drummereef's 180g in-wall build

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


Sand is here!! :dance: New sand will be going in tonight. I'll post pics of the tank again tomorrow with a full review of the color under the lights once the fog clears. But in the mean time, here's the goodies...


This time around I went with Tropic Eden's Tonga Reeflakes.

Here's a little comparison between the CaribSea Aragamax Seaflor Special Grade sand and the Tropic Eden Tonga Reeflakes sand. The Reeflakes are definitely brighter in color and has pink flecks which adds some character. Grain size seems to be a bit smaller than the CaribSea (at least in my sample) so we shall see how it holds up to the Vortechs.


CaribSea Aragamax Seaflor Special Grade

Tropic Eden Reeflakes

 

[psteeleb]

is there a significant price difference between the sands?

 

[psteeleb]

is there a significant price difference between the sands?

 

[drummereef]

is there a significant price difference between the sands?

CaribSea Special Grade - $34.99 / 40lb

Tropic Eden Reeflakes - $37.99 / 30lb

So the purchase prices are similar but you just get less per bag with the Reeflakes. I can tell you though, this sand is amazing. I only needed one bag to cover the tank at a depth of ~0.5-1" and it rinsed absolutely clean in 2 quick rinses. The stuff is really bright and didn't cloud the tank hardly at all when I put it in. I'm sold.

 

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


Sand is in! Took a couple hours but was completely worth it. As I was saying before, this sand is great stuff. Bright white under the lighting and the pink fleck really makes it stand out. I split one 30lb bag into two buckets and rinsed each 2x with RO/DI water. I was shocked at how clean this sand is straight from the bag. There was a tiny bit of dust and only a few "floaters" when rinsing. Overall I am extremely pleased. Definitely higher quality than the CaribSea product I used when setting up the tank. Time will tell how it stands up but so far so good.

I decided to use the bag method to add the sand since I didn't have a lot of vertical space to use the PVC pipe method. And as clean as the sand rinsed I was fairly confident it wasn't going to create a huge sandstorm. So I scooped a bagful, sealed the bag, lowered it to the bottom of the tank, opened the bag and slowly dumped it in. Repeat about a hundred times... just kidding. :lol:

This FTS was taken ~30 minutes after adding the last bag of sand and doing some final grooming for the night. Amazed again at how clean the sand went in. It would have been a solid few hours of cloudiness using another brand of sand. I'm a sand guy but, IMO, a nice sand bed makes ALL the difference. :beer:

 

[psteeleb]

Impressive!

 

[110galreef]

Sand does look nice. Interesting to see how it handles the vortechs!
i am so glad to see sand back in there.

 

[drummereef]

Impressive!

Very! Definitely the best sand I've ever used. Reminds me a little of the CaribSea Fiji Pink I used a long time ago in my old 40g, but better.

Sand does look nice. Interesting to see how it handles the vortechs!
i am so glad to see sand back in there.

Thanks 110g, me too! It was hard to live with a bare bottom for the last couple months but was definitely worth it to switch out the substrates. Much happier with the Tropic Eden sand. Time will tell if the Vortechs will move it around but so far it's looking good. Woke up this morning and checked on the tank, even though the lights were still off, and the sand doesn't look like it's moved much at all.

 

[Nanook]

Wow, tank with new sand looks fantastic! Glad you got to meet Hershel, he is one of the good guys for sure. You have some nice looking acros:beer:

 

[crvz]

New sand looks great.

Query; you were using the caribsea with marco rock, right? It has taken me quite a while with that combo to get my tank to show much progress, but in the last few months (I'd say around month 13-14 of setting it up) the SPS have finally started to show growth. I don't think I had the same issue with the algaes that you did, but I did have some.

In my previous tanks I was barebottom, and I would prefer it for maintenance, but I agree with you in regards to aesthetics; sand is definitely the way to do a display.

 

[drummereef]

Wow, tank with new sand looks fantastic! Glad you got to meet Hershel, he is one of the good guys for sure. You have some nice looking acros:beer:

Thanks Dave! Yeah, Hershel is a super guy. We were talking about you and Hershel said you went all softies, is this true?? I think I saw some updated pics of the long tank in the softie forum but what's going on with the big cube? The long tank was looking awesome btw!

New sand looks great.

