Latest updates

Eliminated almost all my palythoa, except a few. Also added a Lobo that was desperately in need of a new home and a rock flower as well as a new wall hammer.

Well, the acrylic clamp rings are finished!

I spent some time yesterday brushing off my knowledge of machining!
I started by making a hilariously simple router jig to bevel all sharp OD corners… Plus, setting up my Delta drill press to do way more machining operations than it was ever designed to, with the help of an X/Y vise!

Simply put; the two 8” OD, 6” ID, 1/2” thick acrylic rings were both milled to have a pair of symmetrical flats in one half of their diameter. These flat areas allowed me to stand the rings on edge and run a 13/64” drill bit (for 1/4”-20 tap) through the thickness of each side of the hoop of the rings.

The rings were bisected using a circular saw/plastics finish blade, then one half of each had it’s holes tapped to 1/4”-20. The other half had its holes drilled out to 1/4”, then counter sunk an inch or so deep to 3/8” diameter. The nylon fasteners were chucked in a cordless drill, and ground down on a bench grinder, from 1/2” head diameter, to <3/8” head diameter; allowing counter-sink clearance…

Everything fits together well enough for my purposes, though I was around 1/16”-1/32” off from perfect fitment, which I’ll constantly be noticing when I view them installed… oh well!

I’ll see about trying to carve out some time this evening to get the relevant rockwork shelf ring installed, and continue building up the rocks!

Long story short; I made a difficult to decorate tank even more of a challenge!

I don’t mind, I knew I was getting myself into this situation, and have a few tricks up my sleeve to get myself out of it!

For example: The previously 16” X 5.5” tank top opening obviously now has a 6” pipe welded in the center of it, so I now have two small opening instead! — this means small and medium rocks are all that will fit into the tank… in addition, the pipe in the center of the tank makes rock placement for a central island and six viewing faces quite challenging…

So, I plan to use my wet cut tile saw to bisect a few larger rocks strategically, allowing me to sneak the halves into the tank openings, before dowel pinning them back together with 3/8” acrylic rod segments!

Furthermore, I have two spare 1/2” thick acrylic “locking collars” the local plastics shop CNC cut for me as spares for the pipe welding project in this tank. These collars/rings are perfectly circular, 6” ID, 8” OD.


Hindsight being 20/20; I could have friction fit both of these collars around the 6” central pipe, Allowing me to slide them up and down on it, serving as “shelves” which could have acrylic plates welded to them for coral propagation!

I quickly realized that I can still just bisect these two acrylic collars/rings, drilling, tapping and counter-sinking each side of each one to accommodate a nylon screw!

This will yield a pair of collar clamps, which I can simply clamp around my central 6” acrylic tube.

My current plan is to clamp one around 7-9” up from the bottom of the tank to serve as a “shelf” to be hidden inside the rockwork as I build it up taller… the other ring will be saved if it isn’t needed for rock structure to serve as an adjustable height coral prop shelf down the road!

I also plan to route bevels on the OD of the rings as necessary; similar to the disc shown, which is actually part of my routing jig, with that bevel being for jig hardware clearance!

I’ve got a busy weekend ahead of me, but will update once I’ve got these acrylic collars/rings machined and installed!

Update my tank under sunlight

Some pics from May 2025 - couple of new corals added (TNT Anacropora and a nice Blue Stag)

Lastest pics straight from the camera (see my build post for types)

Check out this growth in just the last month!
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Update April, under daylight and under blue light with new LED bar fixture from ZOOX, honestly it's much much brighter than my old Illumagic LED bar, but Illumagic is the most photogenic i've seen (yes make best photos for uploading but not really make best colours for corals)
My proud is NO adjust like sarturation to make coraline behind the object becomes pure red or yellow fishes like the yellow tang becomes orange or neon green...

I finally scraped the algae and Spirorbid worms of my back glass!

Added AFR to my dosing regimen!

Youtube video

Couple of pictures and video of my tank today. I got a Target Spot Mandarin a few months back and he's not shy. He eats frozen just like the rest of the fish. I think he's looking pretty healthy! Also my torch is looking real good, I thought I would share.

Hello!
Been a minute since I did an official update so here we go.
Cuc added:
65 dwarf ceriths
7 Florida ceriths
1 giant knobby creeper
1 tiger conch
3 trochus
4 nassarius
1 serpent star
1 tux urchin
3 turbo snails
1 scarlet hermit
Found a tectus snail...
Status of GHA:
Nearly gone I've almost eradicated it all just got 2 patches on the same rock.
That's about all! Looking to add a rose nem white tail bristletooth and a clown soon!

Few pics to update this - all straight off the camera with no editing!

I got my Orphek OR4 installed.

Switched out the AI Prime for my Orphek OR4 winning. Went with the reef day plus. Much happier with this spectrum. Photo update.