125 Gallon - Shadow Box Build - Another Alternative

[DanielJameS]

So I’m in the midst of a tank upgrade and while getting back to basics and trying to decide on what I wanted to do with the background, a simple painting seemed a little too mundane. I was inspired by this thread:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1868825

and decided to give my own a try while documenting it in short video segments in real time. There have been some trial/error fails but I wanted to post links for anyone who may be interested in another perspective as there isn’t a ton out there on this topic.

Stay Tuned! And follow if interested [emoji1365]

 

[DanielJameS]

Series Starts Here:

 

[DanielJameS]

PART 1: FRAMING



PART 2: THE “HAZE” EFFECT



PART 3: PAINTING



Currently working on artwork and lighting, will post as they get completed!

Cheers and happy reefing!

 

[DanielJameS]

Finally got lighting and some artwork done, it’s coming together [emoji1360]

PART 4: LIGHTING

PART 5: ARTWORK

Moving on to some rock fabrication, stay tuned [emoji1365]

 

[Matthew Harris]

This is so awesome! I've been scouring the web for more examples of this as I plan my tank. Thanks so much for taking the time to document everything -- going to save me a ton of time and $$$. Can't wait to see it with water and tank lights!

 

[DanielJameS]

This is so awesome! I've been scouring the web for more examples of this as I plan my tank. Thanks so much for taking the time to document everything -- going to save me a ton of time and $$$. Can't wait to see it with water and tank lights!

I look forward to seeing more people trying these. I have been so busy with the rest of the work on this build I forgot to link the two new parts for the rock fabrication, you can check out below!

 

[DanielJameS]

PART 6 - FABRICATION

Faux rock fabrication.

 

[O'l Salty]

Following

 

[DanielJameS]

Last post for now as I put the wraps on this project. This tank is about a week or so away from being put up in place of the old so I appreciate anyone who took the time to check these vids out and hope I may have provided an alternative source of inspiration to anyone who may want to try one of these in the future! Until another update when the tank is actually stocked and filled, here is the last video of the series, Happy reefing y’all!

PART 7 - THE FINAL TWEAKS

 

[Neil Fox]

Last post for now as I put the wraps on this project. This tank is about a week or so away from being put up in place of the old so I appreciate anyone who took the time to check these vids out and hope I may have provided an alternative source of inspiration to anyone who may want to try one of these in the future! Until another update when the tank is actually stocked and filled, here is the last video of the series, Happy reefing y’all!

PART 7 - THE FINAL TWEAKS

Really cool! Love this Idea!

 

[DanielJameS]

THE FINALE

To anyone who may stumble upon this in the future, I made several additional tweaks to this as the finale of the tank set up took place including a few lighting technology changes which may be useful to consider if you decide to ever attempt one of these. I have been really busy any forgot to upload this to complete this thread but this video contains clips shortly after the tank was set up. Videos from an iPhone can never quite do the living product justice! Many compliments and intrigue all the way around.

Happy Reefing!!

 

[Slestak71]

I’ll be next up here. This is such an awesome idea. I’ll be doing this for my 75 bow front. I plan on setting this up very slowly so it’ll be a while. After seeing this though nothing else will do.

 

[revhtree]

I love this man! Thank you for taking the time to share it! I would like to do this with a future reef tank.

 

[DanielJameS]

I’ll be next up here. This is such an awesome idea. I’ll be doing this for my 75 bow front. I plan on setting this up very slowly so it’ll be a while. After seeing this though nothing else will do.

Right on! I have to say even months later it does add another dynamic to the tank that really sets it apart from all other builds I’ve had. The changing colors throughout the day are fantastic. Since I’ve cleaned the back glass from the getgo, algae seems to have less of an affinity for growing there.

I’ll try to get some good quality pics as a follow up now that everything is really settled back in.

Word of caution. I have had several fish confused by it thinking it’s another part of the tank. When I first Introduced my lawnmower blenny a couple weeks ago he really wanted to get back there. Prior to that I had a small Chromis go missing. I assumed he jumped into the overflow but was totally MIA. I just found him dried up dead center inside the shadow box [emoji15] RIP lil fella I guess he thought he was making a break to the open sea. The tiny gap he somehow squeaked through is now covered.

 

[don_chuwish]

Very cool indeed - but when I heard "you have to keep the back glass clean" I knew I was out! ;-)
Love the aquascape you did too - unnatural but in a cool contemporary kinda way.

 

[DanielJameS]

Very cool indeed - but when I heard "you have to keep the back glass clean" I knew I was out! ;-)
Love the aquascape you did too - unnatural but in a cool contemporary kinda way.

Yeah...it's actually the initial aquascape from when I set the tank back up with a couple minor tweaks. Those megaflows present a bit of a problem for what I really wanted to do but I've come to like almost having two separate portions of the tank, the back and the front. The fish seem to appreciate it as well with not always having to be up in each others grille, plus it enables me way more room to get in there and clean and I'm getting way better flow throughout the tank with bigger swim throughs. I initially wanted to keep the middle open and do a more cascading thing down from each corner. On a side note, the back glass has not been nearly as much of a hassle to clean as I thought, but I'm also not someone who keeps a "pristine" tank so I thought it was going to be a constant battle, has not been so far.

 

[DanielJameS]

Really hard to capture in photos, here's a couple from today. I have other more pressing issues though (cyano/diatoms and aiptasia) so working on that at the moment as some of my corals started dying back. Slowly getting things back on track. Even though the contents of this tank were up for over 2 years I'm still dealing with new tank woes.

 

[Reef-junky]

I thought about doing this myself but in the end I went with a 3D rock wall. Nice job!

 

[davocean]

Love this!
I remember when this thread came out on RC way back when, and I was so bummed I just bought a tank w/ a black background, or I would have done this myself.

I'm kinda surprised this idea did not take off more from that original post.

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

Looks amazing! I need this on my tank.