Fishytimes 68g reef

fishytime · #1 10-05-2007, 05:33 AM

Its alive!!! My little 20g days are numbered. Im going to be transferring it into a 68g. Its been a couple of weeks in the works. Went back and forth on a number of details, which stand, lighting (still up in the air on this one), sand or not. I finaly made up my mind on a few things and spent the better part of two days scrubbing and arranging lr and putting a thin layer of sand in. Will wait a bit to see if any cycle happens. The forty pounds of lr and live sand I put in shouldnt produce much of a cycle, but you never know. I should be able to fill in the bare spots and hide the gear with the 20 to 30 pounds of lr and coral that is in the 20g. Fish stocking is the next issue. I know for sure that I am keeping the current occupants of the 20g( ocellaris clown, sixline wrasse, and a royal gramma),and add a flame angel. Any suggestions on something else that may go with this stock list. I am reluctant to do gobies or blennies cause the tank will most likely be topless. I thought maybe a small school of chromis.

Zylumn · #2 10-05-2007, 05:59 AM

Nice job Doug looks like your well on your way.
With a 4' tank you should be able to put in a small tang and pair up the clown or even a small group of damsels.
Kevin

Der_Iron_Chef · #3 10-05-2007, 05:59 AM

Looks cool so far! Are you going to get some corals encrusting on the PVC to cover it up? I like the sort of shapes you've created. Lots of room for fish & corals.

fishytime · #4 10-05-2007, 01:26 PM

Ya the rest of the pvc should get covered up when I move the contents of the 20g over. I just couldnt find the right pieces to fill the gaps. This was my first experiment with aquascaping with pvc and it wasnt as easy as I thought it would be. I started off with one overhang and one arch, but the arch always came out looking fake. So I made another overhang and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Will probably pair up the clown, but I was want something cool. Would love a tang but....the tang police would probably be all over me...everything Ive read says 6' tank.

riceboy · #5 10-05-2007, 03:01 PM

i'd put a small blue tang in there thier so nice i miss mine lol, and a school of chromis sounds awesome to

Phanman · #6 10-05-2007, 04:50 PM

Do you find black eggcrate easier to work with or pvc for framing?, ill be doing the same thing for a 120gallon project in a couple months and thought u might be able to share your experience if you have worked with eggcrate or not

fishytime · #7 10-05-2007, 07:50 PM

Thanks guys. I am going for a multi-leveled, terrace kinda look. Should look better once I make the switch. I used egg crate for the rack/stand in my frag tank. Its easy to work with, but I doubt it would carry alot of weight. Unless maybe you have a degree in engineering and could design a sub-frame to carry the weight of the rocks.

Plus its kinda brittle so any mishaps would probably break it. Im sure someone out there has had good results using egg crate. I just chose pvc because I wanted to get a large overhang effect without having to use huge pieces of lr. The pvc is easy enough to work with,kinda like a big mechano set. Getting the rock to fit together so that it best covered the pvc, and so that it looked "right" was the hard part. I have around 75 pounds of rock to work with, so my choices were limited.

Phanman · #8 10-05-2007, 08:11 PM

ah ok thx for your input

Moogled · #9 10-06-2007, 12:18 AM

Ignore the tang police.

Besides, everyone here is mature enough to know if a fish is thriving in their tank anyway; I say go for it

.

IME, an overhang is more easily achieved with piled rocks at an angle and having one piece dedicated as the "umbrella". Since your PVC provides the structure already, you're in awesome shape and just need to lightly fill in the holes around the overhang.

Post more pictures soon.

fishytime · #10 11-22-2007, 12:21 AM

Ok the contents of the 20g FINALLY made it into the 68g. Thought I'd have more room for new coral additions, but between what was in the 20g and what was is my frag tank, I didnt end up with much extra room at all.Have that new tank algae bloom happening in these pics , so you all will have to look past that. any questions, comments or critiques are welcomed. Tell me what you guys think.