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denrgb's 180G Build

7K views 31 replies 8 participants last post by  denrgb 
#1 ·
Well after tons of learning and changing minds etc. I'm going with the 180. It will be delivered Saturday and the first shipment of parts n things came today. The misses and I are pretty excited about it!

Pics of the stuff we received so far! ...and the Q tank/stand/filter. Got the salt in too, but thats boring.

More pics incoming this weekend of the tank and whatever else comes. The sump is still being built so that might be a bit yet.

We also joined the local reef aquarium club in our area and our first meeting is tomorrow. It looks really cool. We meet at the local zoo in the aquarium building. I'll let everyone know how it goes.
 

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#4 ·
Yeah, we'll be doing corals a little bit later. I kind of want to master building this thing and learning fish first. It will be a FOWLR in the beginning, and keeping the fish reef only fish, etc. However, next month there is a "frag-a-thon" we're thinking about going to. It's $40 bucks and there are 8-10 workstations on how to cut and grow coral. Any coral you cut you can keep, so 8-10 corals for $40, plus learning about frags. I REALLY want to take advantage of this, but I don't know where I can put the corals until my tank is ready. I'm going to try getting a friend at a LFS to hold them for me for a bit. I don't know what else to do. It might be a little bit before the Q-tank is ready for anything, even if I set it up this weekend and get a good light for it. Either way I have a month to get something set up.

Another thing I'd really like to do is make a pod farm. I'd like to have two goby's, and I don't think my fuge is going to be big enough to produce enough pods for them. I have also heard about how expensive pods are. I have to look into that as well.
 
#20 · (Edited)
However, next month there is a "frag-a-thon" we're thinking about going to. It's $40 bucks and there are 8-10 workstations on how to cut and grow coral. Any coral you cut you can keep, so 8-10 corals for $40, plus learning about frags. I REALLY want to take advantage of this, but I don't know where I can put the corals until my tank is ready. I'm going to try getting a friend at a LFS to hold them for me for a bit. I don't know what else to do. It might be a little bit before the Q-tank is ready for anything, even if I set it up this weekend and get a good light for it. Either way I have a month to get something set up.
just a couple of comments. just like fish corals can carry diseases and hitich hikers that are predators of corals too. So be careful especially if you are planing to keep a certain type of coral in numbers. So please read, qurantine, dip corals and not start off on a bad foot as this can be expensive and a real pain to fix. As for the mouse pad, it's a good idea but this is what i used under my tank and you might find it nice to use



I hope you will opt to use RO/DI water in your start up/ routine of topping off and SW making. It'll save you headaches in the long run. Remember to also have good water movement as the ocean is constantly moving like a washing machine and it's important for water quality. however, it seems like you're off to a good start. that skimmer looks like it should do a bang up job. That skimmer will rip your water apart( a good thing)! I've had an octopus skimmer too and it's pretty decent unit. good luck on your build!
 
#7 ·
It came!

The guys delivered it and we were lucky to have an awesome 65 degree day today to leave it on the deck for painting. Off I went.

Here are the pictures of it arriving and the painting of the DT and QT. We were able to get it into the house after some coats of paint. There it sits for now. Time to start working on the plumbing plan, and getting the Q set up as soon as the RO comes and gets installed.

Still waiting on the sump, skimmer, and rocks, etc. Should be around sometime at the end of next week. Pretty exciting! Lets hope we don't waste too much money screwing anything up.

Also, the meeting was great. Learned a lot about fragging and won a gift certificate to the LFS. Gotta love that. Could have had the chance to win a ton of frags, but I don't have anywhere to put them at the moment.
 

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#9 ·
A word of advice, given the hardwood floors. I would make certain that you have a tight fitting lid on that sump to prevent salt creep and splash. Or perhaps have a backing to the stand, with ventilation, to prevent salt from being thrown out the rear of the stand.

Do not underestimate the ability of salt to escape and ruin your beautiful floors!!!!
 
#10 ·
Yes badxgillen, it's killing us. I have to be patient though waiting on things to come in and making sure I do all of this the right way and well.

Thanks for the tip Pas. Already thought of this :D I'm going to silicon some acrylic to the back and split the inside into two sides so it doesn't splash on any wires or equipment/tools I have under there. I didn't think of venting it though. I guess that would be smart. Maybe I'll see if I can find anything at the DIY store that may work well.

I also used to work for Intel in marketing. I have TONS of advertisement mouse pads that the glued on tops rip right off of. I'm thinking that might be perfect for my sump and/or return pump to sit on to reduce noise.
 
#12 ·
Well, after a while without an update I figured I throw one in. This week is going to be a big week and I'm hoping Sunday night we'll have the aquascaping up and going.

Till then (will have more updates for ya) here are some more pics of the Q and the Octi sump (yeah we changed our minds from the ASM). We also threw in the very first piece of live rock in the Q for now. We had no where else to put it until the DT was up. Tomorrow and Thursday night I'll finish up all of the plumbing and we should be up and going by Sunday once the glue dries etc.
 

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#14 ·
Not at all. I know lots of people that paint the backs of their tanks. It's just a preference though. Some people don't like to use a background you can buy at the store because of salt creep. I have a tape on the back on my freshwater tank and after painting the back of my reef tank I kind of wished I would have painted my freshwater tank as well.

If you do, do it, just make sure you tape it, and cover it with newspaper really well so that you don't get any paint inside of the tank. Another thing I noticed after painting my tank with a flat black (rustolium) paint there was a little powder that came off of it after it dried. I just went over it with a damp paper towel and it all came off ok.

As far as what type of paint, I have heard the best is a flat/matte appliance paint. However I have heard of people use all kinds, including roll on paint. Just make sure it's a paint that will stick to glass well.
 
#17 ·
New update

Freshwater tested it...added some pics of the skimmer test (with FW). Also the DIY tank top we did (well she did while I took care of the plumbing). and some more live rock waiting to get put in. More Brute cans are getting filled and salted now, so more pics soon! (This could take a while :D) and of course we were excited and did a little test scaping.
 

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#22 ·
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 ;)
 
#26 ·
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
 
#23 ·
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.
 
#25 ·
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.

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
 
#27 ·
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
 
#31 ·
LONG overdue for an update, but I'll try. Had a lot of problems with the 180, but I set up a 30g tall for a new seahorse tank as well.

The 180 is running (nothing much in it just yet, but here are some pics to give ya an idea). Still have a lot of tweeking to do to silence it yet.
 

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#32 ·
from right to left, up to down...

1. The crab saying hi
2. Those amazing ATI lights. (LOVE them)
3. Our new spotted mandarin goby
4. Side shot of some of the prelim scaping
5. Front shot of some of the prelim scaping
6. Some of the frogspawn we're trying to grow.
 
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