JonezNReef's 180gal build

No it wont be fowlr, it will be a mix reef, mostly LPS with some monti's and maybe a acro or so. I have ran 16x3w LEDs over my 40gal and 32x3w over my 65gal for years now and havent had any issues with it. I do plan on adding 2 or so more channels in the future but this will be it for a little while. I know its on the way low side but if it needs more I have plenty of room to add. We will just have to see how it goes.
 
Cool. My old mixed reef did well with just 1.5w/gallon. I like the led colors you chose, similar to what Pacific Sun uses in their fixtures minus the Amber LEDs. Is it a typo or do you not have any white LEDs?
 
No typo. I tried the white LED's when I made my first fixture and about 6 months into it that channel shorted out. I was going to fix it but after a month or so I noticed that the coral was still happy and growing so I just left it. The Deep Red, Turquoise, and Royal Blue combo give the Ocean White look that some pucks out there offer. Plus I personally like a bluer look but if my corals don't seem to like it when I transfer them over then I will modify accordingly.
 
Ok so a little update. After andrek787 saying something about the LED's and also after looking at the tank for a month with really blue lights I decided to add another channel of LED's.
I added 6- 3w Natural White, 4- 3w Deep Red, and 4- 3w Turquoise powered with a Invertonics 42w 700mA CC Driver. Did this to make a more complete spectrum and to take away from the over powering blue color. I am running this new channel turned down over half way with the rest of the channels at almost full power and it looks a lot better.

As for the tank it has finished its nitrogen cycle and is now to the extremely ugly algae faze. I have been vacuuming it out every other day or so and doing water changes here and there to keep it some what at bay and will be ordering my CUC soon. I also fragged off a few pieces of coral to see how they would hold up in the new tank and so far they haven't died and have been opening up everyday. Once the ugly algae is at bay and the rocks start covering in coralline algae then I will move more of my rock from my 65g and 40gb over to it and then soon after that I can start introducing the fish to there new home. Then I can get my cracked 65g taken down and move my 40gb over and make it the new frag tank one day.
But for now I will leave the 65g going with the fish and a few coral in it and leave the 40gb up and going for my clown fish and Seabae and other corals. Ive had the anemone for over 3 years now and don't want to stress it out any more than it already has been from when I moved the tanks from the living room to the fish room. Took 2 months for the Seabae to get its color back after that move. So that will stay its home until the 180 has matured completly. But almost everything else as far as fish and coral will be moved once I get the rock moved over and I am sure that all the die off on them is finished.
But slowly progress is being made. I should have the skimmer up and going soon too if all goes well. I will get some pics up tonight after work of the LED fixture and the tank so far.
 
image.jpg
This is with the new channel sorry about the picture quality
 
Here is a picture of my 40gB just before I had to change itFullSizeRender.jpg

I discovered 2 days ago that my fish have Ich...it must have come in on a frag because I haven't had an outbrake of it before and I just got some new frags a few weeks back. With that said the only other way would be that it came in on my Kole Tang. But he went through a month QT at the fish store( I know the owner and picked out the Tang the same day he received it so I know he QTed it for a month) and then I did a TTM with QT for 2 months and he was a fat happy sucker when I put him in his holding tank. But about 2 weeks after I put him in the tank and a week after I got the new frags he got ich, then my clown, and then my dotty back...The Yellow Tang isn't showing signs of it but he's being treated too of course.
So I had to change plans around. So I went ahead and removed the coral off my big rock and moved the big rock(45lb) you see in the 40gB into the 180g. Then I took all my coral and rock out of my 65g and put all of them in the 40gB. Then I took all the fish and moved them to the 65g where they are getting a good old copper bath and TTM between there and my 20g QT tank. Then they will be held in the 65g after that fun time is said and done for a total of about 72 day (hopefully I wont have to separate the 2 Tangs) to really make sure that all ich is free and clear of the 40gB and the 180g. But while they are waiting it out for the next 3 months I will go ahead and get the 180g settled and get the coral all in place and a CUC working.
 
