Progress of my 135 project

[moses13]

I'd love to get feedback! Click on my gallery to see photos.

Started brainstorming this in July 04. Initially I wanted a big*ss tank to move my way overcrowded 55 inhabitants and to get a miniatus grouper. The more I have worked through this, the more it is looking like it will be turned into a softie reef setup. I will be skipping the grouper altogether at this point! (I got a Marine Betta instead!)

I wanted a background to help give the tank depth and look like you were looking "into" a portion of reef, and not look like a wall of rocks in the middle of a fish tank. I considered a lot of options and did a ton of research, finally deciding to custom build a background from styrofoam and aragocrete. I'm happy with the way it turned out, although the tank looks very sparse still due to the lack of rock. I'll be adding a lot more in the next month or so.


The numbers:
135 Gal left overflow only, right side return.
29 Gal sump/fuge. return is by Mag 9.5
2 MaxiJet 1200's on the left side on wave timer
~2" Sand bed in the display, 4" in fuge. Display bed is mostly for my wrasse to sleep in but seems to be bubbling nitrogen gas out as well...
~90 lb Fiji LR, will be adding another ~50lb aragocrete rocks in the next couple weeks when they are done curing. I may add another 25 lb of fancier LR depending on how "filled" it looks at that point.
384w Orbit pc lighting

Fish:
1 Green Spotted Puffer (started this guy in the 55 when it was still freshwater!)
1 Blue Damsel
1 Pygmy Angel
1 Pinstriped Wrasse
1 Gold Stripe Maroon Clown
1 Marine Betta
3 Pajama Cardinals

Inverts:
Peppermint shimp
Various snails
Dozen or so Blue leg hermits
Sand sifting star
Mithrax crab
Button polyps
GSP
Red, purple striped, green, and hairy shrooms
Xenia (in sump)
Anthelia (mowed down by the puffer, only stumps left)

I'll take some more pictures and post after I add the remaining rock.

 

[moses13]

 

[moses13]

Some more:

 

[moses13]

One month later:

The background is cycling through diatom / algae blooms but is already starting to show coraline growth as well as lots of feather dusters and small sponges growing on it!

 

[moses13]

March 05

Still waiting on my aragocrete to finish curing.... sigh....
3 months and counting

 

[onefin]

Looking good!!!!!!! Good luck.

 

[moses13]

Thanks!
I'm still working on my novice camera skills, so as my tank starts to look better in the coming months, hopefully my pictures will get better too!
New Canon Powershot on order!

I've added a few frags since original post; torch, candy cane, mushroom leather, but they are small and hard to see in the photo. I'm trying VERY hard NOT to keep buying more until I finish filling the tank with the still-curing rocks... I don't recommend oyster shell (feed grade) for aragocrete, taking forever to cure compared to other batches I made. Frustrating....

 

[Krypticol]

UPdates???

 

[M0E]

coming along very nicely

 

[jacmyoung]

This is real good DIY work and the background can be very unique and attractive, but it definitely does not look like a portion of a natural reef as your objective was.

I have seen photos of shiprack full of corals, can be breathtaking as well, this technique can easily duplicate such theme.

 

[moses13]

Thanks all, I'd almost forgotten about this thread!
I'll be putting together some progression shots in the next couple days and will post them here. jacmyoung, I had to make some compromises in the construction, mostly due to the weight of the background pieces, but as a first effort, I'm happy with it. If I had to do it over again, I would probably do more design ahead of time, and more "in tank" assembly. I would also work water flow more into the design, in my zeal to keep everything concealed, I did not have adequate overall flow, and ended up battling a bad hair algae problem for months.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Wow, I'm impresses with the background. I thought it loked awful in the first few pictures, looks great now! It will look even better when theres coraline and corals growing on it. What are the dimensions of the tank?

 

[ZaboAA]

nice, hers's mine

nice, hers's mine

Nice set-up. Here is my 135 I just completed about 2 weeks ago. It was about a 3 month project:

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=12692

 

[moses13]

Here's some progression photos:

December 04

March 05

August 05

September 05

October 05

with flash:

Left side

Right side

 

[moses13]

About 80-90% of the rock structure is aragocrete. After 9 months, I think I'm done with aquascaping now! Time to start filling with frags!

 

[Krypticol]

Wow!!! Super nice job! That came togeter really well!!!!
Thumbs up to you!!!

 

[moses13]

Thanks!!
It has evolved into a more traditional design, mostly because aquascaping became difficult with the background taking as much as 4-5 inches of depth in a tank that was already only 18" deep. (72x18x24). But I'm very happy with how its finally turning out. Fun project!

 

[celeryman22]

Can you tell me what you used to make the background? I see the insulation but what type? How did you get the agrocrete to stick to the insulation?

thanks
Mike

 

[moses13]

The pieces were 1.5" insulation styrofoam. Layers were made using aquarium silicone and the final pieces were glued in the tank using silicone.

The styrofoam was first lightly blowtorched to even out layers, give it more variable surface and also to "roughen" it so the aragocrete would be able to stick. The first layer of aragocrete was about 1:1 cement and sand, left fairly watery and applied with a paintbrush. The next was a little thicker, and finally the layer with the crushed shells was loosely applied by hand. The final result was pretty solid, but also quite heavy.

 

[jacmyoung]

It is maturing nicely. I might try this once I get really bored with my tank or decided to do another tank. I always wondered if a shipwreck full of corals can be duplicated. I think you finally showed me a viable material to do just that.