from trashed to prized (i hope)

WOW!! lots of intense hard work and about 3 hrs of time.
it is done, well at lease the main framework is done. im sure that i will need to touch up some sections of the rock placement and hide some of the red acrylic that may be noticed.
i would venture to say that i tripled the functioning surface area of the live rock in the tank. i no longer have rocks piled up like bricks. i have them shooting out all over the place and its going to allow the fish plenty of places to hide and feel secure but still be visable under more situations.
i also have very very little rock touching the back glass and none touching the sides or frt glass.

 

tank is looking good, congrats on the progress

 

The new rockscaping looks great. Looks like you have a fare amount of coral in there already. Keep the pics coming.

 

here is a new vid!!!

 

good video SAABtech

nice aquascaping IMO - glad the Angel made an appearance I thought he might not, when I got the 1st glimpse of the black shape darting into the rock work.

Steve

 

thanks for the props but IMO the vid is NVG..
its is just a cheapo flip-video recorder. (very easy to use but not the greatest quality)
and if my hands were less shakey thing would get better. but thanks anyway.
i know its not all that natural with all the rocks pokeing out into open water but it adds a lot of dimention to the tank and was easy to do with the 10mm acrylic rod i used. honestly it looks alot better in the tank than i did on my frt porch, ha haa!!
i took all the rock out and placed it on the frt porch and started drilling holes and stacking rock. once i had a good base structure established i drilled a bunch of holes into the top of the main structure and put that part into the tank. then i just attempted to chose the coral that i liked and attempted to place them in ideal locals to provide it with the focal points/lighting/and water flow that would seem best, drilled holes and placed them ontop of the stems of acrylic pokeing out. (sorry about the compound complex run-on sentance, im a little sleepy)

 

i also started a refug...
i have thought about it and have decided that this is not at all as complicated as i first thought.
the area with the bio-balls in it is the high water level of the sump (12-14 inches). the other areas are lower water level (4-7 inches) that is where i have my skimmer.
i picked up a small ball (3-4 inch dia) of chaetomorpha and placed it in the smallest of the compartment of the sump (generally where i place the trace element blocks) and placed a small dual 9w 6700k coralife light behind it. i am going to allow it to grow and then i am going to place a section of "eggcrate" over the pump feed and place all the bio-balls into the shallower area (where the skimmer is) and then place the macro-algae into the deep section and let it grow. let it grow!!!

 

just replaced one of the metal halides at $75.00 a piece thats nuts! but i will do the next one in about 2 months need to space the replacement out and mark the new ones somehow or keep record of changes)
i have a new stock list
how about adding.
1 McCosker's Flasher Wrasse, Male (max size 3")
1 Foxface Lo (max size 9") or other
1 Two Spot Goby (max size 3") or other
1 Red Head Goby (max size 2")
1 Kole Yellow Eye Tang (max size 7") or other
3 Threadfin Cardinalfish (max size 2 1/2")
and need suggestions on possible psudochromis
still need a sally lightfoot or other

to the existing

several turbos, several hermits, several snails, one fireshrimp, two peppermints that have not been seen since introduction (in the rocks?)
3 firefish (max size 3") currently 2"
1 keyhole anglefish (max size 8") currently 3"
1 yellow watchman (max size 3") currently 2 3/4"
1 Ocellaris Clownfish (mas size 3 1/2") currently 3"

i know this may be too much so help me narrow it down. or give other suggestions.
let me know.

 

bump