Ok so I've been working on my 5 gallon bucket skimmer for a few weeks now and finally finished it and let the silicone cure for about a week. So to boost my spirits after the ich thing I decided to hook it up and give it a go. And let me tell you this thing makes a foam that is out of this world! I will see what kind of skimmate it makes after it breaks in in a few days. What I did was take a 5 gallon water bottle and cut the top off and glued it inside of a bucket lid I cut the center out of. I then took the bottom of that water bottle and made it the collection cup. It is being ran by a Sedra 15000. Now I get to wait and see how well it does


image.jpg
 
So a quick update.
I had a case of Ich break out recently and moved my fish to qt where they went through copper treatment and TTM. I know its a bit over kill but I wanted to be sure that the Ich was gone. I had planned on leaving my DT empty for 72 day to make sure that the Ich was gone but a few things ended up happening. I give all my fish a copper treatment for 12 days and then moved on to TTM just to be sure. On day 9 of TTM when I moved my fish for the 3rd time my Bi Color Dottyback went nuts and started bouncing off walls and then killed over all within a few minutes of moving the fish...not sure why this happened since the Tangs and Clown Fish were perfectly fine. This sucked a lot for me since he was my first saltwater fish and had him for 4 years or so and was hoping to have him for many more years. After I finished with the TTM I moved the Tangs and Clown in there temp home in my 65 gallon tank but, when I came home from work one day my Yellow Tang wasn't swimming around it was more of a bobbling motion. Then I noticed the Kole Tang and Clown Fish weren't looking too good either and barely swimming around. I knew I didn't have much time so in a panic I grabbed all of them up and tossed them into the 180 without any acclamation. Within minutes of doing this all of the fish came back to life and started darting around there new home. I later tested the QT tank and it jumped from no ammonia the day before to .04 over night! After further examination of the QT I noticed the Tangs had nearly pooped themselves to death as the QTs floor was covered. So they were choking to death on ammonia.:debi: But I really hope that the Ich is gone but I will have to observe them for a little while longer to determine if its in the DT or not.

When I first put the 2 Tangs into the QT a little while back when I started the copper treatment they didn't like each other and would fight on and off. Then I tossed a mirror into the QT and they focused on fighting there reflection and making sure they looked good. But after tossing them into the DT the 2 Tangs have become inseparable and follow each other around the tank all the time. They even huddle up to each other at night while they sleep. The Yellow Tang even introduced the Kole to pellet food and the Kole introduced the Yellow to and algae dinner that I didn't think they would even consider eating.... Bryopsis:dance: (probably came in on a piece of live rock I bought and didn't catch). I had an outbreak of this awesome algae after the cycling completed and have been keeping it under control but these 2 have been cleaning house. With that said they have been pooping like there is no tomorrow and my DIY skimmer is going nuts pulling out a nice dark tea colored skimmate(i wet skim). So now I am really going to get to see what this skimmer can do and so far I am pleased.

Also I went ahead and added some coral to the DT right after I tossed the fish in. I was so mad that I just grabbed my coral out of the soon to be frag tang and just placed them into the DT without acclamation too. I was in a all or nothing mood by then and figured that if I was going to lose my fish then why not lose everything and give up. But everything is alive and well with good PE and accepting food when I target feed. Also everthing seems to like the lights and are even showing signs of new growth. Colors are popping well but I still want to add another channel to the LED fixture with some hyper violet and true violet LEDs to give it just a little more pop. So now my DT is starting to get stocked up. I will say that it still looks bare compared to the 40B they where in. I can't wait to get more fish and coral but I will take my time and not push my luck!!

As far as it goes I only have a few more thing to do before its no longer a build and more just upgrading and expanding. I need to finish the wall in the master bedroom where you can see the fish tank and frame it in...just waiting on my wife to decide what color she wants the wall. Also I plan on building a ATS, an above tank Fug and possibly a surge tank. But this will all come in due time since I have a honey do list the size of and Egyptian scroll lol

I will try to get a pick up when I get home this afternoon.
 
Here is a quick video of the Tangs eating Bryopsis. The rock was covered with it before I put the Tangs in all I was doing was pulling out what I could with my hand. I planned on trying the Kents magnesium but after seeing they will eat this stuff I'm not going to bother.
https://vimeo.com/171216661


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
So far things are going well. My fish that I tossed in are doing well still and I added a Scopas Tang a few days ago. At first the Kole and Yellow Tang weren't very happy but after placing a mirror the same length as the tank on the back side for a few days they have all calmed down. They tired themselves out fighting there reflection so much they forgot about fighting each other and are getting along well since I took the mirror down. Here is a quick pic of the Scopas
Image1467253904.242504.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It's been a while since I last updated. Like everyone, times get busy and you end up having to put the tank plans on the back burner. But I have been able to squeeze in some things here and there. Since my last update I have changed a few things and some things changed before I could intervene.

