Introduction and My Tank

[JasonJones]

Hello ARC. I have met several of you as I cruised the for sale forums finding frags for my tank, but I wanted to introduce myself to the wider ARC community. I moved to Austin last year from Dallas to attend law school. I was very involved in DFWMAS several years ago before I broke my tank down pending a wedding and starting law school.

After a couple years without a tank, I couldn't handle it anymore and had to set something up. I wanted to get my wife into the hobby and involve her in the tank, so I thought this was a great time to do it. She doesn't care all that much about the corals, she likes the fish- which is just fine with me. So I let her pick the fish for the tank and I could do the rest, it was worked out really well so far and I see her falling in love with the tank.

A bit about the tank. It is a 20g long made by Glasscages (will never order from them again). I wanted to make it an all-in-one because I knew I would have to move it during the summers when I am gone to clerk. I am also one of those people who likes to build things, so I tried to build everything I could for the system (filtration, skimmer, rock). We wanted to use man made rock so I could make it exactly how I wanted it, to be reef conscious, and to avoid introducing any unwanted pests. I love the look of a rock wall, but I also like the open tank look, so I combined them. This allowed me to have the open look which gets great flow from the MP10 but still have plenty of places to put frags. I want the backwall covered in Zoas and encrusting montis, and the main front rock to be SPS.

The lights are T5s running 2 Blue+, 1 KZ Fiji Purple, and 1 Aquablue Special. I really like the color these lights produce. I wish I would have gone with a hanging pendant and may change this at some point. Thats enough blabbering for now, on to some pictures. Please excuse the crappy Iphone pictures. Comments and questions are welcome and appreciated.

Cheers,

Jason

I need to take a FTS shot to put it all in perspective, didn't realize I didn't have one.

[innate1]

Wow! Looks awesome. Well done.

[Tallspawn]

Looks good! What "recipe" did you use for the rock?

[GKarshens]

Looks great! I can't wait to see a FTS!

[JasonJones]

Thanks everyone.

Tallspawn: I used a 1:2:2 of concrete, oyster shell and sand. I then used the dribble method to form porous rock and made it in a tub with moist sand as the base. I used toilet paper rolls to make tunnels and tossed sand in places to form ledges and texture in the rock. I was extremely happy with how the rock with the SPS on it turned out. I made about 15 rocks and ended up really liking three. It takes some practice to figure out how to make them look natural and not look like just flat pieces or just round pieces.

The curing of the back wall took about 4 months because it is relatively thick 2-3" in some parts and probably weighs 15-20 lbs. But I wanted to give it some depth, I don't like the look of flat walls with ledges that seems to be pretty common, so it required making some areas pretty thick. My one complaint about the back wall is that I should have made it more sloping with thinner at top to thicker at the bottom so that everywhere received good light. I think my top is a little thick and so there are areas lower in the tank that may be too dark to place corals and zoas.

Edited October 14, 2010 by JasonJones

[Derekreefer]

Looks much bigger than a 20L with that rock setup.............Well played sir

[diabeetus]

magnificent!

[Derek]

Welcome. The tank looks great.

[+Hydro]

I really dig the rock wall, well done.

[Brooks]

One of the prettiest tanks I've seen. Very, very, VERY well done!

[JasonJones]

Thanks everyone! I am really happy with how it is coming along. There was a lot of thought and a lot of time put into this build. I am really excited that my wife is interested now because it makes it easier to spend money without a smack upside the head.

Here is a full tank shot and a couple other shots of the progress.

Skimmer

Skimmer in Action

Media Tray- I got rid of the top plate and run filter floss that is cleaned daily on each section divider.

Building the filter compartment

Just for kicks, my last tank

[Brooks]

Your old tank makes me extremely jealous.

[diabeetus]

is there a thread to your tank build somewhere? this is awesome!!

[+Lamont]

That is a very nice tank! Looks like you put in a lot of hours in for set up.

[JamesL]

Smells a future Tank Of The Quarter....

[JasonJones]

Your old tank makes me extremely jealous.

Thanks! I really miss that tank. It was finally at the point where it was ready to take off when I ended up breaking it down.

is there a thread to your tank build somewhere? this is awesome!!

Sure is, although there is really not too much on their about the build. I hope its ok to link to another forum, if not, mods please remove. http://reefcentral.c...d.php?t=1895397

That is a very nice tank! Looks like you put in a lot of hours in for set up.

Thank you. I set up my first salt tank 15 years ago now and I have learned over that time that proper set-up and patience are one of the keys to this hobby. Plus I knew I was going to try and push the bounds of what a 20g tank could do, so I better get the best set-up I can to help that along.

Smells a future Tank Of The Quarter....

James- That is a wonderful compliment. I just hope one day the tank is nice enough to be considered for such an honor.

[diabeetus]

what kind of concrete did you use?

and is there a website with instructions on how to make your own rock wall? sounds like a good project!!

i love building stuff as well, I have been itching to build something for a while since i recently moved into an apt

[JamesL]

what kind of concrete did you use?

and is there a website with instructions on how to make your own rock wall? sounds like a good project!!

i love building stuff as well, I have been itching to build something for a while since i recently moved into an apt

We have two thread in the DIY section on making your own rock:

Thread 1

Thread 2

Of course, it would be great to hear about JasonJones' experience also in making it.

[JasonJones]

James- Thanks for posting those links up.

