Rêverie Reef - Video thread

[Ardeus]

Sand is my favorite part of a tank and it's hard for me to imagine a nice scape without it

Each tank is different, but in my tank I don't do anything to the sand, it's practically maintenance free. If there are diatoms, in a few seconds I blow them with a turkey baster. A diamond goby helps a lot too.

The bottom won't stay black unless you scrape it regularly, so it will be different than the background.

All the techniques I pointed will still work.

I was forced into creating a scape based on islands mostly by the anemones, I needed them to be contained.

If you look at the first pages of this thread, you can see I had the scape preplanned and I just added a few more rocks to my existing rocks to complete it.

 

[nornicle]

oh my goodness. you are too humble... you have a full playlist about aquascapes and designs and even examples for all different tank configurations... bravo!

EVERYONE should watch your 99% of reef tanks are ugly!

yes i spent the last 15 years keeping freshwater planted tanks and reading Amano books and magazine.. and i couldn’t understand why the design aesthetics are not carried over to marine tanks.

That said i wanted to have many more fish in my tank than you... i hope it is ok...my corals will also be very small at the start..!

 

[Ardeus]

I have a ton of aquascaping videos and I tried a few times to write the script for my "ultimate guide to reef aquascaping" video and I never succeeded for various reasons.

There's so much to talk about and I don't have good examples to point out or the ressources to produce them.

Well, I could use 3D animations, but it would be a ton of work that I am not willing to do. Judging from the views on my aquascaping videos when compared to other subjects, I don't think it's something people are that interested.

It's not that straightforward to apply the techniques that are commonly used in freshwater aquascapes.

To start with, I don't think the diorama style where we try to emulate an emersed landscape can work with a reef.

There is a huge amount of factors that we must take into account when choosing and placing corals that are not so restrictive when putting plants together.

That being said, a learned a ton from freshwater aquascapers. I have tried to persuade a few of them to try their hand at a reef but without any success. To be blunt, I don't think they're the kind of hobbiest I can connect easily.

 

[Ardeus]

I forgot to talk about the amount of fish.

I have a lot of fish, most of them just don't move much or hide a lot. There's a lot of them on the small side too.

Some months ago, I made a video about a baby banggai that fell from the refugium into the return compartment, was sucked by the pump and landed in the magnifica.


The little guy still lives there and in the last few weeks I had the feeling his mother was trying to seduce him, while his father was holding a new batch of his younger brothers in the bubbletips. No judgements.

Well, today I found out that he accepted one of his younger sisters in the magnifica. I wonder what Frued would have to say about this.

I currently have the adult couple of banggais, the new couple that lives in the magnifica, 3 more young banggais in the bubbletips and 6 more in the refugium that I'm thinking if I should move to the tank or not.

 

[nornicle]

wonderful!

As i’m planning and thinking about composition, i’m not sure about a back overflow in the centre (like red sea). perhaps i will go to a side overflow also... did you do that to open up the composition?

 

[Ardeus]

Unless you're planning a black background, the overflow in the middle is a bad idea.

 

[riguy314]

Just finished reading your thread. one word for it - amazing. your attention to the aquascaping layout is crazy. You wouldn't have pictures of the main structure as you put it together? can you post them?

 

[nornicle]

Also what sand did you use, I am now tempted to use real sand - I see you use quite a thin coating from your signature pic it looks to be very thing near the front glass and heaped towards the back (a bit like planted tank depth creation, but not possible to do too deep for fear of pollutants building up in a reef I think).

 

[Ardeus]

I used ATI Fiji white 0.3-1.2mm. I chose it because it's supposedly heavier than regular sand and therefore it allows stronger flow in the tank.


There is more sand in the tank than it looks because the tank fits inside the stand by 3cms. So the bottom glass is hidden and 1.7cms of sand are also hidden. The idea was to try to hide the sand line as much as possible.

 

[Ardeus]

I live in a remote area and one disadvantage is that I have to buy a lot online, my LFS is 250kms away.

Buying online in a small country is often not a good experience. There's not much competition and I often feel like I'm treated as a second rate customer.

I am a client of some of those online stores for over a decade and I never know who am I talking to on messenger, for example.

If I ask to hold a fish or coral for 4 or 5 days and pay in advance, they say no.

Because the stocks are not always updated I normally contact them through messenger. Sometimes it takes them weeks to respond and I just give up.

When the relation is reversed, it can be even worse. I sent 10 anemones to one of them and they never paid.

So, I am buying more and more abroad. When I order stuff from Spain for example, many of the stores send a gift (a coral, fish food, etc), message me asking if the order arrived without problems and treat me like I am a childhood friend.

But living in the middle of nowhere has its advantages. Today I was walking my dog and looking at the fields and I realised that my aquascaping preferences seem to mimic the landscape around me to some extent.

 

[nornicle]

Thanks for the update. How do you maintain redundancy being so far from society do you run extra generators, and do you have a spare for every piece of equipment, I assume including lights?

 

[hankacrank]

Thanks for the update. How do you maintain redundancy being so far from society do you run extra generators, and do you have a spare for every piece of equipment, I assume including lights?

I have wondered this too. What you have been able to accomplish with such a successful reef and your knowledge-based about reef maintenance, whilst being 250km from the nearest LFS is astounding. There are countless reef enthusiasts who live walking distance from an LFS who are running tanks that are completely unstable and in need of emergency supplies on a frequent basis.

 

[Ardeus]

I was worried about redundancy when I set up this tank, so I got backups of critical equipment.

I have another return pump, heaters, etc.

A few days ago the maxspect razor`s power supply failed. I cranked up the other 2 fixtures. It would be enough to keep the tank going indefinitely but then I remembered that I had a non functioning razor and that solved the problem.

The return pump and one of the circulation pumps have battery backups and I also have a generator for the tank.

Many of my fish only eat frozen, so everytime I visit the LFS I get a 5 or 6 months supply.

 

[Ardeus]

These 2 have been hanging out for 2 weeks now. They never heard about social distancing.

 

[NY_Caveman]

That is so cool! A gecko and a toad?

 

[Ardeus]

It's a salamander.

 

[NY_Caveman]

It's a salamander.

Nice! Big head for a salamander, but hard to tell curled up.

 

[Ardeus]

They are often on the steps of the pool and the salamander stays in the water about half of the time. The pool is untreated.

 

[NY_Caveman]

They are often on the steps of the pool and the salamander stays in the water about half of the time. The pool is untreated.

I grew up near a bog and spent my childhood catching salamanders, newts and crayfish. Miss those carefree days in nature.

 

[Ardeus]

This night I dreamt that the tank was extremely cloudy. I didn't panic because it has happened many times before, it's just the anemones spawning. But it looked much more milky than I have ever seen it,

In my dream I went into another room to get the camera and when I got back, the water was already clearing up and I was disappointed because I really wanted to film the tank, it looked really cool.

When I woke up this morning I went to check the tank and guess what? The water was slightly cloudy.