SPS reef version 3.0

[jhale]

I spent the last three days working on the new aquascape for my tank.
It's the complition of the rock cooking & rock pillar thread. I ended up making six of the pillars which I'll show in seperate photos.
The photo below is a photomerge of 5 pics, that's why you'll see some fuzzy overlap in the image, and three large blue
damsels (there is just one damsel, he got in three of the five shots)



tank specs,
custom glass cages tank 60"x24"x20", 1/2" marina board bottom with a very shallow ESV fine grained sand bed 1/2"-2" deep
flow tunze 6060, tunze 6080, vortech (on order)
lighting 3x250 10k EVC se bulbs on IC balasts, 2x4' t-5 actinics, 2x4' white vhos, both on IC430's, 3-4" fans in the hood
filtration deep sand bed fuge in sump packed with cheato, DAS EX-2, ESV GAC in a flow through chamber
supplements Randys 2 part fed by an aquamedic doser. also adding the ESV supplements.
return pump sequence snapper flowing through a 1/2 hp red sea chiller

Previous Tank Threads

SPS Island Reef
120 SPS Reef
anthelia heaven
1994 Reef

other threads

jose the mandarin

coral from 4/05

coral from 4/05 cont.

let's get ready to rumble!

arts and craft power heads

old school QT

biotopes

my battle with red bugs

 

[jhale]

creating the pillars

pillar advice
? buy at least two of each drill bit
? wrap a towel around the rocks to hold them while drilling
? keep the towel well away from the drill bit
? when placing pillars in the tank it's better to put them in half made, they get bulky and heavy.

getting ready for the job, buckets to hold the rocks and bins to hold the coral.
take out all the coral that you do not want to break

the bin of rocks is finaly ready

rock drilling station, a corded drill with a smaller diameter bit, the cordless drill with the 1/2" bit, a cutting board that I don't mind putting some round dents in. lots of towels.

half of the first pillar.

in the tank,

 

[jhale]

the second pillar, I did not spend a lot of time picking the rocks, I just went with what looked good at the top of the bucket.

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=8844&c=

some of them I got all crazy and put two support rods in.
this allowed for two levels of rocks and some interesting configurations.

one side done

the almost complete structure

half the pillars in the tank , photo credit deanos

in the end I made seven pillars, but used six of them. the full tank shot flattens out the depth, but in person there is quite a bit of depth between the pillars and I really like the way they break the surface of the water.
it gives the :snail: a place to go sun bathe

 

[Tonyscoots84]

J let me be the 1st to say D A M N.... Looks freakin awesome dude..... great job... you deserve something that beautiful J . good luck this time..

 

[DEEPWATER]

someone has been hiding his master piece

Very nice job dude ,,Now get them pics up

Ronen

 

[nanoreefer22]

Very sexy jh!! I see sand LOOks GREAT!

 

[SlamaJama]

vn jon....its a constant evolution...keep workin it, WTG!

 

[jackson6745]

Nice to see the tank coming back Jon. Post some larger pics. I can't see anything in that FTS

 

[MightyMike]

wow, well crafted sir, hmmm wait a sec, hey whats all that sandy lookin' stuff on the bottom of your tank J?

 

[KathyC]

Looks great Jon! Where were you hiding all those corals on your last FTS's?

 

[Deanos]

Where are the columns you worked so hard on Saturday?

 

[bad coffee]

Looks good so far.

saved for pics

so what are you waiting for?
B

 

[herman]

Very Nice dude!!!

 

[fritz]

Nice!

 

[jhale]

thanks guys, i put up a larger fts, and added the pillar pics.

Kathy the coral was all in the tank, it was just sitting at the bottom.
Yes there is a thin layer of the ESV fine grained sand in the tank, I got tired of the black marina board.

 

[Quang]

Awesome work Jon.
It also looks like a lot of fun.
I still can't get a feel for the height of the pillars...have to see it in person.

 

[jhale]

some of the rock pillars break the top of the water, some of them are made shorter. I'll post some pics later that show them closer up, it should be easier to see then.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Looks nice Jon, Very Nice.

 

[digitalreefer]

? keep the towel well away from the drill bit

Ummmm.... I want to hear the story behind this advice! :shocked:

Looks good... more pics!

 

[jhale]

Ummmm.... I want to hear the story behind this advice! :shocked:

Looks good... more pics!

it went like this, sharp jaggy rock, drill bit gets stuck, high torque drill, rocks spins and cuts the hand holding the rock :dead1:

next try, towel around sharp rock works great, till the bit catches on the towel and spins the whole mess around knocking things off the kitchen island.

not a good thing to cut up your hand right in the middle of working on your tank