Angela & Matt's 180g Tank Build

[Dakotamay]

Ok folks. It's that time. We have come a long way in this hobby from almost 2 years ago. We started way back then with a 30g. Quickly went to a 50 bow front. Moving on up to a 110g and in an emergency as the 110g sprung a leak. Down to a 75g.

Fast forward 6 weeks and we're on the cusp of having our dream tank a 180.

I'm not much one for describing well so there'll be lots of pics (which I know everyone loves including myself)

To start we are going with a 180g from Jim (jimskoi - Forty Fathoms). To my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong Jim it is being built euro braced top and bottom for stability.

Stand is being built pretty much identical to Jim's 180g stand now. Jim is doing this for us.

Plumbing is a bit of an interesting set up. We will have a central rock formation that extends to the top of the water and will hide our over flows completely. We've chosen 140lbs of eco rock for this as will be seen in the boxes at Jim's in the pics to follow. We are going with a closed loop system. I won't have as much of a heart attack if the power goes out etc lmao.

The CL returns will be drilled in the back of the tank which will be painted black. So they won't hardly be noticeable as we're using black pipe and covers. There are going to be 2 intakes drilled to feed the CL pump. The returns from the sump will be run up and over the back spaced apart and will just flow directly down and make a barrel type flow off the front glass. At least that's the plan. The CL returns will be interesting to say the least. A PVC frame will run from two more pipes not drilled that come off the CL return pump up to the frame. The frame will have 5 total gate valves that will each be individually controllable for flow. They will all T off of the main frame and be fed into the tank through lock line. I think that's what Jim called it lol.

The central structure will span roughly 43 inches by 15 or so deep. Again spanning right to the top of the water. It will encase the over flows. It will be pretty much hollow so that fish can use it as hiding places and there will be varied size cave entrances for tangs when they become larger (we're putting a vlamingi in here) So planning ahead for his potential size. We have 140lbs of eco rock set aside in boxes as can be seen in the pics that we test built on the floor at Jim's lol. Thanks for putting up with us all that time Jim. hahaha.

4 bags of substrate will be used for the bottom. The rock will be put onto lexon first to protect the glass.

I think that's it for now. Here are some early pics. Not much to see yet. But it's a work in progress.

Thanks to all ahead for any ideas you may provide as you follow the build. Also, thanks for just following along on our exciting journey with us. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Our tank now 75g


New tanks stand


The oak face boards


The eco rock and over flow pipes. They're not exact as yet. No tank to do that lol.


A shout out of thanks to Sam. I'm not sure if you read the forums or will see this. You are an amazingly creative and talented man and gave us some amazing ideas to work with yesterday.

Finally a huge thanks and shout out to Jim (jimskoi - Forty Fathoms) for undertaking this project for us. It'll be amazing when it's done.

I'll update as more info and pics are available. Subscribe so you don't miss anything.

Regards,
Angela & Matt

[Dakotamay]

The stand is coming along nicely. Going to be a really awesome set up when it's all said and done. Here's a couple more pics.

Stand front view


Stand side view


We've also bought the reef-octopus bio pellet reactor and have started that up on the 75g to get the pellets running. Only using half a bag right now to get started. Dosing bacteria every other day to give them a kick start.

Also have 100g of saltwater mixed and ready to go. Come on tank!!! lol.

[bt]

Stand looks beautiful.  What kind of finish are you planning for it?

[Hookup]

the system looks like it will be a stunner.  It's always great to build your dream-tank isnt it.   

[Dakotamay]

Thanks  for the comments bt and Hookup. We are hoping that the tank is a stunner. Here is an update for all.
Well the tank we were going to get fell through so we ended up going with another 180g that already had a rock wall glued into the back. This tank weights about 600lbs and was a true bugger to move lol.

As for the stand. We have used oak doors and facer boards. They are stained and clear coated for sealing to prevent warping from the moisture.

The plumbing for this tank is somewhat interesting. We have 2 bulkheads that were used by the previous owner as returns for the closed loop. But, they would blow substrate around. So we have plugged those. In the back we have 2 bulkheads 1 in each corner that were used as corner over flows by the previous owner. We have now plumbed so that these are our closed loop feeds. Just above those are what are now our over flows. They were closed loop feeds. A little further above these are another set of bulkheads these were and will still be used as closed loop returns. We are going to put loc line T's onto these so that we will have 2 independently returns to create flow at each end of the tank.  The rest of our flow will come from the closed loop plumbing that will sit on the euro bracing at the top of the tank. Neatly hidden by the canopy.

