drummereef's 180g in-wall build

[drummereef]

What did you use to help the rock cycle?

I added a coralline encrusted coral skeleton from a bubble coral that didn't make it in the display. I also added a few drops of ZeoBak as a starter culture.

I went ahead and did a 100% water change tonight so I'll wait 24 hours to allow things to settle in and retest.

 

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


Last night I did a 100% water change on the rock curing container. I retested NO3 and PO4 today and am seeing improvement. Here's the results...


NO3 tested between 10-15ppm. That's quite an improvement from 160+ppm!! :lol:

PO4 is also looking good. Phosphorous is 10ppb which is 0.03ppm PO4.

 

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


Good news. Another couple days later I see no increase in NO3 so I'm assuming that means the rock has fully cycled and is mostly stable at this point. I need to pick up a box of salt to fill the fuge tank, but I'm thinking by next weekend it will be up and running.

 

[cromedogg33]

Have you given thought on how you are going to lay out the refuge?

 

[drummereef]

Have you given thought on how you are going to lay out the refuge?

I haven't yet. Obviously the rock will go on the bottom, preferably to one side - but maybe just spread evenly on the bottom. Then I was thinking the macros would just float above. I still want to put a frag rack in there at some point as well but I don't think my make-shift fuge light will make them very happy until I get a some LED's over it. Thoughts?

 

[Grandmaster_Toad]

I about to do something similar. Thanks for the step by step. I am going to use a lot of your great ideas!

 

[Grandmaster_Toad]

I had not thought of painting the thickness of the wall black. Nice.

 

[drummereef]

I about to do something similar. Thanks for the step by step. I am going to use a lot of your great ideas!

:thumbsup:

 

[pmangels17]

Why jot plumb in a separate frag tank, that's always fun . Something like a long or a breeder tank, or build your own frag tank that is shallow, like 8 or 10 inches. Besides, you have that nice fish room, you might as well put some cool stuff in it. Then build shelves into the stand as an excuse to store things and store your ATO or something underneath. Good Luck.

 

[tredreef]

Why jot plumb in a separate frag tank, that's always fun . Something like a long or a breeder tank, or build your own frag tank that is shallow, like 8 or 10 inches. Besides, you have that nice fish room, you might as well put some cool stuff in it. Then build shelves into the stand as an excuse to store things and store your ATO or something underneath. Good Luck.

:thumbsup:

Cheers to this suggestion. It only makes perfect sense.

 

[ndwatso]

Brett, Great thread. I'm in the mist of doing my own inwall, and I'm at the point of framing the wall. What height did you put your tank at from the floor? Do you have anything in front of the tank? Table, couch? Just trying to get some ideas.

 

[drummereef]

Why jot plumb in a separate frag tank, that's always fun . Something like a long or a breeder tank, or build your own frag tank that is shallow, like 8 or 10 inches. Besides, you have that nice fish room, you might as well put some cool stuff in it. Then build shelves into the stand as an excuse to store things and store your ATO or something underneath. Good Luck.

:thumbsup:

Cheers to this suggestion. It only makes perfect sense.

Thanks guys... now you just gave me more work. :lol: No really, I was considering plumbing a small frag tank but I don't know where I have enough space for it with the fuge tank taking up the right wall of the sump room now. It's much easier to plumb things on that wall since the system pump is located over there versus the other side of the room. It could always be a separate tank I suppose, I'll keep thinking it over. Thanks for the posts.

Brett, Great thread. I'm in the mist of doing my own inwall, and I'm at the point of framing the wall. What height did you put your tank at from the floor? Do you have anything in front of the tank? Table, couch? Just trying to get some ideas.

Thank you ndwatso. The tank stand ended up being 39.75" tall, which is the height of the plywood top the tank is sitting on. I don't have any furniture directly in front of the tank but my initial idea was to build a small ledge in front of the tank with a couple bar stools below for viewing. I can say, the tank is very comfortable to view standing up and/or sitting on a tall stool - no crouching required. I'd suggest cutting a piece of cardboard or taping a couple pieces of poster board together and hang it on your wall to get an idea of what it's going to look like. Tank placement was one of the hardest decisions I made building the system so take your time and build it exactly like you want.

 

[drummereef]

Question for you guys... Do you think sand in the bottom of the refugium is a good or bad idea. Will it cause issues down the road? Take into account the water level in the stock tank is ~21" deep and will initially be lit with a single 6500K compact fluorescent bulb until I can incorporate an LED setup. If I add various macros besides just Chaeto do they need a substrate besides rock to attach and grow?

 

[110galreef]

Question for you guys... Do you think sand in the bottom of the refugium is a good or bad idea. Will it cause issues down the road? Take into account the water level in the stock tank is ~21" deep and will initially be lit with a single 6500K compact fluorescent bulb until I can incorporate an LED setup. If I add various macros besides just Chaeto do they need a substrate besides rock to attach and grow?

