Bernie's 180

[Bernie]

Hi all, I figured it was time to get a build thread going.

Summer of 2011 I picked up this acrylic 180 from my LFS. Used, scratched, ugly stand, and best of all... CHEAP. LFS even threw in some weld-on, a sump, a Iwaki pump that was way too powerful.

So for a bit, the car was sent to live outside and the tank took the spot of honor in the garage.

My roommate and I immediately got to sanding, buffing, and staining.

Things turned out pretty good considering it was our first time doing any acrylic buffing, or wood staining.

Set-up "day" turned into set-up weekend.

Some sand, all the rock, filters, lights and livestock went from my 90 corner to the new tank. Everything did very well on the change over and seemed really happy to get some space to roam.

The view from my office before adding the second 250w MH.

Well, 2 250w MH just weren't cutting things, and were really blowing up the power bill. So on to the DIY LED from aquastyles.com.

This bit of hot mess didn't last long. The drivers were getting too hot, so they got remounted to some egg crate for the time being.

The aluminum wasn't quite cutting it for the heat, so I added a fan on the same timer, and that drastically dropped temps on the LEDs.

And finally, a couple of full tanks shots.

 

[danka-cedium]

Good job. Love the diy

 

[Bernie]

Quick run down on the specs and livestock.

Return pump is a Mag 12 with 2 Koralia 1400's (i think) moving stuff around inside.

Reef Octopus NWB-150, brought over from my 90 corner. So far so good with it, but I'm thinking it is time for a boost in size, or at least swapping the pump out for a Bubble Blaster.

120 3 watt Bridgelux LEDs, 60 blue, 60 white with 60 degree optics running off of 6 china-drivers. I like a 20k look, so I have the whites dimmed just a hair.

JBJ auto top-off, a cheapy petsmart UV filter, and that about rounds out the equipment.

Livestock is a bit heavier toward fish at the moment. Once I see how the LEDs hold up what I have, I'll look into a few more things.

Fish, all common names, I'm horrible at the scientific stuff: yellow tang, purple tang, regal tang, atlantic blue tang, dwarf fuzzy lion, flame angel, midnight angel, christmas wrasse, two cleaner shrimp, and 3 green chromis, as well as the crabs and snails.

Corals, just some mushrooms (red and green), some pulsing xenia, a few hitchhiker kenya trees, that big ole leather and a stick of acro.

Well guys and gals, that is about it for my set-up. Nothing crazy wonderful (for now) but watching all these youtube videos and reading the build threads, I do have tank envy. So maybe I'll be able to post some interesting improvements over the course of the life of the tank.