Diabeetus- I believe it was type 1 portland cement. If you have any specific questions about how to do it, feel free to ask. You can google DIY rock making, or look it up on youtube, and there are several videos explaining the process. I think if I did it again, instead of using moist sand as the molding material, I might use a mixture of large gravel and sand. I felt like too much of the sand stuck to the rocks I made and gave the rocks a weird appearance at first.

[JasonJones]

Had a couple of PMs asking about how I made the wall, so I figured I would post up my response to help any others contemplating it.

As far as how much of the materials you need, not too much. I had one bag of concrete, one bag of sand, and one bag of oyster shell and by the time I made 15 rocks and the walls, I still had plenty of extra left over.

The dribble method doesn't take much time, I guess I should have explained it better. Basically it just means instead of taking a whole handful and throwing it on you dribble it out of your hand so it doesn't pack in tight. The concrete is really slow drying so don't worry about it hardening up on you.

Here is basically how I made the wall.

I made a mold of the area I had to cover out of cardboard. I made the base to the right dimensions and then put 3-4" walls all the way around. I then put a thin, maybe 1/2", layer down as a base. I then placed 2 or 3 small rocks throughout the wall where I wanted them. I made sure to place more concrete mix around those to ensure they would stay in place, I actually would pack that in a little bit to make sure it would hold. The rest of the wall I just dribbled in around the wall trying to ensure I did it randomly so it didn't look overly contrived. I used a couple of toilet paper rolls to make tunnels throughout the wall. I would twist or crumple the rolls so it wouldnt look fake and be perfectly round. I also used some small plastic tubes to make tunnels. Once I had everything in place I used some zip tie to just stick in and poke holes in the rock to make it look more natural. I don't remember how long it was before I removed the toilet paper rolls, I think it was the next day

To make the second piece, I let that one dry for a day or two before I built the other wall (I would try to wait at least 4 days to let it harden). I made a mold for the second piece and placed the side of the walls where they would touch against the wall I had already made so that I could try to get them to somewhat match. Be really careful handling the wall you made because it will not be very solid yet. I then placed a couple of paper towels over the old wall to ensure I could separate them. I then did the same thing to build the second wall.

After the walls are built, you need to cover them and keep them moist for a week. There is a long process for curing and I don't remember exactly so I will let you look that up. If you decide to build them this way, know it will take 4-5 months before they are ready to place in the tank. My back wall took about 4 months to cure in water after it hardened for 28 days out of water. The more often you change the water the faster it will cure, but it still takes forever.

My biggest suggestion is to play around making some rocks first to figure out what you are doing. It took me a little bit to start making good looking rocks. It's an arduous process, but I think it is worth it in the end.

[+olaggie01]

Hey Jason. It's Chris Rush. Welcome to ARC. Glad to see you are back with a tank. Hope law school is going well. We need to get together sometime soon. My wife and I are up in Georgetown.

[r&g]

Wow!! Love your present and past tanks! Just beautiful!

[JasonJones]

Hey Jason. It's Chris Rush. Welcome to ARC. Glad to see you are back with a tank. Hope law school is going well. We need to get together sometime soon. My wife and I are up in Georgetown.

Hey man, been a long time. You know, I tried for a long time to stay out of it, but its just in my blood. It would be great to get together sometime! Unfortunately, it is starting to get close to finals time so I will be locked away in the library for the next couple of months. Any links to your current tank?

R&G- Thank you very much, I appreciate it. I really miss the old one but I am very happy with how the new one is coming along.

[JasonJones]

Well its time for a little update. Everything has been going really well in the tank. All the SPS frags are encrusting and growing and I have had several polyp frags double in numbers over the last month or so.

The only issue I had was a little vodka overdosing that caused an algae breakout. I thought I was overdosing bacteria so I cut that off for a week and increased the vodka dosing, well I was wrong. So I wanted to nip the problem in the bud and so I turned my lights off for three days and increased the bacteria dosing and stopped the vodka dosing. That pretty much did the trick and eliminated the majority of the algae. I had one spot in the tank where it wouldn't go away and I could not figure out why. Well it struck me today, that is the spot right below the moonlight. Now it is hard for me to believe that the moonlight could have given off enough light to support algae growth, but how else could I explain that it is only directly under the moonlight in a 5" wide section going down about 4" in the tank. I think I will now be leaving my moonlights off permanently as I don't think they really serve any purpose other than seeing the tank at night, and this has clearly shown that they can help support algae growth (at least in my tank). Unfortunately, my SPS lost a little bit of color from the lights being off.

The tank is now just in cruising mode. There are just a few zoas and palys left that I want to get ( I feel like I keep saying that as I get more and more...) and the tank will be ready to be left alone for a while.

The only other change I might try is adding 3 LEDs to shine down on my SPS rock. I think they may not be getting as much light as I would like. My ORA red planet is getting a bit more green then I would like and not holding its red as well, which seems to signal lower light. I will play with that when the LEDs come in and see what I think. I ordered a Tri-star LED with 3 luxeon rebels on it (1 natural white and 2 royal blues).

Thats enough blabbering, here are some pics. I borrowed my wife's camera- it is a little bit better than my iphone but not great. Theresa said she wants to come back over and take some nice pictures, so I am looking forward to that.

Edited October 29, 2010 by JasonJones

[theresa]

Jason, I really enjoyed talking to you yesterday. Folks, if you have not seen this tank in person you are really missing out on the true beautiful of it. Gosh, I am so in love with this thank. It is awesome. Jason, you are very talentive and creative, I believe you will be one heck of a Lawyer. Again, thank you and thank you for the beautiful frag. People if you get the chance to see this tank please do. When I get my next tank I plan on doing this as well with Jason help,