I finally have a reef I'm proud of!

ACBlinky · 09/11/2006, 07:37 PM

My 65g has been through a lot of changes in the past few months. The tank sprung a leak and needed to be replaced, several of the more agressive fish were moved into their own tank and I decided to go back to sand -- without sufficient flow or a huge skimmer, I was having trouble keeping nitrates down. Long story short, yesterday was (I hope) the last teardown/rebuild for a long while. I like the new aquascape much better than the previous rockpile and wanted to share a few pictures -- for the first time in over a year, I'm happy with the way the tank looks

Many of the corals look awful because they're still recovering -- some were purchased from the 'scratch & dent' tank at the LFS, and some bleached earlier in the summer when a heatwave hit. I've been spot feeding, improved flow and increased the lighting and, slowly but surely, they're all coming around.

I added the sand yesterday. It's 3-4" (~85lbs) of Stone Mason brand 'Decor Sand' from Home Depot, designed for sandblasting or use with paver stones. It's very fine silica sand. I did A LOT of searching here on RC before deciding to use this type of sand, it's safe and won't cause diatom blooms (silica and silicates are different things)

.

Without further ado... here are the pictures

Left side:

Middle:

Right side:

FTS:

Specs:
65g Perfecto tank
5 x 96W PC (1-10K, 2-12K, 2-actinic)
~90lbs LR (mix of Tonga Kaelini, Fiji, Indo)
Remora skimmer
FilStar XP2 canister with LR rubble
2-MJ 1200, 2-MJ900 powerheads
AquaClear 70 HOB fuge full of Chaeto

Critters:
Lubbock's fairy wrasse, yellow clown goby, ocellaris clown, South Seas damsel, Talbot's damsel, flame angel, coral beauty, white tail pygmy angel, tiger pistol shrimp, pincushion urchin, 1 turbo snail, 1 trochus snail, ~10 blueleg & scarlet hermits, 1 electric blue hermit

Coral:
Fiji yellow leather, cabbage leather, Xenia, GSP, pink star polyps, ricordia Florida, ricordia yuma, spotted mushrooms, striped mushrooms, zoas, yellow polyps, palythoa, torch, hammer, bubble, frogspawn, acan echinita

Thanks for looking!

msuzuki126 · 09/11/2006, 07:38 PM

Nice!!!

nemonick84 · 09/11/2006, 07:46 PM

Man, I'm so glad to hear someone else used the Stone Mason decor sand. I posted a thread on here a few days ago as well asking if it was safe to use. The responses were really positive - a lot of them clarifying the whole silica/silicates issue. Knowing you've used this as well and researched it gives me a little more peace of mind. BTW, that sand looks AWESOME. I've yet to put mine in as I'm still finishing my 120 in-wall build...but I can't wait to now. The tank looks great - keep up the good work!
Nick

druce · 09/11/2006, 07:51 PM

love the sand!

nice looking tank, hopefully mine will be that nice shortly!

Kigs · 09/11/2006, 07:54 PM

omg. how do you keep your sand so white? loving the aquascape!

i don't think you have enough powerheads btw

TitansFan · 09/11/2006, 07:59 PM

very nice looking! Wow that sand is white! Couple of questions... Do you not have any problems with your angels? Were they all added at the same time?
On your sand.. did you find it very dusty? Did you have to rinse it quite abit?

Tank looks great. I have the same tank.

ACBlinky · 09/11/2006, 08:04 PM

@msuzuki126 - thanks

@nemonick84 - the sand is fantastic, I really like it (and it's cost effective too!) It's a nice, fine grain size and should work well for denitrification. I do need to get some critters to take care of it since I'm not planning to touch it at all. Right now the pistol is digging away, but I'll have to get him some shells or rubble -- it looks like he's having a hard time making caves because the sand is so soft and light.

@druce - thanks! It took a long time and a few fugly aquascapes to get here.

@kigs - the sand was just added yesterday so we'll see how it looks in a few months. There are too many PHs I agree -- the tank was BB and I added the 900s to increase flow. The corals really seem to like the increased circulation so I left them in place after adding the sand, and they're having an interesting benefit: the sand is very fine, so detritus seems to collect on top, and the current is blowing it up into the water column. I'm hoping it will stay cleaner because of the current.

