JK1
Community Member
Hello from Sunny England
Been a while since I've been here sorry but I'm back with a new build! It's a temporary 5x2 until I get an 8x2.5 built.
I just moved house which came complete with a man cave!
I decided to be bold and create a floating scape! Drawing inspiration from builds like mr Kangs' but I didn't want branching rock, I wanted plates. I also wanted to be reef friendly so initially thought Marco rock but learned it wasn't available in plate form. ATM saved the day with their plating pure reef rock. It cost me a fortune, £12:95 per kg with 48kg total and 3 buckets of Marco cement required but I feel it was worth digging deep for.
I know many try a floating scape and fail but I'm very determined!
So, this is the tank in question, picked it up for a bargain but it needed a good face lift.
She scrubbed up well after a good sanding session and a re-paint - stand and back glass.
Back to the scape, I posted on a Facebook forum requesting dead playing rock and the UK reps from ATM offered the best solution. I can't believe how good their service was. Craig not only sourced the pieces I wanted from a very basic sketch but he even put it all together in the formation I was aiming for and sent pictures. I gave a little feedback and he took a hammer and chisel to it until it was perfect.
The process was complete in around 2 hours and the rock arrived at 9am the next day! Now that's service!
I laid out the rock as I intended it to go and was pleased with the result
so started to build it in situ. It didn’t quite go to plan. Luckily, I had pre-empted a scape collapse and had added sand to the tank to protect the glass. I’m so glad I did this. I had watched tutorials on Marco cement on youtube and was told it was dry in 20 mins and fully cured in 24 hours. Foolishly I tested the strength after 30 minutes by removing a supporting brick. The whole scape collapsed! To be fair, I was asking a lot of the cement and I’m sure it would have been fine if I had left it until the following day. Back to square 1 but like I said, I’m very determined. This time I built it out of the tank and laid it on its side. I was struggling to get the cement to stick to the underside when working in situ. This was much better and meant I could cement both the top and bottom in one session.
I crafted the cement to look as seamless as possible. Obviously the cement is visible now due to the colour difference but once matured it should look pretty seamless. This time I allowed it to dry overnight before touching it. As I know I’m upgrading in the near future it was important that the scape could be lifted in and out, thankfully it just fit between the brace bars, lifting it nearly killed me but I go it in there in one piece. I’m really pleased with it, it totally defies gravity and I think it will look awesome once covered in sticks. It’s 1/3 full now, hopefully it will be fully in another day or two so I can add colony and get it filtered and clear stocked. I’m not adding any live rock, I’m relying on colony 100%. I’ll add some copepods and amphipods but it will be a nasty free zone.
Stock
Coral
So, The plan is for the main scape to be 100% sticks. I like uniformity so I will be grouping them by genus. I’ll have an area for branching montis with will have various encrusting montis planted between. Tabling acros will be positioned at the front as they will be at a height disadvantage, plus they are one of my favourites. Branching acros will be behind and will accounting for the majority. I have 4 different colour hystrix which will go at the back. They grow like crazy so will soon dominate. I have pink, limeberry, dark green (never seen before) & Green with purple tips (again never seen this before). I’ll also have smaller sections of millis & seriatopora. I have collected some awesome SPS over the years including Ice fire echinata, red dragon, strawberry shortcake, setosa, forest fire, branching meteor shower amongst many others. Can’t wait to see them all in situ.
I have 3 nice Welsos, 2 red rainbows and a green rainbow. These will take centre stage on the sand bed.
Both islands will be dominated with Acan lords, scolys and Blastos and surrounded with zoa stones. I like the zoas on individual stones as I find the grow over each other when mounted together and the largest polyps win. Stones allow control.
I want the sand bed to be as clear as possible. I have no idea what I will do with my candy canes and Euphyllias. I may mount them on egg crate and bury the bases under the sand behind one of the islands. I also have to find space for a goni. I may keep them in a frag tank until I upgrade but I’ll have a play around.
Fish
Mandarin pair
Snowflake clown pair
3 yellow tangs
Achilles tang
Gem Tang
Yellow tail Tamarin wrasse pair
I have a regal tang, purple tang and Harlequin tusk fish at the moment but one of them is nipping LPS! I need to work out which one is guilty and get them re-homed in a LPS free tank. I’m hoping it’s not the tusk fish as I really love her! When I upgrade I will add a shoal of something small, most likely Anthias.
Equipment
I’m a die hard T5 fan. I’m running an ATI 8x39W dimmable and a pair of Fiji blue aqua rays for evening / moonlight. When I upgrade I will invest in a pair of 8x39W ATI hybrids so I can have best of both. I run FM balling light, Ozone, external filter with UV feeding a chiller, cheato in the sump, I have a gyre but will be stitching to a pair of MP40 QD because I miss the back and forth motion. I have a BM curve 7 and Eheim return pump. Think that’s everything.
Thanks for reading. I’ll update once the tank is full and the water is clear. All questions welcome.
