180G Tank Build with Rock/Foam Wall

[phippsj]

Greetings all... I have been in the AF for the last 6 years so I never wanted to start a reef tank. Kind of hard to take care of when you move every two years.

Anyways, I bought a used 180G and refinished the stand... had to get it to match the Pottery Barn furniture in the dinning room to stay on my wife's good side :)

I am now building the back rock wall. This is like all those builds on reef central (Kannin and others). I used Marco Rock (Key Largo for the wall which is 2" - 5" thick) zip tied to egg crate. Instead of filling with Great Stuff Foam, I got the Pond Foam which is certified for aquatic uses (probably the same thing but they just get to charge more!).

As far as placement, I would say there is a 50/50 split of rock and foam on each panel. The tank is 6' long, and I have 75lbs of Key Largo for the back structures. I am still waiting for my Fiji Premium from Marco Rocks to get in so I can build the visually interesting structures up front.

I let the foam dry over night, and pull it into the garage where I dremmel in holes, etc. You can see the comparison of a pre-dremmeling and post-dremmeling in the pictures. I am essentially drilling in a lot of small and medium sized caves.

After the 'sculpting process' is done, I coat the entire surface of the foam with 30 min finishing expoxy. Kannin used two tubes on his entire structure, which I think was for a 220 gallon if I remember correctly. Perhaps it is all the extra surface area the sculpting has required, but I have used 6 packages. I paint it on with a brush and then coat it with sugar grain sand. The foam, prior to expoxy, is squishy as would be expected. After the expoxy dries it is a very solid structure (and heavy). The picture of the dremmeled panel here was taken just as I was starting the epoxy process. Look at the top left of scuplted panel and you will see where the epoxy/sand mixture has been applied compared to the rest of the panel.

Right now I have 2 panels done. The hardest one (the center, which will have a cliff which protrudes towards the top, a shelf in the middle, and two caves at the bottom) is waiting on the arrival of my Marco Fiji (Yes, that is my excuse!).

I will also have some pillars in the front areas which will be used to house some flow generating devices. Probably Koralias or modified Maxijets. They won't be easily visible when looking at the aquarium, but will have some room to adjust directions of flow.

When I first started this project, I was planning a DSB. After getting some good feedback here, I realized that is not best for my application. That means i will probably have some touch up work on that first panel.

Anyways, I have also created some argocrete rocks in specific shapes to assist with aquascaping. No pictures of those yet, but I will keep posting as the build goes along. I will probably be posting some questions as well, so appreciate feedback and answers. Right now my biggest concern is flow behind the wall. I was thinking of letting part of it be a copepod rubble (left side), while getting good flow through the other panels (just drill the foam through the egg crate). It is already extremely pourous, so maybe some powerhead just directed at the walls from the front pillars...

[Third Coast Tropical]

interesting...good luck...looks labor intensive.....will be nice when it is established

[ErikH]

Looks good so far! Hope you plan on sealing that stuff to the glass, otherwise it will float! TexReefer is an old pro with foam, you should research some threads on here, there are plenty... I have three large agrocrete rocks in my 75, and three in my 48. I really like the look of well made agrocrete. If I had the space to make some I sure would! I made a really cool foam rock that I never ended up using. I used clear tubing, filled it with GS, and bent it to shape to form arches, and attached a gallon tea bucket to the end to make a wicked cave. It came out really cool, but just looked too much like macaroni after it dried. I should have covered it in sand, but it was more experimental than something I planned on using. I still wear the ruined pair of addidas sweats that I made them in, lol.

[Texreefer]

That will look great once covered in coraline... great job so far

[phippsj]

OK, so work continues. Finally got the Marco Fiji in, as well as the rest of the Key Largo Marco. Right now I am sitting at 125 lbs of rock held in with foam and egg crate.

I still need to get the fit right, foam and seal the seams, and then I will be ready to start using some power heads to clear out and clean.

Here are some more pictures, I will get better ones later. I have a ravine in the middle which has a blue background on the outside of the tank which I will illuminate from behind (I know a lot of you might not like it... but we do :) ).

I also have worked in spaces for the Koralia 4's on the back panels (not mounted in there right now). They are essentially embeded in the back wall.

It is pretty hard to see the large arch, pillar and overhangs. The rock all blends together in the photos, so I will figure out later how to do this better. It does have plenty of open space which is what I was hoping for.

[nick021892]

Wow, now that the back wall is almsot finished the tank looks really nice! I really like the arches, they add a whole new dimension to the tank...

[Mr Cob]

Looks great!!!

[phippsj]

OK, so I finally got the panels sealed together, which is nice. Just need to epoxy and coat with sand to cover up the foam and that piece is done. Overall I am very happy with the Marco Rock. I put some closeup pics in here of Marco Rock in case anyone wants to see what kind of stuff comes in... these are pictures of the Fiji. I am glad I used Key Largo for most of it because the Fiji does not weigh enough to keep the foam down (the Key Largo does). I wish the pictures could show the depth better... but oh well.

Now... on to the canopy!

[captexas]

Wow, that looks great! It's probably the best I've seen out of all the attempts to use foam or whatever to create fake rock or backgrounds. Even before adding any live creatures it will be a cool looking tank as it is.

[RICKY81]

rock work looks awesome..... good luck with the final product...

