Who remembers Steve Weast's tanks?

[McPuff]

When I was designing my new tank a few years ago, that was the exact picture that I had in my mind... unfortunately I couldn’t remember the dimensions or who had posted it on RC.
I ended up going with 6’x5’x27” for 500g.
Here is a pic from builder before shipping

And here’s my early aquascaping...

In the next few weeks I will be breaking down my 1200g worth of reef tanks to move to a new home. The 500g will have much different rock work and I’m thinking to document the move and rebuild.

How did the move go? Have you started a new build thread?

@steveweast the new tank looks terrific!

 

[Drew Hitt]

and finally some top down to see the open structures.

Awesome! I can only echo what others have said, your tank has been an inspiration for years. Thank you!

 

[Andrews_aquarium]

and finally some top down to see the open structures.

Great interview on Reef Therapy! Do you have any updated pics of the system?

 

[Smite]

I’ve seen pictures of that 850 for years on google and always wondered how large it was and who it belonged to. I’ll be checking out the site to read more on it. Amazing and clean.

Looks like the 400 is on the same path. I love the open space.

 

[Jonny Walker]

Yes that reef inspired me so much!

Here are some photos of it...

Legendary

 

[steveweast]

It's been about 18 months now with this system. It's now at the point that I have been doing some editing of the system.....removing and trimming some corals in order to allow more room for others, removing some rock and generally reducing the number of critters and corals. Basically tryouts are over and its time to see who makes the team. This is a quick video that I made of where the system currently is at today.

 

[FishTruck]

A+, with honors and extra credit

I fear... that any tank with even one nozzle or wire or pump showing is now going to be like "nice try" LOL

 

[Andrews_aquarium]

Looks Incredible!!!

 

[MtnDewMan]

I remember that system well!

 

[pop.reef]

Wow, just amazing!! That truly is a MIXED reef, incredible how you manage to keep all these animals together. You don't have any problems with clown-aggression? How do you get the anemones to stay where you want them?

 

[steveweast]

Wow, just amazing!! That truly is a MIXED reef, incredible how you manage to keep all these animals together. You don't have any problems with clown-aggression? How do you get the anemones to stay where you want them?

There’s no clown aggression. Three Perculas school together in the gig…..one in the mag….and the Clarki gets all the haddonis. The gig and the mag never move since they are on pinnacles with very high flow and light. It’s everything that they want. The haddonis sometime shift around but it’s no big deal since I keep nothing on the sand bed. They prefer lower flow and medium light but mostly like to be in the sand against a rock.

 

[InactiveAcct]

It's been about 18 months now with this system. It's now at the point that I have been doing some editing of the system.....removing and trimming some corals in order to allow more room for others, removing some rock and generally reducing the number of critters and corals. Basically tryouts are over and its time to see who makes the team. This is a quick video that I made of where the system currently is at today.

Steve thanks for taking the time for Reef Therapy, great insights, especially on the aesthetics and hiding equipment - after your interview I’m not surprised that the tank walls were the only equipment I could see in this video

 

[eatyourpeas]

Actually, I recently returned to the hobby. I have been out of the hobby for a number of years now but this last Fall, I started up my idle Coldwater tank system which had been sitting empty since 2014.....but this time, I’m returning to my roots with a mostly SPS mixed reef. Back in 2014, I suffered a fall accident off my roof. That fall resulted in the amputation of my right leg. Obviously much has changed in my life since then.....for example, I can now get really good parking.....but I always missed the hobby and decided to return on a more limited basis than before with just my old 400 gallon system now operating as a warm reef.

It's been about 18 months now with this system. It's now at the point that I have been doing some editing of the system.....removing and trimming some corals in order to allow more room for others, removing some rock and generally reducing the number of critters and corals. Basically tryouts are over and its time to see who makes the team. This is a quick video that I made of where the system currently is at today.

So wonderful to see you back! I will be following and learning, of course.

 

[jctello]

Aquascaping is always in the eye of the beholder.....there is no right or wrong. Everyone has their own opinion and no opinion is wrong.....for me that will always mean that my displays will always have....

1) a shallow sand bed for realism
2) no hardware, pipes, outlets, wires or frag racks of any size or kind that is visible.
3) an absolutely clean rear panel for visual depth and to give the corals a clean black background to silhouette against. No unauthorized coralline algae growth on the acrylic is allowed in my display no matter how much I have to clean them each day.
4) scale of rock structure is in proportion to open space.
5) no individual specimen is more important than the overall display. My displays mostly feature the most common of corals...I don’t pursue the latest designer corals. I enjoy viewing a display in its entirety far more than the color nuances of an individual coral.
6) my display will always be more white light than blue light...no black light coral glow for me.

Hi Mr. Weast, thanks so much for sharing you philosophy behind your new tank. I'm definitely inspired by your work and I would use it as a reference for my new tank. Where I live in Mexico there is not many places or people that can share their experience and techniques in setting up a reef tank so I would love if you can share a little bit more about the way you create your aquascape. The dimensions of my tank are 78'X40'X30' in a peninsula style, viewable from three sides but I would recreate something like you did.

How much rock and sand did you use?
How did you design and use the ecotech vectras as your powerheads?

I would really appreciate any information you can share.

Julio Tello