Joe's 180 In wall SPS Tank

[RTMA]

Hey Guys,

As most of you have seen the holding tank situation, and my 75 build.

Holding tanks:

The SPS are growing into each other so I need to pick up the pace on the 180.

Now on to the good stuff:

Here is an update on the 180.

Equipment:

Acrylic 4' x 3' tank with external overflow.
Reeflo Snapper 18 with 1" Seaswirl and custom Manifold to feed Reactors.

Lighting:
8020.net Quickframe Light rack with Stanley sliding door mounts
Bluewave 7 powered Lumenbright housed 250 watt MH (Radiums)
28 Cree XP-E royal Blue LED strips
(2) 48" Hellolights Retrofits running ATI 420nm Pure Actinics

Filtration:
Super Reef Octopus XP2000 EXT with a BubbleBlaster 2000 pump
Nextreef MR1 Reactor
BRS Reactor
Custom 40" x 18" Advanced Acrylic sump

Flow
1" Seaswirl on Snapper 18
1 Vortech MP40W ES
(2) Tunze 6045 on 1/2" Seawirls.

Blood, Sweat and Tears (some of joy)

The tank has been framed out and the light rack has been built (sans cooling)

Drywall still needs to be completed. As does the rest of the room.

 

[RTMA]

Lighting

Lighting

The light Rack was built using 8020.net Quickframe with 3/8" black acrylic and aluminum rivets.

My Inspiration was Glass Reef's light rack found here

Once the rack was built I placed the two Lumenbright Mini Wide reflectors in the center 16" boxes. The reflectors sit inside the recesses and are easy to remove for cleaning.

Installed on the rack are two Hellolights 48" retros with clip on reflectors. I was initially going to use VHOs, but T5s last longer and should work well with the ATI 420nm Pure Actinic bulbs.

Also installed on the rack are two 36" LED strips running Royal Blue XP-Es on Meanwell (Mean Well LPC-35-700 ) 700ma drivers. All equipment was purchased from RapidLeds and using their 1.1" heatsinks. My current LED fixture has custom CAT based drivers and dimming and at this point I didn't really see the need in dimming the blues so choose a simple driver that will run the RBs at 700ma for longer life and cooler running. The drivers were mounted on the acrylic base plates riveted into the frame.

I mounted the whole fixture on a Stanley sliding door rail system that allows me to pull the fixture back behind the tank for easy maintenance and allow me full access above the tank.

Here it is pulled all the way back inside the fish room

LEDs & T5s Running on the tank.

From the front - sorry for the dirty tank, it has lots of drywall dust and residue from water testing.

Using my PAR meter, well over 500 par on my sandbed without water. So I am expecting at least 100 par there on the edges. I don't think I'm going to have any lighting issues.

Although I plan on running Radiums, I am using two new Plusrite 20K bulbs ($37 shipped for both!) and I'm actually impressed with the color and par. Life expectancy not withstanding. The HQI Blue Wave 7 ballast is pretty quiet and runs pretty cool - The Ushio 10Ks put out a ton more PAR but they are too red for my tastes. My current LED fixture is a 1:1 RB to Cool white fixture and a 10K look. The corals are growing very quickly, but I no longer need fast growth so are focusing on color rendition for the 180.

 

[RTMA]

Plumbing & Filtration.

Plumbing & Filtration.

Most of the plumbing is still to be completed. I plan on a Beananimal silent and failsafe drain system. You can see the start of it in some of the pics.

I also plan on building a manifold system to feed the tank as well as two or three reactors and possibly a frag tank when I get there.

I looked far and wide for a skimmer to replace my NAC 7 which is a pretty darn good skimmer with a Swabbie, I wanted something larger for the 230-40 total water volume. I found a used SRO xp2000 ext in the for sale forum and picked it up. This should be a great match, once I get my swabbie modified for this skimmer. I'll be using that and the Avast Locker that I used on my 75 and currently in use on my holding tanks.

