Hi, I am Scott
Morell, a volunteer here at GARF. Here is my history page for my 150
gallon tall aquarium. This tank was torn down a few weeks ago because
my lovely and gracious wife and I just wanted something different.
As you read this you will see I am parting from the standard GARF
method which has worked well for me the last ten years...
6/8/2009
Here are some of
the latest images. We have added quite a few captive raised coral
and a few fish...
Full
tank shot
Hammerhead
coral I got from a fellow reef club member
Here
are a couple of sarchophytons I got from Leroy. We purchased 2 percula
anenome fish and one of them is hosting in it...
I
have no idea what this is. When LeRoy comes over next I will ask him.
It appears to be a type of macro algae that grows very quickly.
Here
are some acans I got from Leroy. In the back ground you can see a
pulsing finger leather I stole out of the lovely and gracious Monica's
tank...
The
Critters
We
are planning on having only farm raised or MAC certified fish in the
aquarium. We added a lawn mower blenny and a star blennie to the tank
on Monica's birthday March 27th. I am planning on added an pair of
farm raised Ocellaris clownfish and a few farm raised Bangii Cardinals.
Other fish will be a selection of farm raised or MAC certified critters...
The
Rock
The rebuild is
going to include 100% live rock that we purchased from Dale Barger
at www.floridaliverock.net. The rock should arrive on Tuesday, February
3rd. The rock is going to go into a 100 gallon water trough that we
have ready on the back porch. With any luck it will take a minimal
amount of curing...
3/29/2009
Well it has been
a while and the most lovely and gracious Monica has spent about 40
hours aquascaping and re-aquascaping the tank. There is a new LFS
in the area so she bought about $60 worth of live rock that looks
like coral skeletons. She used 1/2" acrylic rod and zip-ties
to mount the skeletons.
Here is what one
of the first tries looked like. (Kinda resembles a funny looking Budha)
It did not last long...
We trashed that
look and after many iterations we finally came up with this that we
are happy with:
It uses a combination
of about 100 lbs of Dale Barger live rock, 15 lbs of Figi live rock
and 2 GARF arches. Since we finished the aquascaping we have put in
a couple of coral.
2/6/2009
Here are some images
of the rock that came in yesterday:
Aquascaping
The aquascaping
for all of our tanks is always done by my lovely and gracious bride,
of 25 years, Monica. She just has an eye for aquascaping and her designs
always looks awesome. We have been doing a lot of research and have
decided on a "Bonsai Method" that we found on Reef Central.
We are building a frame out of 3/4" PVC pipe. We will be renting
a boring drill bit from a local rental shop to drill the rock. The
rock will then slide over the PCV pipe. The rock will be held on with
tie-wraps, epoxy, and CA glues. We expect to take a few evenings to
get it right.
One of the advantages
of doing the bonsai method is that nearly 100% of the sand bed is
exposed thus having maximum filtration capabilities. Plus if we do
it right it will look very cool!!! 
We also plan on
drilling 3/8" holes 3/4" deep in the rock before we fill
the tank with water. The main reason for this is. we are going to
mount the coral frags to "Ryan's Reef Plugs". The plugs are made by
a young local hobbyist named Ryan (9 years old). The base of the plug
diameter is 3/8" so we can insert the plugs in the hole Here
is an image of the plugs:
Here is the rough
design (the fat guy in the reflection is me):
The
Sand
The sand we are
using, in this tank, is a brilliant white sugar sized sand I traded
a local fish store for. The sand is Chemical Lime's Dolowhite Pool
Grade DS. It is a sugar sized sand that will work well for a deep
sand bed. We currently have 150 lbs ready to rinse and place in the
display. We have not decided what we want to do in the sump/farming
unit yet. We will either put in a remote plenum or sugar sized sand.
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