Anyone replicated a reef under a Oil Rig or Pier ? *See examples*

[SomeHappyFish]

Has anyone tried replicating this look with sponge, barnacles, monti with I don't know a pvc structure?

 

[mtfish]

Haven't done that but if you are ever in the Corpus Christi, Texas area they have the Texas State Aquarium that has a large tank that simulates what you would see in a Gulf of Mexico oil rig. Worth the visit if you have the time.

 

[Nick Steele]

I haven’t done it but have seen some places like basspro who have the undersides of docks as tanks!

My dream would be a big bedroom fitted with pond liners! Walk-in closest as filters and pumps! Door entry would be a dock you could walk into and there would be mangroves along the edge of the room! Fill that bad boy up with an snook/redfish and flounder!

 

[benbalter]

I would use concrete and cardboard tubes to make the legs. You can add salt for water softing to make the rusted pits. Yes Texas has some of the best aquariums in the US

 

[GARRIGA]

Isn’t that a Garibaldi from the Pacific Ocean? Are they now established in the GOM or am I mistaking it with something else?

BTW, would be cool setup in a tall tank where sponges and softies only at the bottom and acros near the surface

 

[SomeHappyFish]

Isn’t that a Garibaldi from the Pacific Ocean? Are they now established in the GOM or am I mistaking it with something else?

BTW, would be cool setup in a tall tank where sponges and softies only at the bottom and acros near the surface

I guess the issue is the lighting reaching around the pole.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

This would be a really neat idea if someone did this!

 

[Biokabe]

I guess the issue is the lighting reaching around the pole.

It could work with a sufficiently large tank and some creative mounting.

Pole in the center, four fixtures around the tank, one mounted around each quadrant. Tilt them at an angle so that you get light coming in at different heights along the pole, rather than all shining top-down and getting the lower level of the pole blocked by the top level.

The corners of the tank would likely suffer with this set-up, but either but there might be enough light coming from the opposite edges to support low-light corals.

 

[areefer01]

It could work with a sufficiently large tank and some creative mounting.

You are pretty much spot on here. It is all about the aquarium size and scale. Taller tanks could make it work at the cost of maintenance difficulties.

 

[Doctorgori]

semi related: I wonder how things are going in the Gulf after that Big oil spill a few years back

 

[SomeHappyFish]

It could work with a sufficiently large tank and some creative mounting.

Pole in the center, four fixtures around the tank, one mounted around each quadrant. Tilt them at an angle so that you get light coming in at different heights along the pole, rather than all shining top-down and getting the lower level of the pole blocked by the top level.

The corners of the tank would likely suffer with this set-up, but either but there might be enough light coming from the opposite edges to support low-light corals.

semi related: I wonder how things are going in the Gulf after that Big oil spill a few years back

How would one compensate for the lack of rocks and hiding spots for fish?

 

[twentyleagues]

How would one compensate for the lack of rocks and hiding spots for fish?

Its a cool idea and I have thought about doing something like this. Fish choice would be important. you could still have some cave structures at the bottom of the tank in a deep enough tank. But I was thinking barnacle blennies, assessor, dotty backs, mandarin or scooter blennies, for a smaller build. If you have a 3d printer you could do some metal looking structures for larger fish in a larger tank to hide in also.

Make the pillar out of agracrete. I have made stuff with agracrete in the past using wet sand as a mold to make the the shapes I was looking for.....ish. I made a column with a couple branches near the top. I stuck wooden dowels in the sand at different spots inside the column mold so when I poured the agracrete in the mold it had spots for frag plugs. Once it was solid I dug it out and removed the dowels worked really well. This was a long time ago I was using t5 and mh lights had no issues growing corals on this structure. The structure looked like stacked rocks not smooth like the pics above, smooth would have been cooler. People always asked how I got the rocks stacked like that.

