drummereef's 180g in-wall build

UPDATE:



Well fine people, it's been quite a journey to this day. With the help of my fellow reefer buddies out there and a few close family members the day is finally here...


WATER!!! :beer:


***Thank you to every last one of you that helped along the way to get my tank to this point. Your help and advice has been and will continue to be greatly appreciated!*** :thumbsup:



Picture031.jpg~original
 
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Hi Alex.......

No I do not have a tank build because I could never match your and others on this site with the great pics and posts that you have done. Tank build threads like yours helps so many people here on RC. I do have some pics and will post a couple, but I do not want to hijack your thread/build. I will try to get a couple up today.

Although I went with a minimalist aquascape, it doesn't come close to how good yours looks unfortunately. I went with two separate islands (like Reefbum's TOTM setup) and kept all the rock clear away from all four sides of the tank. I wasn't too concerned about the lack of aquascape design because I am hoping my SPS's jump and get good growth and mask any deficiencies I have with the overall design. I did not have the luxury of time that day because the tank had to be swapped out in hours, not days (another story for another day). I used all dry rock from BRS EcoSaver and I am sooooooo happy I did. I seeded with about 4-5 pieces from my old tank and has worked out nicely. I did get brown algae at first and was extremely nervous at that time a feared the worse with going with dry rock for the first time. But I used BRS Rox carbon and stuck with water changes every two weeks and after 7-weeks up now the rock looks great. No cycling issues whatsoever. I had a terrible time with SPS with my old setup and want to start as virgin as I could.

I am confident you have all your bases covered and you are going to be so pumped with you get water, circulation and lights going. It was one of the most gratifying times in the hobby for me when I put my custom build online. It took 7-months from the first day contacting Miracles to install and worth every minute of planning.

Ok......enough of the winded post:-). GOOD LUCK today!
 
Yeah for Water!!!!! You have done such a great job and helped out so many people with this detailed thread. We can never thank you enough. But..... THANKS AGAIN and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Very sweet build!!!!!!!!

Joe
 
j-dizzle said:
SWEET!!!!!!!!:dance:
Click to expand...

Woohoo! Thanks Jesse. :D

tegee said:
Hi Alex.......

No I do not have a tank build because I could never match your and others on this site with the great pics and posts that you have done. Tank build threads like yours helps so many people here on RC. I do have some pics and will post a couple, but I do not want to hijack your thread/build. I will try to get a couple up today.

Although I went with a minimalist aquascape, it doesn't come close to how good yours looks unfortunately. I went with two separate islands (like Reefbum's TOTM setup) and kept all the rock clear away from all four sides of the tank. I wasn't too concerned about the lack of aquascape design because I am hoping my SPS's jump and get good growth and mask any deficiencies I have with the overall design. I did not have the luxury of time that day because the tank had to be swapped out in hours, not days (another story for another day). I used all dry rock from BRS EcoSaver and I am sooooooo happy I did. I seeded with about 4-5 pieces from my old tank and has worked out nicely. I did get brown algae at first and was extremely nervous at that time a feared the worse with going with dry rock for the first time. But I used BRS Rox carbon and stuck with water changes every two weeks and after 7-weeks up now the rock looks great. No cycling issues whatsoever. I had a terrible time with SPS with my old setup and want to start as virgin as I could.

I am confident you have all your bases covered and you are going to be so pumped with you get water, circulation and lights going. It was one of the most gratifying times in the hobby for me when I put my custom build online. It took 7-months from the first day contacting Miracles to install and worth every minute of planning.

Ok......enough of the winded post:-). GOOD LUCK today!
Click to expand...

Wow, that sounds awesome tegee. Did you seed the BRS rock with anything? How did you incorporate bacteria for cycling?

AkaSlyGuy said:
Yeah for Water!!!!! You have done such a great job and helped out so many people with this detailed thread. We can never thank you enough. But..... THANKS AGAIN and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Very sweet build!!!!!!!!

Joe
Click to expand...

Thanks Joe! With what I've seen of your setup it's going to be awesome. :) Good luck to you plumbing that thing up! ;)
 
UPDATE:


12 hours later and about 1/3rd of the way filled in the display. The suspense is killing me. :lol: Guess I should have mixed up saltwater to get it started but where the heck would I have stored 200g of water? :D


Picture033.jpg~original
 
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drummereef said:
Wow, that sounds awesome tegee. Did you seed the BRS rock with anything? How did you incorporate bacteria for cycling?
Click to expand...


