I've posted in a few places about my otherwise undocumented 15 gallon cube, which was the first marine aquarium I ever set up. It passed 2 years old in November and I've learned a lot about what to do and not do on that tank. It's been rescaped once and treated with different things. Generally successful until I got a bryopsis breakout that I could not defeat, and I accidentally nuked the tank's strong biological filter with fluconazole. I proceeded to try and battle dinos and cyano for 2-3 months on the generally recommended steps before deciding that it was time to try something new. Entirely new.
I wanted that sand bed gone. I wanted to actually mount the corals that had lived in the frag holder for months. It was time for a bare bottom build.
I began to source and research. I knew I didn't want bare glass, so options for covering the glass were considered. I went a little overkill, but purchased a 1/4 inch black ABS board, cut it down to size and gave the corners a little sanding so they wouldn't damage the existing silicone seals, then siliconed it to the bottom with the rough side up. I luckily had some silicone left over from building my pico tank's filter chamber, so that was one less expense.
I was indecisive about reusing the old rock but I just didn't want it to look the same, and with a 50% sale on Life Rock going on during the holidays, I had to take advantage of it. I purchased somewhere around 10 lbs, and knew I would seed the tank with somewhere around 5+ lbs of live rock from other tanks.
Say bye bye old tank and old sand. You were a good learning companion.
Meanwhile all of the livestock are on vacation in their tiny cabin in the woods.
Two buckets, two mini makeshift aquariums with heaters and airstones keeping everyone warm and safe, using cycled rocks to help maintain the water - as well as water changes of fair frequency. This is why I never throw any good equipment away.
On to the NEW
Tank was emptied and dried, sanitized with hydrogen peroxide and then down goes the ABS bottom piece secured with fresh aquarium grade silicone. 2 days to cure and then a hour or so of testing to make certain the alterations and movement haven't busted any seams. Also bringing back in my old skimmer which was tucked away for a while. Still in great working condition.
Down goes the first layer of rocks, to be secured together with superglue gel. Then I built it higher with another layer on top and got the skimmer running to start pulling out the dust settling off of the rocks. It needed some help with stability so I built some back legs and secured them with epoxy and superglue.
The mostly finished rockscape - I went with a columnar sort of look based on some ideas I'd seen online that I really liked. That purple life rock really does look nice under tank lights. I'm impressed at how aged it seems.
Now these are all 'dead' rocks, whatever the life rocks claim one way or the other, so I added several sizeable chunks of actual live rocks from display areas and sumps. Many of them already have corals growing on them as well so I shot it under blues just for kicks. The large flat rock in front is fairly covered in actual coralline algae so it's going to do great seeding this tank.
And earlier today after rearranging the rocks and adding another piece so it doesn't look quite so haphazard. I don't know if I'll keep all of those rocks in the tank or not, the space in a 15 gallon goes quick, but I do have the benefit of the sand not taking up the bottom couple of inches. The column look I wanted is a little hampered by the extra rocks, but they're necessary for now.
Right now the tank is testing high in ammonia, so I can't add the fish back in just yet. I added the live rock yesterday evening so I'll see where it tests at tomorrow. Skimmer is already starting to break in, microbubbles are reducing so it's going well.
STOCKING:
The existing livestock will go back into the tank once it's inhabitable - a mated pair of clowns, a royal gramma, various CUC though I will have to rehome my sandsifting starfish, and likely the babylonian snail. The nassarius can go into my other tank. I'll probably keep the two tuxedo urchins in the other tank as well since there won't be algae here to munch on for a bit and I don't know how successful feeding them nori would be. I'm going to see how the couple of hermits do with the bare bottom, see if they can still get around with the rough texture.
I have a 1.5 inch crocea clam planned for this tank as well as wanting to attempt a mixed reef with a few more easy SPS types. The column allows the top portions of the tank to get 400+ PAR while the bottom roams around 100-200. I know the light will be slightly different with the new scape and no white sand to reflect upwards, but it should at least still be similar under the same light intensity. I'm also wanting to try some encrusting types that could spread over the bottom, but that's for future me to figure out.