@titansfan - the angels are... angels

They're very well behaved, no fighting or picking on corals so far, except for an open brain that had to be moved to another tank. They have a definite pecking order (CB is boss but the flame challenges him constantly, flavicauda is feisty but no match for the big guys). They posture occasionally but that's as far as it's ever gone.

The sand is as white in person as it looks in the pictures -- it looks like the tank has 85lbs of granulated sugar on the bottom. It was unbelievably clean in the bag. I didn't rinse it at all, but I had a diatom filter set up the entire time I was re-scaping (to remove the detritus coming off the rocks) so the little bit of dust in the water disappeared quickly. Thanks for the compliment

Forgot to add, the angels were all added at different times - flame first, then CB, then the flavicauda (who lived in the 30g for ~8 months before I converted it back to FW). Right now all the fish are behaving as though they're all brand new. Everyone's checking out the new caves and there's been a bit of tail-slapping going on.

dastratt · 09/11/2006, 08:15 PM

Another thumbs up for the sand

Like the yellow tip torch - that's a nice one

Itd be cool to have a red coral in there like some blastos or a brain maybe to match the flame

kabal2 · 09/11/2006, 08:17 PM

wow, really nice work, and i love the aquascape, good job

ACBlinky · 09/11/2006, 08:20 PM

@dastratt - Thanks! The torch is actually neon green in person. Everything's greening up since I added more light. I did have a red and green open brain, but it looked like a snack to the angels. They picked on it so much I had to move it, which is too bad -- it would look fantastic in the open area of sand. There's quite a bit of real estate left, and I'm looking for BRIGHT corals to fill the holes. The angels completely ignore zoas, Euphyllias and rics, but it's hard to find any of those in red.

@kabal2 - thank you so much

PatrickJ · 09/11/2006, 08:31 PM

Great rock stack. That is the first thing I said about it.

MrsDorothy · 09/11/2006, 08:45 PM

Very nice!

mg426 · 09/11/2006, 09:20 PM

Nice looking, sand is very clean, Good joob!!

outy · 09/12/2006, 02:01 AM

nice job all the way around. the white sand is a nice touch

i just finished overhauling my 100g, new sand aquascaping ect. its nice to enjot the fruits of labor

dont get bummed if you see some brown or cyano on your new sand in a week or so. im in it 3 weeks and the blooms are almost gone

moobar · 09/12/2006, 02:17 AM

looking very good, very clean. I like it!

ACBlinky · 09/12/2006, 07:34 AM

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!

Travis L. Stevens · 09/12/2006, 08:32 AM

Looks good ACBlinky, YGPM

Waxxiemann · 09/12/2006, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by druce
love the sand!

nice looking tank, hopefully mine will be that nice shortly!

Yeah, that sand is unreal.

Acroholic · 09/12/2006, 09:17 AM

Really Sweet Blinky,
I am still patiently waiting to finally reach my tank nirvana....

ACBlinky · 09/12/2006, 03:27 PM

The corals seem to like their new positions. I just arrived home and found the Euphyllias, Xenia, and fox looking fluffier than they have in months.

I'll keep you guys posted and let you know if there are any issues with the sand, but so far everything looks great.

fantastic4 · 09/12/2006, 03:58 PM

nice! your hard work has paid off

chrismunn · 09/12/2006, 04:53 PM

nice work!
i cant wait to see it in 3 years from now!

PrivateJoker64 · 09/12/2006, 06:44 PM

I bet that sand makes the whole tank look brighter. It looks great! (The whole tank I mean.)

ACBlinky · 09/13/2006, 10:02 AM

Thanks guys

@Chrismunn -- you and me both

taku · 09/14/2006, 02:04 PM

Quote:

I added the sand yesterday. It's 3-4" (~85lbs) of Stone Mason brand 'Decor Sand' from Home Depot, designed for sandblasting or use with paver stones.

How much was the sand per bag? and how many pounds per bag?

I have a 5 year old 120g and I haven't changed the sand at all.. mind you it's decently white, minus the coralline that grows on the larger sand chunks... but I think that old sand bed is harming my tank more than helping... Your thread convinced me I need to suck out the sand bed and replace it with new sand.

The problem though... should I do it all at once or split into sections over days?

