Stu July 7, 2009 Share July 7, 2009 Here are some pics of my rockwork for my 30g Oceanic cube. I made it Saturday morning using a drill, zip ties, and Great Stuff pond foam. I had hoped to reinforce it with acrylic rods, but I got impatient and I didn't really need them as it ends up. This was step 1. The next step is to coat the black foam and any exposed zip ties with curing resin and sprinkle sand over it to make it look like one big rock. Once that is done, I will have to wait impatiently for several months while I seed it with LR. I will also need to water-test it to make sure it doesn't float! (keeping my fingers crossed) I got the idea for the long rock arms off a post on RC. I was trying for a structure that would make my corals look somewhat suspended in the water column, with an overall more open appearance. I am not a fan of the piled-up fruit stand look, and I wanted the structure to have a fluid appearance. I am also always impressed with tanks with a nice open sand bed in the front that minimizes clutter with a few choice brains or clams. I think it looks more natural and gives the tank a sense of depth. That is what I am trying to do here given the limited space (4-6 more inches of front to back depth would sure be nice). -Stu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaze98 July 7, 2009 Share July 7, 2009 Awesome job man, it looks great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore July 7, 2009 Share July 7, 2009 That is going to look great. I'm interested to see how the sand coating turns out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capsfan July 7, 2009 Share July 7, 2009 That looks awesome! Keep updating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind July 7, 2009 Share July 7, 2009 This is going to look awesome once it becomes encrusted. Great for water flow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu July 7, 2009 Author Share July 7, 2009 That is going to look great. I'm interested to see how the sand coating turns out. Thanks, Justin. I do think the sand coating may look a little hokey for a while, but hopefully will encrust over with coralline sooner than later. The upper ledges are reserved for my acros and other sps. I think I'm going to put my acans on the bottom long arm, have a zoa and ricordea garden on the part jutting out front left, put my various LPS (duncan, torch, and caulastrea colonies) on the lower ledges to give movement, and probably will have a big frogspawn colony back right (there is actually a lot of open space back right, and I think a big frogspawn-ball on the sandbed might look nice). As I said, I also plan to put a nice clam and brains on the sand bed front and center. I am also considering where to put my 4 species of monti caps. Caps are one of my favorite SPS's, mainly because I love their tiered, cupping growth pattern. Only problem is they get huge, and they cast a lot of shade below, so I believe I will have to mount them lower, maybe off the back of the lower long arm. That said, I want to tier them so they can all be displayed, yet still be allowed to form into a nice natural-looking growth pattern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trockafella July 7, 2009 Share July 7, 2009 Nice work, You will enjoy all the space it opens up.. Cant wait to see the progress pics..!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate July 7, 2009 Share July 7, 2009 Wow, that looks really cool. What is the purpose of the eggcrate at the bottom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onyx July 7, 2009 Share July 7, 2009 That turned out really nice. Good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu July 7, 2009 Author Share July 7, 2009 Wow, that looks really cool. What is the purpose of the eggcrate at the bottom? When I had the tank set up before, I used it to distribute/balance the weight of the rocks. Kind of shatter insurance in case one of the rocks crashed to the bottom of the tank. I'm not sure if I'll use it this time around, as I think it may compartmentalize the sand in each little square and possibly creates dead spots. It also may be unnecessary this time because this thing is one big solid structure now and I won't have to worry about rockslides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu July 7, 2009 Author Share July 7, 2009 PS, anybody have a big live rock curing bin or sump I could leave this thing in for a couple of months? I know I could do it on my own in a trashcan, but I think it would speed things up substantially in a big bin full of LR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Camaron July 7, 2009 Share July 7, 2009 that is some nice work man, i cant wait to see it all purple and full of corals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k July 7, 2009 Share July 7, 2009 PS, anybody have a big live rock curing bin or sump I could leave this thing in for a couple of months? I know I could do it on my own in a trashcan, but I think it would speed things up substantially in a big bin full of LR. Why not just do it in the tank? do a few w/c's and you'll be good to go. Nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu July 7, 2009 Author Share July 7, 2009 Why not just do it in the tank? do a few w/c's and you'll be good to go. Nice work. I'd rather not have to buy any additional liverock, and I figured seeding with something live a handful of live sand would take longer than putting it in an established sump or tank for a while. I also thought it would be colonized by microfauna a lot quicker. I don't know much about how long it takes for rock to effectively become live rock, so let me know if my thinking is off on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore July 8, 2009 Share July 8, 2009 I'd rather not have to buy any additional liverock, and I figured seeding with something live a handful of live sand would take longer than putting it in