jz's 60 Gallon

skinz78 · Mar 8, 2011

WOW the pillar looks great! I never realized how big it actually is.

thewackyreefer · Mar 8, 2011

Tabasco1 said:
Very clean set up and nice pillar! Was that the one that was on the Alternative reefs last build post?

Yeah, it was up a couple posts ago. I really like the way it turned out.

skinz78 said:
WOW the pillar looks great! I never realized how big it actually is.

It's definitely a beast! Weighs close to 40lbs probably. I may end up knocking off the very top shelf to open up the one below a little bit because it's a little too close to the top but I'm pretty excited to get it filled up with some sticks.

thewackyreefer · Mar 8, 2011

Well, I've spent many many hours over the past few days thinking about how I'm gonna stock this pillar and I'm pretty stumped.

I'm thinking some tabling acro's would be nice, maybe an efflo or two and some normal branching sticks up along the top.

I figure I'll fill in the shaded areas with zoas / palys and put a couple acans and maybe some chalices along the bottom.

You guys got any stocking suggestions for me? I'm terribly uncreative.

PS - I also purchased 2 AI SOL Blue LED fixtures from Bill at Reef LED Lights today! Should have them soon! To heck with Sunbrite.

skinz78 · Mar 8, 2011

LOL honestly what I do is go to which ever vendor I am going to order from and start adding sticks to the cart till the total is right at what I want to spend at that time. Once they get all acclimated "the sticks will tell you where they want to be" I glue them where they look and fit best when I have the glue bottle in hand...

thewackyreefer · Mar 9, 2011

Ya know, that's probably what I'll end up doing. I've been looking at Wet Thumb for the past 6 months so I've got a decent idea!

Questions - I plan on switching to Aquavitro Salinity salt. When I move the tank this weekend should I use completely new water? Or how much old / new water? Also, I'm assuming I should just start using the new salt when I do water changes and not for this move?

skinz78 · Mar 9, 2011

I would use some of the old water if you can, and slowly switch salts if possible.

thewackyreefer · Mar 9, 2011

skinz78 said:
I would use some of the old water if you can, and slowly switch salts if possible.

Yeah I think that's probably the best route. I've got about 80g total including my sump so I can probably save the 60 from the display and replace what was in the sump with new water.

thewackyreefer · Mar 10, 2011

Well, it seems only one person likes to respond on here. :wink: Maybe I need to start trying to make some more friends around here!

Got another question... How long does it take for these man made pieces to seed with enough bacteria that I can start removing the pieces of live rock from my sump? Days? Weeks? Months?

I really have no clue but I'd like to get the rock outta the sump so I can move my mini carpet nems down there.

gooch · Mar 12, 2011

Give it time. Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. I would remove a piece or two every week or so until you have the amount of rock you want in your sump. If you start to see negative results slow down. You can not rush things. I would think that if your bioload is small you should be fine around the six month time frame. I believe in taking things slow. You might be able to speed it up but you need to guage that on how your tank looks and the livestock looks.

johnanddawn · Mar 12, 2011

luvmyacans said:
Yeah, it was up a couple posts ago. I really like the way it turned out.
I may end up knocking off the very top shelf to open up the one below a little bit because it's a little too close to the top but I'm pretty excited to get it filled up with some sticks.

luvmyacans said:
Well, I've spent many many hours over the past few days thinking about how I'm gonna stock this pillar and I'm pretty stumped.
I'm thinking some tabling acro's would be nice, maybe an efflo or two and some normal branching sticks up along the top.
I figure I'll fill in the shaded areas with zoas / palys and put a couple acans and maybe some chalices along the bottom.
You guys got any stocking suggestions for me? I'm terribly uncreative.

