Waking up from the nightmare build: the reboot

[JBKReef]

Wow... just finished all 20 pages of this "nightmare" Its unbelievable to see what was such an eye sore of that pillar turn into a focal point. Amazing work.

 

[Bronc]

Fantastic job!

 

[Ento-Reefer]

This looks incredible!!

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Hey, thanks for all of the compliments, everybody! I appreciate it.

To me, it still looks very rough. And, of course, I’m looking at things I wish I had done differently. Maybe in the future, there could be some things I can change (e.g. build another wall for the outer corner of the dry chamber on left side rather than have a rock pillar).

Most corals have done really well. Getting an ORA order ready for next week (Red Planet, Joe the Coral, etc).

 

[Bob Lauson]

Well, I don’t think the interior of the cabinet space is going to make my website after I finish it. It’s kind of a lost cause without just ripping this whole thing down.

There’s a 3 2x12 horizontal support going across the middle. Obviously, that’s not going anywhere. I was able to rip all the dry wall off from the ceiling, and other than the beam in the middle, I was able to gain 6” of additional clearance (plus no more drywall).

Sometimes the game is ugly and played poorly, and you only win by 1 point. But it’s still a win. That’s where I’m at with this.

And then you look at how this was all framed in:

Just unbelievable. And totally preventable.

Again, without just doing a total demolition, this ain’t goin anywhere. Just going to clean it up as well as I can and then tack plywood over it. Not a whole lot else that I can do.

About to get all this cleaned up and out, hit the coralline algae on viewing panels w/vinegar, scrape off everything that I can, and then prep for buffing the acrylic and then painting.

Just FYI. Lowes and probably others sell 8ft x 6in PVC planks the have an overlapping groove so they look like ship lath when it goes up. Attaches with construction adhesive.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Here’s something I’ve been meaning to share but keep forgetting to get pics of: the modification I made to the filter.

This is a filter I built when I originally took the tank over...I think 14 years ago. Two connected boxes, with water draining into a chamber w/shelves for pad/fiber and chem media such as carbon and Purigen. Water then flowed from the bottom of the drain chamber into a refugium, and then into the next box w/skimmer and reactor.

Here is the modification:

Before @Lasse published his article on starting a reef aquarium, and ‘The Lasse Method’ became a thing, I gleaned this idea from his build thread on a denitrification system he put in his filter and dubbed it (to myself) ‘The Lasse Method’. Lasse was kind enough to help me out w/the design of this, and I really appreciate him taking the time to do so.

On the left is about 12” of various pads. I have routed about 700gph from the drain into this chamber...a little bit for some nitrification and heterotrophic bacteria, but even more to provide surface area for the bacteria so that the water would be largely stripped of O2 so that by the time it gets underneath the Marine Pure blocks, denitrification can take place.

Water then flows up into the refugium and then into the next chamber which is now a cryptic zone. The panel separating the refugium and cryptic zone is solid for about 6” at the bottom, so the anaerobic/anoxic water has to flow up through the media on the plenum. For the cryptic zone, I dropped a Sicce pump in and then put the rock in so that I can keep the water turning over in that chamber.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

I haven’t been putting much energy into getting the refugium really fired up. The next step is to get a few pieces of rock from a place like Tampa Bay LR that has a ton of stuff growing on it and putting it in.

I think over the years, the overall diversity of the tank has dipped quite a bit. Putting high diversity rock in will really seed the refugium, the cryptic zone, and the tank itself.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

The reboot looks great! Nice job and I bet the customer is happy!

I wish I could say they were thrilled.

On one hand, they love the overall new look and can sorta see the vision. On the other hand, they are bummed that some of the coral died and that the tank looks so empty. They can’t see into the future with this tank the way I can, so where I see potential, they see bare rock.

I’ve been adding stuff. But the nice looking stuff...like a jack-o-lantern lepto, some ultra acans, etc...is pretty small, so it kinda gets engulfed by the tank.

What I really need is like a $1500 coral budget to get some cool stuff going.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Here’s a quick shot I took from the kitchen side:

I was messing around in the tank and moving some stuff, so everything is pretty closed up (especially the base of that center piece, which is what I was moving around).

Re: the piece in the middle...right now, there is a monti cap, jack o lantern lepto, Seriatopora, and some other random acro I found, but that’s just there to have something there. The plan is to glue some blue stags (and maybe mix in a green stag) onto the very top. Then, around the edge of the top, mount some tabling acros. I cut the bottom of that rock so that it sits flat and it is super stable...not going anywhere.

At the base of that piece, right now I have some nice ultra acans, kryptonite Caulaustrea, a frogspawn polyp, some sweet blue mushrooms (craziest color I’ve ever seen on them), and a green toadstool. I should be able to keep that stuff growing down there even if some coral tables out.

That’s the benefit of a wide tank...lot of room for light to get to the bottom from other angles.