I added a small ATS to the tank just before the beginning of August just to see what I thought. I pieced one together real quick with some spare 1/2inch PVC, a couple bulk heads and a shallow tote. After a month I noticed a little bit less algae in the DT and the skimmer wasn't doing much.
So, as of August 31st, my skimmer has been offline for now. I went on vacation and before I left I turned it off so I wouldn't have to worry about it while I was gone. I have to admit I was worried about not having it running since I've always ran a skimmer. But when I got home all was well and the screen on the ATS had quite a bit more growth then I thought it would and the DT didn't have any algae.
So for now the skimmer will stay offline. It was doing quite well but after running strong for about 2 weeks pulling out coffee like skimmate. Then it looked like tea, then light tea, and then it just got to the point where there wasn't much to skim which is ideal in some situations. I started using it half a day which was working until I started using the ATS. Of course I have a light bio load compared to some with only a Scopas Tang, Yellow Tang, Clown Fish, and 3 Chromis. I had a Kole Tang but he jumped on the euro brace and cooked under the lights. All the fish were getting along fine until about a week before I left the other 2 Tangs started a love affair and started chasing the Kole Tang. I was trying to get a QT set up so I could move him to my other tank but didn't get it done fast enough.

But anyways since the skimmer has been offline the coral has seemed happier, with good PE and color. Part of this is also because I took the Sedra pump from the skimmer and I'm now using it as a return pump.
I also added an above tank refugium that only has rock rubble in it at the moment but I plan on adding mud and macro algae to it. Also I would like to add a DSB to the sump since it just has rock rubble. I'm considering a plenum but still haven't decided. Also Im still not sure if I want sand in the DT. I like how it looks but like have pumps aimed at the BB. But I will add the sand and mud later on. For now I am trying to find the time to work on making a more permanent ATS.

b65eb3ee29616414ee06f7656586e9f5.jpg

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That's the temp ATS that I made and sat on the above tank fuge. The first pic was how it looked when I got back from a weeks vacation.
 
Today I added a Bubble Magus Curve 5. I know it's rated for a smaller system but with the ATS doing so well I don't think a high rated skimmer will be needed. So now we shale see how it does. So far it's pretty quiet and produces a decent foam.
 
JonezNReef's 180gal build

So the skimmers working well pulling out some good skimmate. Took about 10 or so days to break in. I had to make a stand to keep the water level around 7". I cleaned it out yesterday for the first time and when I plugged it in the foam wouldn't reach the top even with it almost closed all the way. So I shortened the stand an now it's in the recommended 9" of water and seems to be broke in and working well. I am still considering upgrading the skimmer in the near future but I would keep this as a back up or use this for my future systems.
41b21ba731b9570206e7b548b174b44c.jpg

I cleaned it out and made it all pretty and this is how it repays me
 
Last edited:
So my plans and ideas are out the window because I received another tank and everything needed to run it for FREE last night!!

I met up with a really nice guy last night that was getting out of the hobby and wanted it all gone. So I got:

120 gallon 72" long x 17" tall x 24" wide Tank
A giant Reef Octopus Skimmer with a New Intertek PSK1000 pump
(2) 20ish gallon long tanks
(2) 29ish gallon tanks
(2) Media Reactor with Media
(3) Heaters
(1) 1000gph Sump Pump
About 8 current pumps
About 6 smaller pumps
5 Stage RO/DI with 2 years worth of filters and resin
Tons of Fish Food
His 6 foot DIY LED fixture
Some bulkheads and fittings
5 gallon bucket of IO salt
Books
Auto Fish Feeder
and much more little odds and ins

So now I am going back to the drawing board and get to redesign everything. I am thinking of taking down the 180 and redoing the stand and wall and then having the 120 stacked above the 180 both in wall. I was considering having the 120 set up as a SPS only tank since its so shallow. The 180 I could set up as a LPS/Softie/Anemone tank.
I could take and set up the 120 first with all the stuff thats in my 180 gallon system and then modify my 180 without having to worry about it.
Still not sure yet what to do but I do know I want to use both the 120 and 180.

Any thoughts or ideas?
 
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