- Location
- New York Metro Area
Welcome to my thread. I have 3 tanks. A BC 14 that is detailed in this first post which is now over 6 months old. A Red Sea Max 130D that I started on Christmas. And a Contest Pico for the unofficial Walmart Pico contest (radio show coming soon.... :shhh
BC 14, Started July 4th weekend 2011
Details:
Macros
Inverts
Fish
Corals
I've only been dreaming of going salty for 15 years. Within 6 months of starting this tank I went to the MR frag swap and came home with 2 boatloads of coral. So for Christmas, barely a few weeks after my LED upgrade, I bought myself a Red Sea Max 130D. :flirt:
I started out over a year ago helping a buddy set up a BC29 which is where I lean't a lot and well before starting my own tank. With the BC29 I realized that it was so important to have a good aquascape design, a composition. I googled pictures of peoples tank to death, most favor the "wall" look, "valley" look, some feature arches and of course that amazing bonsai scape is just to die for. In my little 14G it was a bit of a challenge.
i started out looking for "shelf rock". Shelf rock is thin flat LR that resembles a ledge. You can use it to display coral especially if you have a tank suited for SPS (mine is not, it's a stock biocube). I traced out the shape of each rock on paper.
Then I made a framework out of plastic straws (I was showing pictures of it to my LFS guy and he went "wow you are nerrrrdy!". Here's a picture of my straw-scape:
Then I added the traced outlines of the shelf rock to see how I like the height etc. (I made a paper pattern of the BC footprint to work on too). Finally I took a 1/2 inch PVC pipe and every kind of do-hickey that you could use (cross, elbow, 3 way connector 45 degree connector, I bought like 100 of these things!) sawed the PVC into bits and different heights (didn't know I had a saw in my apartment!). This is what it looks like:
After my premium deco rock (uncured rock straight from the ocean!) arrived from Gulf Live rock, I went to work. 6 hours later:
So! I'm finally done aquascaping. Thank you to John, a forum member who does not know me from Adam, who sent me a care package of marco rocks and lots of advice.
Voila!
I wasn't the best with the marco rocks, in fact after letting it set for 30 minutes the structure didn't hold. I added more rods and more mortar and also used aquamend (home depot does not sell the other epoxy anymore). I made the marco rocks mortar dry consistency and it almost set right in my mixing pail! Made it wetter and it wouldn't dry so I had some noob issues. All good.
I'm actually quite pleased with myself! As for drilling, I bought a masonry bit but some of these rocks were so dense it was impossible to drill and I didn't have the courage to continue before I broke something. I ah have like a small hole in my carpet and another one in the ah wooden floor :wub: even tho I used thick cardboard protection.
The most challenging part was my concern over keeping my hitchhikers alive. I have a rose coral, several yellow sponges, 3 anemones, lots of clams (one giant one!), hidden cup corals and more. We shall see in the coming days if anything dies. I found a baby brittle starfish in the middle of it all. And a red bristle worm too but he's in the bucket.
I did not end up using the PVC as they were far too thick. I used an acrylic rod 1/4 inch which was easy enough to cut and given my troubles with drilling, I'm glad it was only 1/4 inch size that I needed to drill.
I'm mostly pleased with the placement, but I'm still tweaking.
I soon came to be known on the forums as the constant aquascaper. I'll post pictures of the way the scape changed each month and with each new addition.
I want to thank my dear friend KGoldy who goes the extra mile without even asking, he has answered many middle of the night "OMG I can't find my Yasha" messages and I've yet to receive a bill for his armchair counseling. Props to you KG.
Also a big wave to Coral Gal, always a pleasure to see you at the lady reefers brunch!
Shout out to CharlietheTuna for being a good swap buddy. NYC Joe too.
I'm also the organizer of the Nano Reefers meetings and the Lady Reefers Club.
If you are interested in either, PM me.
Thanks for reading.
