180 Build Thread in the Midwest

[jnjsad]

I am changing over from about 8 fresh water tanks over the years to just one large salt water. I currently have a reefsavvy 60 gallon mixed reef tank (love the reef savvy tanks) that I will be packing away and moving up to the 180. I absolutely hate the stands Aqueon makes but due to my 300 gallon Marineland Deep Dimensions cracking and flooding my basement after 2 years - and finding out - no warranty since I ddin't use their stand....decided I best bite the bullet and use factory stand with this 180. So I am currently working on 2 things simultaneously. The sump build and the water change station. Can't do much until I get the Reef Savvy tank out of the area...and that will be the last thing I do for the sake of the corals and fish.

Okay, onto the sump build first. I have toyed with so many different designs. I initially was going to have a built in ATO section....then decided that was wasted sump space. When Petco comes out with there $1 per gallon sale...I'll probably just get a 40 or 20 long and use that under my factory stand as ATO and pump it over to the sump. I then decided that I would like a built it frag tank with my sump. Please feel free to share ideas/concerns with having frag tank in middle of sump (essentially in place of refugium). I will be using a skimmer and a scrubber. The sump will be nearby but I am limited to about 48" of total space. I plan to build a stand to put the sump in for two purposes - reduce noise and create a table for propegation and misc. reef work.

Here are the two designs I was working with:

This design has a section for the refugium (rear center area) and then a small frag tank in front.

The 2nd design - the one I'm leaning towards most looks like this:

It is 40" long, 20" deep, and 18" tall. Will have 2" eurobrace and 1 cross brace. Should hold about 60 gallons. That should be sufficient for a 180 gallon tank correct?

I will post more later when I get home.

 

[jnjsad]

For lighting...I plan to use Appolo Reef Led. They are dimmable and controllable via my apex. I will have 3. These are great powerful lights.

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

Good start so far. I like the sump idea especially #2. Heard alot of good thinks about your lights also.

 

[jnjsad]

Well it has been a while since I updated this post. I have changed the sump numerous times. It will incorporate an L2 Scrubber which I hope will eventually replace my skimmer. I will post some pictures of some updates here shortly. How do I determine what the max fill line is in the sump? I did it years ago for fresh water setup but that's been 12 years now...and I've forgotten.

 

[jnjsad]

It took me a long long time to decide on a return pump that will feed my display tank with filtered water as well as a manifold I created to feed the L2 Algae Scrubber and some reactors. I ultimately went with Reef Octopus Water Blaster 10000 pump. I got a heck of a deal from my local LFS and man, this pump kicks out a ton of water. I have a remote sump with about a total of 12' head pressure factoring in all the elbows, unions, piping, manifold, etc. This is a great pump. Only had it running for about 2 weeks so far but it is quiet for the amount of water it kicks out. I'll post some pictures of the pump/sump/plumbing. Here is the beginnings of the manifold.

 

[jnjsad]

Well...having difficulting loading images through Photobucket at the moment. Will get picts added asap.

 

[jnjsad]

Here is the manifold. When I did all my plumbing, I wanted to reduce any flow restrictions so all unions/ball valve connections are 1 size larger than needed. For example, I am using 1" pipe - so my unions and ball valves are 1.25". Hope that makes sense.

 

[jnjsad]

Sticking with the plumbing theme, he is under my sump stand.

I T'd off from the water blaster 10000 for the manifold. I ran into a small issue with trying to get the drain lines to drain at a downward angle. I have about 15' of total pipe from the bottom of display tank trying to get into the sump area...I thought I had 2 more inches of play when really I had 0. I was able to make it work, it is just going to be very difficult getting filter socks in/out all the time.

 

[jnjsad]

As mentioned earlier, I plan to use an L2 Algae Scrubber. The sump was designed to have a built in holder for this. It turned out great. I slides back and forth allowing for flexible placements. I plan to have reactors behind this. Assembly/disassebly for cleaning should be a sinch.

 

[jnjsad]

This is my son's fish, 'Hawkeye' trying to hide from the camera.

Here are a couple are early development tank shots.

 

[jnjsad]

I tried to organize as much as possible, all the electrical components. Still a work in progress. I still plan to use a litermeter and apex for auto water changes...that is the next project (I think).

I ended up having to install the check valve just under my outlet strip for my heaters. I think I will be moving that outlet strip.

Suprisingly after I did all the plumbing - I had no leaks. Still keep checking each night but its been 3 days now. That's the first.

 

[adam87]

Lookin good. I'm going with the same tank. My Marineland 220 leaked in less then a year. So most likely go with a all-glass tank too.

 

[jnjsad]

I'm just amazed so far at the price difference from going from a 60 gallon reef tank to a 180 gallon reef tank...just in all the plumbing alone. Glad x-mas is right around the corner.

 

[jnjsad]

Water changing station

Water changing station

So I just finished my water changing system build. I like it...a lot...but have decided to do some additional tweaking. It takes up quite a bit of space and is somewhat awkward where it is positioned. I will get some pictures posted.

 

[jnjsad]

I thought if I added the two 45 elbows and create sort of a whirling effect, that would increase the circulation in the salt mixing barrel. That turned out to just slow down the pressure of the water coming into the barrel and I ultimately decided to take it out completely after a few more failed modifications.

 

[jnjsad]

What I like about this setup is that it allows me to fill buckets of either fresh RODI water...or salt water...on either side of the mixing station. If the salt barre is running low, I turn a valve and it pumps fresh RODI into the salt mixing barrel. If I want to top off a tank or do a water change - it's just a matter of turning one of the two inner valves on and then opening up the hose valve and out comes the water of my choice. It has really simplified water changes. I plan to incorporate a liter miter III into this setup (or maybe a new setup) to do automatic water changes.