yeah it is kinda cool but your right - the height will not make it easy to stock the very top due to how close it is to the water line and the shadowing below will also need a lot of forethought because it will become even deeper shade as it grows. i would put anything that plates very low so it doesn't create more shade as it grows. branching types above that at wierd angles to break up its overall verticle nature and maybe a couple encrusters at the very top shelf so they don'r reach the water line

luvmyacans said:
Got another question... How long does it take for these man made pieces to seed with enough bacteria that I can start removing the pieces of live rock from my sump? Days? Weeks? Months?
I really have no clue but I'd like to get the rock outta the sump so I can move my mini carpet nems down there.

i would leave your rock in the sump for a long time and maybe even consider a permenent cryptic area if you have room. i like having extra bio filter in the sump so you can have more bioload

matt423 · Mar 12, 2011

love the set up!

thewackyreefer · Mar 12, 2011

Thanks for stopping by guys!

johnanddawn said:
yeah it is kinda cool but your right - the height will not make it easy to stock the very top due to how close it is to the water line and the shadowing below will also need a lot of forethought because it will become even deeper shade as it grows. i would put anything that plates very low so it doesn't create more shade as it grows. branching types above that at wierd angles to break up its overall verticle nature and maybe a couple encrusters at the very top shelf so they don'r reach the water line

i would leave your rock in the sump for a long time and maybe even consider a permenent cryptic area if you have room. i like having extra bio filter in the sump so you can have more bioload

That's pretty much what I was thinking too. It'll take the SPS at least 3/4 of the way down but I think the key will be randomizing the angles of the coral to make it look more natural. I'm going to fill in all of the holes with some zoas / palys I think as well. What kind of encrusters do you suggest for the very top up there?

As far as the sump goes I think I am actually going to keep all of the rock I currently have in there and remove the sand I had in the refuge area. Now I just need to figure out what to do with my maxi-mini's, maybe I'll just keep them in the display, they all seem pretty happy on the rock they're currently on.

matt423 said:
love the set up!

Thanks Matt!

gooch said:
Give it time. Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. I would remove a piece or two every week or so until you have the amount of rock you want in your sump. If you start to see negative results slow down. You can not rush things. I would think that if your bioload is small you should be fine around the six month time frame. I believe in taking things slow. You might be able to speed it up but you need to guage that on how your tank looks and the livestock looks.

Thanks Scott, hope you like your work! Can't wait to see it with some sand in there and the rest of the pieces! I think I'm just going to keep all of the rock in there and the pillar will just add more bio filtration.

gooch · Mar 13, 2011

I think it looks really good in there. I was really worried about that top piece hiding enough of the overflow. Just wait until that rock colors up. It will be awesome. It is going to start browning out for a couple weeks to a month. Try not to let any detritus settle on it early on. Sticking a bunch of snails in there will help keep it clean. After a month or so I will be willing to bet you start growong some coralline. Once it starts it spreads pretty fast. Although it might take longer if you do not have little coralline to start with.

Scott

johnanddawn · Mar 13, 2011

maybe some high light montis would look nice up there
i would like to see a wide angle from the top type view to see the shelving and width from above - is that possible?
i really like these peices

thewackyreefer · Mar 13, 2011

Not a problem, I just moved the tank today so I'll take one in a day or two for ya!

gooch · Mar 14, 2011

Here is a top down pic. When I made this piece Luv My Acans wanted as much sand bed as possible open. We also tried hiding the overflow box as much as we could. That made this piece almost straight up and down. He has two more pieces that are going on the sand bed to give it a fuller look. There is not a lot of room to place corals on those shelves but depending on what he puts on them there is lots of room to grow away from it.

Reef UP · Mar 14, 2011

Nice stuff!

johnanddawn · Mar 14, 2011

that is really cool - if i were to ever start over again i would put some serious thought into these

thewackyreefer · Mar 16, 2011

johnanddawn said:
that is really cool - if i were to ever start over again i would put some serious thought into these

Yea, Scott did an awesome job on it.

New AI LED's came today! Can't wait to set them up.

I really like where I moved the tank to in our living room, when anyone enters the apartment through our sliding door it's right in front of them so it'll get a little more attention than it did in the second bedroom we have. I'll see if I can get a decent shot of the whole room so you guys get an idea.