Fesso's Kaiju Kollum

[Fesso]

Hi I just joined Canreef (mainly so I could enter MJC's contests...shhhh) so I figured I should't just lurk and score but introduce myself and join in the other fun.
Here's my tank, this is mostly copied and pasted from my local forum but I figured why not start at the beginning...

Inspiration
Kaiju (怪獣 kaijū?) is a Japanese word that means "strange beast," but often mistakenly translated in English as "monster". Classically it may refer to any bizarre creature. The ocean is home to the most bizarre and amazing creatures, I find corals and reef life to be the most strange and bizarre creatures in the "natural" world. My goal for this tank is a mixed reef that is populated by strange, bizarre and "alien" life. To other reefers all this strangeness is par for the course and is day to day awesomeness. I am not striving for "rare" or strange in the "hobby" standarts here, to me it's ALL strange and cool ****!


I plan to build a PCV + hydrolic cement + aragonite ribcage as the main rock structure to give the tank a "BEASTLY" look. Something like this:


Tank:
56 G perfecto column bought from GTAA member Bigfishy
Drilled by GTAA members (thanks)
Bean Animal drain (started with Herbie but later ran return over the top)
DIY smoked grey glass overflow
¾ Return through manifold to run reactors
Return Pump: Ehiem 1262

Filtration:
DIY Sump with display fuge
Avast CS1 Skimmer with swabble
TLF 150 for GFO

Controller:
Reef Keeper Elite

ATO:
Avast Marine with pressure sensor

Flow in the DT:
3 x VorTech MP10wes

Lights:
Gen 1 Radion

Substrate:
Caribsea Special Grade

Got the tank from a local, this is the biggest tank that I can fit in my place, I love cube tanks but one would take up too much space, the dimentions of this tank are perfect for us. 30x18x24. the stand won't fit a sump.


Had to build a stand:


Decided on a toothless glass overflow:

All done:


My phone died with the build pictures of the sump and plumbing progress but here's the finished result all glued and screwed and ready to add water:


Here's the finished plumbing:


More to come...

[Fesso]

Rib cage in construction process:

After a frustrating afternoon with the hydrolic cement I switched plans and used black UV resistant pond foam to hold it all together. (that and about 50 zip-ties) I have been researching rock walls and pvc structures over on RC for the last few months and am confidant that the foam is good to go in the tank.

I will coat the foam in epoxy resign and stick argonite to it. The consensous on RC is the the black pond foam doesn't need to be epoxied but I am going to do it anyway to be safe and make it sticky to be able to completely hide the foam with aragonite.

[Fesso]

I finished the monster:


I decided that I probably don't have enough rock in there, the structure is made up of almost 25 pounds of macro rock rubble. I decided on 2 strips of ceramic rock wall to add a nice 3D effect to the "ribcage" and I want to keep as much of the sand bed as clear as possible.
I bought a piece of wall and cut it in half (easy with a hand saw) and siliconed the halves to the back of the tank. MUCH better looking than what I could have done DIY with the pond foam/macro rock/egg crate/epoxy formula. The pieces weren't quite tall enough so I did make 2 small DIY rock wall spacers at the bottom part, also helped to hold the ceramics up. Once coraline takes over hopefully it will look more seamless...





more to come....

[IanWR]

Very neat build! Love the kaiju concept, building a sculpture as the hardscape is a fun idea. Plus the whole build looks very clean. The stand especially came out well. Can't wait to see how this looks when it grows in. Keep us posted!

- Ian

[explor3r]

Im new too here but welcome to canreef!!!

[thmh]

Welcome to canreef jeff!.... MJC milkshake bring all the people to the yard!:-)

~Tony

[kien]

holy crap, that looks crazy! Welcome to Canreef. We like crazy.

[Basile]

That is very cool thanks for sharing , love it. peace.

[Fesso]

Thanks for the comments!
Let's bring this up to date: (This is a summary post copied and pasted from my local forum BTW, I took out most of the text)
Radion is hung, all powercords are zip-tied in place, equipment is hidden by curtain, tank is cycling! YIPPPEEEE!



New fish too, meet P.J. (real original and creative eh, I am like that with names)

You can see a chromis there if you look, we got 3 green small ones

And Hawk





Blennie hanging out in the MP10 during a water-change... Good thing I remembered to check before turning it back on or Blended-Blennie Surprise!




Side tank shot:


Here's a couple current FTS from Feb. with crap camera:

[Fesso]

Check out these Bad@ss mother-fathers:







Hanging out in the last tuft of GHA in my tank...










I love these guys, they are Japanese Redfin Waspfish.