Using travertine for substrate instead of none or sand.

[michika]

Its amazing what little things we can find that we use in our hobby.

PS, I accidentally deleted your PM, could you re-send it please?

[Marlin65]

Looks great I like it.

[fencer]

Catherine are those the same tiles you are using to mount frags?

[my2rotties]

Well with my research on this fantastic site, I think I am going to use substrate under the live rock, and have the 12"x12" travertine tiles on the front part for ease of cleaning. My husband started playing with the 1"x1" travertine squares to build dividing wall to hold the substrate back from the marble. It is looking good but I am thinking that perhaps I should take some broken pieces and build the wall with that to compare the look. The little squares will be much easier to silicone together, but I have the day off, so I am like a kid with Lego. Nothing is siliconed yet (ran out and have to drive into Calgary for more), and some of the travertine is wet which shows up darker in the pictures.

I cannot post the pics here so they are in my flickr account. What do you all think? I am still learning how to use this account since I just started it last night so the pictures are all over the place. Sorry about the mayhem. Any comments, ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated since we only want to do this ONCE.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30861436@N08/

[Whatigot]

pretty cool but I will withhold my final opinion until I see it full of water and life...
Great potential though IMO.

[my2rotties]

Well that's not a huge help

I do wonder what the marble will look like when life takes over. Will it be ugly algae covered and slimy... I am wondering what divider to use since I do not want it to be too man made looking. The background will have a lot of live rock in front of it, so I am hoping the water and rocks will obstruct the joins. With the divider, it will be mostly obstructed as well, but I would not mind if some of it was showing, however, is natural looking or manmade better? These are things I don't want to discover when it is all together.

I know it is different form anything else I have seen, which is awesome for originality, but sucks for taking a risk of being different. It scares me that we have to fill it with 260 gallons of water, the rocks and corals, to see what it will be. The way it is already going, I will be hoping for a Christmas completion, but we still have to figure out what pumps we need to pump the water to the sump that will be in the basement, how to set up the reverse osmosis, and the million other things that must be done.

I just keep repeating " A journy of a thousand miles begins with one step".

Originally Posted by Whatigot

pretty cool but I will withhold my final opinion until I see it full of water and life...
Great potential though IMO.

[Whatigot]

Originally Posted by my2rotties

Well that's not a huge help

I do wonder what the marble will look like when life takes over. Will it be ugly algae covered and slimy... I am wondering what divider to use since I do not want it to be too man made looking. The background will have a lot of live rock in front of it, so I am hoping the water and rocks will obstruct the joins. With the divider, it will be mostly obstructed as well, but I would not mind if some of it was showing, however, is natural looking or manmade better? These are things I don't want to discover when it is all together.

I know it is different form anything else I have seen, which is awesome for originality, but sucks for taking a risk of being different. It scares me that we have to fill it with 260 gallons of water, the rocks and corals, to see what it will be. The way it is already going, I will be hoping for a Christmas completion, but we still have to figure out what pumps we need to pump the water to the sump that will be in the basement, how to set up the reverse osmosis, and the million other things that must be done.

I just keep repeating " A journy of a thousand miles begins with one step".

all completely personal preference....
as long as you still repect yourself everytime you look at your tank then you made the right decisions.
I have a hrd time believing that the fish and inverts we keep are fooled for a second that the glass cages we confine them to are "natural" so tit's really a personal choice when it comes to your tank.
if you like it, what can anyone else say?

[atcguy]

i dont get it, ?? whats the point?? When I dive I dont see a tile backspalsh, is there a benefit???

[Whatigot]

Originally Posted by atcguy

i dont get it, ?? whats the point?? When I dive I dont see a tile backspalsh, is there a benefit???

maybe that IS the point.
you don't see glass walls siliconed around you when you dive either do you?

[my2rotties]

Travertine is very porus, just like live rock. I was searching the web for background ideas and saw many made made fake rock backgrounds and walls. We own a tile company and have a decent amount of travertine marble left over from a show home. It is free, and is very close to the colour of the live rock formations and such. This tank is huge and I want it to be as easy to care for as possible. The background will be covered by a large amount of live rock of course, but it has to stay in my smaller tank and be bought when we are that far along. The live rock that is glued on right now, of course came with the tank and has been dry for months now. We have two overflows that have to be hidden, but all our plumbing will be in the basement just below the display tank.

I will be gluing more 4x4s that I have broken to the exsisting background to give it more dimension as well. I am going for a look of a manmade wall that has sunken under the ocean that has been overgrown by live rocks and corals. I know fish cannot be fooled by this, but we as humans want things to be convincing as possible. Since this is a manmade tank we might as well attempt to combine the two worlds into one in a sense. All I knew is that I wanted some sort of rock shelving to support corals, provide tunnels, and be biologically functional as well. I know it is a new idea, but somebody has to try. It is hard to find the perfect rock to fit our needs at times, and darned expensive! It is nice to use something that cost us nothing, and try to save costs as well as be original as well.

I guess if Atlantis was found, perhaps it would look like what I am trying to build. I would love a ship wreck, but a tank is too small for rotting wood and rusting metal. It is just something different, nd an experiment. I guess when it all matures and grows and I hate it, we can rescape if needed.

Originally Posted by atcguy

i dont get it, ?? whats the point?? When I dive I dont see a tile backspalsh, is there a benefit???