James Goodyear, Rick and Terry came over Thursday to aquascape the tank. The plan was to have a big island on the right side with a cave and two small islands on the left. As it turned out we needed to make just one island on the left. In between we plan on putting in a section for seagrasses. The following pictures are from the aquascape event.
Rick and the stilts by dashhills, on Flickr
Rick and Dave by dashhills, on Flickr
Side view with the rock out. by dashhills, on Flickr
Right side. by dashhills, on Flickr
Right side by dashhills, on Flickr
Beginning to set the rocks on stilts. by dashhills, on Flickr
Drilling the shish kabob. by dashhills, on Flickr
We had to drill some of the rock to run an acrylic rod through it. The rock wasn't locking into place so the rod was necessary.
Rock shish kabob by dashhills, on Flickr
Small island with swim through. by dashhills, on Flickr
Left side island. by dashhills, on Flickr
Laying out a template for the grass section by dashhills, on Flickr
Template work. by dashhills, on Flickr
Tank with LEDs on. by dashhills, on Flickr
That is looking really nice!!!!!
I think Rick has done this before.... note a sleeveless shirt.... I always get my t-shirt sleeves soaked.
Steve
Looking nice. Like the pvc on the bottom of the rocks. How are the frags doing I gave you?
Here is a catch-up on some of the work we did last week on the tank. We wanted to add a feature to the live rock on the left side of the tank that bridges the two mounds together, creating a bridge and providing a swim-through. This required drilling 3 rocks and using a 1/2" acrylic rod to join them. This piece was then placed across the rocks to complete the "bridge".
Here we are drilling the second rock. This takes a lot of patience and time to keep from breaking the rocks. Very light pressure and slow...
1drillingrock.jpg 2drillingsecondrock.jpg
James Goodyear and David Hill were helping me. David provided the direction, James is always anxious to jump in and get his hands wet.
3drillingdirector.jpg
After this delicate operation was complete, the acrylic rod was used to skewer the rock. Here we see James very attentively cutting the plexi rod end off.
4cuthere.jpg
Whoa, James, don't cut there!
5dontcutthere.jpg
Rick Loewen
Here is the completed live-rock-ka-bob.
This was placed on top of two mounds of rock on the left side of the tank. Here is a side view.
Here is the completed rock stack
It was a longer day than expected, guess we are looking a little tired!
As David mentioned earlier in ths post, there is going to be some seagrasses added between the live rock mounds. We are planning a 3" sandbed, but the seagrasses need at least a 6" sandbed of much finer sand. This will require a "sand fence" to contain the seagrass and hold the sand at the greater depth. Here we have fabricated a pattern to be used in the construction of an acrylic wall to contain the deeper sand.
Rick Loewen
Tropical Reef Corals
Aquaculture License #AQ0658028
Website: http://TropicalReefCorals.com
Email: trc@TropicalReefCorals.com
The goal is to create a deep sand area for the seagrasses between the two live rock mounds. This was accomplished by bending a 6" strip of acrylic to a free form shape and attaching a bottom.
I created a form by layering polystyrene foam and cutting it to shape with a hot wire cutter. The cutter was fabricated from PVC pipe and holds a piece of nichrome wire, the same type as used in heating elements. When applied to the proper power source it gets just hot enough to slice through the foam like butter.
Here we are cutting the foam
And the cutting is complete
Next, I covered the center form with aluminum foil to protect it from the hot acrylic. The acrylic strip was then placed in a hot oven for about 15 minutes at which time it become very flexible. Handling it with gloves, I placed it around the form and held it in place with the outside pieces of the form until it cooled.
Next, the seams were glued with weldon 16
A bottom was cut to rough shape and glued. After curing overnight, it was ready to trim with a router
Here is the finished piece ready to place in the tank.
Well, it's New Year's Eve and I am off to help David place the sand and grasses in the tank. He is very anxious to have some livestock in the tank when the kids come back to school.
Rick Loewen
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