Well I finally have an update worth posting about. I added the sand, rock, and the first fish. I tried pegging the rockwork but that really didn't work out. I tried a few different ways and every time the rocks were unbalanced and I really wasn't happy.

So instead I tried epoxy putty and zap straps. The zap straps allowed for securing rocks in very interesting positions. I am happy with what I was able to do with that. Hopefully it doesn't take long for coraline to hide the ugly straps though. I am not really sold on the putty. It has no bonding at all. it works well to even out surfaces for stacking rock but for the most part I could have accomplished the same result with the zap straps alone.

The fish has been in there for a few days now. Amonia is 0, nitrite is .1, and nitrate is .5. Im not really sure were the nitrate came from with no bioload. It is a little frustrating to have climbing nitrate already and an unstocked tank.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...ne/rock1-1.jpg
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...lane/rock2.jpg
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...lane/rock3.jpg

Makana - Nice aquascape. My experience with the putty is not much of an adhesive but it does as you found out level and fill in holes nicely. The rock looks great and in time the zip straps will be invisible.

I would have thought the heat from the chiller in that tiny space would be too much. How is it?

The chiller has actually never been turned on. I have a pump on order for it but there will be no real need to run it until the summer. I am running the tank at 78 now and it goes up to 80 with the light on. The stand is actually designed for the chiller, there are vents in the stand that match up with the vents on the chiller. So it should vent well I hope.

Wow makana! That tank is looking very clean! I think you are a prime example of someone that knows what the term 'patience' means! Shouldnt be too long till you have that tank running full blown with everything transfered over from the smaller nano! Oh yah and that aquascape is a gooder. Shouldnt be to long before the zip straps are covered by algea. Algea just loves plastic for some reason!

Thanks! It was not easy looking at a tank of rock for that long. What finally stunted the algea growth was I turned the light off for two days. I actually did it to adjust the temperature and two days later the diatoms and hair algea seemed to stop spreading and there were coraline spots on the glass.

yah I had to do the same thing with my 10 gal frag tank

Your rockwork is amazing.... can't wait to see this all set up as well. Your sun coral is gorgeous, wow!!!

Thanks! I really like the sun coral. It is impressive when it is all opened up. I have had some problems with algea growing on it though and damaging its skin. I don't really know how to deal with that, but it hasn't stopped the coral from forming new mouths.

How do you deal with the cleaner shrimp when feeding your sun coral? I almost had to beat mine off with a stick while I tried feeding my sun. Got to the point that I said the hell with it and sold it (the coral not the shrimps).