I have a euro-reef skimmer rated for 180g, 15g fuge with macroalgaes, about 180lbs LR split between display and fuge.

Decisions decisions

09/11/2006, 07:37 PM	#1
ACBlinky Premium Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Peterborough, ON, Canada Posts: 4,954 Blog Entries: 20	I finally have a reef I'm proud of! My 65g has been through a lot of changes in the past few months. The tank sprung a leak and needed to be replaced, several of the more agressive fish were moved into their own tank and I decided to go back to sand -- without sufficient flow or a huge skimmer, I was having trouble keeping nitrates down. Long story short, yesterday was (I hope) the last teardown/rebuild for a long while. I like the new aquascape much better than the previous rockpile and wanted to share a few pictures -- for the first time in over a year, I'm happy with the way the tank looks Many of the corals look awful because they're still recovering -- some were purchased from the 'scratch & dent' tank at the LFS, and some bleached earlier in the summer when a heatwave hit. I've been spot feeding, improved flow and increased the lighting and, slowly but surely, they're all coming around. I added the sand yesterday. It's 3-4" (~85lbs) of Stone Mason brand 'Decor Sand' from Home Depot, designed for sandblasting or use with paver stones. It's very fine silica sand. I did A LOT of searching here on RC before deciding to use this type of sand, it's safe and won't cause diatom blooms (silica and silicates are different things) . Without further ado... here are the pictures Left side: Middle: Right side: FTS: Specs: 65g Perfecto tank 5 x 96W PC (1-10K, 2-12K, 2-actinic) ~90lbs LR (mix of Tonga Kaelini, Fiji, Indo) Remora skimmer FilStar XP2 canister with LR rubble 2-MJ 1200, 2-MJ900 powerheads AquaClear 70 HOB fuge full of Chaeto Critters: Lubbock's fairy wrasse, yellow clown goby, ocellaris clown, South Seas damsel, Talbot's damsel, flame angel, coral beauty, white tail pygmy angel, tiger pistol shrimp, pincushion urchin, 1 turbo snail, 1 trochus snail, ~10 blueleg & scarlet hermits, 1 electric blue hermit Coral: Fiji yellow leather, cabbage leather, Xenia, GSP, pink star polyps, ricordia Florida, ricordia yuma, spotted mushrooms, striped mushrooms, zoas, yellow polyps, palythoa, torch, hammer, bubble, frogspawn, acan echinita Thanks for looking! __________________ "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea." - Isak Dinesen Current Tank Info: 150g mixed reef, 30g sump/refugium, LED lighting, 100lbs LR, coral beauty, flame angel, blue & yellow tangs, gobies, damsels, 6-line wrasse, lawnmower blenny, dottyback, clown pair, rabbitfish, shrimp, crabs, CUC.

09/11/2006, 07:38 PM	#2
msuzuki126 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Dutchess County, New York Posts: 1,377	Nice!!! __________________ Red House=My 90 build. Matt. Current Tank Info: 90 rebuild

09/11/2006, 07:51 PM	#4
druce Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: North Liberty, IA Posts: 1,349	love the sand! nice looking tank, hopefully mine will be that nice shortly! __________________ Click the red house to see tank pics and my blog and to get the link for my RC tank thread! Current Tank Info: 90 gal AGA RR, 55 gal long for sump, 17g Aquafuge pro as refugium - 2x 150w MH, 2x 96w Actinic

