"The Cavernous Reef" - A 180G Build

[likefish]

Your rockwork will become less bouyant as the rocks and foam take on a bit more water. That cave will float forever though!

great work! Thats alot of tweaking to get it to look that good.

Time for an update!!!

 

[rickcasa]

This is such an awesome concept! Glad to see you thinking outside the box. I will be following along!

Great idea!Cant wait to see more!

Well back it again today draining the tank. I got back from vacation on Saturday, but took the wknd off from this build to look after my 90G. So relieved when I got back and everything is still alive and kicking. I just had my dad come by every other day to feed the fish and except for a lot of film algae on the glass, which was to be expected, the corals and fish are doing great.

Now to the Cavernous Reef!! The week of soaking in .18 of brine and scrubbing from the 2 Vortechs did wonders cleansing the rocks, I believe. The water was left cloudy but smelled like the ocean. A good sign. When the water fully drained, the smell of resin is undetectable. Another good sign.

Thx for the props!

 

[rickcasa]

Your rockwork will become less bouyant as the rocks and foam take on a bit more water. That cave will float forever though!

great work! Thats alot of tweaking to get it to look that good.

Time for an update!!!

Found an issue that should not surprise you, likefish. The Rock wall bent the pegs that was supposed to hold it in place....it's that bouyant!. Having drained the tank, I will take this opportunity to silicone this background to the back wall. I don't want to take any chances esp when I increase the salinity to a normal level.

And thanks, with all the positive comments this aquascape has received, I guess it's going in the right direction.

 

[rickcasa]

Yeah, you kind of put most every other aquascape project to shame with this. Seriously all sorts of awesome going on with that cave. Corals aside I hope you will have video with fish when you get this done, I'm curious how they'll interact with those caves, I've done caves in the past kind of "teepee" style with rocks leaning against the back overflow, but none of that is even the same ballpark as what you did here.

Thanks, but that it's too early for such high praise. I may still screw this up when the corals/gorgs/etc make an appearance. And yes, I did all this for the love of my fish...I'm building them a pimping crib!

 

[rickcasa]

I seriously believe you have taken aquascapes to the next level. It will be very interesting to see how the tank progresses.

Lighting manufacturers should be thanking you for opening up a new venue of revenue. This could be the perfect blend for both MH and LED lighting fixtures.

Are you selling the stalactites yet?

And for my next project, the Think Tank. A collection of hairbrained ideas for others to exploit and profit from. Lol
Thanks for the kudos Tradewinds. But on the other hand, lighting companies may hate me for trying to make shadows sexy. Lol

A quick trip to Asia may just be the beginning of my stalactite empire.

 

[JillNairn]

Subscribing. What a well thought out, and very unique build. I see you wanting to go bigger though with this. Really would be quite awesome in a tank that is four feet wide and at least 3 ft high. Go ahead, upgrade now will save you later the trouble!

 

[samson78945]

Great idea! I think I may have the change my tank up!

 

[rickcasa]

Great idea! I think I may have the change my tank up!

Subscribing. What a well thought out, and very unique build. I see you wanting to go bigger though with this. Really would be quite awesome in a tank that is four feet wide and at least 3 ft high. Go ahead, upgrade now will save you later the trouble!

Listen up Samson, Jill is right. Hope your tank is big if you're planning on going this route!! I definitely felt confined building the structures for the kind of fish I want to keep. But hey, I gotta start somewhere.

Thank you both for following.

It's been awhile since my last update. But I have kept busy. Most important thing is the tank has cycled all without the benefit of a sump as of yet.

10 bags of Arag Alive sand and adding about a bucket of sand from my other tank certainly sped up the cycle. Yes, I threw in a large raw shrimp in there too for good measure. Now after three weeks after the last drop of RODI water, the water is still sparkling and I believe ready for some hardy mushrooms and palys.

The plumbing is the slowest to complete and is being held back by my constant shortage of the right fittings and plain lack of experience with designing overflows and returns. My last online order of valves was a time waster as the 1.5" Spears Gate valves and unions I ordered proved far too big for the space I have available. Should I just downsize to 1" overflow drains? I really hoped to have the plumbing dry fitted before the arrival of my Blue Tint for the back glass. Yes, this is my answer to the shadowbox concept. I hope it works!! I ordered the Ocean Blue Privacy tint. It should blur anything behind it including the plumbing who's straight geometric silhouette I will 'naturalize' by glueing rocky foam shapes onto it. And light shone from behind should be sufficiently diffused and soften up the background. Lots of experimentations to do still. Sigh...

