New Rimless 40B Build

chort55 · Mar 27, 2013

The blacks are highly underrated IMO. Price isn't horrible and they are pretty cool, and not something alot of people have even for leopard owners.

I thought you had quite a bit of the sand bed open... how would opening more of it up = more places to mount corals (especially acros)?

creefer · Mar 27, 2013

Well.....there have been some changes in the tank. I've moved most of the LPS out of the system and have now moved on to adjusting the balance of the LR to satisfy my desire to have more space on which to mount acros.

I have to essentially rescape. Things, in terms of scape, as they were set up originally were not as strong as I would have liked. So, it's seemingly confusing that opening the sand bed gives me more acro mounting possibilities, but sensible at the same time, if that makes sense. I realized that the original layout was not as strong as I would like I had to do a temporary scape which is kind of a mess. Most of my LR is Tonga, so I need to creatively assemble it into something more than the 2 piles I have now. Let's just say that what was in my mind did not end up in the tank. In my haste to get this tank set up, I neglected the reefer's #1 rule........nothing good happens fast. I was trying to get the old tank cleaned up for sale, and pumped about a new set up, and rushed the scape.

Posideon did a great job with his tonga set up. Mine is going to be different, but allow for lots of good acro placement.

chort55 · Mar 27, 2013

Yeah I can definitely see how that stuff could be hard to work with. I have 1 piece (hidden, but if I pointed it out you would see why it made more sense to hide it then show its beauty), and it was hard to find a good spot for it where it looked right and functioned how I wanted it too.

creefer · Mar 27, 2013

Yeah.....totally an issue for me. I was hoping to get the "minimalist" look with this tank, but it simply didn't work for me. When the wife is gone in April, I'm going to pull some of the rock out for some drilling and gluing. I'm hopeful that the end result keeps the sand bed open and lots of surface area for coral placement. It's going to be a long night getting done what I want to get done, but it has to be done, so looks like coffee drinks that night, lol!

chort55 · Mar 27, 2013

I think a good amount of patience, and some balancing (and epoxy/glue) you could pull off a real nice structure or two with the rocks you have and get a great scape. The original wasn't horrible by any means, it just needs some tweeking I think. It's definitely possible to make a nice scape with just tonga branch, but IMO it doesn't offer quite the coral placing capabilities as some of the other "normal" options, which is why I have kind of steered away from it for the most part.... but it does make it possible to have a wide open scape to allow alot of water flow and minimize dead spots which is a huge advantage in an acro tank for sure.

creefer · Mar 28, 2013

I think you're right. What you describe as benefits are the reasons I went that direction in the first place.

CRW Reefer · Apr 10, 2013

Amazingly awesome tank build!!!! Props for sure.

I was wondering if that was gl*******s kit you used for overflow and if so is it a 1500gph one.

creefer · Apr 15, 2013

Thanks CRW. You are right in the overflow and it is the 1500 gph model. Works very well.

I will have some updated pics this week. I have made a few changes, added some frags, then left town for work. After a cleaning, I'll update the thread.

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creefer · May 12, 2013

No pics....can't bear to show what's going on in the tank right now. I had a little GHA explosion that I'm in the process of getting control over. Pics when that's over with. Giant pain in the back side for sure. What's even more of a pain is that I'm not sure why it happened to begin with. I'm working on it and hope it's gone soon. I think that a dirty sump is partly to blame. Hope to get that cleaned out tonight or one night this week. The only other change made to the system in recent weeks was the removal of macro due to biopellets consuming the nutrients.....it was not growing at all.