascape seen here:
However, as people who have a reefer 170 know, there is a jutted portion in the middle that takes up 10x4 inches of usable space right in the middle back portion. This jutted portion leaves behind two 6 inch corner pieces with a few inches of depth that isn't entirely suitable for anything. This jutted portion killed my original idea... I tried rearranging but the jutted portion brought my large stone to center and to close to the front. This would throw off the aesthetic beauty and cause the eye to focus on only the front. I had no ideas on what to do.
The change in setup eventually occurred because i wanted to try some of this pukani rock I had heard about. I placed a small 20lb order and awaited what would come. The pieces were interesting and very different than what I was used to with large shelves or cylindrical Fiji branch pieces.
After fighting with my original design I cut out a template from egg crate so i would have exact dimensions and began trying to position everything I could in random sequences trying to make something that resembled a reef and not just an ugly pile of rocks. I originally wanted vertical so I kept trying arrangements with spires that would actually breach the surface, but this left me without enough complimentary pieces to create anything else. I failed dozens of times. Nothing looked right and I was nearly defeated and then something caught my eye.
The top of the spire had a unique look to it. It nearly looked reptilian. If you squinted your eyes you could begin to kind of make out a snout and scales, an eye socket perhaps. As I gazed at this I noticed the other similarly shaped piece also had a strange reptilian look and seemed to have a beak and a crest. I carefully manipulated the pieces and finally I had a piece that kept my attention.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Wyverns' Way (Please excuse the horrible cellphone pictures):
My deepest apologies for the lack of depth and rather flat images; however, if you look at the side shot you will see the farthest back vertical piece is taking up the deadzone behind the center overflow and the rest of the pieces are in front of the jutted area. It is quite deep with just good positioning.
I will skip all the boring building part as we are all aware of how to put an IKEA style cabinet together, and instead start with the part anyone truly cares about in a build thread: The Aquascape.
I have decided to go minimal with this build and really open up what space is available. My goal is truly an sps heavy tank with good flow and lots of negative space. One of the most important aspects for me is reducing wasted space, a challenge that presented itself after the tank arrival. I wanted to focus on a vertical piece that would draw your eye and finish with an open space for movement and color. Originally I had planned out the aquascape seen here:
However, as people who have a reefer 170 know, there is a jutted portion in the middle that takes up 10x4 inches of usable space right in the middle back portion. This jutted portion leaves behind two 6 inch corner pieces with a few inches of depth that isn't entirely suitable for anything. This jutted portion killed my original idea... I tried rearranging but the jutted portion brought my large stone to center and to close to the front. This would throw off the aesthetic beauty and cause the eye to focus on only the front. I had no ideas on what to do.
The change in setup eventually occurred because i wanted to try some of this pukani rock I had heard about. I placed a small 20lb order and awaited what would come. The pieces were interesting and very different than what I was used to with large shelves or cylindrical Fiji branch pieces.
After fighting with my original design I cut out a template from egg crate so i would have exact dimensions and began trying to position everything I could in random sequences trying to make something that resembled a reef and not just an ugly pile of rocks. I originally wanted vertical so I kept trying arrangements with spires that would actually breach the surface, but this left me without enough complimentary pieces to create anything else. I failed dozens of times. Nothing looked right and I was nearly defeated and then something caught my eye.
The top of the spire had a unique look to it. It nearly looked reptilian. If you squinted your eyes you could begin to kind of make out a snout and scales, an eye socket perhaps. As I gazed at this I noticed the other similarly shaped piece also had a strange reptilian look and seemed to have a beak and a crest. I carefully manipulated the pieces and finally I had a piece that kept my attention.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Wyverns' Way (Please excuse the horrible cellphone pictures):
My deepest apologies for the lack of depth and rather flat images; however, if you look at the side shot you will see the farthest back vertical piece is taking up the deadzone behind the center overflow and the rest of the pieces are in front of the jutted area. It is quite deep with just good positioning.
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