My 180g, 4 sided viewable project thread

[salvini55]

and we all know how you like things quiet.

Ithought if it was sexy that was good enough?

[Hookup]

You may want to run the pumps through a zero to full cycle to see how they sound, they have a nasty habit of being noisy at certain inputs and we all know how you like things quiet.

Yes, i've heard that reported several times and there are fixes for that as well.. having the VFD allows tuning of the rpm's to eliminate those issues.  Again, this is a theory until I've put it in practice.

[QueensU]

Can't wait to see this tank set up. That light is going to be a sexy rig. Another thing I noticed, White leather furniture and kids!  lol  Kudos.

[Hookup]

Another thing I noticed, White leather furniture and kids!  lol  Kudos.

No kidding... ages 4, 8, 9 and 10...

The dining room chairs are NOT leather... they are vinil for eazy mode cleaning... and cheap at $100/chair... the Leather has the 5year I bet you cannot damage it stain guard on it from leons... so far there have been 0 issues...  

[QueensU]

Update Time! Did you shoehorn your tank into that giant hole in the wall yet?

[Hookup]

I did... and last night I started the rock-scaping / pipe covering... I've not worked out a goodest way of doing it yet... and got frustrated after breaking several bits from the dremil tool... I need to find a better method tonight.

I have some photos to post and will make every effort to do so this evening.

[Vincenzo.]

are u rock scaping big pieces? Bite the bullet and grab a diamond blade for a grinder and get all the big cuts done. Because the blades from dremil are cheap, unless u find the diamond one.

[Hookup]

are u rock scaping big pieces? Bite the bullet and grab a diamond blade for a grinder and get all the big cuts done. Because the blades from dremil are cheap, unless u find the diamond one.

I didn't want to break-out the grinder...but I'm pretty sure I've got not choice now... gluing a dozen tiny rocks onto pipe is taking forever... and costs a frigg'n fortune in epoxy... I need to improve the method significantly...

The challange is not hiding the plumbing, or gluing the rocks.. it's keeping the end product as small as possible... I can take two or three big pieces and cover up a pipe... but it takes up SOOOOOooooo much room... so I take 10 rocks the size of your hand or much smaller, and glue them into a puzzle around the pipe... but that takes soooooooooooooooo long and all that epxoy costs..... a tone...

I'ma going to work on using the grinder method to shape some rocks so I can use bigger pieces that do not take up any/much space.  And try to use more zip-ties to start the rock-covering process.

Play time this evening.. i want's to get home.

[veron]

can you not use conrete/DIY rock and let it cure? making different shapes etc.can the pipe work be remove and then covered in foam/rock pieces/sand?

[Vincenzo.]

what about using crazy clue gel....and sand / aragonate / shells to blend the pipe in .. Can u bridge from one pipe to another? By like carving a small piece of foam and wedging it between the 2 pipes?  I haave some ideas but its hard to explane.. Plus i need to physically see the plumbing

[Hookup]

can you not use conrete/DIY rock and let it cure? making different shapes etc.can the pipe work be remove and then covered in foam/rock pieces/sand?

that was the plan... but i changed it... not a big fan of the look, nor was I a fan of the curing time required.. .and in the end, rock is about the only thing that looks like rock...

what about using crazy clue gel....and sand / aragonate / shells to blend the pipe in .. Can u bridge from one pipe to another? By like carving a small piece of foam and wedging it between the 2 pipes?  I haave some ideas but its hard to explane.. Plus i need to physically see the plumbing

The glue idea is pretty much what i'm doing... the issue is the shapes of the rock... 1" pipe is what is being covered (CL outputs, etc)... and if you take a rock with a 3" diamater, not a big rock, you get 3 inches sticking off the side of the pipe... that's taking up WAY too much space...   Breakign the rock down means more gluing... that's not fun...

The plan is to use a grinder and drill to carve the rocks into the shapes that fit snugly (a relative term) around 90degrees or more of the pipe and at the same time, knock off any bulk to keep the profile trim...

I forsee a boat-load of smashed up rock in my future, including many uses of the f'word... hid your kids if they are in barrhaven...

[Rybren]

Any thought of following your fake wall construction and using zip-ties & foam to attach the rock to the pipes?  You'd still have to break up the rocks, but the epoxy work would go way down.  Seems to me that I saw a thread on RC with someone doing this.

[Hookup]

Any thought of following your fake wall construction and using zip-ties & foam to attach the rock to the pipes?  You'd still have to break up the rocks, but the epoxy work would go way down.  Seems to me that I saw a thread on RC with someone doing this.

Not a bad idea right there... this guy must be a fly-fisher... them's the smart ones.

[QueensU]

Too bad you couldnt just drill a 1 1/4" hole in a bunch of rocks and slide them down over the pipe. Then you would have like a rock tower covering the pipe. May not be possible tho. 

[Rybren]

 

[Hookup]

I'm down to only a few options left... none are looking good...

1) use the great-stuff foam as a way to stick rocks around a pipe.  Possible, but i dont want to have too much foam showing...
2) find a drill at 1.25 - 1.5" and core the rock - I used some drill bits (cement) at home and the rock I have is HARD... frigg'n dense... I'm not sure how well this would work... also, I tried using my grinder and a stone-cutting disk... yeah... well that works, kinda... brittle and dense go together... so i'm thinking coring the material will not work.
3) keep smashing the rock down, using more zip-ties and less expoy - this has been the best success so far...  It's goawd owwful slooow.. but it works... and i'm getting the result I want... just it's sooooooo sllooooooowwww...


At this point im going to work on things a bit more tonight... call it quits...

[Rybren]

I have some photos to post and will make every effort to do so this evening.

Well???

[Snider82]

too bad   what kind of rock are you using?   i'v drilled concreate, dead rock... laughing plaster.... with dimand blades... it went smoothly.    i wish i could think of something that would help, but im just a dumb tin banger.

[White Lightning]

I thought I heard some f-words being shouted out of Barrhaven....

It seems like covering the pipework is going slowly from what you are saying. But isn't everything supposed to go slow in this hobby?  I always hear everyone giving newbies advice about taking things slow when getting into the hobby. Keep at er and you'll acheive the look you want. Can't wait to see the progress.

[QueensU]

Too bad the coring wont work out, that would look cool. Some live rock is really porous, almost like sand stone. Too bad you have the bullet-proof variety!