[aggman]

wow this looks very good. people try this all the time, and it usually looks bad. lol. but your project it top notch. can't wait to see it with the epoxy and sand.

i know you said it was going to be a reef tank, but do you have any idea what you will be stocking. sps or lps, softies. what will be your focus?

~alex

[aggman]

also, maybe a top-down shot would give a better representation of the depth and intricacy of the design.

~alex

[blindside]

Nice :)

[phippsj]

wow this looks very good. people try this all the time, and it usually looks bad. lol. but your project it top notch. can't wait to see it with the epoxy and sand.

i know you said it was going to be a reef tank, but do you have any idea what you will be stocking. sps or lps, softies. what will be your focus?

~alex

Well, I have always loved clownfish so I was really hoping for a breeding pair. I would also love to get a Longnose Hawkfish, Purple Tang, and maybe in a year or so get a Mandarin Goby. I have also considered a Bali Marine Betta and a Red Hawkfish, but I need to research those some more.

In terms of coral, I will start with zoas and work from there. I do not have a calcium reactor yet, but have the space under the tank to fit one in. However, I also do not have a chiller yet and need to see how much room that is going to take up.

I will try your idea on a top down shot and see if that works better.

[allan]

Yeah, I've seen a number of these and never seen one so realistic looking. Must be that AF attention to detail... :)

[phippsj]

OK, another update. I got in my RO/DI system from Filter Guys... very happy with them. They are incredibly helpful... so my thanks to them for helping me get the right setup. I put the TDS input before the DI filter and output after the DI filter. I get 6 going in, 0 coming out.

I have since filled the tank, and yesterday purchased 60 pounds of live rock from a local MAAST member to seed the tank. I just got all of that situated, and am now expecting the live sand to arrive today or tomorrow.

Once the sand is in I will work on building the canopy while the tank cycles. In the meantime, some pictures of the updated work. Thanks to everyone for the encouraging words!

At this point I have 75 pounds key largo marco rock, 50 pounds fiji marco rock, 60 pounds fiji live rock, and about 10 pounds of argrocrete (stuff I made). Also, the back wall has a large volume of foam... about 30% of the mass of 6x2 back wall is the foam that I sculpted and sealed / sand coated. The tank is 180G, so I think I will start from here and add more rock if necessary.

[ballardjr2000]

That looks awesome can't wait to see it full etc. looking really good *sigh* wish mine looked like that lol. again really nice

[Paul28]

****, Love the set up great work on the rocks looks nice

[Squiers007]

Where did you get the valve that is coming off of your cold water supply under your sink? I have been looking for something like that for a while now and havnt been able to find anything that will fit my plumbing so I am stuck using a garden hose adapter for the time being. Any help would be great and the tank is looking awesome, keep up the good work.

[phippsj]

Where did you get the valve that is coming off of your cold water supply under your sink? I have been looking for something like that for a while now and havnt been able to find anything that will fit my plumbing so I am stuck using a garden hose adapter for the time being. Any help would be great and the tank is looking awesome, keep up the good work.

The fitting is $10 from http://www.thefilterguys.biz/fittings.htm. It is the 3/8 MALE COMPRESSION X 3/8 FEMALE COMPRESSION X 1/4 VALVED TUBE inline undersink shutoff adapter. You can just give them a call on the phone and they can answer any questions you have. I really like the quick connect settings and tubing (very easy to work with), and I ended up getting the Ocean Reef +1 system which does 75 GPD.

[dipan]

This is looking awesome ... I'm hoping to do something similar, but without the foam and with aragocrete ...

[sharkboy]

very nice INDEED!!!

[phippsj]

OK, I got the sand added and the cycling is coming along well. Looks like amonia peeked at 2 ppm and is on the way down... additionally the live rock I seeded with is sprouting a bunch of zoas, although they are all either colorless or brown right now.

Here are some pictures as well as a video clip which should try to show the depth that the pictures are not getting.

Now... on to the canopy and the lighting! Right now I have 3 MH sitting up there (two 15000K and one 20000K with some compact FLs). I am building LED bar for the center, two VHOs w/acnitcs for front and back. I will probably do a separate build thread for the LED bar because that will likely have a different group that is interested in that. So, this should be the last of this thread in regards to this tank build.

Thanks again to everyone's encouraging words!

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkxvkUu_wuk

Oh yeah, I also did some copper leafing on the bottom outside part of the tank to cover the plastic trim. There will actually be some more wood covering the top part of the copper trim, but I was pleasently surprised with the look.

[aggman]

wow great job phipps that tank is killer.

very natural can't wait to see it all filled up. hopefully by then we have the totm or totq project back up and you will definitely be a contender.

now go get some fish...lol

~alex

[Viet-Tin]

I just finished doing my rock wall and had a question. Did your epoxy resin soften after soaking in saltwater? After putting mine in and filling it up the smell of the resin came back and feels like silicon now.

[phippsj]

I just finished doing my rock wall and had a question. Did your epoxy resin soften after soaking in saltwater? After putting mine in and filling it up the smell of the resin came back and feels like silicon now.

Wow... sorry I missed this question when you asked back then! I tested this first and found that when I did not cure the epoxy that it would soften to the texture you are describing. I read online that some folks cured theirs under a halide... I did mine in the sun (in part because I wanted more of a green tinge to the foam). Once it is cured it remains very hard and sturdy. So far no issues whatsoever.