Topoff will be controlled with my Reefkeeper Elite and fed through an Avast K1 Stirrer which is currently running on my holding tanks.

Disregard the clutter

In this pic you can also see the RANCO humidistat which turns on an Air King ventilation fan to pump the humid air out of the house.

I'm also thinking about feeding the skimmer directly from the overflow box, valving it so that it is a constant gravity feed without breaking the main siphon. That will have to tinkered with. If not then I will either get a smaller 400 gph pump to feed the skimmer from the overflow chamber of my sump.

Rock

I have about 100 pounds of live rock (maybe more) from my holding tank and some curing. A majority of the rock is the Pukani type. I'm removing the phophates by cooking it in a rubbermade with heat and flow and bi monthly water changes / gfo method.

 

[RTMA]

Livestock (Fish) plans

Livestock (Fish) plans

Three long posts and not one mention of what will be in this thing!

Current Livestock.
Yellow Tang
Coral Beauty
Sixline Wrasse
Borbonious Anthias
Bellus Angel
Sustainable Aquatics Black Ice Clown & Doni's Reef Picasso mated pair
Pistol Shrimp

Here they are spawning near thier RBTA (which just split on Sunday)

Planned Livestock

Coral Beauty (does not pick at corals and I have had him for about 3 years)
Borboniouis Anthias
Bellus Angel
Clown Pair

Yet to procure:
Another Borbonious Anthias
Trio of Ventralis Anthias
Some sort of Shrimp Goby to pair with my Pistol (my Yasha died).
Some sort of Jawfish
Some Trio of Flasher wrasses

At this point I am planning on going tang-less but we'll see. Lots of smaller fish vs a few bigger ones. The tank is 180 but still only 4' long. Maybe a Kole tang, but my last one was aggressive in the 75.

The sixline and yellow tang will have to be relocated.

 

[RTMA]

Inverts

Inverts

Now about the Corals.

SPS:
ORA Purple Plasma
ORA Plum Crazy
ORA Hawkins
ORA Red Planet
ORA German Blue Polyp Digitata
ORA Orange Polyp Digitata
ORA Verde Acropora
ORA Tri-color Valida
ORA Joe the Coral
ORA Borealis
ORA Original Oregon Tort
ORA Hycinth Pink Birdsnest
FHI Cali Tort
Yellow Tort
Rainbow Milli
Bob's Blue Sarmentosa
Neil's Massive Blue "Ark"ropora
Idaho Grape Monti Cap
Red Monti Cap (frag)
Paletta Blue Polyp Acro
Rose Tipped Sarmentosa
Yellow Polyped Acro (looks like a bright Bali Slimer type)
Bali Slimer
Bali Efflo
Grape Limeade Acro
LE Pink Jade Acro
Garf Bonsai
Green Pocillipora
Sunset Monti
Superman Monti
Pokerstar Monti
Purple Haze Monti
Reefkoi's Mystic Sunset Monti
Red Dragon
Sunset Millipora
Bubblegum Milli

Zoas
Red Hornets
Blue Hornets
Rastas
RPEs
Ring of Fire
Whammin Watermelons
Radioactive Dragon Eyes
WeedyGreens
Gorilla Nipples
Kedd's Reds
LE Electros (Teal Rings)
Orange Bam Bams
Various other no names - Pinks, Oranges

LPS:
Jason Fox's My Miami Chalice

Tyree Bazooka Joe Chalice (frags)
Vivid's Pink Boobies Chalice (Frags)
Conrnbread Trash's 3G Mummy Eye Chalice

UC 4 polyp Dendros
UC Starry Night Chalices (5 Eyes)
Colony of Nuclear Candy Canes (20+ heads)
Various Favias
Rainbow Welso

Neon Orange Fungia
Various Ranbow Acans ( UC Skittles and others)


Others Inverts:
Purple Gorgonian
RBTA - more of a rainbow then just red. Body is green and red and really looks awesome under RB LEDS. It just split so now I have two! Doesn't bubble as much as it used to since the Clowns starting spawning.

