180g newbie reef build

bluebeltreefer · Sep 3, 2009

hows it going everyone. my name is jensen and i am from rio, brasil. im new to reefing, but i have alot of friends who have awesome tanks and they have helped me with my setup. im 27 years old, and besides work and jiu jitsu, reefing keeps me happy. please pardon my english and grammar, as i type free minded.

my tank has been up and running for a few months now, but only now i decided to post some pictures of my build. before starting my 180g tank, i had a 50g ada tank that had a bunch of sps frags and clams. that tank started to get very crowded so it was time to upgrade. again my tank is about 3-4 months old. i will start off with equipment list.....
-180g glass aquarium 72x24x24
-75g sump
-swc cone skimmer
-(2) 36" 10 bulb power module t5
-(4) vortech mp40w
-jbj 1/3 chiller
-tunze ATO
-drews doser for 2 part
-BRS carbon and gfo reactor
-RKII to control everything.

pics to follow. im going to try and post chronological order as much as possible.

bluebeltreefer · Sep 3, 2009

here is my very very first tank. it was 75g and i had no idea what i was doing. luckily not much fish died in that process, but i did lose lots of coral frags. we all have to start some where. i had a cheap t5 fixture, and i thought i had good flow with lots of koralias.

bluebeltreefer · Sep 3, 2009

first day i got the tank

75g sump

i took all of my rocks and soaked it in a freshwater/bleach solution to kill any and every hitch hiker.

the garage filled with stuff

started on the aquascape after the rocks were soaked and dried for about a week. i used 1/2 acrylic rods to help support the rocks.

bluebeltreefer · Sep 3, 2009

i ended up doing a simple plumbing job. dual 1 inch returns and dual 1 1/2 inch drains. drilling the tank was simple and fast.

i had buddy make my overflow boxes and it came out awesome

freshwater test to make sure boxes worked properly

after everything checked out ok, we put the tank and stand in the house. its located on the bottom floor and in our fish room/family room. the tank stand is pretty high, so it took a little bit of muscle to get everything in place. luckily our ceiling is a little higher than normal, which ended up working out well in the future when i did the lights.

in the next few pics, i am adding the sand and leveling it out. also, i started putting in the rocks. this is my first time having a decent sized tank, so i was not prepared on what it took to work on it or set it up. total setup up time took only about a day or so. and the next day i filled with NSW and started the cycle process.

bluebeltreefer · Sep 3, 2009

this is the tank after water was added. i hooked up a 250w light just so i could enjoy watching my tank cycle, lol. with all of the dead matter in the rocks, i had a HUGE CRAZY cycle. the ammonia on the test kits nearly came out black, lol. the cycle was fast though. every 3rd day i would do a 50g water change and it took about 3 weeks for the ammonia and nitrites to zero out. my theory is that if you do a high level cycle, you can add alot more fish off of the start because of the high levels of bacteria accumalated. ive tested this a number of times and i have not lost a fish due to premature cycle.

quick pic of the sump

the tank looked like this for a few weeks. gave me time to start ordering some equipment and supplies

for lighting, i ended up going with ATI. to cover the 72" tank, i ordered two sets of the 10 bulb 36" fixture. i didnt realize how heavy this thing was, lol. with the weight, i had to start thinking about a light stand that would be able to support it.

the bulb combo

testing out the light to make sure i like the color of the lights'

i fabbed up metal legs for my light stand. i wasnt too concerned with aesthetics as much as i was with strength.

lights with the stand. doing some test runs before putting it on the tank. again, lemme stress at how heavy this was, lol. also the working height sucked, especially since im short

on the tank!!

all lights on

dawn/dusk setting

bluebeltreefer · Sep 3, 2009

with the lighting situation done and the tank cycling, i started to work on some of the equipment. i was able to use some stuff from my 50g but i also ordered more things. i thought 2 mp40s would have been enough for flow, but i was wrong. i opted for 2 more, to make it a total of 4 vortechs. 2 on each side. this has awesome flow on reefcrest mode

mounting everything so its out of view

dosing pumps

i orginally started out with a swc200 skimmer and it worked awesome for the first 2 months. i would have to empty the cup every 3-4 days and the skimmate smelt like it was from hell!!!

after doing lots of reading and research on cone skimmers, i just had to have one! i was able to get a killer deal on a swc cone, so i went with it. it came with a askoll pump, and it was alot larger than i thought it would be.

compared to the swc200 that i was on the tank before

it was a tight fit, but it worked.

