JP&JL
Active Member
Hey Everyone, Happy early Merry Christmas!
I've had my 180 Gallon upgrade running for about 3 months and felt it was safe to finally post on here seeing as there were no catastrophic failures....yet lol... I have a 70 gallon sump and a 55 gallon refugium to support the tank.
The tank is going to be predominantly SPS but I still wanted a full Reef feel to it so there will be plenty of softies, LPS, inverts, etc.. It's filled with initial frags and some larger coral colonies I carried over from the previous 90 gallon. After the pictures I'll post some equipment opinions along with a small lessons learned section that will hopefully benefit other reefers. Enjoy and I'll try to post updated pictures every few months.
I needed a place to put a giant rock of Green Star Polyps until I can offload it to someone. I decided not to give up that much real estate in the DT to that weed of a coral....very pretty weed I might add.
I'm still in the process of getting the sump room organized and settled into, to include organizing all the wires better. The 45 gallon red sea reefer is going to get cleaned out and plumbed into the system to add some extra water volume, more biological filtration in the form of rock and serve as a frag holding tank down the road.
LESSONS LEARNED
- I'm sure every larger tank owner will attest to this but do as much planning as you can for the plumbing. Think about all the things you might want to do in the future that you may not be plumbing in immediately do to budget or still needing to do some research to make a decision. Add Gate valves at different points in your system to incorporate these changes/upgrades down the road. Play out every worse case scenario you can to ensure you are making your system safe and redundant. I would plan out exactly what you want your plumbing to do in order to support the vision of your system and THEN do your research....I think you'll find you have some more room for creativity this way and then when you start watching youtube videos and find those good ideas from others and more experienced reefers you can figure out how to incorporate them. That last recommendation is very much dependent on how your "mind works" but it certainly helped me out.
- Whatever you think your budget is add 10-20%. The amount of unforeseen equipment needs and random plumbing pieces I needed stacked up quickly.
- I personally think having multiple methods and levels of filtration incorporated into your system but not using them all right away with a new tank is the way to go. This will help you keep nutrients in your tank as you slowly start to increase your live stock. I started off only using my older Live Rock and Filter Socks for a while until nitrates and phosphates started rising. I added some various new tank bacteria products and some new dry rock into the system once nutrient levels started to rise. Next I added the Macro algae in the Fuge still not using the skimmer. I ran the tank like this for 2 months. I just recently increased fish load and started heavy feeding leading me to use the skimmer. During this whole process I never went below 1 Nitrate or above 5ppm.
- This lesson learned isn't just from this tank but my overall experience in reefing. Don't just go buy corals and throw them somewhere in your tank without doing your homework. It's important to understand how they are going to grow so you can allocate space needed as the colonies get bigger and bigger due to your excellent reefing success. It also helps you maximize location to meet needs for light, flow, etc.. If you do go buy a random frag that looks cool and you know nothing about (totally guilty as well
keep it on a frag rack in the bottom of your tank until you do the homework. A great example of this is I got a Kenya Tree and thought I knew enough. To my surprise as it grew to a very large size branches started falling off. Not just a few I mean 50+. Turns out this is how they reproduce lol. I am still finding random Kenya tree colonies growing in hidden places in my tank.....
- Plan your aggressive fish additions. I had a purple tang from my 90 gallon that I wanted to keep but knew I was going to add in future tangs. My purple Tang is extremely aggressive so I purposefully didn't completely aquascape the tank. I added some new tangs that the purple tang immediately tried to kill so I finished the aquascaping and it immediately made everyone friends....great success.
I'm sure like every other person out there that has been reefing for a while I have plenty of other tidbits to add but these were the first few that popped in my head as I sit down to write this post and I don't want this to be too long.
EQUIPMENT OPINIONS
- I decided to go with Radeon Gen4's and T5 combo. I can't say enough good things about this! It is definitely pricey and had it not been for selling all the 90 gallon equipment and tank I would not have been able to afford this. I use the WWC AB+ variant for the radeons and run the T5s 8 hours a day. Before and after my "growing period" I keep the radeons on for a few hours on very low intensity blues for extra viewing time. I would highly recommend this for anyone trying to figure out what programming to use for their Radeons
- The Kessil H380. This is another light I cant say enough good things about if you own a fuge. The rate at which chaeto and ulva grow under it is incredible.
- For the skimmer I went with the new RSK 900 from red sea. I didn't really need to use it right away as the refugium was keeping up with filtration but now that I have increased fish load and feedings I started using it. It was a pain to get dialed in. I had the water level at the recommended height for the skimmer and would over skim by the buckets even on the lowest setting. I ran it for a few days like this manually topping off the water to keep up and it just wouldn't break in. I then had to elevate it, slowly trying to get it to the right height. It's currently elevated 6 inches which is where I decided to let it overskim for a few days again on the lowest setting and it's finally getting to where I want it and can actual dial it up a little bit to maintain that good foamy head I want. It's doing great now all things considered
- Ive always been a big ecotech fan so I upgraded powerheads to MP 40's. These have been working great but the stock covers they send you have some pretty wide openings. After a Blenny and six line wrasse exploded in the powerhead I had to order some after market covers with smaller openings. This decreased effectiveness of the flow and I now plan to upgrade to MP60s.
- I'm using the Neptune product line for my controller and automation. While I had some issues getting the flow monitoring kit and ATK 2.0 working properly I am overall very pleased with Neptune and would recommend their product to anyone
Happy Reefing everyone and a big thanks to all the hundreds of threads I read through on Reef 2 Reef that helped me make this tank happen! I can't thank you all enough and especially Reef 2 Reef for making such a great online community with such a vast amount of accessible knowledge....y'all rock!
