The Rebirth/Rebuild of my 180g sps thread

Todays tasks involved cutting a final edge to the middle of the star board to match the two end pieces.
I decided that leaving a 1/2" gap on the edges of the sides and front/back of the boards would bring me to the 71.5 x 23.5 inches to match the demensions on the inside of the tank.

I will silicon the board to the tank's bottom. Run an edge of siliscon along the parimeter of each board.
At first I thought oh man my jig saw's blade is broken!
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But then I remembered that I bought a larger one during the 2004 hurricane season.
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A few more things that were taken care of this weekend.
Here is a pic of the beginning of the drain. Funny how the fish don't wanna get caught!

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Here is the 55g tank that the fish and some of my remaining corals will be housed for awhile.
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Star board clean, cut and ready for install next week.
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Tank finally empty. Corals and fish are all out. Look at the coralline algae growth on the back of the tank and over flow boxes.
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Bleach went in last night and in less than 24 hours the coralline algae has turned mostly white. The anaptasia's were gone after I added just the tap water. The majano's were closed but look still alive until I added the bleach.
This evening I started to siphon any remaining sand and the majanos came off the glass very easily. I do suspect they were no dead.

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Here is a fts. Wow it is surreal!
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Looks like somebodies gonna be smellin muratic acid! Get a good charcoal mask man, do that for me! Dont have your head in a tank with those fumes. I cant see vinegar gettin it done here thats why I say this.
 
Looks like somebodies gonna be smellin muratic acid! Get a good charcoal mask man, do that for me! Dont have your head in a tank with those fumes. I cant see vinegar gettin it done here thats why I say this.

chris great thing in Florida is that the weather is great! upper 70's to low 80's so ALL windows are open.
 
Well I decided to rebuild the aquascape and I knew going in that since I had only pics that possibly the rebuild of it may not be exact.
While one island ( the right one ) was easier because of the unique shapes, island two was more difficult.

Here are over head shots so you guys can see how much space there is at the tops of these islands.

The 1st pic I have between 5-7 inches across tapering to about 2 inches
The 2nd pic I have between 9-10 inches at the thickest to 4-5 to 1.5 inches.

I will see if I can add angle shots to show the ledges.

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It's been a busy week here. After I ran bleach in the display tank for 4 days I got to empty the tank out.

I guess I was feeling paranoid because I decided to remove all the dead dried coralline algae. You can see the difference.
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Once done I moved on to test the star board. There was a slight cutting adjustment but took care of it and laid the three pieces inside the tank.

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One of the things I found out that even though I took pics of the aquascape, once I tore it down I was freaken out at how hard it was trying to place the rocks back exactly how they were in the pics.
Then guys I was itching to see the aquascape inside the tank. Man what a day!!! 1st the space seemed to SHRINK! What space I thought I had was gone. Either way I made some adjustments. Nothing is mortared yet.

I have some good things to show like: A more natural looking bridge
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Another bridge on the rt side island
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These bridges I am not so sold on yet. They don't seem natural enough and they seem as though they are just shelves to put stuff on them. I am seriously considering not having this whole middle section.

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Here is the FTS without the store shelves section and before I added the more natural bridges

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Ultimately I know you guys want to see FTS and side shots so here goes and let me know what you thoughts are.

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Rt side on the side panel
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Lft side on the side panel
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Finally a look at what the aquascape looks like with actinics on only

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I didn't see where anybody had responded about the red calcified structures yet. Those are Homotrema rubrum--or what is left of them. They are a common foraminiferan.
 
I didn't see where anybody had responded about the red calcified structures yet. Those are Homotrema rubrum--or what is left of them. They are a common foraminiferan.

Thanks for the info! Are they some type of sponge or higher structure alga?
 
Wow buddy, I bet that thing looks amazing in person cause its eye poppin on screen! I have GOT to get a larger tank one of these days! Nice work, now fill it up!
 
That's too much rock for my tastes. It's too close to the front & back for maintenace also.

Once corals start to get big these type of setups end up being thinned out of some rock
 
Same here I also think its too close to the front, I would suggest to make 8 iches back to make more room for corals to grow and fish to swim.
 
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