The best for my 65 G reef

[Basile]

The set is this ;

Predrilled 65 Gallon tank ( picture soon) With a coast to coast Calfo over flow.

AquaMedic Lighting system ;

2x250W HQI, 2x54W T5
Oceanlight HQI+T5 Combo lighting systems elegantly blend the power of halides and the efficiency of high-output T5 fluorescents. Each Oceanbulb HQI is powered by an efficient Oceanballast M magnetic ballast and comes complete with bulbs.

Includes:
2 x Aqualine 1000 250W HQI 13,000k
2 x 54W German Ocean Blue Actinics
Hanging kit

 

[Basile]

Pictures

You can see the calfo over flow here

The sump

 

[Basile]

The room

This is the room i have to work with. Its already used to the fullest. So the corner is the only place i can put the tank and the RO/DI tank in the closet beside it and the RO/DI unit in the adjacsent laundry room.

 

[Basile]

The sculptures

I decided to make my rockwork into a sculpture enought with the fruit stand style display i see everywhere. And i want uninterupted waterflow, a greater amount of sand base , less obstacles, and a pod nursery. So i decided to use dry rock Marco's Rock which was uneven for quality if i may say so. Some was excellent some was crap. For that project, i also used pvc, and zip ties and silicone to fix my pvc. I could of use cement, i had silicone in hand thats all.

Here are my rocks

 

[Basile]

I chose to make the structure 3 inche above the tank floor; allowing a 2 1/2 inch sandbed and leaving me an 1/2 room for my water flow

 

[Basile]

Some of the rock had to be resized and drilled to allow zip ties in and also the many holes for pegging. The intend here is to have pegging holes for my future corals and not to have to compromise with positioning of speciment when the time comes. So holes will be drilled to allow as many possibilities as possible.

I chose rigid airline tubing for pegging, simple , small enough and strong enough. easy to manage

 

[Basile]

First tower

Trying out for size

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Wow lotta work being put into rockwork, can't wait to see it

 

[tdgates10]

Wow. That's going to look pretty nice!

 

[Basile]

Tweeking the desing

Tweeking with the desing and having fun with it

 

[Basile]

Its alive ALIVE!!!

ALIVE

Two sculpture will be in the tank the second one is just a stand in for now no finish desing yet.

 

[Basile]

Rockwork

Here goes with the zip ties, lots of them.

Basile wants to help, its the tie he wants.....

 

[Basile]

The zip ties will be hidden with ; "Great stuFF" foam for ponds and is completely safe for saltwater tanks.

 

[Basile]

Foam

The application is straight forward, you apply it like you would any other filler.Make sure you have gloves, it sticks and don't touch it or you loose the effect and you have to reapply.

The color and texture are not finish yet. Sand and crush coral will be added and a coating of epoxy is necessary as well to proteck the foam.

 

[Basile]

The second sculpture

For the second sculpture , other consideration had to be taken into account. For one ; it is going to be flush with the back wall which is not flat all the way. Second it will be part of the return water process. The return pump will feed the structure made of PVC with the return water from the sump to supplement water movement to the pod nursery which it will host.

The back panel is at one point on an angle ; it is part of the Calfo overflow

 

[Basile]

Second concept

The second sculpture must be flush, but flexible to accomodate the curve in the back wall, for the waterflow.

The use of eggcrate will help stablilise the structure and give it flexability.

You see here where the connection will be with the return pump and the hole for the syphon vent is.

The Nursery taking shape

 

[BCT182]

Very impressive. I am looking forward to further reading.

 

[1fishkeeper]

Now that looks like a fun little project.

 

[SHAWNER]

so cool ! gives me some ideas for my ext project.. keep us posted

 

[Basile]

A bit more zip ties

Playing with desing and shapes.

I get some encouragements

Under the nursery i made some holes for the waterflow