Albertan's 180 Gallon Reef Build

[Albertan22]

Photo updates

FTS

LPS dominated right island

SPS dominated left island

A couple of tangs in QT that will be released to the DT in approximately 2 weeks

 

[Albertan22]

Well I’m a bit overdue for an update. I am fighting some issues, but first the positive. I have been adding fish all summer and am nearly done. My current stocking list is:

• 1 Fox face lo
• 1 Scopas tang
• 1 Regal blue tang
• 1 Powder brown tang
• 1 Tomini tang
• 2 Ochre stripped cardinals
• 4 Lyretail anthias
• 2 Ocellatis clowns
• 1 Orchid dottyback
• 1 Starry blenny
• 1 Neon (cleaner) goby
• 1 Six line wrasse

I am planning to add a diamond goby next as I am in need of a sand sifter (more on that later). Once he is in I probably won’t add any more, at least not for awhile.

Now the issues, I went on a 2 week camping trip this summer and foolishly change my pellet food right before I left. I switched from a PE Mysis 3mm pellet to a different brand’s 1mm pellet in hope my anthias would eat it. Well they never did eat it, and it jumped my phosphate and nitrate way up. A little red/rust patch on my sand (in the back) expanded out and took over about 1/3 of my sandbed by the time I got back. I figured this was probably cyano and decided to try chemiclean for the first time. Well that was a mistake! The chemiclean did nothing (guess it’s not cyano), and during the treatment my skimmer wasn’t effective and I **** down the AWC. After treatment (and the recommended WC) my skimmer was going nuts. After 2 weeks of ineffective skimming I ended up just letting the cup overflow into a jug and removed about 30 gallons of skimate before it worked normally again. During this time, my sandbed has been nearly completely taken over by the rust coloured algae...

This brings me to today, my nutrients are high so I don’t think it’s dinos, maybe a second diatom bloom? It comes back within hours of siphoning the sand, but does clump up a bit. I am working on dropping the nutrients a bit, currently phosphate 0.1 and nitrate 10, and am looking for a sand sifter.

 

[Albertan22]

Another thing I’ve been fighting is low pH. Being a basement aquarium my pH has always been on the low side (~7.8 - 7.9) but since it got cold it has really dropped. I have noticed that my SPS have completely stopped growing/encrusting and I lost my red dragon acro. When my pH hit 7.6 I decided I needed to take action. I converted an old Two Little Fishies Phosphan Reactor into a CO2 scrubber and installed it on Thursday. This has improved things quite a bit. I’m now bottoming out at 7.9 and getting a bit above 8.0. Today I lengthened my refugium light time as well. Once everything stabilizes, I may use my unused 4th dosing head to dose some kalk to boost it a bit more.

CO2 scrubber

pH Readings (reactor added on evening of Sept 18)

 

[RJKain-777]

Tanks looking great! Nice to see another large albertan build

 

[Albertan22]

Tanks looking great! Nice to see another large albertan build

Thanks! I just followed your build. Looks like it will be a sweet tank when it all comes together!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

I might be jumping the gun a little bit on this build thread since I don't yet have everything I need to actually start building this setup; but the tank is finally in the house after a few months on order so I figured I'd start this up to document the build and progression of this tank. I had build threads on Canreef and Reef Central for my 120 gallon mixed reef back in the day, but this forum seems much more active than either of those so I'm moving over here for the new build. As a bit of background, I set up my first saltwater tank 10 years ago. It was a 120G mixed reef and was fairly successful. That tank was restarted about 5 years ago when we moved homes and the tank suffered a bad crash when a heater cracked wiping out nearly everything in a mater of days. I also lost my T5 fixture around then and converted over to an LED fixture. I haven't really been able to keep SPS successfully since then. I never could quite get that light dialed in properly and then started to get lazy with the tank as a result. The stand has started to show signs of rot recently and we decided to take the opportunity to move the tank off of our main floor and into the basement. This will make tank maintenance easier, and not require me to hijack the main floor bathroom to make RODI water and the kitchen sink for water changes. It was my wife that actually suggested upgrading to a bigger tank so that we could house more tangs, so we measured up the space and decided on a 6 foot 180G tank.

The build started by clearing a space and getting a flooring contractor to come in and remove the carpet and replace with a commercial grade vinyl tile. We were very happy with how it turned out!

After the floor was done, we ordered the tank, steel stand, and sump. All were custom and were built in Calgary, Alberta. The tank is euro braced and drilled for a Ghost Overflow. It will be plumbed using a bean animal configuration. There are holes for two 3/4 inch bulkheads for the returns in each corner. I'm really happy with how it turned out and quite excited not to have a big overflow box in the aquarium.

The sump is 75 gallons (actual water volume will be less) and has two 7 inch filter sock holders, an 18 gallon refugium, a skimmer section and return section.

I will be using the rock in my 120g tank, and I have another 40lbs of rock that has been curing in a rubbermaid trash can for about 3 months.

