Pulled the trigger on a CADLight 125 Artisan II

[djray77]

Well I ordered my first piece of hardware, Reef Octopus VarioS-8. wohoo! lol so much more to get its kinda overwhelming.

 

[djray77]

For lighting, I was thinking Kessil A360W? I just can't justify the Radions price.

 

[djray77]

Well, guys, I have a lot of equipment on the way already, the tank should be here Tuesday.
Getting pretty excited now, I still need my lighting and a doser setup. I think I pretty much have everything to atleast start the build though.

 

[CJBuckeyes]

I have the 70g version of this tank. The tank is great, the customer service is bad. The only thing I recommend is that you toss out the stock plumbing.

 

[djray77]

I did buy the converter kit so I can use regular PVC not the Upvc that comes with it.

 

[djray77]

So I changed my lighting choice from kessil to Radion. I bought 1 XR30 Gen4, I still need to get another xr30 and I was thinking a xr15 for the center.

 

[djray77]

I need a ton of sand and rock, Help!?!

 

[Whipples]

I would say on rocks and sand, unless you plan on a deep sand bed you will only want 1-2" of sand coverage for easy maintenance and so it doesnt serve as a nutrient trap. For rocks, the old rule of 2 pounds/gallon is just that, old. In my 100g tank I have maybe 65-75 pounds of rock but it is very porous and has tons of surface area, which is what matters. I used about 50-60 pounds of sand (one full 40lb bag and a little less than half of the second) and it gave me a good 1-2" sand bed throughout the tank. I don't plan on sand dwelling fish so i'm not as concerned, if you do plan on sand dwellers you may need to go deeper but that will require more maintenance.

 

[djray77]

so for my tank could I get away with 75 to 100 lbs of rock? and maybe the same with sand? That's still is gonna be pricey lol

 

[djray77]

What do you guys think about this stuff??
http://www.marcorocks.com/wholesale/100-pounds-key-largo-rock-free-shipping-in-the-contiguous-us/

 

[Whipples]

Marco rocks is good stuff, not sure about them leeching nutrients. I used ReefCleaners and my PO4 after filling the tank was trace, .01-.02ppm so I can attest to the "clean" part of their name. I would do a quick search on this forum for marco rocks and see what the recent experience was . Rocks and sand get pricey, but you should only need 50-60 pounds of sand and I would order more rock than needed so you can use some pieces to shape/design your scape and you never know what kind of cool pieces you might get!

 

[djray77]

I did do a little research on here and I ended up ordered 100lbs from Reef cleaners. This should give me enough to do a pretty cool scape.

 

[Whipples]

You won't be disappointed

 

[djray77]

https://www.amazon.com/CaribSea-Ara...1-5&keywords=CaribSea+Aragonite+Aquarium+Sand

This should be good for the sand?? How much do I need for 125gal?

 

[Whipples]

I skipped the alive sand because it costs more and in my mind isn't worth the extra. I purchased these at a local fish store for less than this listed price:

https://www.amazon.com/Carib-Sea-AC...8&qid=1507139920&sr=8-3&keywords=carib+sea+40

 

[djray77]

Does it just take longer to cycle without live sand?

 

[Whipples]

It is still gonna take 3-4 weeks at best to cycle, with or without live sand. I'm not sure I buy into the live-sand hype and you end up paying more money for shipping sand with water. I used live sand the first time and it still took 3-4 weeks, and I used dry sand on my recent build and it also took 3-4 weeks. The cycle teaches patience, nothing good happens fast in this hobby

 

[Brew12]

It is still gonna take 3-4 weeks at best to cycle, with or without live sand. I'm not sure I buy into the live-sand hype and you end up paying more money for shipping sand with water. I used live sand the first time and it still took 3-4 weeks, and I used dry sand on my recent build and it also took 3-4 weeks. The cycle teaches patience, nothing good happens fast in this hobby

Completely agree with this. Most "live sand" just has cultured bacteria in it. It isn't live in the sense it has life similar to natural ocean sand. You would be better off adding Biospira or similar product if you want to boost bacteria imo.

 

[djray77]

I think I'm gonna go with the sand you linked Whipples, I need some money left over for fish lol!! so 80lbs? would that be good?

 

[Whipples]

80 pounds will be perfect, you will have some left over. You can rinse it, or you can run filter socks for a few weeks while stirring the sand and cycling the tank. I did not rinse mine, but I do frequent, smaller changes to vacuum the substrate.