Spell check is going crazy with my UK spelling lol
Been a while since I've been here sorry but I'm back with a new build! It's a temporary 5x2 until I get an 8x2.5 built.
I just moved house which came complete with a man cave!
I decided to be bold and create a floating scape! Drawing inspiration from builds like mr Kangs' but I didn't want branching rock, I wanted plates. I also wanted to be reef friendly so initially thought Marco rock but learned it wasn't available in plate form. ATM saved the day with their plating pure reef rock. It cost me a fortune, £12:95 per kg with 48kg total and 3 buckets of Marco cement required but I feel it was worth digging deep for.
I know many try a floating scape and fail but I'm very determined!
So, this is the tank in question, picked it up for a bargain but it needed a good face lift.
She scrubbed up well after a good sanding session and a re-paint - stand and back glass.
Back to the scape, I posted on a Facebook forum requesting dead playing rock and the UK reps from ATM offered the best solution. I can't believe how good their service was. Craig not only sourced the pieces I wanted from a very basic sketch but he even put it all together in the formation I was aiming for and sent pictures. I gave a little feedback and he took a hammer and chisel to it until it was perfect.
The process was complete in around 2 hours and the rock arrived at 9am the next day! Now that's service!
I laid out the rock as I intended it to go and was pleased with the result
so started to build it in situ. It didn’t quite go to plan. Luckily, I had pre-empted a scape collapse and had added sand to the tank to protect the glass. I’m so glad I did this. I had watched tutorials on Marco cement on youtube and was told it was dry in 20 mins and fully cured in 24 hours. Foolishly I tested the strength after 30 minutes by removing a supporting brick. The whole scape collapsed! To be fair, I was asking a lot of the cement and I’m sure it would have been fine if I had left it until the following day. Back to square 1 but like I said, I’m very determined. This time I built it out of the tank and laid it on its side. I was struggling to get the cement to stick to the underside when working in situ. This was much better and meant I could cement both the top and bottom in one session.
I crafted the cement to look as seamless as possible. Obviously the cement is visible now due to the colour difference but once matured it should look pretty seamless. This time I allowed it to dry overnight before touching it. As I know I’m upgrading in the near future it was important that the scape could be lifted in and out, thankfully it just fit between the brace bars, lifting it nearly killed me but I go it in there in one piece. I’m really pleased with it, it totally defies gravity and I think it will look awesome once covered in sticks. It’s 1/3 full now, hopefully it will be fully in another day or two so I can add colony and get it filtered and clear stocked. I’m not adding any live rock, I’m relying on colony 100%. I’ll add some copepods and amphipods but it will be a nasty free zone.
Stock
Coral
So, The plan is for the main scape to be 100% sticks. I like uniformity so I will be grouping them by genus. I’ll have an area for branching montis with will have various encrusting montis planted between. Tabling acros will be positioned at the front as they will be at a height disadvantage, plus they are one of my favourites. Branching acros will be behind and will accounting for the majority. I have 4 different colour hystrix which will go at the back. They grow like crazy so will soon dominate. I have pink, limeberry, dark green (never seen before) & Green with purple tips (again never seen this before). I’ll also have smaller sections of millis & seriatopora. I have collected some awesome SPS over the years including Ice fire echinata, red dragon, strawberry shortcake, setosa, forest fire, branching meteor shower amongst many others. Can’t wait to see them all in situ.
I have 3 nice Welsos, 2 red rainbows and a green rainbow. These will take centre stage on the sand bed.
Both islands will be dominated with Acan lords, scolys and Blastos and surrounded with zoa stones. I like the zoas on individual stones as I find the grow over each other when mounted together and the largest polyps win. Stones allow control.
I want the sand bed to be as clear as possible. I have no idea what I will do with my candy canes and Euphyllias. I may mount them on egg crate and bury the bases under the sand behind one of the islands. I also have to find space for a goni. I may keep them in a frag tank until I upgrade but I’ll have a play around.
Fish
Mandarin pair
Snowflake clown pair
3 yellow tangs
Achilles tang
Gem Tang
Yellow tail Tamarin wrasse pair
I have a regal tang, purple tang and Harlequin tusk fish at the moment but one of them is nipping LPS! I need to work out which one is guilty and get them re-homed in a LPS free tank. I’m hoping it’s not the tusk fish as I really love her! When I upgrade I will add a shoal of something small, most likely Anthias.
Equipment
I’m a die hard T5 fan. I’m running an ATI 8x39W dimmable and a pair of Fiji blue aqua rays for evening / moonlight. When I upgrade I will invest in a pair of 8x39W ATI hybrids so I can have best of both. I run FM balling light, Ozone, external filter with UV feeding a chiller, cheato in the sump, I have a gyre but will be stitching to a pair of MP40 QD because I miss the back and forth motion. I have a BM curve 7 and Eheim return pump. Think that’s everything.
Thanks for reading. I’ll update once the tank is full and the water is clear. All questions welcome.
Spell check is going crazy with my UK spelling lol
