The Blue Window - 500 G in wall, never ending build

[mch1984]

Thanks for the advice on setting time to strength for the thorite cement. I plan on using Acryl 60 as well to speed up the setup.

I unpacked my Reef Saver dry rock last night, and I have to say, I am a bit underwhelmed. Here is what 400 lbs of dry Reef Saver rock looks like.

I don't think this is going to fill much space in my tank. I am not even sure if that is enough to do the 3 rock columns.

I am looking to get another 500 lbs of dry rock, not Reef Saver, more like Marco. The 500 lbs of new rock should be about 7 cubic feet of rock. I think that should give me plenty to work with, what do you guys think?

Dennis

I think if you can buy more it wont hurt, plus you'll have more options. If you go Marco, you should look at the prime cuts and get some of that. They are cut with flat bottoms. It was really nice building with those for the bottom of your structure. Also if you have plenty of extra you can break some up into rubble to help fill in areas during the building process. I took a hammer to a couple of mine to create some rubble pieces.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Just looking for inspiration here. I decided to pile up some columns just to see how they would turn out. I was planning on thicker beefier columns, about 3 x the size of the these, but after seeing another build using slender columns and thinking about how many shadows would be created by the thicker columns, I am leaning more towards slender columns now.

These are just for messing around looking for ideas. They are not arranged in any particular way, nor are they occupying a space similar to the tank footprint.

I have another 500lbs of dry rock being delivered next week. That may bring some more options. In the meantime I have an aquascape in my head that I want to do a test of using the existing stand ins. If I were to name it, I would call it "The Tail of the Dragon". Let's see how that looks.

Dennis

 

[mch1984]

I kind of like the smaller columns. What did you go with on rock?

 

[norfolkgarden]

Is it going to be a fish heavy tank or a coral heavy tank?

If you like a lot of scollys, fungia plates and islands for GPS, you will have room for them.

And the fish will enjoy swimming around them.

If you want acros or even LPS, there's not a lot of room on those pinnacles.

Tail of the dragon sounds intriguing!

Great name for a build thread.
[emoji4]

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I kind of like the smaller columns. What did you go with on rock?

The ordered rock is just generic dry rock. Not Marco necessarily, but it will be similar to the base Marco rock. I did ask for larger pieces though. It normally comes by the pallet (4' x 4' x 4'), but that is too much rock for my foreseeable needs. So I am only getting 40% of a pallet. Even so, I will probably have plenty of left over for more tanks. I do have 2 RS 250's that will be underway next month (or so).

It is possible to get Marco rock locally, but rock is ridiculously expensive here, so I am just going with cheaper no-name stuff.

Dennis

 

[mch1984]

That works, and nothing wrong with extra rock around the house.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Is it going to be a fish heavy tank or a coral heavy tank?

If you like a lot of scollys, fungia plates and islands for GPS, you will have room for them.

And the fish will enjoy swimming around them.

If you want acros or even LPS, there's not a lot of room on those pinnacles.

Tail of the dragon sounds intriguing!

Great name for a build thread.
[emoji4]

I have been going back and forth recently. Originally I was thinking heavy LPS with a bit of SPS. You know stick to the easy to keep corals. Then I started thinking mainly Montipora as my montis were growing great. Now I am having moderate success with acros. So now I am thinking lots of stags, montis, and few LPS. I do like fungia's and have 4 different ones in my frag tank. As for fish, I want to have a decent amount, but probably not what you would call fish heavy. I do plan to have a good assortment of tangs though.

I see what you mean about the pinnacles. If I want to have a cool aquascape before corals come into it, the pinnacles work, but after they be a impediment. Let's see what the new batch of rocks brings. Maybe a compromise between low flat coral friendly scape and the soaring pinnacles can be worked out.

Dennis

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Here are some more mock aquascapes. If anything catches your eye as being particularly good (or bad), please comment. The aluminum extrusion rectangle is the size of tank footprint. I am going for a "Not a wall of rocks" design, with plenty of sightlines, especially from the front through to the back of the tank.

This first mockup was scrapped soon after it was done, however I did incorporate some of the structures in later mockups. The end rocks was moved to the overflow end (after the move, oddly enough, looks like a puppy bowing) .