 

[dallasg]

nice!! i love the creativity

 

[behlke]

Your tank looks amazing. Tagging along for the rest of the build, and I might try to add a small cave to my next build.

Later,Adam

 

[Allmost]

I'm learning quite a bit now about other NPs so I'd like to try some chilis, carnations, dendros and sun corals.

I like the sound of that

they require aLOT of feeding though so go big on filtration and skimmer.

Ive been keeping them for a while now ...

 

[zeroinverse]

Following an interesting build!

 

[rickcasa]

Well I guess it's time for an update. It's video and it's heavy so I'll apologize now if it lags behind.

The tank has completed it's cycle for a couple of weeks now so time to stock up. For starters, I picked up a half dozen Bengaiis as the first inhabitants. One of my favourite fishes for its shape, pattern and demeanour...and darn dont they look awesome in a school of a dozen or so. They're not too lively but that's good as the just sway with the current like leaves on a branch.

<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid929.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fad131%2Frickcasa%2F20130608_003328_2_1.mp4">

 

[doubleohwhat]

That is one of the most original tank designs I've seen in a long time!

 

[rickcasa]

I like the sound of that

they require aLOT of feeding though so go big on filtration and skimmer.

Ive been keeping them for a while now ...

Well to start I plucked a couple of my gorgs from the other tank and just plopped them in. I'll be looking for the perfect spot for them in time.

Thanks for the tips!

 

[rickcasa]

That is one of the most original tank designs I've seen in a long time!

Thanks doubleOH! The blue privacy tint is working like a charm as a background. It truly does mimic the blue depths of the ocean...and with just the 2 CFl bulbs (one blue, the other plain white) behind it. So thrilled it works and have plans to make it even more realistic. So to be clear then, the lighting is only 10% complete.

 

[doubleohwhat]

Honestly, if the tank floor hadn't been bare glass in the images you posted a couple of pages back, you wouldn't have been able to tell your tank from an actual cave. I thought you had tossed a couple of actual cave photos in there for comparison until I noticed the tank glass.

 

[rickcasa]

Following an interesting build!

I've been pleasantly surprised the tank is meeting my expectation. Slow progress, I know, and I did skip posting a few steps in the last few weeks ZeroInverse, so maybe I'll backtrack to one eventful step. My lovely wife got on my case about trying to poison the entire house with my alkyd paint job of the inside of the stand. You see I had the great idea of pouring cement paint on the inside base to waterproof it. Worked great on my garage floor. Anyways 1 week later, it's not even close to fully dry yet. It formed a thick skin that still moves and wrinkles to the touch. I'd say in a month's time I may just be able to put my frag tank that I plan on keeping there.

Is this what you mean by interesting?...lol

 

[rickcasa]

Honestly, if the tank floor hadn't been bare glass in the images you posted a couple of pages back, you wouldn't have been able to tell your tank from an actual cave. I thought you had tossed a couple of actual cave photos in there for comparison until I noticed the tank glass.

I agree, that photo with the only light source being from the blue light of the clip-on fixture was so convincing I could have been fine with that and be done with it. But I've been checking out some blue underwater LED spotlights made for ponds and think 1 or 2 cleverly embedded in the foam structure may work even better. This will be the moonlight setting.

On the video, you saw that with absolutely no supplemental lighting inside the cavern and illuminated only by the light of the main LED fixture, the cavern was perfectly washed by the blue glow from the background. This will be the full photo period setting. Now that should be fun learning how to control these light settings with Aquatronica.

Oh and I've also decided to light the front facade of the cavern because that's where I want my Hadonni to plant its foot, permanently. so I need to shine a spotlight or a strong LED strip under the eurobrace.

 

[rickcasa]

nice!! i love the creativity

Your tank looks amazing. Tagging along for the rest of the build, and I might try to add a small cave to my next build.

Later,Adam

Thanks Dallas. Now on to being creative with corals...which is not my element. I drool at the artistry of the sps masters on this board. Are they just randomly glueing random corals onto rocks?? There's talent in placement, choosing of species, knowing growth patterns and chemical warfare.

And Behlke, I hope I was able to establish a cave/cavern look without it looking like a hollowed out rock or a pile stacked rocks. Thanks for following.