Custom Corner 180g Build and Reboot

[Todd1white]

So, I'm in the carwash and they've got this nice hexagon tank in the middle of the place and I start thinkin' I'd like to have somethin' like that! I'm googling for days about salt water tanks and figure, yeah, I can do that! I find this local guy, Kevin, who comes over and we talk, figure out a spot for the tank, he gives me an approximate price range and time frame, I give him the deposit, and... the journey begins, my first salt water tank. This is back in the summer of 2018 and all summer long I'm watching YouTube videos, I join several groups on FaceBook and I'm reading endless threads on forums like this Reef2Reef. I'm planning what equipment I want to get, what fish can go with the what fish, corals I want, and man, the excitement level builds to a boil. I'm texting Kevin daily asking him about this and that and when is the tank gonna get here!! Early August, 2018 the tank is on my patio. Now, Kevin is an "old school" kinda dude, he's a big guy, physically, and is the "bull in a china shop" sort, so he fills the tank with about 200 lbs of live rock from the ocean off the coast of FLA. It's important to know that it came from FLA he tells me, cuz it's gonna cost more than what we budgeted for. Not the first time we're over budget. Takes an hour or so to get the rocks all balanced against the back wall, throws in a few bags of aragonite sand and hooks up a hose to my kitchen faucet. Once it's full, he dumps a few bags of Instant Ocean in the sump, which is a DIY plexi box that Kevin made and we're off and running! A few days later he shows up with 5 little Talbots Damsels and we're cycling. Chinese black box for lights above, a little tiny pump for flow, what looks like a slightly used ASM G3 skimmer, an Eheim Jaeger 300w heater and a mag pump 9.5 for return. Over the next couple of months Kevin keeps stopping by with more fish, a few tangs, a few clowns, and because I asked, a CBB (I'm already seeing aiptasia) and a Moorish Idol. Well at 3 months I had 32 fish in this tank!
Now, it's a custom built, starfire glass, 180g, corner tank that's 36" deep and on a 36" high steel stand, so yes, it's really hard to work in.
This is the first tank I've owned and I decided to do a build thread because now, a year and a half later, I'm having to start the whole process again. More to come...

 

[Todd1white]

Don't have a lot of experience with threads. Looking for tips on what to do. Thanks for the thumbs up AftonReefer!

 

[Todd1white]

So I understand rather quickly how people get so enthusiastic about this hobby. While I'm going through the new tank uglies I'm doing so much research and learning about all the chemistry of salt water. (my wife sez I'm a mad scientist on water test Saturdays)
I decided, before I even got the tank, that I was gonna do the complete Red Sea Mixed Reef Recipe, so Coral Pro salt, NoPox and everything else. I'm figuring out that I need better lighting to grow the corals that I want, and more gear to deal with high nutrients, and I'm getting weary with the manual dosing, and calculating how much of this and that have to go in every day and dumping in 4 gals of RODI water every day and a half. It's time to upgrade already and I'm only a few months in! Sheesh!! Off to the LFS. A few grand later...
I go with two Radion Xr30w pro G4 mounted in the Aquatic Life T5 hybrid. I buy a 2 little fishes phosphate reactor and a Korallin BioDenitrator and a second skimmer, and the top end Kessil light for the fuge. Most importantly, I get the whole Apex Neptune system right as the Trident is released. Plus I opt for the Tunze ATO. Finally some stability!
Now I can kill some really expensive corals!