novahobbies
Well-Known Member
So I just thought I'd post this and show everyone what I was thinking of doing. I'm still waging a war of endurance with the rest of the family to upgrade this project to the 45g tank sitting in the garage, but for the time being I went ahead and broke down the 37g tank and cleaned it top to bottom. When it was done, I reset it and added the dry goods. It's currently sitting like this; I don't intend to add water for a while. As goofy as it sounds, this is nicer to look at in the den than a sad empty cube of water...and at least I don't have to periodically add topoff H2O to this to keep the noise down!
The faux coral branches you see here are nice for the time being, but they will be replaced slowly by photosynthetic gorgonia, kenya tree corals, etc. The large shell sitting front and center between the column legs was a bonus find; I was cleaning the backyard of my mother's new house when I came across this shell buried in the garden. I love the reds, pinks and white hues, and it even matches the barnacle cluster. I engineered this so all the faux corals are removeable and cleanable, as is the shell and the barnacle. The coral branches were cut from a fake cluster commonly found at pet stores, painted with Krylon fusion (safe for tanks, used it before), and had a plastic rod attached to the coral, which can now be pressed into the foam portions of the rock column.
The final idea, regardless of whichever tank the setup ends up in, is to have mushrooms and zoas in specific areas of the rock, plus some photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic gorgonian specimens. My favorite gorgs are the non-photosynthetics...orange and blueberry gorgs in particular. The filtration is not this little subcurrent thingie either...I just threw that in the picture for fun. The final filtration, if my bloody check comes in time, will be a Rapids pro sump/canister. They're not known to be great for larger tanks, but for a 37 or a 45g tank, it should work perfectly. Without further ado, here's the pics!
The faux coral branches you see here are nice for the time being, but they will be replaced slowly by photosynthetic gorgonia, kenya tree corals, etc. The large shell sitting front and center between the column legs was a bonus find; I was cleaning the backyard of my mother's new house when I came across this shell buried in the garden. I love the reds, pinks and white hues, and it even matches the barnacle cluster. I engineered this so all the faux corals are removeable and cleanable, as is the shell and the barnacle. The coral branches were cut from a fake cluster commonly found at pet stores, painted with Krylon fusion (safe for tanks, used it before), and had a plastic rod attached to the coral, which can now be pressed into the foam portions of the rock column.
The final idea, regardless of whichever tank the setup ends up in, is to have mushrooms and zoas in specific areas of the rock, plus some photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic gorgonian specimens. My favorite gorgs are the non-photosynthetics...orange and blueberry gorgs in particular. The filtration is not this little subcurrent thingie either...I just threw that in the picture for fun. The final filtration, if my bloody check comes in time, will be a Rapids pro sump/canister. They're not known to be great for larger tanks, but for a 37 or a 45g tank, it should work perfectly. Without further ado, here's the pics!