BC 14, Started July 4th weekend 2011
Details:
- Oceanic BioCube 14 Gallons
- MJ900 pump
- Ecoxotic Panorama Pro 12K/453nm + Magenta/453nm stunner strip
- Removed false floor in chamber one to fit Oceanic Skimmer and Submersible heater
- Removed bio balls, chamber cover & false floor from chamber 2
- Used a zip tie to suspend chemipure to false floor of chamber 2
- Purigen on top of False floor
- Floss on top of that
- Koralia Nano
Macros
- Red Glacilaria
- Halimeda Incrassata
- Chaeto
Inverts
- 3 Virgin Nerites
- 3 Nerite Snails
- 2 Nassarius Snails
- 3 Scarlet Hermit Crabs (murderers)
- 1 Blue Porcelain Crab (Dingbat)
- 125 Dwarf Cerith Snails from John Maloney
- 9 Astrea Snails
- 1 Zebra Pistol Shrimp at large, armed and dangerous
- 1 Black Pistol Shrimp! most likely a HH
- 1 Sexy Shrimp (Bubba)banished to pico
- 2 Limpets
Fish
- 1Yasha Goby (Charlie)
- 2 Blue Neon Gobies (pair) (Mater & Finn)
- 2 Baby Ocellaris (Max & Ruby)
Corals
- 4 Snazzy JASON FOX Frags! 2 monti, one acan echinata, 1 lepto
- ORA Green Birdsnest
- Caribbean Rose Coral (HH)
- Blue spotted mushroom
- Green Stripe mushroom
- Blue mushroom
- Eagle Eyes (now I have 3 varieties, the best was the $5 frag from my LFS)
- Neon Blue Zoas
- Purple Hornets (gift from M'akoy! <3)
- Orange Zoas
- Pink Zoas
- Hidden Cup Corals (HH)
- Blastomussa
Kenya Treesent to pico- Neon Green Leather
- Various unidentified zoanthids
- Red mushrooms
- Green Leopard Palythoa
- Green Paly
- Yellow Sea whip
- Purple Girgonian
- Yellow ball sponges
- GSP
- Duncan
- Superman rhodactis (meh)
- Rainbow Monti
Tangerine dream Acansome red acan- Sympodium
- Hellboy Favia
- Pink Gonipora
- ORA Spongodes
I've only been dreaming of going salty for 15 years. Within 6 months of starting this tank I went to the MR frag swap and came home with 2 boatloads of coral. So for Christmas, barely a few weeks after my LED upgrade, I bought myself a Red Sea Max 130D. :flirt:
I started out over a year ago helping a buddy set up a BC29 which is where I lean't a lot and well before starting my own tank. With the BC29 I realized that it was so important to have a good aquascape design, a composition. I googled pictures of peoples tank to death, most favor the "wall" look, "valley" look, some feature arches and of course that amazing bonsai scape is just to die for. In my little 14G it was a bit of a challenge.
i started out looking for "shelf rock". Shelf rock is thin flat LR that resembles a ledge. You can use it to display coral especially if you have a tank suited for SPS (mine is not, it's a stock biocube). I traced out the shape of each rock on paper.
Then I made a framework out of plastic straws (I was showing pictures of it to my LFS guy and he went "wow you are nerrrrdy!". Here's a picture of my straw-scape:
Then I added the traced outlines of the shelf rock to see how I like the height etc. (I made a paper pattern of the BC footprint to work on too). Finally I took a 1/2 inch PVC pipe and every kind of do-hickey that you could use (cross, elbow, 3 way connector 45 degree connector, I bought like 100 of these things!) sawed the PVC into bits and different heights (didn't know I had a saw in my apartment!). This is what it looks like:
After my premium deco rock (uncured rock straight from the ocean!) arrived from Gulf Live rock, I went to work. 6 hours later:
So! I'm finally done aquascaping. Thank you to John, a forum member who does not know me from Adam, who sent me a care package of marco rocks and lots of advice.
Voila!
I wasn't the best with the marco rocks, in fact after letting it set for 30 minutes the structure didn't hold. I added more rods and more mortar and also used aquamend (home depot does not sell the other epoxy anymore). I made the marco rocks mortar dry consistency and it almost set right in my mixing pail! Made it wetter and it wouldn't dry so I had some noob issues. All good.
I'm actually quite pleased with myself! As for drilling, I bought a masonry bit but some of these rocks were so dense it was impossible to drill and I didn't have the courage to continue before I broke something. I ah have like a small hole in my carpet and another one in the ah wooden floor :wub: even tho I used thick cardboard protection.
The most challenging part was my concern over keeping my hitchhikers alive. I have a rose coral, several yellow sponges, 3 anemones, lots of clams (one giant one!), hidden cup corals and more. We shall see in the coming days if anything dies. I found a baby brittle starfish in the middle of it all. And a red bristle worm too but he's in the bucket.
I did not end up using the PVC as they were far too thick. I used an acrylic rod 1/4 inch which was easy enough to cut and given my troubles with drilling, I'm glad it was only 1/4 inch size that I needed to drill.
I'm mostly pleased with the placement, but I'm still tweaking.
I soon came to be known on the forums as the constant aquascaper. I'll post pictures of the way the scape changed each month and with each new addition.
I want to thank my dear friend KGoldy who goes the extra mile without even asking, he has answered many middle of the night "OMG I can't find my Yasha" messages and I've yet to receive a bill for his armchair counseling. Props to you KG.
Also a big wave to Coral Gal, always a pleasure to see you at the lady reefers brunch!
Shout out to CharlietheTuna for being a good swap buddy. NYC Joe too.
I'm also the organizer of the Nano Reefers meetings and the Lady Reefers Club.
If you are interested in either, PM me.
Thanks for reading.
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