Nice - that is one serious wall o' rock! Hard to see real clearly, but it looks like you have plenty of caves and pass-throughs there.

That tank should fill in nicely when they're all covered over with corals.

:mrgreen:

Yup, looks nice. I am still a fan of the rock wall look.

(Splurge.)

The rock wall looks nice, but it can turn into a algae producer if you don't get enough water movement in the back. Try and stack it so there is space behind it, and use epoxy to hold it together once you get a structure you like otherwise it could topple later on and hurt some of the inhabitants. I would also recommend curing with the lights off, do many frequent large water changes and make sure you have a ton of water movement going.

Mike

I don't understand how lower flow will turn it into a algae producer? just have lots of flow in the tank and it will difuse through out the rocks.

I would have to disagree with curring it in the dark and epoxying it togeather.
by curing it in the dark you lessen any chance of photosynthic stuff to live through the shipping/curing process, and by gluing your rock togeather you make it inpossable to rearange easaly when you decide that rock would look better over there and when that 35 buck frag comes unglued and falls into a crack :rolleyes:
If you take your time and stack it so it is steady you will not have to worry about rock falling.

Steve

If you look under the outflow I have a 300gal/h powerhead moving water along the back glass. All the rock is very steady and solid (I made sure of that) there might be a few peices that are relying on another to hold them in place but I made sure that they were not woobly. I am also sitting on the fence with the light thing so they are off for most of the day and maybe on for 4-5 hours at night hoping that there is enuf light to keep stuff alive but not enuf for an alge explosion :biggrin:

I'm with Steve, keep your lights on, water movement lessens algae? um, okay, you're still going to get an algae bloom on your rocks etc, it's a given, it happens with all reef tanks (my opinion). If you've got a tang or a fox face you can borrow that will sure help with algae, if not you can rely on cleaner crews.
Alot of books recommend epoxying your rock together, well that's fine and dandy unless you have to move something, then trying to lift out that chunk of glued together rock will be a total pain, not to mention it still wont fit back the way you want it. I'd only epoxy rock that is in an obvious position to fall like you've built an over hang, or built an arch out of smaller peices.

Doug

Hey Steve and Doug,
Reduced water flow does lead to increased algae gowth. Things like algae spores and detritus settle out and take hold in low flow areas.Numerous books on algae control list one of the methods for controlling algae is increased water movement. Haven't you noticed areas where there is low flow, usually algae growth occurs when nutrient level increases. As far as adding cleaning crew, or herbivore fish you will definately decrease your overall deversity fom your rock. Curing with lights off may cause your corraline to bleach, but it will come back quickly when you add lights. I've cured two tanks this way, and have never had algae blooms occur on my rock from cycling.

Mike

The only algae I've seen from low water movment is diatomatious algae and or red algae. Green algaes grow well in strong current. Curing rock with the lights off to me is a waste of time but if it works for you that's great. I've seen people do things that make no sense to me and sometimes I do things that makes no sense to someone else but we do stick with what works for us regardless of what others say. Look at one of the guys here he doesn't do water changes etc but he's got a nice tank... who knows what goes on.

Doug

I get algae only where my water flow is the highest, but thats not the point you have to define low flow, I have a turn over rate in my tank of 50X / hour so even behind the rocks there is no such thing as low flow (my cleaner shrimp started giving me the finger when I put the second tunze in :mrgreen:

I cycled my tank with one powerhead but the rock had many holes like Dabblers does which allows current to penatrate through out the mass, I think what you are refuring to is "no flow" rather than low.

but even in my old set up, I never had algae in the very low flow areas.

I think the cause of algae growth directly in the path of my Tunze now is beacuse of the amount of highly oxyignated water blasting in thoes spots.

as for the light part I am not talking about coraline surviving but rather photosynthic sponges and polyps ect.. coraline is a dime a dozzen to grow :mrgreen:

Steve

How much was the rock at AI?