Ghellin's 180 build

ghellin · Sep 16, 2014

So it begins. I have lived in a second floor apartment for the 5 years that I have been in the hobby and I finally moved to a house! I have kept a 58 gallon clam and sps dominated tank, as well as a 40 breeder mixed reef. About a month before I moved, my tank succumbed to a bacterial infection and wiped out my sps and lps corals, I was left with only my clams and zoas. Here is a picture of my 58 before the crash.

I decided now that I have moved I want to build a bigger tank. Since I love clams and I plan to grow my small herd, so I wanted a 24" tank front to back rather than the 18" I had. I decided a 180 wide 72"x24"x25" would be the perfect tank. Once decided I was able to order the Marineland 180 with corner overflows and the build officially began!

ghellin · Sep 16, 2014

The tank is in!

ghellin · Sep 16, 2014

I have always wanted to have a steel stand and maximize space under my tank so I decided to build my own. With the help of a few friends off to the steel yards we went.

I decided to go with .125 wall 1.5" square tubing. This stuff is heavy and should support a tank lol. The stand was built to the footprint of the tank 72.5"x24.5" and 39" tall. The stand was also built with 6 adjustable feet to level the stand.

After much debate I decided against powder coating the stand due to cost and went with primer and a garage door 2 part epoxy.

ghellin · Sep 17, 2014

Got the 3/4" oak plywood sanded stained and 3 coats of polyurethane.

ghellin · Sep 17, 2014

Sump time. I want a bigger refugium at least 10% of tank volume so I decided to go with a 75 gallon sump. Since I want to be different and do a Refugium>Skimmer>Return style sump I decided a typical 75 with center brace would get in my way. So I had a custom braceless 75 gallon tank built by Planet Aquariums as it was only $40 more tha than a typical 75 with brace that I would have to cut out. The 75 is heavy thick glass I love it!
Going through the required cat scan.

Refugium section is 19.25"x17.125"x16" (23 gallons.) The skimmer section is 15.75"x17.125"x12" (14 gallons.) Return is 8.5"x17.125"x12" (7.5

I like my tanks to be painted black on the outside, but the fuge can't be black so I painted the fuge pannels white first.

Then I painted black over the white. So from the outside all you see is black. Also pictured here is my Ocean View 18 gallon tall tank which will be used for my ATO reservoir.

ghellin · Sep 17, 2014

Tank is finally on the stand!

Plumbing. The plumbing consists of a 1.5" pipe that feeds a 1.5" wye. Off of this two 1" return lines head back to the tank and the third 1" line feeds my manifold with Four 1/2" feeds. The end is also capped with threaded reducers so a 3/4" or 1/2" feed is an easy additional option.

ghellin · Sep 17, 2014

On 8/5/2014 the tank officially "Got wet" In the tank is 250 pounds of dry sand to start.

Finally full. I actually measured it out with sand and no rock total water volume with the sump is 205 gallons. For cycling purposes I am using a mag 9.5, the pump feeding a 1.5" line actually moves a very impressive amount of water.

ghellin · Sep 17, 2014

While the tank is cycing it is DIY time!

First DIY is a set of screens to keep fish in.

Second is the water supply line for the ATO.

DIY #3 reduce splashing return lines.
So the stock Marineland returns have a anti siphon hole in them to reduce the amount of water that flows back in the sump in a power outage. Well they squirt water everywhere, so I found a free solution. I used a mag pump prefilter and cut two 1/2" rings to still allow air flow but keep splashing to a minimum. Will be easy to slide down into the water to keep clean as well.

Problem solved, no more splashing!

ghellin · Sep 17, 2014

Now the "hard" part. My rock has been going since the first of August. Good mix of flat shelf Marco, Tonga branch, and miscellaneous. All rock was purchased dry or dried by me to ensure no pests. I plan to have 2 large rock structures with am open valley in the center. So all this rock may not get used in the display.

I used hydro stop cement to construct the two pieces. There will be two main structures in the tank. Here is the left side.

Somehow I forgot to take pictures of the right side but here is a close up in the tank.

Full tank shot with my "spare parts" LED spot light.

ghellin · Sep 17, 2014

After walking past the tank a few times I feel I want more depth than 24" but I do not want to loose any sand space. I did some research on all the possibilities for floating rocks, magnetic rocks, pond foam fake rock, etc. Nothing looks like real rock to me so I found the better option IMO, Marco Rock Prime cuts! Paul Whitby was able to score me two fantastic pieces at MACNA that gave me exctly what I needed. All I had to do was drain the tank down and silicone the rocks to the glass.

Kaleb England · Sep 17, 2014

Nice job Greg! It is coming along great.

Derek'sReef · Sep 18, 2014

Following along. Im building a 180 also so im curious on equipment choices.

ghellin · Sep 18, 2014

As this is a slower build and the wood facade will not be on my short list, I needed a temporary canopy to hold lights and also let me start planning how I want to build the canopy when that time comes. $35 in pvc and it is solid as a rock.

ghellin · Sep 18, 2014

Cycle is nearing completion so I will soon start my tank transfer process to get my fish moved over. Tank transfer should take 17-20 days for one or two fish at a time.

But while I have been waiting I added some cheap LEDs to the underside for fun effects, they have a nice 44 button remote all for about $25 on Amazon. They are RGB LEDs so almost any color is possible.

Red.

Green.

Blue. Picture stinks but the reactors glow like crazy.

rebecky45 · Sep 18, 2014

Following. Nice build!!

ghellin · Sep 18, 2014

Thanks everyone!

FlyinBryan · Sep 18, 2014

Following along, great build! Please keep pics coming! I like the rock on the back of the tank, brilliant!

Step Johns · Sep 18, 2014

Great job it looks great. I really like the idea of siliconing rock to the back glass. I look forward to seeing it with some corals on it and how that turns out for you.