Beware the Shallows! jedimasterben's 80g shallow reef!

[jedimasterben]

So far so good on the rockscape! Went as long as my drill would hold a charge. (used it a lot yesterday, so it was almost dead)
[img=http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/jedimasterben/Aminals/Fishies/Shallow%20reef%20system/2013_04_15__23_18_44.jpg]

[img=http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/jedimasterben/Aminals/Fishies/Shallow%20reef%20system/2013_04_15__23_18_52.jpg]

but I've got a loooooong way to go to make it both sturdy and look great. Will be using fiberglass rods and Emaco 400 mortar to keep the rocks together. Epoxy doesn't do jack.


COME AT ME BRO
[img=http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/jedimasterben/Aminals/Fishies/60g%20frag%20tank%20reef/2013_04_15__16_29_07.jpg]

 

[jedimasterben]

I hate copying and pasting pictures I've already posted before elsewhere, it all happens like that ^ lol


Whatcha think?

The big rock on the far right and the zip ties are just to hold rocks up and to hold them in place while the mortar sets.

 

[jedimasterben]

Well, this didn't take long.

and a video of it

Sebae anemone (Heteractis malu) hosting 'mocha' occelaris clownfish - YouTube

 

[PaulKreider]

I dont think your fish will like paint cans in your tank.... It will probably throw off your parameters.

Lol jk but love what you did with the aquascape on those rocks!

 

[jedimasterben]

Lol!

Thanks!

 

[tulipgirl]

Fishy looks happy The new scapework looks nice too, cant wait to see it in.

 

[jedimasterben]

Finally got off my bum. Drained the sump, took out the broken glass, and cleaned it up.

New layout is drying now!

For reference, the back wall of the tank is on the floor.

Temporary sump, a Mr. Aqua 17.4g

And all that rock had to go somewhere!

Take it from me. You want your leopard wrasses to go absolutely apey, toss some rocks from your refugium into your main tank.

 

[jedimasterben]

 

[jedimasterben]

 

[jedimasterben]

 

[jedimasterben]

 

[jedimasterben]

Tank went right back down the toilet. Moving the corals to a small tank onto racks, moving the fish into a trio of nanos, and starting over. Muriatic acid bath for the rocks, and the sand will get rinsed out and maybe some vinegar to burn off any bound phosphorus (if that is possible), and fill the new systems all with new water and get all going again. Oy. Tons and tons of work ahead of me.

I think the corals and clams are going into a spare 14g Biocube I have, since the Mr. Aqua 17g tank I was going to use is going to now be plumbed into the new system as a Caribbean biotope, with chalk basslets, masked gobies, yellowhead jawfish, gorgonians out the wazoo, and I'll get some of the illegal-to-collect hard corals from Tampa Bay Saltwater, since any corals grown on aquacultured rock are fair game as far as the law is concerned.

I'm going to take all of the LEDs on my tank right now and put them over the Biocube... yes, you're reading that right. 12x NW, 32x RB. No optics, but with how I'm going to hang it, where the clams will be in the tank should get ridiculous amounts of PAR. The tank will be split into two tiers of egg crate, the top will only have my five clams, and they will be literally an inch under the water, or closer.

Once the new system is up and running and ready to start moving crap back in, the 30g tank will be a dedicated clam tank. The LEDs I have for it are using pretty darn narrow reflectors, and should give some pretty nice PAR, and I'll measure it and whatnot very soon. If it isn't enough, I'll add more light to it... I'm aiming for around 1200 PAR or so.

 

[Clammania]

This thread needs a major update. Tank is up, livestock is in and growing, I've lost a lot, gained a lot, changed the lighting, changed the sump, all kinds of good stuff!

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this:

Nice clams

 

[reefed419]

Hey Ben, Maybe i missed the part were u describe your sump better, looks complicated, maybe you can elaborate

 

[jedimasterben]

Do you mean the newer version of it? The way it was supposed to work was water would come into the sock in the rear left, flow toward the front of the tank where the skimmer is, then go over top of the baffle and on top of the piece of horizontal glass over the algae scrubber screen, into a refugium section, then over into the return pump. I cut the baffle between the fuge and the return pump because it was too noisy otherwise, and now the fuge and return are one section. Not really a problem, though, cause I don't plan on having any sand or anything in it.

I pretty much completely rebooted the tank, and I just made a new thread to document it, it is here: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/member-tanks/124581-beware-shallows-80g-reef-reboot.html


I think I also have pictures of the sump in action there. If not, i will try and take a video of it soon and will post it to that thread.

 

[tulipgirl]

Wow, those pics are amazing, seriously, normally i skim through pics but wow ben!