Comments and suggestions are welcome, this is a new arena for me as even in freshwater I've never done a bare bottom tank.
So much to learn!
I wanted that sand bed gone. I wanted to actually mount the corals that had lived in the frag holder for months. It was time for a bare bottom build.
I began to source and research. I knew I didn't want bare glass, so options for covering the glass were considered. I went a little overkill, but purchased a 1/4 inch black ABS board, cut it down to size and gave the corners a little sanding so they wouldn't damage the existing silicone seals, then siliconed it to the bottom with the rough side up. I luckily had some silicone left over from building my pico tank's filter chamber, so that was one less expense.
I was indecisive about reusing the old rock but I just didn't want it to look the same, and with a 50% sale on Life Rock going on during the holidays, I had to take advantage of it. I purchased somewhere around 10 lbs, and knew I would seed the tank with somewhere around 5+ lbs of live rock from other tanks.
Say bye bye old tank and old sand. You were a good learning companion.
Meanwhile all of the livestock are on vacation in their tiny cabin in the woods.
Two buckets, two mini makeshift aquariums with heaters and airstones keeping everyone warm and safe, using cycled rocks to help maintain the water - as well as water changes of fair frequency. This is why I never throw any good equipment away.
On to the NEW
Tank was emptied and dried, sanitized with hydrogen peroxide and then down goes the ABS bottom piece secured with fresh aquarium grade silicone. 2 days to cure and then a hour or so of testing to make certain the alterations and movement haven't busted any seams. Also bringing back in my old skimmer which was tucked away for a while. Still in great working condition.
Down goes the first layer of rocks, to be secured together with superglue gel. Then I built it higher with another layer on top and got the skimmer running to start pulling out the dust settling off of the rocks. It needed some help with stability so I built some back legs and secured them with epoxy and superglue.
The mostly finished rockscape - I went with a columnar sort of look based on some ideas I'd seen online that I really liked. That purple life rock really does look nice under tank lights. I'm impressed at how aged it seems.
Now these are all 'dead' rocks, whatever the life rocks claim one way or the other, so I added several sizeable chunks of actual live rocks from display areas and sumps. Many of them already have corals growing on them as well so I shot it under blues just for kicks. The large flat rock in front is fairly covered in actual coralline algae so it's going to do great seeding this tank.
And earlier today after rearranging the rocks and adding another piece so it doesn't look quite so haphazard. I don't know if I'll keep all of those rocks in the tank or not, the space in a 15 gallon goes quick, but I do have the benefit of the sand not taking up the bottom couple of inches. The column look I wanted is a little hampered by the extra rocks, but they're necessary for now.
Right now the tank is testing high in ammonia, so I can't add the fish back in just yet. I added the live rock yesterday evening so I'll see where it tests at tomorrow. Skimmer is already starting to break in, microbubbles are reducing so it's going well.
STOCKING:
The existing livestock will go back into the tank once it's inhabitable - a mated pair of clowns, a royal gramma, various CUC though I will have to rehome my sandsifting starfish, and likely the babylonian snail. The nassarius can go into my other tank. I'll probably keep the two tuxedo urchins in the other tank as well since there won't be algae here to munch on for a bit and I don't know how successful feeding them nori would be. I'm going to see how the couple of hermits do with the bare bottom, see if they can still get around with the rough texture.
I have a 1.5 inch crocea clam planned for this tank as well as wanting to attempt a mixed reef with a few more easy SPS types. The column allows the top portions of the tank to get 400+ PAR while the bottom roams around 100-200. I know the light will be slightly different with the new scape and no white sand to reflect upwards, but it should at least still be similar under the same light intensity. I'm also wanting to try some encrusting types that could spread over the bottom, but that's for future me to figure out.
Comments and suggestions are welcome, this is a new arena for me as even in freshwater I've never done a bare bottom tank.
So much to learn!
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