Cheilinus' basement pool (and rum bar) build

[FredsNJReef]

Awesome, thank you for the update and the pic of the allusive Broomtail Wrasse! I see the clown trigger tried hamming it up this time

 

[Maximizer]

I am so happy to see an update!! I love this pond Do you have any concerns with getting a hole in the pond liner? Also how are the 2 porcupine puffers getting along? A surge device should be fairly simple to setup for this . I am getting ready to attempt something like this, on a much smaller scale. 50g, just to see if I like the view first, then go bigger from there.

 

[jgvergo]

Makes me want to unfinish my basement and put in a pool/bar!! Terrific concept and execution!

 

[bo0sted2g]

This is such a sick build!!

 

[woodguy]

whoops, I didn't pay attention to the dates lol. It was to the OP.

the build thread is also on reef central, predator thread, 10' pond build by moriarty definitely worth the read

 

[Cheilinus]

Awesome, thank you for the update and the pic of the allusive Broomtail Wrasse! I see the clown trigger tried hamming it up this time

I'll try to post some more of her, getting the chance to take a decent pic permitting

I am so happy to see an update!! I love this pond Do you have any concerns with getting a hole in the pond liner? Also how are the 2 porcupine puffers getting along? A surge device should be fairly simple to setup for this . I am getting ready to attempt something like this, on a much smaller scale. 50g, just to see if I like the view first, then go bigger from there.

Thank you!

So far so good with the liner. At first I was really cautious of it, but this thing is super tough. Took a while before I was comfortable with adding certain fish that may be capable of biting/slicing it (puffers, triggers, large tangs... etc...). Going on 4 years now with no problems.

The puffers get along great, in fact they usually swim together, and will share a cave at night.

I actually used to have a 50 gallon rubbermaid plumbed in that I used for a refugium/haddoni anemone tank. I wound up removing it because the system was starting to take over my basement, and I wanted the extra room to build my bar. You really do get a lot of usable space with that size/shape.

the build thread is also on reef central, predator thread, 10' pond build by moriarty definitely worth the read

Yea, I actually have a build thread over there from the beginning (wasn't sure if it was kosher to mention that here or not). I decided to start a thread here as well, especially with the issues they were having with posting pics.

 

[Cheilinus]

So this guy has been in a rather lengthy QT. I picked him up in September, and didn't feel like I would be around enough over the past few months to introduce him to the pool, especially with all of the other triggers. Chose to keep him in a 75g tank by himself until I could be there to watch for aggression, and intervene if necessary. No problems at all. The other fish never gave him a second look.

 

[AiKkz]

Unreal build my friend!

 

[lbacha]

Great build

 

[dragon99]

Also, you mentioned an acrylic viewer. Would love to hear more about that, as it's something that I could definitely use.

If you still need a viewer.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/sea-side-aquatics-coral-viewer.html

Or
https://www.avastmarine.com/products/top-down-porthole-smartphone-edition

 

[Cheilinus]

If you still need a viewer.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/sea-side-aquatics-coral-viewer.html

Or
https://www.avastmarine.com/products/top-down-porthole-smartphone-edition

Thanks for the links!! I'm going to order one of the larger viewers from BRS. Can't believe I don't have one of these yet...

 

[Maximizer]

I think it's about time for an update on this

 

[Cheilinus]

I think it's about time for an update on this

Agreed!

I had a few opportunities to visit Hawaii's reefs over the past year, and decided to try replicating that a little with the pool.
Thought it would be fun to do a waterfall, and wanted to attempt the black lava rock look. I need to do a little more to it, and build out the tide pool basin a bit so that it isn't so round. My original idea was to use this area for fish/inverts common to tide pools (blennies, gobies, etc...) but with the two waterfalls spilling into it, the flow is way too much. Anyway, I built the basin part from a 40 gallon preformed pond sitting on a couple milk crates and weighted it down with live rock. Built up the sides with black pond foam, added the waterfalls and connected everything together, trying to hide the plumbing as best I could (still need to do something with that heater cord visible in the pic). I must have gone through a couple dozen cans of pond foam. I also thought it would be fun to add some red/orange LED's to the waterfalls to give it a sort of lava flow effect. Looks a lot better at night when the rest of the lights are off, but you can see a little glow from them in the pic.

Added a few "corals", and have a few more en route. I spent a fair amount of time in the pool trying to get the corals "just right", but my big niger trigger had other ideas. Anything near his cave was promptly dragged across the pool and dumped. I was surprised at how effortlessly he was able to move some rather heavy pieces!

Have to run for now, but I'll try to continue my update soon. Lots of changes, especially to the stocking.

 

[drawman]

Agreed!

