Rock work!

[RonMidtownStomp]

For those of you who aren't following my build thread on the MARS forums:

I wish the pictures did it justice! Ya'll have to stop by and see this.

I'm thrilled to death with my spiral:

 

[Backinthegame]

Love the ledge Ron! Good work with the epoxy!

 

[reefer334]

Very Nice Ron!!
Is that all of the rock you are putting in?

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

I think that the only additional rock will be small pieces with corals on them. I can always add more later, but we really like it open like this. There are four seperate pretty good size caves.

There are two other tanks built into the system for frags and things that don't fit in the display tank. We are going to pick the nicest corals and be sure they have plenty of room to grow.

The tanks I've seen that I've liked the most are nice and open.

I will be keeping some more nice pieces of rock in another part of the system if we decide to add more. Maybe building up the crescent part of the spiral a bit, but that will likely happen when the rocks the corals are attached to come in.

Ron

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

Oh and two acrylic rods plus a lot of epoxy to make the ledge. I'm glad that worked and is stable.

 

[Backinthegame]

sweet

 

[Paulca916]

Looks cool Ron..
How much rock do you thik is in there now aprox. of course ?
Im thinking of putting only half my rock in my main display and the rest in the sump.
For the reason of more room for coral growth

 

[FishGuy5]

NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

About 21 pieces. No idea how much weight. 150 lbs? The biggest couple were big. Most were ~5 lbs. I don't think weight is a good measure since lighter rock is better, and except for the piece that the shelf connects to, I only picked my lowest density pieces.

Ron

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

VHO's are hooked up now, too. I'm amazed how bright they are. Are 48" super actinics only supposed to draw 80W each?

 

[Paulca916]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15212728#post15212728 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RonMidtownStomp
VHO's are hooked up now, too. I'm amazed how bright they are. Are 48" super actinics only supposed to draw 80W each?

Good question Ron ....
I thought 48" VHO's in general were 110 Watt bulb's
But then wouldnt the type and brand of ballast play into the watt draw ?

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

I tried them on Workhorse 5 ballasts I had lying around. One on each. The ballast says it will do 125 watts on it. They're brighter than they were on my old ballast by my eye. Kill a watt says 80 W each.

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

Rockwork 3.0 (in honor of the new iPhone software, and it's my third attempt) An attempt to implement suggestions by Dee and Karl.

Horribly distorted, but a good angle to see how the angles fit together:

The new spiral:

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

East:

North:

West:

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

My X design wasn't working. I like the breaks at the 1/3's. Shelf on the right, opening on the left. I can't wait for the substrate. I'm glad we didn't decide to go barebottom, I would have changed my mind by now.

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

Caves:

The picture doesn't make it look like a cave, you have to trust me on this one:

Turned out to have this really neat canyon that again the picture doesn't capture:

Any more feedback?

 

[Unarce]

C'est Magnifique!

 

[Bamm Bamm]

You need more flow ont he bottom of the tank I think so you can keep everything suspended=)then you wont have all that rock debri/sand down there=

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

I'll blast the bottom with the penductors and see if I can suspend it and get it into the filter socks. Substrate coming soon.

 

[Bamm Bamm]

oh I forgot your using sand then your good to go I keep thinking barebottom..