Third Time's A Charm!

The sad thing is, it would be cake for a manufacturer like Krylon to throw a flex-ative into the mix with something like the Fusion paint. Then they could upcharge it and people like us would buy it because we are insane!!!
Here I will be happy with white because in the end, I want all of my plumbing concealed into the stand and the inside of the stand will be white waterproof paint anyway!

And you can never be pimp if you ain't got the pimp stick and the strengthened pimp hand!
 
Here is where the back wall stands for tonight. You can see a Tunze in the upper left hand corner. The pump itself is almost out of view, but I still need to add a couple small rocks to hide the magnet. The location of the Tunze is determined by the overflow. The magnet is inside the overflow, and that is the bottom most and right most place the magnet will fit.
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Here is a shot of the Tunze from the side looking in the back. There isn't a good way to hide the pump any better from this angle.
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Brad
 
That rockwork looks FANTASTIC!! I love how you have plenty of openings as well as plenty of shelf space for coral.

are you still planning on building the R wall (when looking from front) up as high as the back wall? or maybe that high at the rear R corner and sloping down? or now that you have the back wall has your plan changed at all?

I think having it as high in the corner and sloping down will give it a very cool effect when walking in the room, and if you slope it down low enough you'll still be able to see into the tank from that R side, and you'll also be able to see "behind" the rock from that side, which is difficult/impossible in many tanks.
 
The back wall is now finished. Here is a view of it from where the couch will be. My tv will be in front of the couch and the tank is to the left. This is what it should look like while sitting down.
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Here is a view of the Tunze in the upper right corner. The rock work hides it very well.
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This is the front view. The upper right tunze is pretty much completely hidden.
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I am very happy with the results. The only thing I wish I could change is the height of the upper tunzes. It would be nice to have them 2 or 3 inches lower in the tank. That would let me lower the back wall by the same amount. I think that would be a tad bit better for lighting sps on the top of the left and right peaks of the back wall.

I would like to get building the rest of the rock work (the rest will be very minimal, but I am essentially out of round (non ledge) rocks. I have enough to finish the pillar I have started and one of the 2 slopes that will connect to the back wall, but I will have to wait for my marcorocks shipment to arrive before completely finishing.


Brad
 
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Above is my plan for the pumps. The two left 6200's and the 2 right 6200s will actually be behind the rocks, but I placed the colors where the flow would come out from behind the rocks.


I am hoping that 4 X6080s will keep the bottom fairly clean. The right most and left most 6200 should pick up any slack on the sides. I intend on getting an aquasurf to control all of the 6200s. The 6080s are non controllable and will be run at full blast continuously. I won't have all the pumps when I start the tank up. I plan to add them over the first few months as money allows. My first priority is getting the pumps to keep the bottom clean, since this is a bare bottomed setup.



Brad
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10802194#post10802194 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by glaspie69
Looks sweet brad, glad that portland worked out.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jason. I think it worked great. I am very glad you suggested it. I don't think I could have built this structure nearly as easily if I had used pvc rods to hold things in place. With the portland, I was able to just sit inside the tank with a little bucket of cement and build without drilling and all of that hassle.


Brad
 
Glad I could help, Your gunna have some crazy flow in that tank, those 6080's have some kick, backed up by 6 more 6200's you'll be lucky if you don't blow the front wall off the tank
 
I would like to report some progress, but instead I have the following:


I am currently waiting on the rocks I ordered almost 2 weeks ago to arrive. They were supposed to show up today, but when I got home there wasn't anything waiting on my doorstep. I checked the tracking info on the UPS site and it said that my shipment had been damaged in shipment. I can't imagine what sort of impact could have caused a box of rocks to break. The message said that UPS would contact the sender to resolve the issue. All I know is that only UPS could break a box of freakin rocks.



Brad
 
That's a bummer dude. I can't imagine what they were doing that would damage a box of rocks. I mean you would really have to try hard to do that.

Is your plumbing stuff here yet? At least you would be able to get started on it.
 
Good point Sone. My plumbing stuff did get here. I ended up with 200' of black flex pvc and I will be using all white fittings and valves from Lowes. JJ is coming over on Saturday, and we are going to get everything plumbed. I built my chiller stand, but I am still in the process of painting it. I don't know if the chiller will get here by Saturday, but if it doesn't (or the stand isn't ready) we will just plumb everything except the chiller, and I will finish that once it arrives.

I also got the return pump (sequence barrracuda).


Once the plumbing is done I will start making water. I will be able to make water in the 300 gallon conical bottomed tank and just shut of the valve. I will also be able to fill up the sump by closing off its valve. The sad thing is, I wouldn't be surprised if those were filled and circulating before the display was ready for its rodi rock curing bath. At least there will be 500 gallons of cycled (i'll toss some live rock in the sump) water to use once the display is ready.




Brad
 
HOORAY! The rockwork is finally done. Tomorrow I am going to vacuum out all the dust and scraps, and once it is clean I will start filling the display with RODI water. While it is filling, I will get my butt in gear and finish the plumbing.

In the end the pictures don't do the tank justice at all. The rockwork is incredibly open, and the front to back room is amazing. The pictures make it look much less 3d.


Here is the tank from the front.
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Here is a view from the left.
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Here it is from the right.
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Lastly, here is a view from above while standing on a ladder in front of the tank. This shot gives a much more realistic view of how open everything is.
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I don't even want to think about how many dozens of hours I spent inside the tank. When I started, I was really nervous because I wasn't sure that I would be able to build something that I would be happy with. In the end I am very happy with the way things turned out, and I am glad I took my time and didn't rush things. The final product doesn't exactly match what I had in my head, but all of the elements I was going for are there. I wanted to get away from the standard wall or mound of rocks look. I prefer a very open aquascape. I am very happy that the tank will look completely different depending on the angle you are viewing it from. My overall goal was to build something that felt like an entire little world when you look in it. There are so many nooks, arches, caves, and overhangs that it should keep things interesting for hours on end. I like the fact that there is plenty of room for growth, but things are also tight enough that the tank will look grown in, in just a couple of years. There are plenty of spots for branching sps, but there are also lots of lower areas that will be great for echinos, brains, blastos, acans, zoas, and other brightly colored fun stuff.




Brad
 
it looks awesome - I love the look of sand in a tank .... but I am sure you will get corraline quick enough to not have any worries!
 
Nice job with the rockwork. I agree, it doesn't look like the average aquascaping. I'll be watching along!
 
Good work brad, definitely looks like you put a lot of thought into it. Can't wait to see some coral in it!!
 
Looks great - and even though I saw it prior to its current state - it does look WAY better in person - i was amazed.

What happened to the "ric only" strip you were gonna have in the left front?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10926792#post10926792 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Philby
Looks great - and even though I saw it prior to its current state - it does look WAY better in person - i was amazed.

What happened to the "ric only" strip you were gonna have in the left front?
Click to expand...

I really did plan on having that ric only section, but I just couldn't make it work. I originally intended to have the major arch off the left pillar be much larger. The ric strip was going to go from the back wall, under the big arch, and toward the front. The problem was that the big arch was nearly impossible to construct (since I needed to allow enough room for me to build in the tank at all times; I can still get completely inside it!), so I had to make the arch much smaller. The small arch wouldn't accomodate the ric strip, so I had to rethink things. Right now I am not sure what to do with all those awesome rics I have. I am thinking the long strip from the right pillar to the front center of the tank would be a nice place for them.


Brad
 
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