ben&bobbi's 180 build

[ben&bobbi]

hello everyone, i just slip into this group of tanks.

we are in the process of upgrading our 75 to the 180 that will be shown here. I know there are alot of these, but just wanted to show mine off too!

I got some great help from the local forum and would like to thank them all for their CONTINUED help!

 

[ben&bobbi]

here's the tank we bought off a guy moving to new york! little dusty, but it sure cleaned up good!

 

[ben&bobbi]

i painted the inside of the stand with this stuff. i read on here that it will hold water, but i hope never to test it!

 

[ben&bobbi]

here's the drawing of the sump. I had a local guy on here build this for me after a little accident with a 55g glass tank i was drilling!

 

[ben&bobbi]

here's the general layout of the plumbing.

the magenta is 1"
the green is 1.25"
the blue is 1.5"
the orange is 2"

 

[ben&bobbi]

decided from the other tank, that i needed to add some protection to the outlet, so i installed one of these guys.

 

[ben&bobbi]

just to be on the safe side, i bought a heavy duty shower curtain and put it down. it will only hold a couple inches of water, but hopefully the drylok will help after that - if needed of course!

 

[ben&bobbi]

here's the latest. the light will be suspended from the top over the refugium, and you can see the start of the plumbing!

the skimmer is an ASM G3 that will have all 3 mods

 

[ben&bobbi]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=993852

here is a link back to where it all started!

 

[ben&bobbi]

here's a little update on my progress and build.

got more of the plumbing done, made some very minor changes from the 3D mock-up, but nothing big!

the lights are over the sump keeping a couple fish and some live rock in the side chambers.

 

[ben&bobbi]

took a break from the plumbing. i cut the eggcrate to protect the bottom of the tank.

started adding the sand. got my picture of the plumbing layout taped up there and my "vision" for aquascaping. The yellow pvc will be stands to stack the base rock down.

 

[ben&bobbi]

time to return the containers i borrowed to collect my water. So in the tank it goes!

Thanks again Marcye and Sharon!

salinity is looking good, using Tropic Marin Pro. added some chemicals. Unfortunatly i had a loss, so the little guy has donated himself to the bacteria cause. Some of the water i am using is from our established tank, so that will be a big help.

 

[ERICinFL]

Looks good Ben, I'm jealous! I'm hoping to jump up to a 180 soon. A few questions: Did you get your tank locally? What kind is it? How much was, just the tank (if you don't mind me asking)? I'll be building my own stand so I can put more money into the other stuff that goes with a larger tank. Thanks. Oh, by the way, the Poci frag you traded me is getting big and the DIY LR is looking good, all covered in Coraline.

 

[jay24k]

That looks nice. Are you planning to add powerheads in there and what type?

My only concern is the drain. When water drains it is going to splash quite a bit. While you can I would add a splash tower. Basically it is a square box where the water goes into and it forces the water to go UNDER the box and the air is mainly rising away from the bottom. Also when the water splashes over into the center area, microbubbles will form. Maybe build some type of angle tray to have the water float down instead of waterfall down.

Good job on all of it though.

 

[ben&bobbi]

EricinFl - this the firefighter eric! hey how's things going?
i bought the tank/stand/canopy from a guy moving out of town, got a pretty good deal on it, i'll PM you so i don't get blasted if i paid too much. Not sure on the brand of tank, can't find any ID.

jay24k - as far as powerheads - i am hoping not, but if i do, they will be Seio's - price mainly. Someone told me they were good, so i got a pair on the 75 now!
are you talking about the drain into the left side of the sump? If so that will be the refug, and it will be VERY slow drain and overflow, almost just rolling over the baffle. I am hoping the water will be deep enough in the return area so the bubbles won't get down there, plus i will have a 45^ to pull water from lowest part of area. The other side will have to go through a bubble trap, but there is a splash box, just not all the way up, but dep enough to put rock in there.

 

[jay24k]

Ahh ok. That sounds good.

Did you decide on a return pump? You won't want more then 700 to 900 going through the sump. It will rush past the baffles extremely fast. Are you doing a closed loop? I had to tone mine down from 1000 gph to about 700 and it is much better.

 

[ben&bobbi]

i am going with the Dart on the return, same setup that Jack has been running. He built the sump for me too! SITC is running the Barracuda on their 210's through the sump. Brian is going the same direction, and several others on here. Hopefully it works for me too.

I know it would have been better to run a Eheim for return, and dart on closed loop, but i didn't want to chance the tank getting drilled - maybe one day I'll afford a new tank!

good thing is that i can always turn the dart down, and add a couple ph's. I think the dart uses just a little more power then the eheims and much more powerful.

don't forget my myagi!!

 

[draleigh]

What kind of lights are you planning on putting under there. That hood doesn't look very tall. I am working on a 180 build myself. I bought a used Oceanic that had a single 1" hole in the bottom. I bought some bits and drilled (2)1.5" for overflows in each corner, and another 1" in the opposite corner for returns. Lookin good

 

[ben&bobbi]

i am going with (3) PFO 24" reflectors which will hold (3) 250w 10K XM Metal halides and 2 6' actinic VHO's 110w.

the hoods not quite as tall as my 75, but it should be fine. That project is waiting for my tax money!

 

[jay24k]

How big is the sump? Are you sure that much flow through that sump is gonna go crazy? Like you said, you can always add later after you do some testing.