Gooch's 12 gallon Aquapod

[gooch]

I got a 12 gallon aquapod when I went to the F&S Swap last year. After I had a fire in my house I took down and got rid of all my tanks. Well now I am itching to have a tank again. I have this one just sitting here so I figure I will start over with that one. I will do a larger but not huge tank when I have a little more money but for now this one will have to do.

I haven't added water to it yet but I did make the rock structure. It is basically a larger custom frag station but I spaced the plug holes far enough apart that I can use it as a complete structure. The sand will also be all the particles that end up in the bottom of my kiln. If there is enough. It is a nice mixture of particle size.

Anyhow it will be a few weeks before the structure is dry enough to fire but I took some pictures. The pics do not give it justice I really think it looks cool. But thats just me.

 

[Pitcom]

That's pretty neat.

 

[jandlms]

Gooch,
What did you impress into the ends of your frag plugs?. Looks like 12 gauge shotgun shells.

 

[gooch]

Gooch,
What did you impress into the ends of your frag plugs?. Looks like 12 gauge shotgun shells.

Trade secret. But yes it does kinda look like like that.

 

[gooch]

This is what the first structure I made was going to look like but at the time I was going to do a feshwater tank. Also I plan on putting about three inches of sand into the tank so the structure will sit higher up than what it shows now. Should be a neat little tank when it is done.

Gonna keep this for my bigger tank when I do it. I like the look and I did something new to give it mare texture and hopefully make it look more natural. But it is very messy and time consuming.

 

[MarvinsReef]

whoa!!! that's awesome..

 

[gooch]

I am contemplating taking the hood off of this and putting a 150 watt halide high over the top. But not sure yet. It will be mostly zoantids but I will be putting one of Larry's elegance fraags in there for sure. I am not sure how long this tank will be up due to the fact I am not much of a nano tank guy and I really don't think the flow on these is enough for my taste either. But I am going to give it a try.

I am leaning towards getting a custom tank made that is somewhere in the ballpark of 36"-40" long about 24"-30" front to back and 20"-24"tall. Either I will use a 40 gallon sump or have one custome built. Just haven't really thought much about it yet.

 

[JGoslee]

Thats really cool looking! How did you make the rocks?

 

[gooch]

I dabble in ceramics. Just a little.

 

[LorenK]

I really like the ceramic rock. I've been messing around trying to make DIY rock...that looks much better than my first attempt with cement.

 

[gooch]

The first ones never do turn out the way we want it to.

 

[revhtree]

Awesome man and welcome back!!!

 

[gooch]

I am here daily usually. Just don't post much.

 

[gooch]

I think this gives new meaning to cooking my rock. It's in there somewhere.

That was at about 1300 F. I burnt off all the hairs on my forearm when I snapped that pic. My camera just can not capture a clear shot. Wasn't the smartest thing I have ever done. Only thing is I might have cooked it a week to soon. Real good chance it is nothing but a pile of rubble. But I couldn't wait any longer.

 

[revhtree]

What I meant was welcome back with your new tank!

 

[reef-nut]

I just got a 24 gallon aquapod and I would love to have a rock like that to center my tank and cover it with the 50 lot of rics I am ordering from gateway.com. I got a few big pieces of fiji, but nothing like that.

 

[gooch]

Rock turned out great. Gotta either order a stand or see if i can find one locally. I don't like the look of the aquapod stand and it doesn't look all that stable. Especially with a 40 pound puppy that likes to knock over everything chasing the cat around the house. I bought something I thought would work but after putting it together realized it was to flimsy.

 

[shred5]

Is the tank from the Dr. F&S frag swap?

Dave

 

[gooch]

Is the tank from the Dr. F&S frag swap?

Dave

Yep. I will post some more pics tonight.

 

[gooch]

Well this is what the rock looks like after I took it out of the kiln. Turned out nice.

Next step was taking all the dust and small particles from the bottom of my kiln. It was some really fine stuff mixed in with some bigger pieces. Unfortunately there wasn't enough to get the dsb I wanted for the jawfish I had to have(actually daughter demanded). She aleady has all the fish she wants picked out.