The next mockup establishes the canyon and valleys running diagonally through the tank. When I measured the height some of the spires, I realized that they would be too tall. My tank is 30". Leaving off 1" on the bottom (the bottom is covered in 1/2" HDPE to protect the glass) and 1" at the top for water height. That leaves 28" of vertical space. The highest spire was 26". Way too tall in my opinion.

After a few more tweaks, this layout is one I kind of like. The height of the spires has been reduced to 21" in this layout.

What is becoming clear is that I "almost" have enough rock with the rock I have on hand, so the 500 Lbs of rock being delivered next week is going to be overkill, but will hopefully bring more options. I have asked for larger pieces. It will be interesting to see what I end up with.

Dennis

 

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

Here are some more mock aquascapes. If anything catches your eye as being particularly good (or bad), please comment. The aluminum extrusion rectangle is the size of tank footprint. I am going for a "Not a wall of rocks" design, with plenty of sightlines, especially from the front through to the back of the tank.

This first mockup was scrapped soon after it was done, however I did incorporate some of the structures in later mockups. The end rocks was moved to the overflow end (after the move, oddly enough, looks like a puppy bowing) .

The next mockup establishes the canyon and valleys running diagonally through the tank. When I measured the height some of the spires, I realized that they would be too tall. My tank is 30". Leaving off 1" on the bottom (the bottom is covered in 1/2" HDPE to protect the glass) and 1" at the top for water height. That leaves 28" of vertical space. The highest spire was 26". Way too tall in my opinion.

After a few more tweaks, this is layout is one I kind of like. The height of the spires has been reduced to 21" in this layout.

What is becoming clear is that I "almost" have enough rock with the rock I have on hand, so the 500 Lbs of rock being delivered next week is going to be overkill, but will hopefully bring more options. I have asked for larger pieces. It will be interesting to see what I end up with.

Dennis

What about a couple caves for fish to hide, sleep etc? Not sure what fish you will be adding but in my experience, they need somewhere to hide from more aggressive fish or somewhere to sleep. You could keep the caves open enough so you still have good flow going through.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I started the search today for a professional to assist with the cabinetry/facade. I am planning to go for a Red Sea Reefer look of white lacquer and plain smooth panels for the lower portion as well as the upper portion. I hope to have all the panels upper/lower removable held in place with magnetic retainers. Because the tank is not fixed, it rests on a layer of HD foam on top of plywood and then the stand, I expect that a little bit of play will need to be accounted for. If an adjustable face (bezel) can be constructed to be positioned on standoffs from the extrusions (above) and the stand legs (below), then the panels could attach to the face. That way the face can be adjusted should there be movement down the road and the panels will be in alignment as long as the face is adjusted correctly.

Because the panels will be lacquered, I expect they will need to be made out of MDF. I am wondering if it might be helpful to have a 1/4" layer of starboard (HDPE) screwed to the back of all the panels/face elements to assist with salt and splashes.

If I don't go with hinges and instead use magnets, I will need to work out an easy way of removing the panels. I was thinking of magnetic handles that attached to magnets hidden inside the panels, but was worried that the laqueur may become scratched over time from sliding the handles off the magnets to release them. The handle magnets would have to be fairly strong, strong enough to overcome the retaining magnets pull, but the retaining magnets will not be super strong anyway. I was thinking of using registration pins for panel positioning and the retaining magnets only need to keep it pressed against the face (bezel). Most of the weight would reside on the registration pins.

Dennis

 

[norfolkgarden]

Not sure what your fish list is yet, but when you get the other 500 pounds of rock i would double up a few of the base rocks and form 1/2" to 1" slit canyons the fish can hide/sleep in.

The last set up looks great. I would bulk it all up by about 40% to give them sleeping space, but I'm a rock and fish person.

My corals health are important to me but secondary to the fish.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

What about a couple caves for fish to hide, sleep etc? Not sure what fish you will be adding but in my experience, they need somewhere to hide from more aggressive fish or somewhere to sleep. You could keep the caves open enough so you still have good flow going through.

Not sure what your fish list is yet, but when you get the other 500 pounds of rock i would double up a few of the base rocks and form 1/2" to 1" slit canyons the fish can hide/sleep in.

The last set up looks great. I would bulk it all up by about 40% to give them sleeping space, but I'm a rock and fish person.