SKip the sand.....:hammer:

Keep it SIMPLE....as I always and keep saying. If you need sand for some of the plants...use some sort of small container and confine the sand to that and just for the plant. But i don't think they will need sand. Maybe put some smaller rock rubble in a container for the roots to swirls and grab in??

sand just more to worry about and will make hard to suck detritus out of the stock tank.

 

[cromedogg33]

+1

If you want mangroves or something, keep that secluded.

I would personally creat some sort of removable platform to keep the rock off the very bottom so that you can easily clean the bottom.

If you could keep the rock on some sort of removable tray so that you could pick it up and swish it around I think you would be best off doing that.

 

[tredreef]

Go deep or go home!

Go deep or go home!

Brett,

This is a great question to ask before taking the steps into incorporating a refugium into your system. Especially when your system is already established.

The biggest desicion to consider with refugiums when you are going to use one is what kind of refugium will it be. There are basically two different kinds of refugiums that you can use.

1) The DSB (DEEP SAND BED) Refugium, this refugium will house ~4" of sand or mud of some kind, some live rock (1 to 1.5 Lbs. per gallon of water volume), and some kind of macro algae (calurpa, cheato, or otherwise).

- I used this style refugium for my 105, and i used this product.
http://www.caribsea.com/itempage_refugereactor_theark.htm

2) The BB (BARE BOTTOM) Refugium. This style of refugium is all about the same as above, without the sand. without the sand however you will not be able to "root" any macro algae or mangroves except for on your L.R. So in this case it would be advantageous to include a separate area for your Mangroves, or create a small rack out of some egg crate to secure them in.

Both of these methods have there merits, both of these methods have their faults. It is truly up to YOU and your personal opinion of how you would like to maintain this area of your system.

You will do good to light the refugium with around a 6500K light (LED will work too).

I hope this has helped you at least a little.:jester:

 

[drummereef]

SKip the sand.....:hammer:

Keep it SIMPLE....as I always and keep saying. If you need sand for some of the plants...use some sort of small container and confine the sand to that and just for the plant. But i don't think they will need sand. Maybe put some smaller rock rubble in a container for the roots to swirls and grab in??

sand just more to worry about and will make hard to suck detritus out of the stock tank.

Good advice as always 110g. I was leaning towards a sand-less fuge, obviously for ease of maintenance etc... Let's get this fuge party started! :spin1:

+1

If you want mangroves or something, keep that secluded.

I would personally creat some sort of removable platform to keep the rock off the very bottom so that you can easily clean the bottom.

If you could keep the rock on some sort of removable tray so that you could pick it up and swish it around I think you would be best off doing that.

Good suggestion Josh. I like that idea but there's going to be quite a bit of rock, it looks like, once it's all set up and running so building a removable tray might be difficult. I plan on putting one of my Tunze's in there to keep the bottom clean though. I haven't decided whether or not to incorporate mangroves, although I like the idea of keeping some. I need to do more research on that.

Brett,

This is a great question to ask before taking the steps into incorporating a refugium into your system. Especially when your system is already established.

The biggest desicion to consider with refugiums when you are going to use one is what kind of refugium will it be. There are basically two different kinds of refugiums that you can use.

1) The DSB (DEEP SAND BED) Refugium, this refugium will house ~4" of sand or mud of some kind, some live rock (1 to 1.5 Lbs. per gallon of water volume), and some kind of macro algae (calurpa, cheato, or otherwise).

- I used this style refugium for my 105, and i used this product.
http://www.caribsea.com/itempage_refugereactor_theark.htm

2) The BB (BARE BOTTOM) Refugium. This style of refugium is all about the same as above, without the sand. without the sand however you will not be able to "root" any macro algae or mangroves except for on your L.R. So in this case it would be advantageous to include a separate area for your Mangroves, or create a small rack out of some egg crate to secure them in.

Both of these methods have there merits, both of these methods have their faults. It is truly up to YOU and your personal opinion of how you would like to maintain this area of your system.

You will do good to light the refugium with around a 6500K light (LED will work too).

I hope this has helped you at least a little.:jester:

Awesome, thank you tredreef. Very nice writeup.

 

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


Getting close guys. 24 gallons of saltwater in the fuge so far. Last night I did the final leveling of the platform and greased up all the unions in preparation for startup. Shouldn't be long now...

 

[henrystyle]

With a tub that big I would definitely try a deep sand bed.. It would be a shame not to.
The benefits from a dsb are worth the try.

 

[ravi197699]

very nice set up i have 20' long wall right against my garage and i want to set up similar and i am trying to convence my wife but so far no luck