180 Gallon Stand Build

[IUfan]

Tank has been cycling for 3 weeks now.

Using dry rock and plain caribsea sand, so used a few deli shrimp in a media bag floating on top.

parameters are as follows.

July 28th. Day 11
Ammonia. 1ppm
Nitrite. 5ppm
Nitrate. 10ppm

July 31st. Day 14
Ammonia. 0.25ppm
Nitrite. 5ppm
Nitrate. 60ppm

August 5th. Day 19
Ammonia. 0 ppm
Nitrite. 0.5ppm
Nitrate. 10ppm

August 9th. Day 23
Ammonia. 0 ppm
Nitrite. 0ppm
Nitrate. 4ppm

I added a few snails on day 15, had a stage where a lot of brown algae built up around day 7, that cleared up and day 12-14 GHA went crazy looks like its starting to thin out but is still pretty bad right now.

 

[IUfan]

Small update to the build.

Spent Saturday messing around with the drain pipe supports.

I was initially just going to let them hang, I wasn't worried about it, but the more I read, I decided it would be a good investment in time to prevent an issue later down the road.

I can tell you, this was not an easy task.

I sure as H*** wasn't going to move the tank out to work on the bracket. So I had the idea of mounting the 3 pipe clips onto a piece of wood, I then slid it down the back wall (so the clips are facing vertically up, then rotated the piece of wood so the clips slipped onto the pipes. then fixed another piece of wood to the wall, (luckily I found 2 studs in the wall right where I needed them to be) then the ingeniousness bit, slid the piece of wood with the brackets up to fit onto the piece of wood on the wall, it left a 1/8" gap, I found some old hardboard, it was exactly 1/8" thick, cut this out to be the same size as the bracket, slid it in between both pieces of wood and then screwed it all together.

You have no idea how relieved I was when I got this to work. I think it works really well, and looks good too.

 

[IUfan]

I also managed to buy another 2nd hand Radion.

So here you will see both now mounted. the 3rd will come off of my 29G Cube, when it is time to merge the tanks together.

I also found a nice way to mount the PSU's which will not take hardly any of the cabinet space.

 

[IUfan]

Took out the raw shrimp on the 9th, and added a small CUC, Blue Leg Hermits, Nessarius, Turbo, a few Red Leg Hermits.

They've been going to town on the hair algae, and its thinned out a lot in the last 5 days.

Water Test
August 14th. Day 28
Ammonia. 0 ppm
Nitrite. 0 ppm
Nitrate. 0 ppm
SG. 35.4

 

[asudavew]

Looking good!
Hair algae sucks.
It might be caused by phosphate leaching from your rocks.

I'm working on a 180 build too.

How much rock did you add?
Where did you get it from?
What sized plumbing are you using?

 

[IUfan]

Yeah, that's probably what it is.

It's BRS reef saver dry rock, so I've heard that dry rock leaches a lot of phosphate. Mind you though, I'd rather have that, than a bunch of pests. I know the phosphates will reduce with time.

I have around 125lbs of rock, I know that's on the light side, but I wanted more open water. I have about 225lbs of sand in there so that will help.

Plumbing drains are, 1.5", return is 1"

 

[IUfan]

I added a lawnmower blenny today, so I hope he will help cut back some of the algae. Although I know having the algae at this stage is good, I know that it's using up phosphate.

 

[aquaenthusiast]

looks really great and well thought out, your attention to details is duly noted, keep us posted !

 

[IUfan]

August 18th. Day 32
Ammonia. 0ppm
Nitrite. 0ppm
Nitrate. 0ppm
Phosphate 0.06
Temp 78.6
SG 35.2
Magnesium 1380

 

[IUfan]

September 2nd. Day 48
Ammonia. 0 ppm
Nitrite. 0ppm
Nitrate. 0ppm
SG. 34.7
PH. 8.00
Phosphate. 0.00
Magnesium. 1380

Stocking is now:
A pretty heavy clean up crew, snails, hermits etc...
10 Blue Chromis
2 Tank Bred Yellow Watchman Gobies
1 Lawnmower Blenny
1 Tank Bred Yellow Assessor
1 Tank Raised Citrinis Clown Goby

The GHA has started to die back, very little remaining now.

I've installed the jebao DC9000, and set up the fuge and 2 reactors running GFO and Carbon.

I do have 1 issue, the water is still quite cloudy, it's been like this from the start and I figured it would clear over time. However it's not clearing yet.

Is this bacteria?

What can I do to clear up the water?

Thanks

 

[daytripp01]

Great Job

Great Job

Man so far I love the work you have done! It looks great. One thing I would think about doing if you can Is put a wood splashguard above your radion power supplies on the outside of the stand( maybe on a 30-45 *angle). I know you have a closed canopy but you can never be too cautious with that much power & money.It might be overkill but go big or stayhome right ? Tank looks great keep the pictures coming. I'm looking forward to the final product.:beer:

 

[Av8bluewater]

Nice build sir!

 

[IUfan]

Thanks Guys, appreciate the compliments.

The build is one of the most enjoyable parts, seeing something you've imagined come to life and work how it's supposed to is very cool.

Can't wait to merge the biocube into this now, I know the fish in there are going to appreciate the extra swimming space, I promised my clowns a BTA too!

I have a few new pics that I'll post once I have a moment.

 

[Smpco02]

Nice build thread. I too am up grading my biocube, my anemones are getting out of control and are taking up most of the tank and killing my coral. There is no such thing as an overbuilt stand when your tank doesn't end up all over the floor. Looking forward to following along

 

[IUfan]

Well its been almost 10 days of running Carbon & GFO in the reactors, and happy to report that all the cloudiness that I was seeing has nearly gone, it looks almost completely clear, I still think in time it will become clearer, but for now, I'm happy with the progress.

Added a new fish this week, 1x Captive Raised Yellow Belly Blue Tang. Some may say that its a bit early to add this size fish, but I really wanted to select Tank raised or tank bred, and these were getting quite hard to find, plus, for this reason, she's barely an inch and a half in size. So far shes doing great, the yellow belly hasn't developed yet, but she's a beautiful fish. I always thought these fish were herbivores, but she eats brine shrimp and she tries to school with the chromis, I hope shes not forgotten her identity.

I got the blue tang from Unique Corals, absolutely fantastic experience buying from them, they are first class, and good ethics too. She came all the way from California to Indiana, and looked far better than I do after a red-eye flight home.

The GHA is continuing to die back, and will be completely gone in days.

check out a few pics below.

 

[IUfan]

Pics Below:

Plumbing
Blue Tang
Chromis
Reef at Night
Jaeber DC9000 Return Pump

 

[IUfan]

Been a few months so time for an update.

Params as of yesterday.

December 18 2013

180 testing

PH. 8.14
Ammonia. 0
Nitrite. 0
Nitrate. 0
Phosphate. 0.08
Cond. 35.2
Temp. 77.6
Calcium. 573
Alkalinity. 6.1dkh
Magnesium. 1400

 

[tannersmith2000]

stand looks great! excellent job!

 

[IUfan]

Forgot to upload these yesterday.

Everyone hanging out in the same 1/3 of the tank.

 

[IUfan]

Loving on there anemone.