Query; you were using the caribsea with marco rock, right? It has taken me quite a while with that combo to get my tank to show much progress, but in the last few months (I'd say around month 13-14 of setting it up) the SPS have finally started to show growth. I don't think I had the same issue with the algaes that you did, but I did have some.

In my previous tanks I was barebottom, and I would prefer it for maintenance, but I agree with you in regards to aesthetics; sand is definitely the way to do a display.

Thanks Chris! Yes the original sand I used when I started up the tank was CaribSea Aragamax Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand. I can tell you it's no where near as pure or debris free as the Tropic Eden product. It seems like it's a different composition or at least comes from a different area than the Tropic Eden, since the color is quite different, even dry. I had even picked up some small particles from the CaribSea with my magnet cleaner over the last year. :hmm3: Small black bits that were obviously metallic or magnetic to a certain extent. That tells you something is a little amiss in the manufacturing process. As long as the Tropic Eden is available or something better comes along I won't be going back to CaribSea products.

 

[PistolShrmp]

Great tank! I too am considering CaribSea Special Grade Sand and Tropic Eden. Does your price listed above include shipping, if so where did you buy it?

 

[drummereef]

Great tank! I too am considering CaribSea Special Grade Sand and Tropic Eden. Does your price listed above include shipping, if so where did you buy it?

I ordered from Jeremy B at Premium Aquatics. The prices I showed were straight from their website. They have standard ground shipping on Tropic Eden Sand for $8.99. Killer deal if you ask me. Honestly there's no comparison between your two choices. I've used both and I'm sold on the Tropic Eden product hands down.

 

[eohlin]

Brett - I've spend days reading through this entire thread...amazing quality and beautiful tank!

I'm in the early stages of setting up my 180, your workmanship and your setup are an inspiration! I plan to model my plumbing and my aquascaping after your setup. I really like the more open look.

Looking for a bit of advise on rock and sand - how much rock did you end up using in the tank? Did you seed it with live rock from another tank? I have an existing 75 that I'm planning to tear down - I'm just not sure if I should take rock from the existing tank and add a few pieces to each "island" of rock in the new tank. I'm also going to take your advice, and dose bacteria right from the start!

Regarding the sand, your latest pictures look great - is that only one bag of that sand?? I also want a shallow layer, just not sure if one will actually cover well or not.

Great work and appreciate the time you spend sharing all of this!

Eric

 

[cromedogg33]

Hey Brett,

Was reading some old threads about using Dowflake/Prestone with the elevated bromine. I think you still do 2 part if I'm not mistaken. After a little mishap with the Ca reactor I'm done using it and going back to peristaltic pumps. Are you still using the "elevated bromine" calcium chloride or have you been ordering the low bromide stuff?

 

[drummereef]

Brett - I've spend days reading through this entire thread...amazing quality and beautiful tank!

I'm in the early stages of setting up my 180, your workmanship and your setup are an inspiration! I plan to model my plumbing and my aquascaping after your setup. I really like the more open look.

Looking for a bit of advise on rock and sand - how much rock did you end up using in the tank? Did you seed it with live rock from another tank? I have an existing 75 that I'm planning to tear down - I'm just not sure if I should take rock from the existing tank and add a few pieces to each "island" of rock in the new tank. I'm also going to take your advice, and dose bacteria right from the start!

Regarding the sand, your latest pictures look great - is that only one bag of that sand?? I also want a shallow layer, just not sure if one will actually cover well or not.

Great work and appreciate the time you spend sharing all of this!

Eric

Thanks for taking the time to read through the thread Eric! I originally bought 3 boxes or 150lbs of Marco Rock. I only used ~100lb of that rock to create the aquascape you see in the pics. I have a box of rock leftover from my purchase that hasn't been used yet. Realize, this is dry weight so once it's wet it's more substantial in regards to bulk weight.

If the rock from your 75g is good quality, free of most pests etc, then I would definitely put a few small pieces in the tank - at least for a while while the tank cycles. If you like them keep them in the tank, if not you could remove them after a few months. Heck, I wouldn't even be opposed to putting a pile in the sump during this period. The other option would be, as your are building the system, set up a rubbermaid container to house all of your dry rock and seed it with a few pieces of live rock. Let it cook while you build your system and then add it to the display once you are ready. This will give it a good head start while you are working to finish the system. I would definitely seed the rock with something like Special Blend or MB7 or equivalent though. Just give the rock a good head start to avoid the issues that I had down the road - or at least minimize the length of time for potential issues.

