Things are somewhat reassembled in the basement, leveled up and progressing. Running 2 20A circuits to next to the tank, a 1" spa flex line for water changes, a USB to the Neptune EB4, and a 1/4" line for top up RO/DI.

Also started carving up 100+ lbs of Marco rock to create a permanent base rock aquascape. This is working well but is a messy job. It is surprising how tough that rock is even with a diamond blade.

Will have more pics as the rock goes in.

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-3cd7-b31a.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-3d24-5be1.jpg

Wow, look who finally posted something :razz:
Great progress.
Word of warning when cutting up base rock;
I drilled some of mine and rinsing didn't do much. I ended up running it in a rubbermaid with a heater and powerhead to get all the powder off it. Sure made a mess of the tub that I'd hate to see in your tank :mrgreen: It was like an Alk precipitation storm

You should see my garage, looks like a cocaine factory! I might sweep up the dust and return it to Red Coral for a credit!

I can't avoid all the dust but am blowing each piece off with a compressor before taking them downstairs to be siliconed in place. I think I will give things a good vacuum and maybe a fresh water rinse before the $150 of salt goes in. :)

Planning on 3 or 4 tiers in the sand bed, might look pretty cool.

The compressed air should help lots

8 hours of this:

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-7f43-8b6e.jpg

A bunch of this:

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-7f7d-d65e.jpg

Some of this:

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-7fc1-48cb.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-8153-a288.jpg

And now we have this:

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-8014-fa99.jpg

Added 240 lbs of sand and waiting for the fill! :)

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-8188-1958.jpg

[quote=Madmak;707679]8 hours of this:

A bunch of this:

Some of this:


And now we have this:

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-8014-fa99.jpg

Added 240 lbs of sand and waiting for the fill! :)

Wow, I love the left side structure , very open concept .
Nice job.
How much live rock are you adding?

Looks outstanding! If I did something like that on my next build (which I might now ;))I would air brush the background to make it look like the rock goes through the glas and just fades out into the deep blue :)

Edit-- Is the silicone holding the rock quite well?

Thanks!
I'll add a bunch in the sump and refugium and there is lots of room in the DT for more. Maybe another 100 lbs or so.
The left side is a large glass shelf that is outlined in rock but will be about a 14" square raised sand bed. It also covers my closed loop inlet below.

Thanks a lot!

I saw some neat ideas on backgrounds and my options are still open as there is 30" or so behind the tank. It will be an in-wall eventually.

I fit the rock carefully and used a fair amount of silicone and it is very strong. The upper right piece is probably over 10 lbs and is held only with silicone.

I've left room for a bottom to top branching structure in the middle but need to source this stuff first.

awesome! Well it looks great I must say, cant wait to see it all finished (are we ever finished :lol:)

How is the bond between the silicone and the glass and rock on rock? Never throught of using silicone before.

It is very good if the surfaces are prepared right. I cut the rock flat to match the glass with a diamond blade which leaves a large contact patch.

is that silicone, or the silicone adhesive type?

Your whole set up is looking good. Great job!

It's the same silicone that they build tanks with. Silicone is an incredibly strong adhesive when used correctly, it's what hold our tanks together for years under huge pressures.

And thanks for the kind comments. The business end of things needs some more work but I think the plans are in place :)

Very cool rockwork. Who says OCD is a bad thing :wink:

Everything is now wet, 3 days to fill. SG is bang on 1.026 (almost a full large pail of salinity!). 260 lbs of sand is in and settling as is the 150 lbs of Marco rock. All pumps and skimmer are on. 2 GFCI 20A circuits are in as is the network drop and pull cable for the Apex USB. 1/4" line from RO/DI to dump float is in and adjusted. 1" line to mixing station isn't yet done.

Picked up a 12 X 39W T5 fixture today for temp lighting, refugium lighting is done as well as dual under cabinet lights.

The Bean Animal Drains on the 48" overflow are sweeeet. A great surface skim and VERY quiet if not totally silent. I can hear a Koralia nano over the sound of the overflow and drains.

Closed loop ReeFlo Barracuda is dialed in as are the 8 outputs (it's like a hot tub in there). Dual Jäger 300W heater are keeping up well.

3 beautiful 4" raw zipperback pacific white shrimp hang in a media bag rotting away. 30 lbs of old LR are hanging in the refugium as well.