I've had my 180 Gallon upgrade running for about 3 months and felt it was safe to finally post on here seeing as there were no catastrophic failures....yet lol... I have a 70 gallon sump and a 55 gallon refugium to support the tank.
The tank is going to be predominantly SPS but I still wanted a full Reef feel to it so there will be plenty of softies, LPS, inverts, etc.. It's filled with initial frags and some larger coral colonies I carried over from the previous 90 gallon. After the pictures I'll post some equipment opinions along with a small lessons learned section that will hopefully benefit other reefers. Enjoy and I'll try to post updated pictures every few months.
I needed a place to put a giant rock of Green Star Polyps until I can offload it to someone. I decided not to give up that much real estate in the DT to that weed of a coral....very pretty weed I might add.
I'm still in the process of getting the sump room organized and settled into, to include organizing all the wires better. The 45 gallon red sea reefer is going to get cleaned out and plumbed into the system to add some extra water volume, more biological filtration in the form of rock and serve as a frag holding tank down the road.
LESSONS LEARNED
- I'm sure every larger tank owner will attest to this but do as much planning as you can for the plumbing. Think about all the things you might want to do in the future that you may not be plumbing in immediately do to budget or still needing to do some research to make a decision. Add Gate valves at different points in your system to incorporate these changes/upgrades down the road. Play out every worse case scenario you can to ensure you are making your system safe and redundant. I would plan out exactly what you want your plumbing to do in order to support the vision of your system and THEN do your research....I think you'll find you have some more room for creativity this way and then when you start watching youtube videos and find those good ideas from others and more experienced reefers you can figure out how to incorporate them. That last recommendation is very much dependent on how your "mind works" but it certainly helped me out.
- Whatever you think your budget is add 10-20%. The amount of unforeseen equipment needs and random plumbing pieces I needed stacked up quickly.
- I personally think having multiple methods and levels of filtration incorporated into your system but not using them all right away with a new tank is the way to go. This will help you keep nutrients in your tank as you slowly start to increase your live stock. I started off only using my older Live Rock and Filter Socks for a while until nitrates and phosphates started rising. I added some various new tank bacteria products and some new dry rock into the system once nutrient levels started to rise. Next I added the Macro algae in the Fuge still not using the skimmer. I ran the tank like this for 2 months. I just recently increased fish load and started heavy feeding leading me to use the skimmer. During this whole process I never went below 1 Nitrate or above 5ppm.
- This lesson learned isn't just from this tank but my overall experience in reefing. Don't just go buy corals and throw them somewhere in your tank without doing your homework. It's important to understand how they are going to grow so you can allocate space needed as the colonies get bigger and bigger due to your excellent reefing success. It also helps you maximize location to meet needs for light, flow, etc.. If you do go buy a random frag that looks cool and you know nothing about (totally guilty as well
keep it on a frag rack in the bottom of your tank until you do the homework. A great example of this is I got a Kenya Tree and thought I knew enough. To my surprise as it grew to a very large size branches started falling off. Not just a few I mean 50+. Turns out this is how they reproduce lol. I am still finding random Kenya tree colonies growing in hidden places in my tank.....- Plan your aggressive fish additions. I had a purple tang from my 90 gallon that I wanted to keep but knew I was going to add in future tangs. My purple Tang is extremely aggressive so I purposefully didn't completely aquascape the tank. I added some new tangs that the purple tang immediately tried to kill so I finished the aquascaping and it immediately made everyone friends....great success.
I'm sure like every other person out there that has been reefing for a while I have plenty of other tidbits to add but these were the first few that popped in my head as I sit down to write this post and I don't want this to be too long.
EQUIPMENT OPINIONS
- I decided to go with Radeon Gen4's and T5 combo. I can't say enough good things about this! It is definitely pricey and had it not been for selling all the 90 gallon equipment and tank I would not have been able to afford this. I use the WWC AB+ variant for the radeons and run the T5s 8 hours a day. Before and after my "growing period" I keep the radeons on for a few hours on very low intensity blues for extra viewing time. I would highly recommend this for anyone trying to figure out what programming to use for their Radeons
- The Kessil H380. This is another light I cant say enough good things about if you own a fuge. The rate at which chaeto and ulva grow under it is incredible.
- For the skimmer I went with the new RSK 900 from red sea. I didn't really need to use it right away as the refugium was keeping up with filtration but now that I have increased fish load and feedings I started using it. It was a pain to get dialed in. I had the water level at the recommended height for the skimmer and would over skim by the buckets even on the lowest setting. I ran it for a few days like this manually topping off the water to keep up and it just wouldn't break in. I then had to elevate it, slowly trying to get it to the right height. It's currently elevated 6 inches which is where I decided to let it overskim for a few days again on the lowest setting and it's finally getting to where I want it and can actual dial it up a little bit to maintain that good foamy head I want. It's doing great now all things considered
- Ive always been a big ecotech fan so I upgraded powerheads to MP 40's. These have been working great but the stock covers they send you have some pretty wide openings. After a Blenny and six line wrasse exploded in the powerhead I had to order some after market covers with smaller openings. This decreased effectiveness of the flow and I now plan to upgrade to MP60s.
- I'm using the Neptune product line for my controller and automation. While I had some issues getting the flow monitoring kit and ATK 2.0 working properly I am overall very pleased with Neptune and would recommend their product to anyone
Happy Reefing everyone and a big thanks to all the hundreds of threads I read through on Reef 2 Reef that helped me make this tank happen! I can't thank you all enough and especially Reef 2 Reef for making such a great online community with such a vast amount of accessible knowledge....y'all rock!