15 minutes of run time with no vinegar bath!

first week of skimmate

after a few weeks, the skimmer was broken in, and this is was 3-4 days look like!

bluebeltreefer · Sep 3, 2009

the previous posts was basically what happened during the first month of the build. like i said, i used completely dead rock, and i let the dead matter in the rock kick off the cycle. after the ammonia and nitrites zero'd out, i went ahead and added a good portion of my fish list. too most people, it would seem that i am adding too much too fast, but my buddies and i have been doing this way for alot of setups, and we have not lost fish due to ammonia or cycle issues. the key i believe it make sure you have a big established bacteria system to handle the load. this was my stock list for the first couple months of my tank.
-15 chromis
-flame hawkfish
-niger trigger
-5 cardinals
-4 gobies
-2 yellow tang
-1 kole tang
-1 pualu tang

after the fish was added, i checked water params every couple of days and ammonia and nitrites still stayed at zero. after the fish was in the tank for a few weeks, i started to add my sps and clams. i added a handful of sps and clams. they browned out for the first couple of weeks, but i did not lose 1 sps or clam. the switch was not too stressful because the water in the tank it came from was identical to the water it was going into. basically i added all of my fish and corals within 2 months of setting my tank up. although i do not reccommend doing like this, i am very meticulous to water husbandry and i keep an eye on everything. here are some pics of the tank at month 2 after everything i had, was added. im not good at taking pics and my camera is not very good.

i went through some diatom stages and the tank looked very ugly for a period of time. also, the tank looked really weird because the rocks were very white and looked like there was no life on it.

bluebeltreefer · Sep 3, 2009

at about month 3-4, i decided that i did not like where the tank was located. i wanted to move the tank over to the next wall. needless to say, i was thinking how i was going to do this. at the end of the day, it was very easy. i drained out 90% of the water, so that there was only about 3-4 inches in the tank so that the fish could swim a little. i called over some of my buddies, and we simply pushed the tank over and then refilled with water. the corals were exposed to dry air for about 30mins, but they were fine after the water was put back in. here is what the family room looks like when you enter.

here are some shots of some of my fish. since then, the watchman goby has passed for unknown reasons.

my favorite fish and my first fish ive had since i started. lots of personality and doesnt bother anyone in the tank

bluebeltreefer · Sep 3, 2009

fast forward to today, 9/3/09, the tank is doing great. ive since got rid of some fish and added new ones. i got rid of my purple tang because he was being too much of a bully. i split the yellow tangs up and now i only have 1. ive purchased a couple of blennies because they bring personality to the tank. ive sold some of my clams and i got some new sps. the sps was been doing great. ive experiences awesome growth and the colors are starting to come around. the rocks in the tank are also showing lots of color and the coralline algae is starting to take hold. im dosing about 200ml a day of calcium and alk to keep my parameters at 420 clacium and 8dkh for alk. salinity is at 1.025 and i keep my temps at 80-82 degrees. here is a most recent FTS. dont mind the date stamp. im also starting to play around with different t5 bulbs to find a color that i like.

bluebeltreefer · Sep 3, 2009

here is what my livestock looks like as of today. again, i have lots of fish, but my nitrates are always below 10 and unwanted algae is at a minimum. i also feed twice a day. 4 frozen cubes (brine, mysis, PE mysis and spirulinae algae) in the early afternoon and another 4 cubes at night. during the day ill add some nori and sometimes feed spectrum pellets. to me, fat fish are healthy fish. also fat healthy fish also seems to do good for my sps, as i dont add or feed anything special to the sps corals.