Anyway, that’s the only decent shot I could get. I’m going to add some stuff next week, and I’ll try to get there in the evening for more pics when the corals are opened back up.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

@Gregg @ ADP
Maybe you need to borrow some of the colonies of coral from @Sallstrom our get some of his excess until they reopen in a couple years? Seems like they have more than they can handle during the rebuild. You could just house some of the larger sizes until the other corals start to grow in.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

@Gregg @ ADP
Maybe you need to borrow some of the colonies of coral from @Sallstrom our get some of his excess until they reopen in a couple years? Seems like they have more than they can handle during the rebuild. You could just house some of the larger sizes until the other corals start to grow in.

That is an outstanding idea.

Maybe I can even set up an R2R donation account called ‘GoFragMe’. Everybody can just send some frags of their best colonies to fill the tank up.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Man, you have such a 1 of a kind scape it's like looking at the actual reef from the angles u get. Having a vertical cliff wall like u do gives a sense of depth 99% of tanks cant achieve.

It's a feeling of really being under 10 ft of water..beautiful.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Man, you have such a 1 of a kind scape it's like looking at the actual reef from the angles u get. Having a vertical cliff wall like u do gives a sense of depth 99% of tanks cant achieve.

It's a feeling of really being under 10 ft of water..beautiful.

Thanks a lot. When I decided to build that cover, I was really just hoping for something that could cover that black acrylic with rock and that I could then build up against a little easier and not have to make a huge pile of rock. But once it started coming together, I started to see that it could be a really unique vertical feature.

What I like most about it is that the shelves are on pegs and not permanent. As things grow out/change, I can switch things around on the wall as needed.

Most of that structure in the middle is just there to take up some space as corals are growing out, but that will be pared down quite a big as the corals take off.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Thanks a lot. When I decided to build that cover, I was really just hoping for something that could cover that black acrylic with rock and that I could then build up against a little easier and not have to make a huge pile of rock. But once it started coming together, I started to see that it could be a really unique vertical feature.

What I like most about it is that the shelves are on pegs and not permanent. As things grow out/change, I can switch things around on the wall as needed.

Most of that structure in the middle is just there to take up some space as corals are growing out, but that will be pared down quite a big as the corals take off.

You are much welcome. Great job

 

[Lingwendil]

Outstanding redemption for this bear of a tank. Nice job so far, lots of ups and downs!

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

So, I’ve been away from the board for awhile and I completely forgot about this thread. Probably time to update it.

I don’t have any good pics…maybe I will get some tomorrow.

Some quick thoughts now that some time has passed:

- I painted the back panels with blue epoxy paint. Mistake. Never again. Too many little tiny divots and uneven spots where algae can grow and is almost impossible to remove.

- To remedy that, I had some dark blue acrylic pieces cut to fit all those weird back corners, and then used super-glue and interlocking tape to provide a mount to the inside of the aquarium. This allows me to easily remove the pieces for cleaning.

- the vertical rock wall design was a success. I’ve used it several times in other tanks since then, and have modified the design some to reinforce the structure (I had a couple on other tanks break).

- using Quik-rete for the rest of the aquascape…meh. I can see the value of it, but in this case, with how difficult it is to access so much of the tank, it became a problem when some of it would crumble and fall apart. I eventually yanked it out and broke off all of the mortar and built it back smaller.

- I had a vision of having the upper zone be SPS-dominated, and I still haven’t given up on that. There are a few colonies that are doing well, but I just haven’t been able to get the client that amped about them. They like what they like, and it’s not really sticks. The client is out of town a lot now, so there isn’t really a lot of emphasis on adding new things.

- We’ve had a couple minor ups-and-downs…most notably an auto-feeder malfunction that dumped all the food in at once while I was out of town. Still recovering from that episode in terms of nuisance algae/dinos.

- made a minor filtration breakthrough on a freshwater tank I have in my classroom. I’m in the process of modifying the existing sump to see if it works the same way in a saltwater system. Spoiler: turtle grass and mangroves. More on that later.

Here’s a quick pic I took the other day:

 

[Susan Edwards]

So, I’ve been away from the board for awhile and I completely forgot about this thread. Probably time to update it.

Here’s a quick pic I took the other day:

Wow! what a transformation and a beautiful pic above! Still going thru the thread!

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Wow! what a transformation and a beautiful pic above! Still going thru the thread!

Thanks, Susan. Nothing is ever easy with that tank, but sometimes it has it moments.

 

[LBReefer]

I just gave this thread another read from beginning to end. I love all of the ingenious hacks, but even more I appreciate your honest, straight-forward writing style. Please share some of your other projects.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

I just gave this thread another read from beginning to end. I love all of the ingenious hacks, but even more I appreciate your honest, straight-forward writing style. Please share some of your other projects.

Thanks. I’ve got a 570g (72”L x 36”W x 48” H ) going in around the holidays in a new home build. It will be a nice contrast to see how it looks when I get to control the tank and space design.

This one will look nice because there will be no front access. Just straight drywall, so a very clean look. Client has some sort of entertainment system going into the space to the left. Will be interesting to see how that turns out.

Life support system in basement.