My Tank is finally up!!!!
 

So after a long wait and lots of renos ( yes just for the fish tank) I finally have my tank up and running. Due to having a room in behind the tank I did not want to see through it and instead of painting or covering the back with plastic or something I did this
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0665.JPG

I made aquacultured liverock to fit the back wall of the tanks and wrap around the overflows. 6mo from now once its coloured up it will look just like all my liverock. Now after I cycled the tank for a while ( it was painfull waiting) I added my rock and coral here are some pics of them.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0721.JPG
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0719.JPG
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0723.JPG
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/IMG_0726.JPG
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/IMG_0728.JPG
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0718.JPG

and one of my favorite frags!!

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0724.JPG

So after adding these corals this is how my tank looks now

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0732.JPG

Wow, that is inventive. How did you get the rock on the back of the tank? Oh and let me know if you have any of those blue zoo's for sale. They look purdy.

Will

Believe it or not that rock just rests up against the back wall of the tank. It was made in a mold of the back of the tank so that it would fit like a glove, the rock is flat and smooth on the back side so it won't scratch the glass.

Great idea! I like it all except the ugly SEIO in the center... :D

Looking good bud. That brain is color back up nicely as well.

i love the rock work that you did looks awesome.


well done

yah I was hoping to avoid that but I had a bad dead spot in the tank that I could not fix except with the ugly seio. I was hoping to avoid using power heads But like I said I had a dead spot.

Holy Crap that looks good!!! that is exactly what i wanted to do to the back of my 90gal

whould you post in more detail how you did the back wall? i was just gooing to use spray foam and cover it in crused coral, but i like how yours looks

and are those orange zoo i see there, would love to buy a frag of them :D :D :D

Hey Mark that is a frag!!!:lol: More detail...... Well the back wall is made from reef sand , crushed coral, lots of old hermit shells, crushed oyster shells, and a little bit of concrete mix to hold it all together. than it has to go though a curing process which involves drying, bathing, drying bathing... soaking, rinseing, drying, washing... blaa blaa blaa, its a long process to cure it so it doesn't wreck your water. The nice thing about doing it this way is that it becomes live rock for your tank its very porous and lits of little caves that I made in it for all the little critters of the tank. The pictures don't do it justice its hard to see all the little details in the rock. The hard thing about making it is finding the right mixture if all the ingredients. I think it turned out ok though.:biggrin:

Looks awesome dude!

Looks awesome Russ I think I'm gonna need a frag of a blue zoos back :razz:

Very nice.
How many hours did it take you to make your backdrop?

heres a couple more :mrgreen:

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0746.JPG


http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0753.JPG

Looks great Love the rock work. And the frag farm on the sand. ;)

J

It was two evenings to make and shape the rock. then I broke the pieces putting them in the tank so it took another evening to fix them. Inthe end they turned out better after I fix it. But than it was a couple weeks of constant water changes on the bath water, drying and rinse, drying and rinse. It was a lot of work. Well worth it though. I would also like to thank Canreef, every coral in that tank has been bought or traded from some one on Canreef except two tiny frags that you can even see in the pic.

Russ, that is awesome. I did a similar thing with a backdrop idea, except mine was using "great stuff" foam. Unfortunately it started to peel off of the glass within the first week :cry:. I think I'm going to try the concrete thing when I start on my 75 gal. The back drop totally adds a cool look to the tank.

Terry

was the bath water salt water or just fresh water? and you cured it in the tank or a separate contaner all together?

Very nice!

Please keep us updated. We'd love to see more pictures.

Nicest
 

thats probably the nicest backdrop i've seen in many tanks. good job russ.

Pretty groovy lookin' tank Russ. Well done. I see where all the really sweet frags you guys get end up.:razz:

Very nice job Russ. I agree with Chin Lee - one of the nicest I have seen.

Fresh water, changed three time daily, in a seperate tub that will be wrecked by the time you are done due to high alk. In total it soaks in the water for three to four weeks until it stops raiseing the alk of the water.

Very nice work Russ :biggrin: Tank looks great.

Wow! Looks great :biggrin:

One thing that comes to mind when looking at it is that it could be a huge detritus trap. Baste it and let us know how much crud it accumulates.

Tanks looking awesome buddy. Coming by for a looksee on Friday..

Guess whos helping me build a rock wall backdrop for my new 93G. :razz: :razz:


Holey... 3 pages before I even seen the post.. :eek:

Russ

Any Links on the recipe for the mixture, or did you just play it by ear, i want to start this this week

Did you make a template of your tank as a mold?

Wow that looks so cool! It must have been alot of work curing that stuff. I can't wait to see how it looks with coraline etc growing on it. Keep us posted!!

BTW, kick a$$ zoos dude! :razz:

Looks cool...I like the ledges on the background.

The recipe...:lol: :lol: :lol: 5 parts what ever you are mixing to 1 part TYPE 10 portland cement. The tricky part is finding the right balence of stuff to make it stick together. the more concrete mix the long it will take to cure. not enough and it will fall apart. I built this rock work twice before I got it good, and I had built a lot of rock before I tackled this project. I would suggest that if you are building it for you tank play with it first. The first couple batches of rock I ever made took 6 months in the tubs and I finally threw them out because they would not stop leaching into the water.

It will be as bad as having live rock in your tank, this stuff is just as porous as the live rock in my tank, as a matter of fact in a year from now it will be live rock, man made but still live rock. I can't wait till it colours up :mrgreen:

Very cool!

okay then Russ, you should teach classes on how to make the stuff, might be a good little venture

Ahhhh I think I got lucky....:lol: but now that you say that.....:razz: I think the best thing to do is play with it until you find the recipe that gives you the desired look. Thats what I did.

:idea: Actually Mark you might be on to some thing. :idea: Maybe if there are people interested I could throw a little rock making party we could get together and people can bring old sand and what ever else they got and we could make a wack of rock. :wink:

oo nice backdrop! I like it alot!

Amazing, similar to what I wanted to do with my tank but I was afraid to use Type 10 concrete as I was worried about the silicates. I was trying to find the low alkalinity cement but it doesn't appear anyone has it around here.

I think that's the best looking, coolest, most amazing background, total wow factor and once it colours up...nicely done.

Doug

My black acrylic background will be pretty easyt to clean but MAN you have me considering a tear-out and creation of something similar. Amazing work!

Well I heard the the best stuff to use is shot crete, used for patching concrete water tanks, is food safe cures quick but I could not find any. Thats why it took so long to cure it as well, I too was worried.

Cool Rusty, there is lots of that around here I'll pick up a bag and maybe make some rock, thanks

Doug

I took some more pics the rock work is starting to colour up
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0800.JPG


http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0807.JPG

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/IMG_0795.JPG

That is coming along very nicely!