Tore it down, rebuilt the rockscape
Posted 03/10/2013 at 02:23 PM by ACBlinky
There are no fish in the tank ATM, so I decided to fix the issues I've been seeing with flow and light penetration. The large tower on the left side of the tank was too tight, and in quite a few spots some of the rocks were creating too much shade, blocking light to everything below.
We went to Home Depot and bought two 48" fiberglass driveway markers, a 1/2" masonry drill bit, a chisel set, a junior hacksaw, some epoxy putty and gel crazy glue.
Came home and tore the tank apart, and chiseled most of the coral frags off the rocks so I'd have bare rocks to use as building blocks -- I figured it'd be easier to re-glue the corals once the rockscape was finished, rather than trying to build something with the corals in place.
I drilled holes in most of the rocks, then threaded them onto the driveway markers until I had a few columns I was happy with. Then I used the hacksaw to trim the posts to size, and rebuilt the columns inside the tank. I placed some rocks between/around the columns and called it good until the next morning; I needed to wait until the dust settled and I could see things more clearly.
I left the corals lined up along the front of the tank for the night.
After a few finishing touches to the position of the rocks, I started affixing the corals. I discovered that 'fix-it stick' epoxy isn't as sticky as the LFS stuff, but it does work.
I replaced the cover glass with eggcrate and diatom filtered the tank for a few hours, and everything looks happy today
The flow is definitely improved; the rocks are all at least 8" off the back glass, and there's much less rock contacting the substrate than before. There are lots of little caves and swim-throughs, as well as the two large holes, and I think the fish are going to like it
Pictures!
Please forgive the lousy cell phone pictures, they really don't do it justice.
We went to Home Depot and bought two 48" fiberglass driveway markers, a 1/2" masonry drill bit, a chisel set, a junior hacksaw, some epoxy putty and gel crazy glue.
Came home and tore the tank apart, and chiseled most of the coral frags off the rocks so I'd have bare rocks to use as building blocks -- I figured it'd be easier to re-glue the corals once the rockscape was finished, rather than trying to build something with the corals in place.
I drilled holes in most of the rocks, then threaded them onto the driveway markers until I had a few columns I was happy with. Then I used the hacksaw to trim the posts to size, and rebuilt the columns inside the tank. I placed some rocks between/around the columns and called it good until the next morning; I needed to wait until the dust settled and I could see things more clearly.
I left the corals lined up along the front of the tank for the night.
After a few finishing touches to the position of the rocks, I started affixing the corals. I discovered that 'fix-it stick' epoxy isn't as sticky as the LFS stuff, but it does work.
I replaced the cover glass with eggcrate and diatom filtered the tank for a few hours, and everything looks happy today
The flow is definitely improved; the rocks are all at least 8" off the back glass, and there's much less rock contacting the substrate than before. There are lots of little caves and swim-throughs, as well as the two large holes, and I think the fish are going to like it
Pictures!
Please forgive the lousy cell phone pictures, they really don't do it justice.
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