Wheres the water
Going through withdraws here! lol
Some good news for you Aquatron...finally, water! I must admit I got a little giddy when I got home from work and saw the tank half filled with RO and turned on the Razor and it was crystal clear. Dang, it's already looking good. Well, I couldn't wait so I grabbed the 1/2" tubing and filled the rest up with tap. This is a 2-day bath rinse anyway so I don't think it's a big deal.
Slowly but surely, the water rose...and hey, what's this, the cavern facade is tilting on the right side, the tall bonsai is too. Yes you guessed it, we have lift off. lol
Wasn't so bad really when I shut the water off. I stopped just short of the mouth of the overflows for good reason, the plumbing ain't plumbed yet.
I'll be honest in saying that I did not think my rocks would float. It wasn't lost on me that the spray foam would make them buoyant, but these are heavy pieces; the facade was 55lbs and the bonsai was 28lbs. Can you imagine how heavy they'd really be if it were all real rocks...I'd be in traction trying to lift them into the tank let alone get it off the table.
So I started hacking away at it chunk after chunk. Not so bad with the bonsai where the foam was used predominantly at the base where it's flared out to make it less likely to be toppled.
The facade was trickier as it's about 30% foam. First I cemented a 10lbs dry rock at the base to act as a pedestal. Here's the hydraulic cement I used.
Then I hollowed out the foam in certain areas without altering the exterior much at all. This involved just sculpting out the inside foam with a serrated knife through the holes I already had there. This is a good thing as this hollowed out part would make a great grooming station for my coralbanded pair. The clown trigger loves his back scratched by these shrimps. And for good measure, I snapped off a baseball-size foam peak and replaced it with some newly washed live rock from the sump. Here I'm temporarily holding it place with a zip tie.
Now the low bonsai was a success. At 20lbs dry, in water it literally hovers off the bottom like an eagle in flight. It's light, but it's sturdy. The ABS plumbing that is its bones is unioned to the coupling that's screwed into the cl drain...guaranteed not to float away.
Another thing I'm thrilled about are the overhangs. What a pleasant surprise to see it perfectly snug up against the eurobrace. The stalactite actually wont need anything to secure it in place...it just floats in the top right corner and with a great deal of force I may add. It's 100% foam so it wants to launch itself straight up into the ceiling.