I also had to replace my old quarantine tank, as when I pulled it out of storage all the trim broke off! Here is the new setup, which is strangely enough located inside the basement bathroom.

I have been gathering gear since Black Friday. One of our goals with this new tank was to be able to get back into SPS, be able to have more fish, and to set ourselves up for success by automating things where we can since we are away quite a bit in the summers. With that in mind, here is a list of the gear I'm putting together to run the tank:

Lighting: Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid with 3 Kessil A360X Tuna Blue LEDs with a wifi dongle (will probably bump this up to 4 eventually)
Flow: 2 MP40ES models from my 120g (will adjust as necessary once I see what they do in the tank)
Return pump: Neptune COR20
Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve 7 from my 120g (this tank is at the upper end of what this skimmer is rated for so I may upgrade it once the bioload becomes heavier but I'm deferring that for now)
Controller: Neptune APEX EL with an autofeeder and a WXM Module to control the MP40s
Dosing: Kamoer F4 wifi 4 head dosing pump
ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3155
Heaters: TBD but I'm guessing I'll need about 500-600 Watts worth
Refugium lighting : TBD but looking at the AI Fuge light. I have time to make this decision as it will be awhile before there are enough nutrients to really need the fuge running.

I also purchased a couple Brute 44 gallon trash cans and will be building a proper saltwater mixing station in my basement. I have an old Quiet One 3000 pump that was my first return pump on the 120g but I quickly removed it as I found it didn't restart reliably when power was interrupted. That doesn't really matter for a saltwater mixing station though so I figured I'd save some cash and use it. I am strongly considering running some RO lines up the wall and through the ceiling between the tank and the saltwater mixing station before I hang my lighting or put water into the 180g so that I'm set up for for an AWC system. Eventually I plan to purchase a Neptune DOS for this purpose but figured I'd spend that money on getting livestock into the tank right now and implement the AWC later in the summer before camping season starts.

As it stands right now, I am still waiting on my ghost overflow to show up along with my ATO and some of the valves for the plumbing. It will probably be at least 2 weeks before I can start plumbing this thing. Now I need to start thinking about how I might skin this stand, and at a bare minimum what wood (and paint) I might want to add in the back and right side so that I can secure my plumbing and mount my electrical stuff. I plan to magnet mount plywood to the inside frame for these purposes, and will magnet mount something more finished to the outside, I'm just not sure what yet and whether it might have doors built in or just have 3 removable 2 foot panels across the front.

who built that tank?

 

[Albertan22]

who built that tank?

Concept out of Calgary, AB, Canada.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

that setup has come a long ways, really nice work there, looking pretty sharp!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Concept out of Calgary, AB, Canada.

I bought a Miracles, another fine Canadian tank builder

 

[Albertan22]

that setup has come a long ways, really nice work there, looking pretty sharp!

Thanks! It's been a journey for sure. Being stuck at home since March has given me more time to focus on this tank than any of my previous ones and I like to think it shows.

 

[RJKain-777]

Thanks! It's been a journey for sure. Being stuck at home since March has given me more time to focus on this tank than any of my previous ones and I like to think it shows.

Slow and steady wins the race! I’m just patiently waiting for my house so I can start

 

[chizerbunoi]

Tank build is awesome. Hopefully it starts to go back on track now and you can get the system on cruise control. Are you planning to do AWC once every couple of weeks? Do you have humidity issues, I knows it’s pretty dry up north.

no anemone for clowns?

 

[Albertan22]

Tank build is awesome. Hopefully it starts to go back on track now and you can get the system on cruise control. Are you planning to do AWC once every couple of weeks? Do you have humidity issues, I knows it’s pretty dry up north.

no anemone for clowns?

Thanks! The AWC Changes 1% of system volume daily. I have it run from midnight to 8am when no one is in the basement as the DOS pump is loud! I’m actually shocked that so many people use these things for their dosing, it makes a noise like a photocopier from the 90s or something. You know every time that thing fires up.

Regarding humidity, I didn’t have any issues at all through the winter and spring. Over the summer I ran a dehumidifier in the basement for awhile. It’s been one of the wettest years on record though, it rained here nearly every day (sometimes just a shower, others full storm) from June to mid-August. The outside humidity was 100% most of July and August so it’s hard to judge whether the humidity was amplified by the aquarium. On days when the humidity was lower outside I’d just crack a basement window and it would quickly equalize without the dehumidifier.

I do have an RBTA in the tank. Both it and the clowns came from my older tank and the clowns have never shown any interest in it whatsoever which has always been disappointing

 

[chizerbunoi]

lol I see it now. The clowns on the other side which was why I thought they didn’t have one.

 

[Albertan22]

lol I see it now. The clowns on the other side which was why I thought they didn’t have one.

Yeah the little punks have never gone near it. I tried a few different things over the years, but they always just host in the sand. When I upgraded the tank I thought they might try it, but just created a nest in the back corner where you barely see them. At least in the old tank they were hostile the sand in a front corner.