09/11/2006, 08:04 PM	#7
ACBlinky Premium Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Peterborough, ON, Canada Posts: 4,954 Blog Entries: 20	@msuzuki126 - thanks @nemonick84 - the sand is fantastic, I really like it (and it's cost effective too!) It's a nice, fine grain size and should work well for denitrification. I do need to get some critters to take care of it since I'm not planning to touch it at all. Right now the pistol is digging away, but I'll have to get him some shells or rubble -- it looks like he's having a hard time making caves because the sand is so soft and light. @druce - thanks! It took a long time and a few fugly aquascapes to get here. @kigs - the sand was just added yesterday so we'll see how it looks in a few months. There are too many PHs I agree -- the tank was BB and I added the 900s to increase flow. The corals really seem to like the increased circulation so I left them in place after adding the sand, and they're having an interesting benefit: the sand is very fine, so detritus seems to collect on top, and the current is blowing it up into the water column. I'm hoping it will stay cleaner because of the current. @titansfan - the angels are... angels They're very well behaved, no fighting or picking on corals so far, except for an open brain that had to be moved to another tank. They have a definite pecking order (CB is boss but the flame challenges him constantly, flavicauda is feisty but no match for the big guys). They posture occasionally but that's as far as it's ever gone. The sand is as white in person as it looks in the pictures -- it looks like the tank has 85lbs of granulated sugar on the bottom. It was unbelievably clean in the bag. I didn't rinse it at all, but I had a diatom filter set up the entire time I was re-scaping (to remove the detritus coming off the rocks) so the little bit of dust in the water disappeared quickly. Thanks for the compliment Forgot to add, the angels were all added at different times - flame first, then CB, then the flavicauda (who lived in the 30g for ~8 months before I converted it back to FW). Right now all the fish are behaving as though they're all brand new. Everyone's checking out the new caves and there's been a bit of tail-slapping going on. __________________ "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea." - Isak Dinesen Current Tank Info: 150g mixed reef, 30g sump/refugium, LED lighting, 100lbs LR, coral beauty, flame angel, blue & yellow tangs, gobies, damsels, 6-line wrasse, lawnmower blenny, dottyback, clown pair, rabbitfish, shrimp, crabs, CUC.

09/11/2006, 08:15 PM	#8
dastratt Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA Posts: 665	Another thumbs up for the sand Like the yellow tip torch - that's a nice one Itd be cool to have a red coral in there like some blastos or a brain maybe to match the flame __________________ Alex Current Tank Info: 200g Deep Dimension 48"x36"x27", 10x36" ATI PM, Orca Pro II, Geo610, 60g frag, 80 g MRC sump

09/11/2006, 07:46 PM	#3
nemonick84 Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 329	Man, I'm so glad to hear someone else used the Stone Mason decor sand. I posted a thread on here a few days ago as well asking if it was safe to use. The responses were really positive - a lot of them clarifying the whole silica/silicates issue. Knowing you've used this as well and researched it gives me a little more peace of mind. BTW, that sand looks AWESOME. I've yet to put mine in as I'm still finishing my 120 in-wall build...but I can't wait to now. The tank looks great - keep up the good work! Nick

09/11/2006, 07:54 PM	#5
Kigs Moved On Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: LI, NY Posts: 2,182	omg. how do you keep your sand so white? loving the aquascape! i don't think you have enough powerheads btw

09/11/2006, 07:59 PM	#6
TitansFan Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Spring Hill, TN Posts: 1,364	very nice looking! Wow that sand is white! Couple of questions... Do you not have any problems with your angels? Were they all added at the same time? On your sand.. did you find it very dusty? Did you have to rinse it quite abit? Tank looks great. I have the same tank.

09/11/2006, 08:17 PM	#9
kabal2 Premium Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: North JERSEY 07438 Posts: 1,103	wow, really nice work, and i love the aquascape, good job __________________ Within the beauty of woman.... .... lies the face of God

09/11/2006, 08:20 PM	#10
ACBlinky Premium Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Peterborough, ON, Canada Posts: 4,954 Blog Entries: 20	@dastratt - Thanks! The torch is actually neon green in person. Everything's greening up since I added more light. I did have a red and green open brain, but it looked like a snack to the angels. They picked on it so much I had to move it, which is too bad -- it would look fantastic in the open area of sand. There's quite a bit of real estate left, and I'm looking for BRIGHT corals to fill the holes. The angels completely ignore zoas, Euphyllias and rics, but it's hard to find any of those in red. @kabal2 - thank you so much __________________ "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea." - Isak Dinesen Current Tank Info: 150g mixed reef, 30g sump/refugium, LED lighting, 100lbs LR, coral beauty, flame angel, blue & yellow tangs, gobies, damsels, 6-line wrasse, lawnmower blenny, dottyback, clown pair, rabbitfish, shrimp, crabs, CUC.

09/11/2006, 08:31 PM	#11
PatrickJ Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Luling, La Posts: 587	Great rock stack. That is the first thing I said about it. __________________ I skim wet, therefore I am. Current Tank Info: 120 Monster

09/11/2006, 08:45 PM	#12
MrsDorothy Premium Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Byhalia, MS Posts: 171	Very nice!