-12 chromis
-1 kole tang
-1 yellow tang
-1 sail fin tang
-1 flame hawk
-2 black clowns with BTA
-1 orange clown that tries to sneak in with the pair of blacks, lol
-5 cardinals
-various blennies
-randall goby
-1 niger trigger that now lives in the refuge because he likes to eat anything new i put in the tank.
-1 fourline wrasse
-1 cleaner wrasse

i tried adding a jawfish, but as soon as i added him, the trigger swam down and ate him!!! thats why he now lives in the refugium til my friend picks him up.

i lost almost all of my inverts because i had to treat the tank for red bugs. i tried to catch as much hermits as i could and i housed them in my brothers nano. my 4 cleaner shrimp, 12 peppermint shrimp, 8 emeralds, 4 porcelain crabs and pistol shrimp all died. now that the red bugs are gone, ive been stocking slowly with new inverts. by the end of the week i should have 4 cleaner shrimp, 6 peppermints, some emeralds and ill be putting back my hermits in the tank.

as far as corals go, i dont plan to add too much more. im in the stage where i want things to start to grow out. i might buy a couple more frags of some sps to add some color. im not good with names of corals, so i just go by looks, lol. ive recently added some zoas/palys (nothing special), and im waiting til they start to carpet some of the rocks. with the BTA, im pretty lucky (knock on wood). he stayed in the same place that i had placed him orginally when i added him. ive heard some horror stories about anemones moving around and getting caught in power heads. so far so good, and its been about a month.

just a quick picture of the 50g that i broke down. it was getting a little crowded so i needed to upgrade.

gilmour01 · Sep 3, 2009

tank is looking great!

sleeper · Sep 3, 2009

Great Build thread. I enjoyed reading it. Keep us updated with pics! Tank looks amazing and I like the tall stand so it is at eye level for tank watching.

MarvinsReef · Sep 3, 2009

sweet tank... very nice...

MikeB · Sep 3, 2009

Great Job

bluebeltreefer · Sep 3, 2009

thanks for the good words. this site gives me motivation to stay in the hobby and also learned alot from here. i hope that in a few years my tank can be grown out and look like the tanks that are posted on here. :wink:

ahayes13 · Sep 4, 2009

beautiful tank ! i really enjoyed reading through the details and all of the pics. great tank thread

SethSPST · Sep 4, 2009

Your tank looks great Jensen!

bluebeltreefer · Sep 4, 2009

SethSPST said:
Your tank looks great Jensen!

hey whats up buddy!! thanks. how is your build coming along?

bluebeltreefer · Sep 6, 2009

little bit of an update for today. for the most part, i spent alot of time trying to get rid of ONE BLENNY!!! it was a linear blenny, and i bought him because my girlfriend thought he was so cute, lol.

for the past couple of weeks i was wondering why i had junk polyp extension on some of my corals and why there was missing tissue along the base and branches. i was beginning to get scared thinking i had some acro eating worms so i started to panic. after a few days, the damage would heal, but then i would see more damage on other acros.

then a few days ago, i witnessed the blenny chomping on my corals!!! and clams!!! he would casually swim across the tank, and take sample bites of corals. then he would chill and then take more bites. i couldnt believe it!!!

last night, i thought i was smart and would try to catch him when he was sleeping. he sleeps in the same spot every night and thought it was be easy. nope, no luck. today i tried netting him and trapping him with a fish trap, nope, did not work. so what i did was drain 95% of the water from the tank and spend an hour trying to net him. it worked with my girlfriends help with spotting where he was hiding and where he was running.

at then end of the day, i accidently fragged lots of corals and lost 2 colonies of birdnest because they didnt take to dry air too well. the rest of the corals were fine once i put the water back in. they experienced total dryness for 1 hour. i shouldve taken a pic.

if i wanted to just spear the blenny, it would have been easy, but that would be wrong and mean.

now he lives in a nano where he can do whatever he wants.

thanks for reading the story of the day!