Brett (sorry....I referred to as Alex in last post; too much contact with saltwater),

I simply cycled the BRS ReefSaver Eco rock in a Brute container and let it marinate in salt mixed water for about 8-days. I was VERY nervous that is all I did, but I have to tell you it worked out great! I did use live reef sand from Nature's Ocean: http://www.livesand.com/ . Which I was again pleasantly surprised with it. So there you go; I kept it simple and used dried rock and live sand. I only lost one fish (one of my favorite wrasse) and NO coral (most all sps's).

All these was performed by three of us in 6-hours from start to finish. I had to remove my old Oceanic 180-gl. (and obviously all its contents), install the new tank, sand, rock and all the fish and coral. That is why my aquascape was not 100% perfect the way I wanted it, but I do believe I got it close. I do have to say after months and months of planning, it was both the most nervous day and the most gratifying day in the hobby. I only wish I had the time you had. You are very fortunate and it obviously shows in every last detail in you build.

Keep up the good work......
 
Hey Brett,

All I can do is reiterate what others have said....WHAT AN AMAZING BUILD!

I am currently planning for my 180 build this summer, but I will be moving around a lot so I won't be able to do an awesome built in like yours for a long time... I'll have to cram it all under my stand :-\

How many GPD is your RO/DI unit? That 180 is filling up faster than I would have guessed.

Good Luck Today!
 
tegee said:
Brett (sorry....I referred to as Alex in last post; too much contact with saltwater),

I simply cycled the BRS ReefSaver Eco rock in a Brute container and let it marinate in salt mixed water for about 8-days. I was VERY nervous that is all I did, but I have to tell you it worked out great! I did use live reef sand from Nature's Ocean: http://www.livesand.com/ . Which I was again pleasantly surprised with it. So there you go; I kept it simple and used dried rock and live sand. I only lost one fish (one of my favorite wrasse) and NO coral (most all sps's).

All these was performed by three of us in 6-hours from start to finish. I had to remove my old Oceanic 180-gl. (and obviously all its contents), install the new tank, sand, rock and all the fish and coral. That is why my aquascape was not 100% perfect the way I wanted it, but I do believe I got it close. I do have to say after months and months of planning, it was both the most nervous day and the most gratifying day in the hobby. I only wish I had the time you had. You are very fortunate and it obviously shows in every last detail in you build.

Keep up the good work......
Click to expand...

Wow, sounds like an exiting day! Sorry you lost your wrasse but luckily everything else made it. That's great. :)
 
AaronReeph said:
Hey Brett,

All I can do is reiterate what others have said....WHAT AN AMAZING BUILD!

I am currently planning for my 180 build this summer, but I will be moving around a lot so I won't be able to do an awesome built in like yours for a long time... I'll have to cram it all under my stand :-\

How many GPD is your RO/DI unit? That 180 is filling up faster than I would have guessed.

Good Luck Today!
Click to expand...


Thanks for the kind words Aaron. :) It's a 75GPD unit from BRS. Yeah I was a little surprised as well but I think I'm getting good rates from it. The pressure is good so I'm assuming it's working as it should. Once the tank is full I'll try and get some more accurate ratios from it. :)
 
The display is over half filled and I've got the Vortechs running on low just to keep things stirred up. Also threw in the new heaters too. Going to start adding salt to bring up the salinity... one cup at a time. It's gonna be a long night. :lol:
 
Taqpol said:
Where are you gonna place your tunzes?
Click to expand...

I haven't totally decided yet, although I was actually thinking about that tonight while looking at the tank. Ideally I'd like to place them low possibly behind some of the rocks so they are hidden. But the dumb things only come with a 6' cord. That presents a little bit of a wiring issue. Why can't they make pumps with 10' cords!?!? :hammer:
 
Hey Brett...

Just gotta say that you nailed the aquascape now! I wish i had made my rock structure lower to give corals more space to grow. Your build is top-notch!
 
drummereef said:
I haven't totally decided yet, although I was actually thinking about that tonight while looking at the tank. Ideally I'd like to place them low possibly behind some of the rocks so they are hidden. But the dumb things only come with a 6' cord. That presents a little bit of a wiring issue. Why can't they make pumps with 10' cords!?!? :hammer:
Click to expand...
They don't make tunze extension chords? :lol:
 
Taqpol said:
They don't make tunze extension chords? :lol:
Click to expand...


:lol: Yeah, at least with the Vortechs you get quite a bit of cord including what length is on the power supply. I'm trying to avoid using any extension cords is the only thing. I'd rather not have a mess of cords strung together.
 
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