My corals health are important to me but secondary to the fish.

Ah, I get what you are both saying now. You want more crevices. I was sorting through the rocks to try to find the best fit with the greatest stability, but using multiple rocks for the base with loose fitment would provide ample crevices. I plan to secure the rocks together with thorite based cement anyway. So leaving crevices is fine as long as I can find good contact points for the cement. Let's see what the new batch of rocks bring next week.

While I was doing the test scape, I did have an urge to do an inukshuk, lol. That would have lots of crevices!

Dennis

 

[don_chuwish]

Because the panels will be lacquered, I expect they will need to be made out of MDF. I am wondering if it might be helpful to have a 1/4" layer of starboard (HDPE) screwed to the back of all the panels/face elements to assist with salt and splashes.

Plain white Formica.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I received my order of dry rock today. Clearly my eyes are bigger than my tank. If past experience with a similar situation with my eyes and my stomach is any indicator, my tank will grow larger to accommodate them!

Also it turns out they are all Marco. I am not sure if they are all Marco from Tropojë, but definitely all Marco!

Now I need to sort them to see what can be added/substituted into the existing design to improve it and provide more sleeping crevices.

Dennis

 

[seaplane]

I don't know what I'm more jealous of, your epic tank or the dogs!! Always wanted a OES.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I don't know what I'm more jealous of, your epic tank or the dogs!! Always wanted a OES.

Lol, thanks. I am sure I will like my tank when it is done, but I love my dogs.

Here is our oldest (he is my avatar) catching some shuteye before relieving his sister from standing squirrel watch.

Dennis

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I am thinking that this is the aquascape I will start with. As it turns out, I added a bunch of smaller rocks, no big ones. In fact I removed a couple of big ones. I have about 1.5 x this amount left in the bins. So I could do a total rescape in the future outside the tank and them swap them in. I am not sure where I would put the 400 lbs of wet live rock in that situation. The bath tub?

Here is the modified, in my view, improved scape.

The major change is that I removed the spire that was in the centre of the tank. This really makes it look more open and provides for a great sightline from the small end. I have also added numerous crevices as suggested by @norfolkgarden and @MamaLovesHerReefTank. Thanks for the feedback!

The one change I have made (after taking these photos), is to flip the top rock over in the 3rd pile from the left at the back. It provides a flatter surface to mount corals to and the chisel shape of the rocks fits perfectly between the 2 lower rocks.

Dennis

 

[Dennis Cartier]

A couple of weeks ago, I finally got my order of extrusions in, so last weekend I started on the walk platform. This is the platform that will be installed behind the tank and will make reaching down into the tank less impossible. My feet should be at the level of the bottom of the tank (once installed in the fish room). Tomorrow I will need to disassemble and move a 20 G barrel that serves as my fuge for my frag tank as it is in the way of the walk platform installation.

Here it is partially complete and then fully complete. I will cut the heavy duty FRP grating tomorrow to drop into the recess formed by the top frame.

Once the grating is ready and the fuge is moved and replumbed, then the walk platform can be partially disassembled and moved into place behind the tank. At that point, I will need to secure it to the tank stand.

Dennis

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I guess I should update my build thread. I noticed my 'Build Thread Contributor' badge had vanished. Oops.

There have been developments. My frag tank has been taking up a lot of my focus. The 3 vacations this past winter took a toll and I lost pretty much 100% of my SPS. Most of the LPS is still hanging on. This development has caused me to re-think the type of tank I want for the 500G. I am leaning more towards LPS with a bit of easy SPS to fill in the spaces. That should give me a bit more resilience than a heavy SPS tank and make it less difficult to leave for vacations.

I will post some more photos of the progress over the next week or so (I am working on the light rack system and getting it rigged).

Lots has happened with R2R since I have updated. I don't think I need to scale my photos manually any longer. Yay!

I eventually got the walk platform moved into place. My head just clears the ceiling while I am standing on the platform. I have some extrusions screwed to the ceiling that I will be putting plastic end caps on to avoid some future nasty injuries.

My next update will be on the light rack, which has been rethought and re-worked a few times.

Dennis

 

[Fudsey]

Everyone's build thread badge was removed until you place a link for your build thread in your account settings.

link to it here-----> https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/y...is-now-a-link-everyones-badge-is-gone.641789/