We have also included a pipe that will serve solely to hook up to and drain water away for water changes. This is closed off by a 1 inch ball valve. Reduced to a 3/4 inch fitting for the drain hose. Water changes should be a breeze as the closed loop pump will do the work quite quickly. The reserve tank below the stand will hold our auto top off water and once a week will be mixed to provide water change water and then cleaned and refilled with RO/DI water for the weeks auto top offs. For the Auto top off unit we are using a Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155. This uses laser precision and has a safety back up float device. Pics once it's installed lol.

We will be completing the rest of the rock work today. I will post more pics of the as we build stage a little later today. We are expecting and hoping barring any issues to have the tank filled today at some point. We'll see how that plan goes.

Ok, on with the pics.

Full tank shot



Close up of rock wall already installed. These are ceramic plates. Lots of places for corals to be placed.



The next three are just random pics of the plumbing so far. The rest can't be put into place until the sump tank and rock work are in place.

Underneath looking up. This is the closed loop feed pipe. In the full tank shot you can see there is still one empty hook up on the closed loop return pump. This is where the piece will connect to the top feed system that rests on the euro brace.



One corner



The other corner. This is where the water change drain pipe will connect.



A sneak peek at what the returns will look like that rest on the euro bracing.



Well we're off and running. This certainly has been a long journey, but well worth it.

[Hookup]

love the progress... the rock wall will be very nice once you get it all coraled up...   going to be a stunner i'm sure.

[Dakotamay]

More progress to update on. We worked all day yesterday between building the rock work and fighting with a couple of bulkheads that just didn't want to seal at all. After a very long day we called it quits. Thankfully we still had the 75g all set up for our fish to stay comfy.

Everyone is moved now and once the water clears I will take more pics. I'll also post the ones I have taken through out the day today. For now. Yesterdays pics.

Left corner. Hidden in here is the over flow, closed loop return and closed loop feed.



Right corner, same goodies hidden in here.



The full tank shot. Me looking out at my son. Quite tired out lol.



Finally a full tank shot with all the rock work completed.



This has been a huge undertaking from moving the tank to setting it up. Now that we're almost done. I'm so glad lol. The fish however are so much happier to have lots of room to swim.

[az]

you should make/add some more rock IMO.

[Dakotamay]

Thanks for the reply AZ. I guess I had forgotten to mention that we have 110lbs of live rock that is now in the sump tank. A bit of it is in the display too. With that much LR I think we're ok.
Those 3 ceramic rock walls weigh 60lbs each. Plus I also added about 80-100lbs of eco rock. I'll know for sure on that weight when we take back the eco rock we didn't use. We had brought home 180lbs of eco rock.
We're whipped tonight as this is day 2 of working all day on the tank. Tuesday was the move of the tank itself. I'll post more pics tomorrow.

[Dakotamay]

Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay in the progress update.

We have certainly met some challenges in setting up this tank. 3 Dispar Anthias aren't quite sure what to do with themselves with all the space they now have to roam.  Our Dory is also happy. The 2 newest additions a vlamingi tang and an orange shoulder tang are doing well too. The orange shoulder is quite shy. While the vlamingi acts as if it's lived there all along.

Here are some more progress pics. Once the water is nice and clear, I expect tomorrow. I'll post updated pics to show a full tank shot.

Here is the tank with rock work complete and substrate in.



Almost full



Still filling, this took literally a couple days to fill.



Almost full and lights on as it had been a couple days for the corals.



The closed loop is also fully operational now. Tomorrows task, get the reefkeeper up and running. I think that's going to require a trip to Jim's to get a missing bus cable lol. It never fails. Always some small piece is missing. It's Murphy's Law lol.

I'll update everyone tomorrow with full tank pics. Looking forward to keeping everyone updated as we continue to build up the tank. 

Once all our eco rock and the back ceramic rock walls become live we'll have including our current live rock in the sump around 310 lbs of live rock.

[Dakotamay]

Yesterday was shot for getting anything done. I had to do the family dinner thing and then make a trip to Jim's for the before mentioned missing bus cable for the reefkeeper lite unit. Today we have been able to settle in and enjoy the tank some.

Here are some pics of the tank, stand and canopy. Both with blue LED's only and both LED's on. Also a close up of the Orange shoulder tang we just added.

As much as I tried to avoid a stressful cycle it is occurring. Yesterday I measured ammonia of .50 and added some Prime to help detoxify some of it. Also added beneficial bacteria strains to colonize the new water. So far as you'll see in the pics. No one seems to be stressed at all. No losses yet either. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I'll update again with our set up for the closed loop returns that are around the euro bracing at the top of the tank. We also had to make up a DIY screen that will stop the critters from jumping as we had a red firefish jump on Dec 31st. Thankfully after about 5 minutes out of water we found him and he is doing fine today. Eating and acting as though he never took a trip.
Enjoy the pics.

