Floating reef aquascape

[Eddie K]

Very cool! What’s the thickness of the acrylic?

0.22 inches from Lowes.

 

[1ocean]

Yes, I agree. My understanding was that the silicone does not bind acrylic because the surface is so smooth so I used sandpaper to add texture and hopefully help it bond better. Fingers crossed. If it starts to detach from back wall, Ill just support it with a rock and learn from my mistakes. If I ever want to take it down off the back wall, I should be able to cut the silicone with a knife or razor pretty cleanly I imagine.

Is the tank acrylic also? If so why didn't you use weldon 4. It would have bonded clear and clean...and you only need a little. If you layed the tank down and used weldon 4.

 

[flagg37]

Is the tank acrylic also? If so why didn't you use weldon 4. It would have bonded clear and clean...and you only need a little. If you layed the tank down and used weldon 4.

I’m pretty sure the tank is glass.

 

[Eddie K]

Yes, the tank is glass.
We are done with the ugly phase. Dino infestation has died out. Ill prob take out the macroalgae since its not growing. I only have snails and a cleaning shrimp in there with the corals. Just feeding mysis shrimp 2 times per week. Dosing all for reef and iodide. Nitrate 2.5. Alk 9-10. Ca and others are where they are. Didn't test. I just fed the corals and took some pics.
Water has been cloudy could be the fine sand Im using but will run a little (very little) charcoal for a few days and see what that does. Working the PAR up slowly. The bottom sees about 50-60 scolys about 80 and acros about 100.

 

[attiland]

Yes, the tank is glass.
We are done with the ugly phase. Dino infestation has died out. Ill prob take out the macroalgae since its not growing. I only have snails and a cleaning shrimp in there with the corals. Just feeding mysis shrimp 2 times per week. Dosing all for reef and iodide. Nitrate 2.5. Alk 9-10. Ca and others are where they are. Didn't test. I just fed the corals and took some pics.
Water has been cloudy could be the fine sand Im using but will run a little (very little) charcoal for a few days and see what that does. Working the PAR up slowly. The bottom sees about 50-60 scolys about 80 and acros about 100.

Definitely worth following

 

[polyp_craze]

Nice!

 

[Eddie K]

Some updated tank shots. Orange filter in full effect. Maintaining SG at 1.026. Alk constant at 9.5 (All for reef). Water change 2.5 gallons/week (aqua marine salt mix). Acros getting 150 par, zoas and scoly's ~ 100 par.
You will see a BTA. I believe it's stressed and splitting. Fingers crossed. Does not look dead yet! Maxima clam is not opening up as much as I would like. Maybe once it acclimates to tank parameters and light. It has attached to the rock however which is always encouraging. I'm feeding 3 drops of oyster feast and phyto feast per day.

 

[Geesus]

I've definitely added this to the journal of ideas.

Glad it's working out so far.

 

[Whisperer]

well, why not add some scolys! Ha! This will help me get through the looming ugly phase. Using tropic marine salt with treated tap water! Lets see what happens. Ive been testing parameters and so far these are the results:
1.025
Ammonia 0 (salifert)
Nitrate 25 (salifert)
Alk 11
Mg 1380
No need to dose anything yet
of note, evaporation is 500 ml per day.
I usually run my alk at 8-9 but this is what this salt mix gave me.
I need to calibrate my pH meter. It read 7.2 at noon time. ‍ Maybe Ill open a window or something.

Is it just me? looks like it's rocking!

 

[Whisperer]

Yes, I agree. My understanding was that the silicone does not bind acrylic because the surface is so smooth so I used sandpaper to add texture and hopefully help it bond better. Fingers crossed. If it starts to detach from back wall, Ill just support it with a rock and learn from my mistakes. If I ever want to take it down off the back wall, I should be able to cut the silicone with a knife or razor pretty cleanly I imagine.

In retrospect, you could have drilled small holes on the acrylic and let the silicone push through and flatten the tops to anchor the acrylic to the glass.

 

[Eddie K]

In retrospect, you could have drilled small holes on the acrylic and let the silicone push through and flatten the tops to anchor the acrylic to the glass.

Yes, that's a great idea - I didn't mention it, but I did this exact thing - I drilled 2 small holes and the silicone pushed through and added probably more stability.

 

[Karen00]

This is very cool!! I was thinking of doing something similar so I'm glad to see your setup. I will be following along.

 

[PandorasChalk]

This looks cool! Almost like a reef spaceship being captain'd by the shrimp!

 

[Islandvib3s]

Hi. Im sharing my new build. Its a red sea nano and I went with a floating reef setup. Im really happy with it.

I love this so much im going to try my hand on it with a refurbished waterbox 20 im working on. Only im going to weld on 4 it to the replaced back acrylic panel. This is freaking awesome.

 

[StevenHasCoral]

These are so cool, adds an interesting dimension to the tank!

 

[Islandvib3s]

Thx for the motivation

 

[bobyboy]

Looking good!
On a side note you’ve stated you use tap water, just be careful with coral and inverts as you’d be surprised how much copper is in tap water.
IMHO invest in a RODI unit of some kind before you buy anymore coral. It’ll also help cut down on the nasty stuff that pops up aswell!

keep us updated!

 

[Eddie K]

 

[Eddie K]

So got rid of sand bc it was causing issues w/nitrates and phosphates. I was out of town too and someone overfed the tank. :-( lost my clam and some acros. Added a UV sterilizer which cleared up the water. Also added a heater. Its heading in the right direction now. I need to glue the zoas to the rock and figure out where to put the holly grail torch. Im dosing reef fuel (carbon source) and keeping Alk at 7. Havent measured in a few weeks though. I have more problems when I run higher Alk.

 

[Eddie K]