Foamback reef tank

I am lazy enough to buy this. Sponsor 3reef and sell these, +1 ;D

 

I'm going to jump the gun a little bit, I am the newest sponsor for this site. I'll be uploading the banners and related information over the next few days.

Even though I'm a sponsor, I still like to hang out in the forums and do crazy projects like this, I don't promote my site or try and make sales when I'm in the forums though.

 

Wow, this was a heck of project! What was the time frame (from start to finish, including planning) and could you do this with LS? Why did you choose not to do it with LS? Thanks!!

Oh, and what was the total cost??

 

The project took about 6 hours total, Cost was about $60-$65, 4 cans of foam and almost a full sheet of gridwork.

I chose not to use LS or LR for the project because the tank had to cure for about 3 days so it would have been a waste.

When I did the initial setup, I added about 30lb of full cured LR to the tank. I had the tank filled with water and corals/fish within 2 hours.

I also did a little nano cube project as well, let me dig those photos out.

 

Not sure if I'm reading your question correctly, are you wanting to know why I chose not to have a LS bed? Partly because I wanted this to be a bare bottom tank as I had planned on proving that you can have a 40g fully stocked SPS dominated tank (I like to prove things wrong)

 

Would you be able to do a similar project, but then add LS after everything has cured?

 

I see!

 

I kinda became obsessed with foaming thing..


It's easier to work these type of projects if you can lay them flat, I designed this one so that the back could be removed if needed. Once again I used my trusty saran wrap and put a layer under the gridwork.

Pretty easy project, just cut the gridwork to fit the back wall, cutout sections for the return outlet and also make sure to not cover the intake.
What neat about this one is the back is removable, but I made the gridwrok to fit kinda snugg and the outlet tube is actually what stop this from floating or moving around. You can see the hook shaped gridwork on the right hand side

 

Because foam likes to float, this one has a base at the bottom so that I can stack LR on it so that the back won't try and rise up, The very bottom shelf is designed to set in the sandbed. The other shelfs were covered in foam. also the way I cut the gridwork out.

 

Really easy, cover the entire surface with foam, then dust with sand, then add you chunks of LR to strategic areas, let it dry, then carve away the excess foam.

This one took me about an hour