Victoria Music's Custom 180 Rebuild

[Victoria M]

And fox face lo scares me. I am afraid of getting poked on accident.

 

[Victoria M]

Looking good!! That shape of rock (blob rock) can be difficult to get put together in interesting ways but you've done a great job!

Thanks Chris. In person it looks great. I am really happy with it.

 

[Victoria M]

It is difficult to see in pictures but this pink outlined structure is separate and forward of the other structures. The top rock is over hanging the bottom rock which is not repeated in the other formations.

 

[Victoria M]

Please forgive my mark up skillz. The plan is add another arching pass thru represented by the green circles, and the purple represents two rocks. The right side arch is not as even and symmetrical as it looks in the picture. The left side of the arch is more forward than the right side, and has a hidden rock column for support.

 

[Brew12]

The last one jumped out of this tank though.

I wish mine would jump out of the tank! :mad:

And fox face lo scares me. I am afraid of getting poked on accident.

Put in a long spine sea urchin with the Foxface then. You won't even consider the Foxface a threat after that!
Seriously though, at least mine isn't a problem. When my hand is in the tank he just hides next to a rock. No risk of him stinging me.

The plan is add another arching pass thru represented by the green circles, and the purple represents two rocks.

Make sure you leave space up top for coral to grow into!

 

[Victoria M]

I wish mine would jump out of the tank! :mad:


Put in a long spine sea urchin with the Foxface then. You won't even consider the Foxface a threat after that!
Seriously though, at least mine isn't a problem. When my hand is in the tank he just hides next to a rock. No risk of him stinging me.


Make sure you leave space up top for coral to grow into!

Long spine urchine? Now you are really trying to freak me out!
Fox face: someone told me I should have tried one for my neomaris weed troubles I was having. Truly my boys like them so we might end up with one.
There will be a foot or so of space above the highest rocks. I do not want to be scraping the back or sides of the DT.

 

[iced98lx]

Be thoughtful of the number of "Layers" going vertical- contemplate what the par may be at each and what sort of coral you want to grow at each. If you have 300+ PAR at the top, that isn't a lot of space for SPS, and if it's 300+ at the middle, that might be a LOT of par at the top. Just one of hte things that caused me to constantly pull rock and rescape my tank- once I figured out that I wanted to keep mostly SPS making sure scape was interesting and that it allowed for enough places to put sps was a challenge. I had two peaks that were way too high for most normal SPS. (ORAnge Setosa grows happily at 550+ par btw).

 

[Victoria M]

I didn't say the Urchins weren't dangerous... only that they would make it so you wouldn't worry about getting stung by the Foxface!

Now youre just being cheeky.

 

[Victoria M]

Be thoughtful of the number of "Layers" going vertical- contemplate what the par may be at each and what sort of coral you want to grow at each. If you have 300+ PAR at the top, that isn't a lot of space for SPS, and if it's 300+ at the middle, that might be a LOT of par at the top. Just one of hte things that caused me to constantly pull rock and rescape my tank- once I figured out that I wanted to keep mostly SPS making sure scape was interesting and that it allowed for enough places to put sps was a challenge. I had two peaks that were way too high for most normal SPS. (ORAnge Setosa grows happily at 550+ par btw).

I do not have a par meter. And I plan to keep my softy obsession going. I have two Hydra 26 HDs. Previously had frongspawn near the top and I hope to keep them again now that a queen angel won't pick at them. lol. Also want to keep a BTA and an orange cap near the top. I guess I will be guessing and observing closely.l about the PAR needs.

 

[Victoria M]

Hey Chris you mean that your par was too high at the peaks for the SPS?

 

[iced98lx]

Hey Chris you mean that your par was too high at the peaks for the SPS?

Yes. I was going for primarily SPS and have some very high par numbers, so I had to choose, leave it and keep SPS in the central/mid zone where most of my rock shelves were, or turn down the lights and keep SPS at the top. I choose just to make the "top" less high. I can keep SPS at about 1 foot now in the 300-320 range, and all the way up to 450-500 at the highest points of my rock work. building something that allows for coral placement, shadowing concerns etc that isn't just a big shelf is a challenge and one reason that I look forward to creating a new scape some day.

Sounds like you've got a plan that should work fine, you know what you want to keep and where. Ask your local LFS if they have a PAR meter you can borrow or rent. Our local club has one that gets passed around as needed and it made me much more confident on coral placement.

 

[Victoria M]

Thanks @Bubba1963 . Have we met by chance? Do you belong to Buckeyereef?

 

[Victoria M]

Thanks Chris. No PAR meter to be barrowed. Sadly...it would be cool to see what my lights are doing. Oh, well. Not worth the money to me though.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Please forgive my mark up skillz. The plan is add another arching pass thru represented by the green circles, and the purple represents two rocks. The right side arch is not as even and symmetrical as it looks in the picture. The left side of the arch is more forward than the right side, and has a hidden rock column for support.

I like this in general and I am glad you point out the column in pink was raised forward as the separation was hard to see. Seeing where you will add additional rock and knowing you still have space above, it still seems like a lot of rock. That is just my opinion and minimalist taste of course.

I think it is really good for how round the individual rocks look.

 

[Muttley000]

Thanks Chris. No PAR meter to be barrowed. Sadly...it would be cool to see what my lights are doing. Oh, well. Not worth the money to me though.

Supporting membership at you friendly local reef club is only 20 bucks and gets you access to one. There is no waiting list right now.

 

[Victoria M]

Supporting membership at you friendly local reef club is only 20 bucks and gets you access to one. There is no waiting list right now.

Thanks. I did not know that. Do we have meetings with our local club? I did not realize there was a supporting membership. I will be looking at the web site more closely tonight.

 

[Victoria M]

I like this in general and I am glad you point out the column in pink was raised forward as the separation was hard to see. Seeing where you will add additional rock and knowing you still have space above, it still seems like a lot of rock. That is just my opinion and minimalist taste of course.

I think it is really good for how round the individual rocks look.

Thanks. I do want plenty of rock again. I do not want to see much of the back of the tank. But I don't exactly want a wall of rocks either. The tank is 24" front to back and 30" high. Lots to fill it, and easy to just get a wall of rock if I am not careful.

 

[Brew12]

Thanks. I do want plenty of rock again. I do not want to see much of the back of the tank. But I don't exactly want a wall of rocks either. The tank is 24" front to back and 30" high. Lots to fill it, and easy to just get a wall of rock if I am not careful.

Agree. Some times less is more!

 

[Victoria M]

This rock has been soaking for almost 3 months. I never tested it for a cycle...just phos. I now have an ammonia badge hanging in my sump. I ordered Dr. Tims ammonia and I have my dependable Stability. I use Stability all the time for QT. But I have never done this type of cycle before. I read about it a while ago. The plan is to get the ammonia up to 1-2? Seems high? and then begin dosing Stability. I wonder how much soaking the rock has started a bacteria base? It has been 12 years since I started from scratch and even then I started with cycled LR.

 

[Brew12]

This rock has been soaking for almost 3 months. I never tested it for a cycle...just phos. I now have an ammonia badge hanging in my sump. I ordered Dr. Tims ammonia and I have my dependable Stability. I use Stability all the time for QT. But I have never done this type of cycle before. I read about it a while ago. The plan is to get the ammonia up to 1-2? Seems high? and then begin dosing Stability. I wonder how much soaking the rock has started a bacteria base? It has been 12 years since I started from scratch and even then I started with cycled LR.

I think you will find that it process ammonia very quickly. I'd still try to get ammonia up to 2ppm and see how quickly it drops and looking for an increase in nitrates.