an established sump or tank for a while. I also thought it would be colonized by microfauna a lot quicker. I don't know much about how long it takes for rock to effectively become live rock, so let me know if my thinking is off on this. I would put it in the tank, throw a ball of chaeto and some live sand in, and turn on only actinics (or a very short main-light photoperiod) for a few months. Cover it with a sheet if you don't want to look at it. Keep up with evap and alkalinity and maybe add some food and clean out the skimmer every now and then, but don't add fish or other predators. With the low light and high alkalinity and nutrients, you should get rapid coralline growth and pod establishment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu July 8, 2009 Author Share July 8, 2009 I would put it in the tank, throw a ball of chaeto and some live sand in, and turn on only actinics (or a very short main-light photoperiod) for a few months. Cover it with a sheet if you don't want to look at it. Keep up with evap and alkalinity and maybe add some food and clean out the skimmer every now and then, but don't add fish or other predators. With the low light and high alkalinity and nutrients, you should get rapid coralline growth and pod establishment. I have some old PC fixtures laying around (one has something like a 32w actinic in it). Do you think I can get away with this for coralline growth, or do I need to go with something more powerful? I've always been under the impression that light-wise, coralline doesn't take much as long as it's got calcium. I'm also planning to plumb this whole thing, add a frag tank underneath, reinforce my stand, etc. in a month or so, and I was going to get a new skimmer at that time. Do you think I could get away with not skimming while the LR cures, as long as I have sufficient flow? I was thinking about just dumping one of my mag drives in there, and it would keep the water moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore July 8, 2009 Share July 8, 2009 I have some old PC fixtures laying around (one has something like a 32w actinic in it). Do you think I can get away with this for coralline growth, or do I need to go with something more powerful? I've always been under the impression that light-wise, coralline doesn't take much as long as it's got calcium. I'm also planning to plumb this whole thing, add a frag tank underneath, reinforce my stand, etc. in a month or so, and I was going to get a new skimmer at that time. Do you think I could get away with not skimming while the LR cures, as long as I have sufficient flow? I was thinking about just dumping one of my mag drives in there, and it would keep the water moving. Yes all of the above would be fine. Just harvest some chaeto every so often to compensate for no skimmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE July 8, 2009 Share July 8, 2009 If you want to bring it over to me next week, I can put it in my big 100g refugium with all of my LR thats cycling. I'm getting the rock already established but I'm going out of country for a while so I'm just going to leave it to cycle. PM me if you're interested Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu July 10, 2009 Author Share July 10, 2009 Here are the pics of the rockwork post-curing resin. I am happy with the outcome, although I am letting the resin cure all day, and the truly final product will be tonight when I rinse all the excess sand off (there is still a decent amount of loose sand on the structure). I suspect that there will be a few black patches remaining, but I'm not too worried about it. The resin was a serious mess to deal with and hardened very quickly. I had about 5 mins working time at the most. So I had to make it a cup at a time. I basically threw rock rubble and sand onto the resin to cover all the black. Again, it was a mess to work with and a not-so-graceful process. Here are a few pics: Front view Top view. I tried to be careful with "branch" placement so none of them shaded branches further down the structure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryL July 10, 2009 Share July 10, 2009 it kinda reminds me of jar jar binks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boret July 10, 2009 Share July 10, 2009 it kinda reminds me of jar jar binks ha ha ha ha, it is weird but I see it too in the 1st picture! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 10, 2009 Share July 10, 2009 It looks great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capsfan July 11, 2009 Share July 11, 2009 (edited) it kinda reminds me of jar jar binks Jar Jar Binks signing the letter "Y" Looking good Stu. Awaiting your updated pics! Edited July 11, 2009 by capsfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu July 11, 2009 Author Share July 11, 2009 it kinda reminds me of jar jar binks Now I'm going to think of one of the most annoying movie characters of all time every time I look at my tank! Thanks again for the compliments, and I don't think there will be any updates until after I take the Bar Exam at the end of this month. Sam (L8 2 Rise) has been kind enough to donate some real estate in his 100 gal. fuge to seed the rock in the meantime. Will probably reinforce my existing stand, plumb the tank, sump, frag tank, etc. early August and I'll do a dedicated tank thread then. If anybody has any questions about my experiences using the foam, resin, etc. feel free to ask! -Stu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate July 11, 2009 Share July 11, 2009 If it makes you feel any better, I don't think it looks like jar jar. It looks amazing! I love how it came out...I might have to make one of these myself one day. I will definitely be hittin you up when I do. Great Job! Can't wait to see it in the tank with some coralline on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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