 

[Doctorgori]

How would one compensate for the lack of rocks and hiding spots for fish?

in the ocean that issue is quickly addressed by encrusting sponges, barnacles, et et …
It can’t/wont happen in a aquarium without assistance
…on that show “Tanked” the routinely got theses reef displays from some company …that might be a option albeit expensive no doubt

 

[SomeHappyFish]

Its a cool idea and I have thought about doing something like this. Fish choice would be important. you could still have some cave structures at the bottom of the tank in a deep enough tank. But I was thinking barnacle blennies, assessor, dotty backs, mandarin or scooter blennies, for a smaller build. If you have a 3d printer you could do some metal looking structures for larger fish in a larger tank to hide in also.

Make the pillar out of agracrete. I have made stuff with agracrete in the past using wet sand as a mold to make the the shapes I was looking for.....ish. I made a column with a couple branches near the top. I stuck wooden dowels in the sand at different spots inside the column mold so when I poured the agracrete in the mold it had spots for frag plugs. Once it was solid I dug it out and removed the dowels worked really well. This was a long time ago I was using t5 and mh lights had no issues growing corals on this structure. The structure looked like stacked rocks not smooth like the pics above, smooth would have been cooler. People always asked how I got the rocks stacked like that.

Great minds think alike... I had Barnacle Blennies in mind while reading the start of your sentence haha ! One could make the structure of pvc covered with agracrete and glue some barnacles for the blennies.

 

[-AnThOnY-]

I agree with one of the above comments regarding scale. I just don't think itll look quite right unless the fish to structure size ratio is right.

Another option could be just a few piers towards the back of the tank (maybe with some x bracing or something for structure) and then adding a shadowbox on the back of the tank to get depth. You can create more structure in the background.

 

[JC1977]

Never crossed my mind but definitely has potential to be an epic display if done right !

 

[Biokabe]

How would one compensate for the lack of rocks and hiding spots for fish?

You make it not lack them. Put your rocks in the corners of the tanks and around the floor of the tank, but keep them pretty low vertically, especially around the pier. It would need to be a taller tank for the pier structure to have the right sense of scale, so a single layer of rockwork on the bottom shouldn't detract from the central idea while giving both filtration and shelter to your fish.

Since the structure would be artificial to begin with, you could also start the tank off with "shelves" wrapping around it, almost like a spiral staircase. Cover the shelves with encrusting corals/sponges, and drill holes for (vertical) frag plug placement in the structure to give you places to mount corals and other life away from the shelves.

 

[SomeHappyFish]

You make it not lack them. Put your rocks in the corners of the tanks and around the floor of the tank, but keep them pretty low vertically, especially around the pier. It would need to be a taller tank for the pier structure to have the right sense of scale, so a single layer of rockwork on the bottom shouldn't detract from the central idea while giving both filtration and shelter to your fish.

Since the structure would be artificial to begin with, you could also start the tank off with "shelves" wrapping around it, almost like a spiral staircase. Cover the shelves with encrusting corals/sponges, and drill holes for (vertical) frag plug placement in the structure to give you places to mount corals and other life away from the shelves.

I wonder if this could work with a 20x20x20 cube... This is the next tank I'm getting since my 24x24x24 cube is scrap

 

[SomeHappyFish]

More reference images for a build, taken from instagram.

 

[Hubert J. Farnsworth]

one way of addressing lighting and to keep it visually appealing and realistic might be to place the column towards the rear left or right third of the tank (in my head, i'm dividing the tank in thirds along the front panel of the tank, assuming rectangular not a cube).

in the opposite front third or most of the two thirds on the otherside, perhaps a live rock island with something dramatic like tonga branch in a pile.

with this light traditionally, you'll have some dim lighting on the back side of the column. it would be a cool place to grow some lower light corals and sponges, etc. it would probably be real interesting just to see what colonizes there with minimal frag placement.

i guess the main concern would be leaving enough space so the area behind the column didn't become a detritus trap and too hard to keep clean on the glass, etc.