Rhodes19 180 Build

[Rhodes19]

im not in school currently but im starting the application process. im going to be studying game art and design. i took a year of after graduation to work and save money, wich has been going good after i got my 55g set up lol. id prabaly what i want to do for my 180g is a SPS dominated system with some Lps and other zoas paly muchrooms. here a wrass suggestion http://www.reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/32-fish-profile- there really interesting fish ive had mine sence christmas and hes a happy guy a tid more agressive then the profile says but could just be my fish :] heres some lights i was looking at as well http://www.marinedepot.com/Captive_..._Kits-Captive_Sun-CP4212-FILTRTRMSEHS-vi.html

Gaming art. Cool. Graphics have come a long way since I had my Commodore 128!! LOL Its amazing how the graphic look on the x box now. It sounds like your 180 is going to be awesome. Hopefully the wait won't drive you nuts. The lights would be ok for the 55 but you are going to need at least 250 w with reflector for the 180. A friend of mine had a 120 sps dominated tank with 400 w MH on it. It was a beautiful tank.

 

[Rhodes19]

Ok, water parameters from last night. Looks like some more big water changes are in my future.

Temp 77 deg
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 12
pH 8.0
KH 6
Ca 460
PO4 0.5
SG 1.024

 

[Antonais1391]

hows the tank comming ?? any pics ??

 

[Rhodes19]

hows the tank comming ?? any pics ??

Hi Antonais,

Well, I just did a 100% water change last night. I'm hoping that will raise the alk and drop the Ca. If all goes well and the water parameters are good, I'll move a few of the softies over and see how they do. Once I get the corals out of my 29, I will turn it into a quarantine tank and qt and treat all the fish before I move them into the 180. I don't want to take any chances putting in a diseased fish and then trying to treat the whole tank. I also got some cheato in the mail yesterday and I'm putting it into the fuge. The batteries in the camera died again so once they are charged up I'll get some pictures.

 

[FFrankie]

:beer:
Your doing it right Chris. Nice and slow. Keep up the good work buddy

 

[Rhodes19]

Thanks Frankie. Almost there. Can't wait to move the corals in and then get my QT set up for the fish.

 

[Rhodes19]

Well, I did a 100% water change last weekend and this weekend my parameters were:

SG 1.024
pH. 8.2
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates some where between 0 and 12.5. Closer to 0 in color.
Phos 0 to 0.25. Its really hard to tell.
KH 8
Ca 420
Temp 77.5

Here are the first fish I put in.

Ok, not really but I did get some cheato from from a fellow reefer last week and it was a beautiful green ball. Its in the fuge and sits on the bottom which concerns me. I understand that it and the pods like to tumble, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to get it to move.

Here is the box she sent it in. Complete with heat pack.

The cheato in a the bag.

Fuge. What do you think of my string to hold the filter sock up? I know, low tech but it works and its easy to slid on and off.

The cheato sitting on the bottom.

I also moved in some softies from my 29. Some GSPs, a few mushrooms, a toad stool, and a poly.

Those pics were taken right after I moved them. They are not to happy at the moment. I'll take some more pics once they open. If all goes well and the water parameters hold, I will move the rest of the corals out of my 29 and 10 into the 180. Most are softies with 2 LPS and 3 SPS. Once the 29 and 10 are empty, I'll clean them up and use them as a quarantine tanks and quarantine and treat the fish. Once they are ready I'll add them to the 180 as well.

 

[DolphinLVR]

Looking great Rhodes!

 

[Rhodes19]

Thanks Dolphin, can't wait to get home and see if they opened up.

 

[Rhodes19]

Well, I was perusing a lfs with no intension of purchasing any thing and came home with a Sicce Voyager 4 power head. 1600 gph at 14 w that was on sale. The Korella 4 was 1200 gph at 12 w and didn't cost as much but I thought I'd give the Sicce a try.


In the box

Head on view

Side view

In tank shot

Out side view

FTS

The bracket snapped on easily and the magnet appears to be nice and strong. You have a choice of 6 different types of flow patterns. I have it set for the strongest forward flow at the moment. I also looks like you can get a swirl type of flow. I'll play with that later.

 

[DolphinLVR]

Nice Rhodes!!!!!

I am chompin at the bit here! My tank should be finished sometime next week, but the skimmer will be a tad longer!

 

[Rhodes19]

Nice Rhodes!!!!!

I am chompin at the bit here!

LOL I know the feeling.

 

[Antonais1391]

looking good :] when ya gunna get some sps in there!!!?? lol

 

[Anthonius]

well im gonna tag along on this one... btw nice touch with the beer bottle

 

[Rhodes19]

looking good :] when ya gunna get some sps in there!!!?? lol

Thanks. I have 2-3 pieces of sps that I'll move in next weekend but until I can get some good lighting on the 180 I'll have to hold off from adding any more sps .

 

[Rhodes19]

well im gonna tag along on this one... btw nice touch with the beer bottle

Thanks Anthonius. It tasted good too.

 

[Rhodes19]

This weekend I made a new HOB return and painted it black so it would blend into the background (pics to follow), I made 2 pod farms out of 1/2 pvc with end caps (forgot to take pictures), and closed out the 10 g reef. I took the lr and corals from the 10 and moved them to the 180 and took the opportunity to frag some anthelia. That stuff grows like weeds so I'll take them to a lfs for store credit. The 2 T5s with reflectors that was on the 10 got moved over to the 180 as well and it was interesting to see the difference between it and the PC thats on the 180. The nano Korella went into the fuge and its tumbling the cheato.


FTS

Big difference. The T5s are on the right.

Tumbling cheato

If the water parameters are still good, I'll move the corals from the 29 and convert it to a QT. I'll also take the T5s off the 29 and place them on top of the 180 as well.

 

[Rhodes19]

HooWoo! Just got my package from Reef Cleaners. Can't wait to get it home.

 

[Rhodes19]

Want to see over 500 snails? I got my order from ReefCleaners on Friday. I ordered 500 dwarf cerith five pack of mangroves 1 red gracilaria and 29 small to medium nerite. Wow, thats a lot of snails. John did a great job packaging and everything showed up warm and intact. Now for the pics.


The box they came in.

Floating the bags per the instructions.

Red Mangroves.

In fuge.

 

[Rhodes19]

SNAILS

And the race is on!!! Snails on day 2.