denrgb's 180G Build

reefsahoy

BTW what type of lights are you planning on using? and if you do go towards corals what kinds are you planning on keeping?

bearwithfish

two things 1st when you think you are to tight go another 1/4 turn any way unless it wont move 2nd when in doubt SILICONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah buddy

4 most used tools in any work shop
duct tape
silicone
spray foam
HAMMER
LOL J/K on the tools (sorta ;)

denrgb

Thanks for the tip Reef! Our Q-tank is cycled and I'm working on a DIY frag rack. I might keep them in there (I have some great lighting on that tank) for a bit. We'll see what turns up. I'm new to all of this, so we are both learning. Anyone have any good tips on coral food? We are going to get all types of corals (Acros, Acans, LPS, Zoa's, Mushrooms, Leathers, etc.) Don't want them to die, so we're going to be reading a lot more on this (besides our 3 mags we subscribed to, our reading, and our talking to our 4-5 different LFSs we have here...Yeah we have the bug). We're thinking frag tank next year.

I heard Rod's coral food is amazing cause it feeds everything in your tank. I just don't know how that works yet, and I know I wont have a fish in the Q till mid to late Dec. which around that time I'd like to add some Inverts to the DT.

denrgb

LOL! Yeah, I bought some Silicon JUST in case. So far so good though! You rock man! Thanks for all the help on the plumbing. Only 70G in there right now ( I have pics of that too).

reefsahoy

Ok, heres a some brief info on the corals you are choosing. SPS require extreme lighting, lps mid and softies (mushrooms leathers) low lighting. Sps require high water quality where lps and softies require rather dirtier water. In saying all this it's still possible to keep all, however you will have little wiggle room for error. Sps require NO food to the tank other than fish feeding and fish pooping, lps and mushrooms will typically require food. The trick is to feed the lps/softies enough food and then have a skimmer big enough to pull all the food out before it breaks down causing bad low water quality. You can see where small wiggle room comes from. SPS require a tighter water chemistry where lps and softies is more relaxed. Corals are more sensitive to a tank cycling than fish, so give the tank more time to mature before adding corals too.

happy reefing

denrgb

60" 8x80W Powermodule T5 High-Output Fixture

Anything I can get my hands on cheap. I'm going to hang it a little higher to make due on the inch difference, since my tank is 72". I liked the 8 bulb for a little more leeway. I have a light sensor to make sure im putting the right corals in the right place. The last thing I want to do is have these corals die.

Here is my lighting set up:
Back
BP
BP
AQB
DL
AQB
PP
BP
BP
Front

*
4 ATI Blue Plus
2 12K AquaBlue
1 GE 6500K Daylight
1 ATI Purple Plus

reefsahoy

forgot to mention sps require high water movement where lps require less and softies require the least. sps typically don't use chemical , or stinging tenticle warfare, where lps use stinger tenticles and softies typically use chemical warfare when all fighting for real estate for growth. so if you are keeping softies you should use carbon to help combat the chemical warfare. if i think of anything else i'll chime in. hope this helps

happy reefing

reefsahoy

you've obiously done lots of homework! that fixture is considered as one of the best on the market! the bulb selection is pretty good too! for me i'd drop the 65k and add another BP but thats me likeing a more 20k look. with that fixture anything is possible in your tank! With that skimmer and fixture i see you're not kidding around. GREAT CHOICE!

denrgb

Thanks reef!

Yeah I know what you mean about the 65k and the BP, so I got both. Once I have it all set up I'll switch the two and see how it looks both ways (Yes I'll post pics). I have a few other bulbs I got I might wanna switch out. Overall we got about 14 bulbs, just to see what works best, and whatever we pick we'll have extra bulbs to switch out when the other ones die out.

trukgirl

I love the look of the black tank in there with the red walls and wood floors. Gorgeous!
Can't wait to see how it looks all set up.