Yes, that is only one 30lb bag of the Tropic Eden sand. I thought it was going to take more than that to cover the areas around my aquascape at a depth of ~0.5-1.0" but one bag covered it more than enough. I bought 2 bags so I have an extra. They come with Lot #'s so if you buy extra you'll know it will match down the road if you need to add/replace sand. Hope this helps and update me on your progress as you go!

Hey Brett,

Was reading some old threads about using Dowflake/Prestone with the elevated bromine. I think you still do 2 part if I'm not mistaken. After a little mishap with the Ca reactor I'm done using it and going back to peristaltic pumps. Are you still using the "elevated bromine" calcium chloride or have you been ordering the low bromide stuff?

Hey Josh, I haven't used 2-part for a few months now. I've been primarily dripping Kalk for Alk/Ca additions. My demand isn't too high yet so it's been working out OK. When I was dosing 2-part I switched to the BRS Calcium Chloride instead of the Driveway Heat I had used in my old 40g. I'm considering picking up a dosing pump as well since it's fairly difficult to keep a gravity drip consistent - especially throughout the night when I'd like to use it most. What peristaltic pump were you looking at? I'm considering the BRS simply because of price point and I can expand the system down the road if I switch back to 2-part.

 

[cromedogg33]

I bought the bubble magus doser and will be setting up this weekend. I went ahead and ordered from BRS just to keep my mind at ease about the bromide. I've always liked the idea of actually seeing exactly how much 2 part is going in and how much you have left.

The Ca reactor is leaving a bad taste in my mouth considering all things, wether it being pressure change from the c02, vaporlocking, ph monitor going bad, the effluent clogging, etc. Not all of this has happened to me, but you hear plenty of horror stories.

I have a hard time finding many bad ones about peristaltic pumps.

 

[drummereef]

I bought the bubble magus doser and will be setting up this weekend. I went ahead and ordered from BRS just to keep my mind at ease about the bromide. I've always liked the idea of actually seeing exactly how much 2 part is going in and how much you have left.

The Ca reactor is leaving a bad taste in my mouth considering all things, wether it being pressure change from the c02, vaporlocking, ph monitor going bad, the effluent clogging, etc. Not all of this has happened to me, but you hear plenty of horror stories.

I have a hard time finding many bad ones about peristaltic pumps.

I hear ya. ;-) Dosing pumps seem pretty much foolproof and low maintenance all around. Is there any particular reason you went with the Bubble Magnus vs a different pump? Was it the extra programming capability? I'm probably going to run mine off the Apex so I'm wondering if I need any extra capability since the controller will pretty much handle it.

 

[cromedogg33]

Mainly becaue I got a smoking deal on one that cost about the same as a new eb8 since I'm out of ports on mine.

I think the only difference is the apex is time based vs the bubble magus has the built in programming for ml dosed which essentially still is time based. I THINK anyway.

I don't think there is a pro/con for them it really boiled down to reviews and price for me. I would have been about 280$ for BRS/drews dosers plus a 100+$ eb8. With the BM doser I got 3 dosers, the stand, and tube holder for considerably less.

Edit:

Just to confirm the bubble magus can be programmed by ml vs. time. You can tell a channel to dose "48ml at 24 intervals" meaning it will dose 2ml 24times throughout the day.

 

[drummereef]

Mainly becaue I got a smoking deal on one that cost about the same as a new eb8 since I'm out of ports on mine.

I think the only difference is the apex is time based vs the bubble magus has the built in programming for ml dosed which essentially still is time based. I THINK anyway.

I don't think there is a pro/con for them it really boiled down to reviews and price for me. I would have been about 280$ for BRS/drews dosers plus a 100+$ eb8. With the BM doser I got 3 dosers, the stand, and tube holder for considerably less.

Edit:

Just to confirm the bubble magus can be programmed by ml vs. time. You can tell a channel to dose "48ml at 24 intervals" meaning it will dose 2ml 24times throughout the day.

Wow, that's almost a selling point for me - to be able to tell it to dose intervals in ML's. So where did you score this awesome deal??