I had a few opportunities to visit Hawaii's reefs over the past year, and decided to try replicating that a little with the pool.
Thought it would be fun to do a waterfall, and wanted to attempt the black lava rock look. I need to do a little more to it, and build out the tide pool basin a bit so that it isn't so round. My original idea was to use this area for fish/inverts common to tide pools (blennies, gobies, etc...) but with the two waterfalls spilling into it, the flow is way too much. Anyway, I built the basin part from a 40 gallon preformed pond sitting on a couple milk crates and weighted it down with live rock. Built up the sides with black pond foam, added the waterfalls and connected everything together, trying to hide the plumbing as best I could (still need to do something with that heater cord visible in the pic). I must have gone through a couple dozen cans of pond foam. I also thought it would be fun to add some red/orange LED's to the waterfalls to give it a sort of lava flow effect. Looks a lot better at night when the rest of the lights are off, but you can see a little glow from them in the pic.

Added a few "corals", and have a few more en route. I spent a fair amount of time in the pool trying to get the corals "just right", but my big niger trigger had other ideas. Anything near his cave was promptly dragged across the pool and dumped. I was surprised at how effortlessly he was able to move some rather heavy pieces!

Have to run for now, but I'll try to continue my update soon. Lots of changes, especially to the stocking.

This just gets cooler and cooler.

 

[Maximizer]

Agreed!

I had a few opportunities to visit Hawaii's reefs over the past year, and decided to try replicating that a little with the pool.
Thought it would be fun to do a waterfall, and wanted to attempt the black lava rock look. I need to do a little more to it, and build out the tide pool basin a bit so that it isn't so round. My original idea was to use this area for fish/inverts common to tide pools (blennies, gobies, etc...) but with the two waterfalls spilling into it, the flow is way too much. Anyway, I built the basin part from a 40 gallon preformed pond sitting on a couple milk crates and weighted it down with live rock. Built up the sides with black pond foam, added the waterfalls and connected everything together, trying to hide the plumbing as best I could (still need to do something with that heater cord visible in the pic). I must have gone through a couple dozen cans of pond foam. I also thought it would be fun to add some red/orange LED's to the waterfalls to give it a sort of lava flow effect. Looks a lot better at night when the rest of the lights are off, but you can see a little glow from them in the pic.

Added a few "corals", and have a few more en route. I spent a fair amount of time in the pool trying to get the corals "just right", but my big niger trigger had other ideas. Anything near his cave was promptly dragged across the pool and dumped. I was surprised at how effortlessly he was able to move some rather heavy pieces!

Have to run for now, but I'll try to continue my update soon. Lots of changes, especially to the stocking.

Simply amazing!! You have inspired me to change how I go about keeping tanks. I find this more natural. You sacrifice a viewing angle but it's worth it because the animals get more space. A 1000g glass aquarium is hard to afford lol. Can't wait to see more because it looks awesome. Truly unique.

 

[Cheilinus]

This just gets cooler and cooler.

Thank you!

Simply amazing!! You have inspired me to change how I go about keeping tanks. I find this more natural. You sacrifice a viewing angle but it's worth it because the animals get more space. A 1000g glass aquarium is hard to afford lol. Can't wait to see more because it looks awesome. Truly unique.

You mentioned before that you were considering a 50g top down set up. Did you ever pull the trigger? One advantage of this type of system is never having to carve algae off of glass/acrylic (I do have a couple traditional aquariums as well, so I haven't thrown away my scraper just yet).

I'll get to a more detailed update soon, but I thought I'd throw up a few more pics in the mean time.

This guy is one of my newer additions.

Have had my pinktail trigger for a while. Very underrated fish IMO.

...and a couple random pics. I'll try to take/post a few with a real camera vs. cell phone shots next time. They seem to turn out a lot better.

Thanks for looking

 

[Maximizer]

Thank you!



You mentioned before that you were considering a 50g top down set up. Did you ever pull the trigger? One advantage of this type of system is never having to carve algae off of glass/acrylic (I do have a couple traditional aquariums as well, so I haven't thrown away my scraper just yet).

I'll get to a more detailed update soon, but I thought I'd throw up a few more pics in the mean time.

This guy is one of my newer additions.

Have had my pinktail trigger for a while. Very underrated fish IMO.

...and a couple random pics. I'll try to take/post a few with a real camera vs. cell phone shots next time. They seem to turn out a lot better.

Thanks for looking

Everything looks great. Glad you still have the puffer! Do you still have 2? Life got in the way for a minute but I just finished the stand today actually lol. I have the tank, so I should have it cycling within a week or two

 

[najer]

Great to see updates, I still love this!

 

[Cheilinus]

Everything looks great. Glad you still have the puffer! Do you still have 2? Life got in the way for a minute but I just finished the stand today actually lol. I have the tank, so I should have it cycling within a week or two

Yeah, still have both puffers. I wound up giving the majority of my larger, more aggressive fish to a friend who wanted large/show size fish for his 600g tank. I had been considering going a different route with the pool stocking in favor of smaller fish. Turned out to be a win/win for both of us. The puffers are hands
down my wife's favorites (I'm rather attached to them too), so they had to stay.

Would love to see some pics of your project. Do you have a build thread by any chance? How are you doing the filtration?

Great to see updates, I still love this!

Thank you!!

 

[puffy127]

Do you have any FPS (full pool shots) with your recent redesign?