Patiently waiting for the silt to settle to take some pics but we are now in business. My Apex Controller was DOA and is back at the factory. I have ran a EB4 at the mixing station to monitor those components and have 2 EB8s under the tank with a PM2 and Breakout Box. Temp, pH, ORP, and conductivity probes in the sump ready to go.

Thanks to all for the quick answers to my questions lately, it's nice to have a second or third opinion before committing to a design or purchase.

Pics to come as soon as they are worthy.

Excellent progress
Sucks about the Apex
A vid of the flow when it clears would be cool :wink:

Cmon cmon cmon, clear damnit :razz:

ha!

Ditto

And will do, maybe a little raw tank tour.

Exactly. Something to show my wife your rocks besides a pic

Tank is coming along great!
Love the look of the rockwork... taking the time to cut the rocks really paid off IMO. :biggrin:

A quick pic for now, more to come. http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-cefa-51f4.jpg

the scape looks killer man!....are you seeding the marko with some live?

Thanks and yes I am, just put 10 or 15 lbs of rubble I had around and 25 lbs of fresh premium rock in the refugium just now. I will move it up once I trust it:)

What's in the tank now is permanent and I hope to build some neat stuff off of it with LR, branch, and corals once I'm able.

Rock slides and falling frags have always been a big pet peeve of mine.

Things have come together quickly lately, here are some updated pics. I will do a video as promised but will wait for my Apex unit to arrive first.

FTS

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-3482-8ce6.jpg

Right scape

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-34b1-3c81.jpg

Left scape

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-34eb-32c3.jpg

Close up of my glass shelf turned raised sand bed to cover the closed loop inlet

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-352b-43f1.jpg

Fuge

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-3545-ebd4.jpg

Sump

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-3567-a029.jpg

Closed loop manifold above fuge

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-3598-5b10.jpg

Apex hub point, RO/DI feed, LAN feed, 2 x 20A GFCI outlets, USB to mixing station, all on back of tank.

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-363b-888c.jpg

And look at all the happy fishes!

Holy crap !!! You really put that together fast :biggrin:
It all looks wonderful
I guess I better get off the pot :mrgreen:

Coming from a 24G nano all my fish seem so small! And they are wandering around all confused, bumping in to things, asking for directions...

You made me laugh big time ... thanks :razz:

Can't wait 'till I show you all my crappy little build with fish in it

I love the shelf that you created, very creative way to put corals that need lots of light up high.

Looking killer! love your scape idea. I might try the cut and silicone as well. Nice big fuge too!

I always knew I had a thing for Tangs but never had a tank that could accommodate them properly. Well below is now my current livestock list. I Introduced them all relatively close together and tried to source younger, passive, and similar sized specimens and all has been great so far. It is such a pleasure to be able to keep such beautiful animals.

Yellow Tang
Purple Tang
Sailfin Tang
Powder Blue Tang
Naso Tang
Kole Tang
Six Line Wrasse
Seagrass Wrasse
Fire Fish Goby
Orange Diamond Goby
Ocellaris Clown Fish x 2
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Brittle Starfish

More Pictures, are needed.

One of the best builds I have ever seen in regards to rock work - When I setup my next tank that is def the way im going. I guess the big decision is to do it once, and make sure you cut twice; glue once :lol:

Now can we can all wait for the coral to grow into their happy homes and I can't wait to see your tank all filled in with coral and fish.

Good luck!

Some cell phone pics for now, diatoms and all.

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-546d-6c06.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-5480-0c5d.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-5496-841a.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-54bc-dd43.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-54d7-5767.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-5529-f47d.jpg

Man, that's lookin' great
I really gotta get off the pot :rolleyes:
Even Kenny's harassing me now

Thanks all, it's coming along.

There is a fair bit of work and attention needed in the early stages of a tank and that is keeping me busy.

I'm soon to start the build of the false wall to create the in wall look. The tank actually sits in the basement theater room in a 4' x 8' nook area. I won't end up with a fish room but a full 2' behind the tank for access and storage.

Vids will come when my mess leaves :)

This is really some impressive work! I like the box of rocks around the intake. Was the Marco rock completely dry when you started this or had you started it in a cycle beforehand?

Looking really good. I'm loving the open scape you have set up

Tank and rock were dry, that made it easy. ;)

My skimmer was ****ing me off repeatedly. Would not restart after a FEED command and after a month, no skimmate.

I happened to find a used Elos NS4000 and spent some time cleaning it up and fitting to my sump. It's rated for 550 to 1100 gallons. I hope I don't skim the scales right off my fishies!! :)

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-4a44-86e1.jpg