Using travertine for substrate instead of none or sand.

[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?

[atcguy]

enough rock with coraline glass takes care of that pretty quick.. Just paint the back glass black..

[my2rotties]

That was the original plan, but there is a secondary layer of tinted glass silconed to the back. We had to cut the tank apart to move it out of the seller's basement. The we had to clean the panels and when we did, water seeped between the layers. You can see the evaporated water between the panel now (horrible when the oights are on), and it would be much to risky to try to cut off the tinted glass now. Plus it was awful to cut the glass apart when dismantling the tank, and we only has an inch to cut through. The back glass is seven feet wide and 30" tall. It would be a huge feat to get it apart back there. So... we decided to make a background for the inside instead.

Originally Posted by atcguy

enough rock with coraline glass takes care of that pretty quick.. Just paint the back glass black..

[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???

[atcguy]

may look cool once coraline algae gets the tiles... Porous may lend a hand to bacteria buildup.. own a tile company , with free tiles is a good isea I guess.. Will be interested to see how it looks with time!!!

[motokorth]

Very interesting project, can't wait to see this tank with water and life in it =D.

Good luck!!!!!

[my2rotties]

Me too!

Originally Posted by motokorth

Very interesting project, can't wait to see this tank with water and life in it =D.

Good luck!!!!!

[Diana]

It looks cool.... it would look really cool in my bathroom

I just cant help but smile with the thought if you could get some cyanobacteria leaching back out of the travertine! LOL, not really possible, but I guess life comes full circle?

-Diana