09/11/2006, 09:20 PM	#13
mg426 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: maryland Posts: 6,923	Nice looking, sand is very clean, Good joob!! __________________ I found a way to make a small fortune running a reef tank. Start with a large fortune. Unofficial President of the SEACLONE haters club Current Tank Info: 125 mixed reef 110 lbs LR, 1x250watt XM 20K MH 2x175watt XM 20K MH on Magetics 2X96 watt actinic PC, 220 watt VHO actinic, 30 gallon refugium, closed loop system powered by Sequence Dart MSX 200 skimmer 38 gallon sump, Oceansmotions squirt

09/12/2006, 02:01 AM	#14
outy Moved On Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: auburn CA Posts: 4,021	nice job all the way around. the white sand is a nice touch i just finished overhauling my 100g, new sand aquascaping ect. its nice to enjot the fruits of labor dont get bummed if you see some brown or cyano on your new sand in a week or so. im in it 3 weeks and the blooms are almost gone

09/12/2006, 02:17 AM	#15
moobar Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Finland Posts: 44	looking very good, very clean. I like it!

09/12/2006, 07:34 AM	#16
ACBlinky Premium Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Peterborough, ON, Canada Posts: 4,954 Blog Entries: 20	Thanks for all the kind words everyone! __________________ "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea." - Isak Dinesen Current Tank Info: 150g mixed reef, 30g sump/refugium, LED lighting, 100lbs LR, coral beauty, flame angel, blue & yellow tangs, gobies, damsels, 6-line wrasse, lawnmower blenny, dottyback, clown pair, rabbitfish, shrimp, crabs, CUC.

09/12/2006, 08:32 AM	#17
Travis L. Stevens Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Perry, OK Posts: 13,946	Looks good ACBlinky, YGPM __________________ Travis Stevens Current Tank Info: Restarting 28g Bowfront

09/12/2006, 09:17 AM	#19
Acroholic Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Hypoluxo, Fl. Posts: 1,000	Really Sweet Blinky, I am still patiently waiting to finally reach my tank nirvana.... __________________ "I don't always know what I'm talking about, but I know I'm right!" -Muhammad Ali Current Tank Info: 180 Diamante Oceanic, 3 400w 10k Hammy's w/IceCaps, 2 140w URI super actinics, AC III Pro, 30g sump, 30g refug, 1/3hp chill, PM Skimmer/kalkreactor/calcium reactor/effluent, 2 Tunze 6060's, 2 Gorman Rupp 1115's, 25w UV

09/12/2006, 03:27 PM	#20
ACBlinky Premium Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Peterborough, ON, Canada Posts: 4,954 Blog Entries: 20	The corals seem to like their new positions. I just arrived home and found the Euphyllias, Xenia, and fox looking fluffier than they have in months. I'll keep you guys posted and let you know if there are any issues with the sand, but so far everything looks great. __________________ "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea." - Isak Dinesen Current Tank Info: 150g mixed reef, 30g sump/refugium, LED lighting, 100lbs LR, coral beauty, flame angel, blue & yellow tangs, gobies, damsels, 6-line wrasse, lawnmower blenny, dottyback, clown pair, rabbitfish, shrimp, crabs, CUC.

09/12/2006, 03:58 PM	#21
fantastic4 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 662	nice! your hard work has paid off

09/12/2006, 04:53 PM	#22
chrismunn Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 4,200	nice work! i cant wait to see it in 3 years from now! __________________ Marine Aquarists Association of South Texas Austin Reef Club PBITAWA... Current Tank Info: 14g bio cube

09/12/2006, 06:44 PM	#23
PrivateJoker64 Moved On Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Huntington, WV Posts: 1,145	I bet that sand makes the whole tank look brighter. It looks great! (The whole tank I mean.)

09/13/2006, 10:02 AM	#24
ACBlinky Premium Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Peterborough, ON, Canada Posts: 4,954 Blog Entries: 20	Thanks guys @Chrismunn -- you and me both __________________ "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea." - Isak Dinesen Current Tank Info: 150g mixed reef, 30g sump/refugium, LED lighting, 100lbs LR, coral beauty, flame angel, blue & yellow tangs, gobies, damsels, 6-line wrasse, lawnmower blenny, dottyback, clown pair, rabbitfish, shrimp, crabs, CUC.