Clams: I love clams and will have as many as I can get. I have 4 more blue Maximas coming this week. I want a Maxima Clam tower or a sand section of just clams.

5 - Maxima
2 - Deresa

 

[RTMA]

I'll be posting the rest of my updates in the Large Reef Tank Forum.

It can be found here:

RTMA's In wall 180 SPS Dominated 4x3

 

[thefuz]

Congrats on accelerating things, Joe - it looks awesome so far! Love that lighting setup!!

 

[RTMA]

Thanks Mike, still going to be a while before its really up and running, but progress is being made. The lighting rack was a fun project, just need to mount some fans to keep things cool.

 

[Arusso713]

It's looking good cant wait for more updates

 

[RTMA]

Thanks! For sand I am going to be using Eden's Reef Flakes, I bought 90 pounds, so I hope I have enough for a shallow bed. I may have to build some sort of pvc housing for the Jawfish or for go one altogether. I know the Blue spots are pretty popular, but I seem to like the pearly better. Just added a Gold Teardrop Maxima to my order, so that will make a total of 6 Maxima clams.

Need to think about the manifold some more.

Here is a pic of my makeshift water making station and slop sink. A little area for fragging which I plan on covering with some starboard. Not as elegant as some of the others but pretty functional. The fish room is not complete nor is it as elegant as some of the others I've seen in the forum, but function is all there. Still cluttered but that will be taken care of in time.

Also the TDS on my RO is about 12 going into the DI canisters (about 97 TDS in), wondering if that is what I should expect going forward. Wondering if I should change my membrane to a 75 gph from the 150. Water is from the cold water feed.

Hanna Calcium and Alkalinity checkers were also ordered.

Current Sump setup that will be moved over.

Dosing is controlled by the Reefkeeper Elite and two DIY dosers.

 

[gmate]

That is an amazing amount of detail you've posted. Glad to hear you've got all the fine details nailed out, it seems. Best of luck on the build, I'll be following!

Do you have plans to flip or sell the 75g? I'd be very interested in purchasing the tank and stand.

Glenn

 

[RTMA]

Hi Glenn, I just sold the 75 a few weekends ago. Had it posted for a while. Thanks for following. Unfortunately I'm not too much into the fine details, pretty much wing it and see how it goes kinda guy. I'll leave the fine details to my friend Scolley, he's much better at that. Also got plans for a Kegerator next to the tank. Can't wait until the Man Cave is all done.

 

[srusso]

Excellent thread Joe, tank looks great! A clam tower? Wow cant wait to see that!!!

 

[scolley]

A kegerator next to the tank? Wow I was enjoying sifting through your posted details, but you saved the best for last!

Are you selling tickets to a viewing? I'll take a chair up front please, preferably with a cup holder! :thumbsup:

All kidding aside, great work Joe. I'm knocked out by that light, and thrilled to hear that you are focusing on color, not growth. This has been a long time coming. Glad to see you doing it right!

 

[Obi-dad]

Way cool, i want an up close and personal look at the light rack

 

[njudson]

Was just at Joe's and have to say that it all looks so much better in person. Very excited to see the finished setup.

Thanks for the frags Joe!

 

[RTMA]

Thanks guys. I'm enjoying the slow pace of the build, my last two tank projects I rushed - but this one I'm taking my time and savoring each aspect of the build. Just picked out the granite for the ledges, can't wait to see those in.

 

[scolley]

... my last two tank projects I rushed - but this one I'm taking my time...

:thumbsup:


TRUELY good tanks take time and deliberation. Looking forward to a truely nice tank.

 

[gdubs97]

Looks great joe! Let me know if you want to get rid of one of the rbtas. I'm interested if it's up for trade/sale.

 

[RTMA]

double post