rileyrk190

I have had my 10g tank up and running for about 6 months now with everything going fairly smoothly. The tank has shown tremendous growth and i cant wait to add more corals to it when i get the chance. I have decided to start a new thread because the paint on my wall for the overflow sump is starting to chip, really ruining the look of the tank, plus its very hard to fix my powerhead because i didn't leave enough space in the sump area. So now that i have the time and some money i am going to try something new with another spare 10g i have and then transfer everything from my other tank to this one.

Inhabitants:
2 Margarita snails
2 Nerite snails
2 Cerith snails
2 nassarius snails
3 red legged hermit crabs
1 blue legged hermit crabs
1 cleaner shrimp (Pierre)
1 saddleback clown fish (Yuri)
1 domino damselfish ( Armando)

Corals:
Red mushroom
purple Mushroom
Button polyp colony
unknown colony to be ID'ed


So far i have decided to put a rock wall in the tank. Here is a list of the materials:

1 can of Great Stuff insulation foam (red can)
3 pounds of dead rock
various shells
marine epoxy (2 parts)
egg crate
sand
wax paper

First i cut the egg crate to the size of my wall on the tank. I laid the egg crate on some waxed paper Then i laid out the rocks in the formation that i wanted on the egg crate. I sprayed the GS on and while it was still tacky, i put sand on it. Looking back now i wouldn't have put the sand on yet because it made it very difficult to put the epoxy on with a brush later. After 24 hours i brushed on the epoxy, and sprinkled some sand on top to cut back on the shine. I must say it came out better than i had expected because i was really worried with the yellow look of the foam. I left my digital camera at school so i am at the mercy of my macbooks isight which is not very good... I dont have any pics yet for after i put the epoxy on, but i will take them soon. Here are some pics:

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Meenu

this looks really cool. you should think about renaming it "rock wall" and ask a mod to move it to the d-i-y section

harpua2002

Do you have plans to upgrade the tank sometime? The saddle clown will outgrow a 10 gallon (mine is in a 30 gallon) and the domino damsel won't play nice with others as it grows.

rileyrk190

Yes, i have a thirty actually. I just cant upgrade right now because i am still in college. Its my last year though and they are still small (The domino damsel died yesterday, not sure why?). I do agree with you though he will outgrow it although NR another forum says that clowns are ok in a ten gallon, and many people have done it successfully. I think i am just going to keep my clown in it for now anyways with some corals and not worry about adding another fish.

harpua2002

Yes, but there are many species of clowns and many don't belong in a 10 gallon. The saddle clown can grow to 5-6 inches, bigger than more commonly kept clowns (ocellaris, percula).

Glad you plan to upgrade.

rileyrk190

I forgot to mention that the upgrade will be end of may roughly

rileyrk190

So i finally got to work on my tank a little bit more, and i have decided to give my fish the most space possible for now getting rid of the in-tank sump idea. I finished the rock wall after using three bottles of marine epoxy. Now i just have to silicone it in place. I also plan on having an external sump which I will be working on the rest of this week. I plan on using a rubbermaid 2 gallon food storage container which i think i can manage to make into a sump. Then the PVC will be hidden in the sand in the tank which is connected to the powerhead in the sump. The water will be blowing up at the various points, and then hopefully i can hide the PVC with some live rock. The heater should also fit in the sump. I did forget that there will be a tube visible which i dont like, so i am trying to figure something out. I know that if i leave it it will bother me. I also removed the top rim of the tank which i must say really makes it look much bigger! Also here are some pics of my existing tank. Again sorry for the quality of the pics.

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harpua2002

That's cool. How do you plan on making the overflow?

rileyrk190

Not completely sure yet. I'm thinking just another piece of pvc that will go into the sump from the tank, but i'm not sure how i am going to do it just yet or how i am going to hide it either. I didnt plan this one very well..lol

harpua2002

Well, you could try a hang on overflow... I'm not sure what the smallest size is though.