Derek Hill
Community Member
R2R, its been awhile.
I know I know, here comes another tank build...but I promise this should be a pretty gnarly ride, and I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do.
So theres going to be alot of BS that you all can scan through, but I promise I am not one to disappoint when it comes to builds and details (mostly my fiance screaming at me). Anyways, here goes nothing. I hope you guys can tolerate my lack of, well...patience
Background story: So about 10 years ago I got into this hobby, mostly keeping 10, 20L and 29 gallon tanks. I moved ALOT so a big tank was never really an option for me - or something I even wanted to attempt to move alot. This was mostly because I went to college for 5 1/2 years for 2 degrees and we all know, you have to get the "full experience" of dorms, suites, apartments, houses...how to hide beer, sneaking a female friend into the building, yada yada blah.
My desire to keep a tank through these years of my life was pretty, ehhhh lets just say "minuscule". I really didn't try, at all. I am not even going to bother showing any pictures of these tanks, mostly for the fact it looks like the 16 year old kid who works in the fish section at your local Petco set it up (actually, theirs would probably look better). Anywho, fast forward 5.5 years and we get to the fun stuff.
I acquired a REALLY weird tank size from a friend, it was around 34.5 gallons. No sump. AIO. This tank was...weird, to say the least. The AIO was not all along the back wall, but built dead center. Either way, it was a good way for me to get back into the hobby for cheap and really test the waters - see if I wanted to dive back into it. HA, punny.
I kept this tank running for about 1 year, before I even bought corals (okay I got one RBTA but thats it). The girlfriend (now my fiance, soon to be wife) said to me one day, lets make the tank prettier. So we went to some local LFS's and picked some corals up. Well, about $300 worth of frags lol. Shortly after this, we realized where the tank was at was extremely inconvenient. SO we moved it downstairs, and it looked really tiny on the wall. I absolutely hated it. So a friend of mine said he had a 90 gal acrylic cube he would sell me for dirt cheap...he wasn't kidding. I got this thing, with sump, skimmer, and stand for $200 out the door. I was pumped. Girlfriend, ehhh she wasn't thrilled...until she realized "OMG WE CAN GET MORE FISH!".
Start of the 90
Up and running for a bit
Skinned and apex install
Well lets fast forward a little bit, I went through quite a few ups and downs with the 90 over about a 12-14 month span. 2 ich break outs, 1 tank crash, 2 insane algae break outs...anyways then the last 6 months having the 90 was steady and strong.
My girlfriend and I got engaged and decided we wanted more space for our 3 dogs (Jetta, Recaro, and TT) and also to have a basement for me and my fish. So we bought a house about 2 months ago and are slowly making the transition in, should be moving the rest of the equipment within the next 2 weeks. Anyways, Here is the official start of the 180 build.
This was the temporary location and set-up until we got into the new house. Once everything is moved, I will show all of the fish room plans.
Tank moved into the condo
Fillin er' up!
Waiting for lights to come in...
Cya later 90 cube!
Fish settling in nicely!
I know I know, here comes another tank build...but I promise this should be a pretty gnarly ride, and I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do.
So theres going to be alot of BS that you all can scan through, but I promise I am not one to disappoint when it comes to builds and details (mostly my fiance screaming at me). Anyways, here goes nothing. I hope you guys can tolerate my lack of, well...patience
Background story: So about 10 years ago I got into this hobby, mostly keeping 10, 20L and 29 gallon tanks. I moved ALOT so a big tank was never really an option for me - or something I even wanted to attempt to move alot. This was mostly because I went to college for 5 1/2 years for 2 degrees and we all know, you have to get the "full experience" of dorms, suites, apartments, houses...how to hide beer, sneaking a female friend into the building, yada yada blah.
My desire to keep a tank through these years of my life was pretty, ehhhh lets just say "minuscule". I really didn't try, at all. I am not even going to bother showing any pictures of these tanks, mostly for the fact it looks like the 16 year old kid who works in the fish section at your local Petco set it up (actually, theirs would probably look better). Anywho, fast forward 5.5 years and we get to the fun stuff.
I acquired a REALLY weird tank size from a friend, it was around 34.5 gallons. No sump. AIO. This tank was...weird, to say the least. The AIO was not all along the back wall, but built dead center. Either way, it was a good way for me to get back into the hobby for cheap and really test the waters - see if I wanted to dive back into it. HA, punny.
I kept this tank running for about 1 year, before I even bought corals (okay I got one RBTA but thats it). The girlfriend (now my fiance, soon to be wife) said to me one day, lets make the tank prettier. So we went to some local LFS's and picked some corals up. Well, about $300 worth of frags lol. Shortly after this, we realized where the tank was at was extremely inconvenient. SO we moved it downstairs, and it looked really tiny on the wall. I absolutely hated it. So a friend of mine said he had a 90 gal acrylic cube he would sell me for dirt cheap...he wasn't kidding. I got this thing, with sump, skimmer, and stand for $200 out the door. I was pumped. Girlfriend, ehhh she wasn't thrilled...until she realized "OMG WE CAN GET MORE FISH!".
Start of the 90
Up and running for a bit
Skinned and apex install
Well lets fast forward a little bit, I went through quite a few ups and downs with the 90 over about a 12-14 month span. 2 ich break outs, 1 tank crash, 2 insane algae break outs...anyways then the last 6 months having the 90 was steady and strong.
My girlfriend and I got engaged and decided we wanted more space for our 3 dogs (Jetta, Recaro, and TT) and also to have a basement for me and my fish. So we bought a house about 2 months ago and are slowly making the transition in, should be moving the rest of the equipment within the next 2 weeks. Anyways, Here is the official start of the 180 build.
This was the temporary location and set-up until we got into the new house. Once everything is moved, I will show all of the fish room plans.
Tank moved into the condo
Fillin er' up!
Waiting for lights to come in...
Cya later 90 cube!
Fish settling in nicely!