[cdylnicki]

Very impressive!  

That must have taken lots of planning to do.

Im jealous!

[Dakotamay]

Thanks so much for the kind words. Yes it did take a long time to plan this all out. Then at the last minute we went with a different tank. So made some changes to our plan. All in all, we like the way it turned out.

What do you have for a tank?

[Hookup]

Vey nice looking tank.  I'm sure it's going to be a stunner

[Dakotamay]

Thanks Hookup. It'll always be  a work in progress. I have so many corals picked out at Jim's lol. They'll come home slowly after the tank has finished cycling. Have a couple fish waiting too. A Lamarck's Angel and a Vampire Tang.
Looking forward to watching this tank mature. It will be interesting to look back a year from now.

We have figured out the Reefkeeper Lite. Al our goodies are controlled there. Heaters, lights, PH, iTemp and 2 Koralia 1050's on wave maker mode.

It's nice to finally sit back and enjoy the tank. It really is beautiful. I love the stand. I'll have to take a pic with the front of the canopy removed to show how we access for feeding and maintenance.

Thanks everyone for the comments and for looking. I'll keep everyone up to date as we go.

[jshchrtn]

Awesome thread your tank looks great guys! Thanks for posting!

[Dakotamay]

Thanks jshchrtn. I'm glad that everyone is enjoying seeing our tank as much as we are enjoying it now. We sure weren't when setting it up lol.
Now to get them through the cycle safely. My reading this morning for ammonia is .50. Prime has been holding it at bay while I'm adding in bacteria daily to build them up in the water column. We had to add so much new water. The fish are all starting to come out again this morning and so far everyone is accounted for. I'm not sure how they're doing well but thankfully they are. I'll be testing later today for Nitrates and Nitrites as well to see if any readings are registering there to show we are moving along in the cycle. Also noticing some brown diatoms.
I'll keep everyone posted.
Many thanks for the comments.

[Peekay]

I am so excited for you!  Water!  Fish! 
And really, it looks great in the photos, which must mean that in real life, it's incredible!
Congratulations! 

Good luck with the cycle, looking forward to enjoying updates.

[Dakotamay]

Hello everyone. Just an update. We have now completed our cycle. We were fortunate to not have any losses during the cycle. I had to use quite a bit of Prime to keep the ammonia detoxified. Even with a dose for 400 gals of Prime our ammonia was still reading 1.0. Those days were some worrisome.
Last night we were able to purchase a gorgeous golden gorgonian coral. So far it has eaten Cyclop-eeze and has kept it's polyps out night and day. I'm hoping that I have success with this creature as it is truly unique and very pretty to look at. If anyone has experience with these gorgs at all any information you can share would be much appreciated.

The Gorg

[Dakotamay]

Hello all,
I thought I would post an update on how the new 180g is progressing. For those just reading this for the first time a quick run down. We upgraded from a 75g to a 180g on December 31st, 2011.  In early February until end of February we endured a really rough patch where the new tank crashed. We lost almost all our fish and a few corals.

I'm happy to say that today the tank is doing awesome and has been stable for 10 weeks now. Below are some new pics taken just this afternoon.

Full tank shot



Just some random fish and coral shots















Overall the tank still looks pretty bare and needs many more corals. They'll come in time as budget allows.
A special thanks goes out once again to Jim of Forty Fathoms (site sponsor) for providing us with just about everything in our set up.  Literally everything except a few corals have come from Jim.

[Cheebs]

Wow! This is looking fantastic, great start. I'm excited to see it mature

[Dakotamay]

Wow! This is looking fantastic, great start. I'm excited to see it mature

Thanks Chubs so are we. It was so heartbreaking when it crashed.  It's come back a long ways and has a long ways to go.  Wednesday we will be adding a large blue tang (Dory) here's hoping king vampire doesn't harass too much. Who knows what coral or other fish might come home then too lol.

[Hookup]

Great recovery.. Llooks clean and healthy!

[Dakotamay]

Great recovery.. Llooks clean and healthy!

Thanks Hookup. There was a time as we recovered from that crash that the entire substrate was nothing but hair algae. We got a sea hare who made quick work of it. For a bit it came back as fast as he ate it. Then it finally stopped. We have a couple small patches now on the rocks. They are clearing up though. It's taken a long time and weekly water changes to bring the tank back. So glad it's back now though.