Arminius

Good lookin' tank Garrett - I said it before. Never let on you were keeping a mantis though. What happened to that elegance? Or is it new?

Awesome mod - it looks like that thing cranks!

No cube...I got an old 83 for cheap - it's kind of a dog, but with a little elbow grease and careful planning it will shine...

Dang - if I was only 2 months down the road...

Nope - I wouldn't give it up that easy - just passing it on

7kfqk-3341765597@sale.craigslist.org Just lookin out for the fellow reefers...

I'm in!! pm sent

Cool! Man, good luck with the change over - when I was breeding ciclids in Jr. high sump systems were totally exotic...well before bioballs came around to replace those weird filter-floss rolls...

Yeah I saw some: http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/hsh/3333109186.html and: http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/for/3330131880.html

Like these:[ATTACH]13397[/ATTACH] They are cheap at 'Depot and can be hung from a board attached to the ceiling between joists. A wire looped over and run down to a bar that connects 2 "y" legs of wire (or an "H" to stand-offs) and a bar that connects the top ends could pull down and attach to the top of the rack - no loose ends, nice clean even pull down.

Oh yeah - I know about the thickness issue, I have a fine art background, and a couple of true ceramacist friends. I really appreciate the input though. But I think I would go thin and as hollow as possible and allow for shrinkage between greenware and fired. Since you have actually done this, have you been able to detect any leaching or pH changes??

pnkrcklives - I could tell they were grinded, but a good clean up job rules - shows you care about the product. To be honest my girlfriend is a better welder than I am - she is a sculptor, mostly metal and I use her mig setup. I used to do a bunch of job site stick welding in the past, but don't like to stick weld after using that mig...

sent pm to Tanktop74, I hope I am not stepping on anyone's toes with this, just itching to get going...

Good looking welds on that stand.

Yeah - there has got to be a way to prevent such drastic pH spikes with perhaps a different bonding agent - aside from resins. I was thinking about casting and firing porcelain clay unglazed because it remains porous, but I haven't found anyone who has tried it. Plus it is very easy to sculpt.

I built one out of aluminum channel but much more cutting is involved cutting - and riveting and/or welding. The EZ tube stuff is pretty easy to work with, just a bit heavier and more expensive than channel, however it is much more sturdy. You could do a ceiling mount pulley system - they make tiny pulleys for aircraft wire that are quite strong.

Cool - is that eel still in there?

Dsoz - Don't want to buy, I want to make, but I appreciate the offer. So you're saying you have had success with it???

Sterility is not the objective. Is there such a thing in a reef?!?!? It's just I have not had good luck with seed material - and I never want to have to "fix" an aiptasia problem. Not trying to offend I just hate those *$*%&* things! I tried the Garf Grunge 2 tanks ago and that produced some of the worst blooms of algae and aiptasia...I took it down and started over after like 2 weeks cleaning and drying everything out , went with dry rock and haven't looked back. As far as stocking, I have always sort of gone with a mixed reef, over time heavily stocked, very little rock base touching the bottom. This will probably be my 12th tank in about twenty years on and off with reef keeping, so I was wondering about any success or failure stories with diy rock. I had the Pukani in my last tank and I got a lot of it for the amount I paid, particularly since it is so hollowed out.

My most healthy tanks have all been bare bottom - even when I use 1/2" of sand I get problems. And I fully understand the depth of sand needed for it to be beneficial, but I have always accidentally stirred it up or blown it around, or otherwise disrupted my deep sand beds, so I ditched them. I like the idea of the sand attached to starboard though, because until coralline covers the bottom, it looks rather artificial.

Man, I hope for the best if you are breeding clams - the founder of Indo-Pacific is like the leading expert on tridacnids, right?

I am weighing options between the time of curing cement, aragonite, CaCo3, and maybe corn puffs for hollowed spots -(it melts away very quickly with very limited residuals as opposed to rock salt) and dry pukani rock. Pukani is a more expensive route (trying to stay within a nosy lady-friends watchful-eye budget), but one I have had success with in the past. Plus it looks good. I have a fine art background and sculpting a whole reef sounds like a real-deal challenge...but time consuming even before curing times...like I said weighing options. I am very wary of a crappy algae or (worse) dreaded aiptasia blooms from used rock...a couple of bad experiences in the past... Then seed coralline from Indo-Pacific Sea farms

Great post!

I'm thinking about making some. I've got time before I will be ready to put water in a tank, and weighing options on building a whole pre-cast reef.

I can't put live plants int eh tank - Gary is hard on them, but I am going to try some moss and some fake plants. Concrete is almost completely cured - hope to have done by the end of the week - and then I'm going to drive my lady crazy again with all the reef talk she doesn't want to hear...