Introduction to Joel and My 180G Tank Build

[Joel B in FL]

Look what Diddy got!! Finally! The tank and sump were delivered to me. I still have not even taken the paper off of yet it is so new to me. My goal is to get the plumbing done over the next few days and then add water on Thursday. The LFS I bought the tank from gives free water with the purchase. Considering their prices are inline with other LFSs and in some cases lower I think this is an awesome deal. So if everything goes well with the plumbing I will have them bring me the water on Thursday. Anyone in Lakeland want to help with cutting and glueing PVC?!?

 

[Reefmon]

following along to see how this build turn out. excited to see someone from the same county as myself.

 

[Joel B in FL]

following along to see how this build turn out. excited to see someone from the same county as myself.

Thanks. The plumbing is proving to be a little more of a headache than I thought so progress is a little slow. Hopefully I will be able to finish the plumbing up this weekend and then get rock and water in the tank early next week.

 

[Joel B in FL]

Finally!! I got the plumbing finished yesterday. I filled the tank and sump with water this morning and now I am letting it run just to ensure there are no leaks. It has been about an hour now and I have not noticed anything so I think I should be good. The only thing left is to actually finish out the three drains in the overflow. I have the emergency setup but I ran out of elbows so the primary and secondary are missing an elbow each. I will go to home depot later today and get the elbows and finish that up. Then I will dial in the drains and everything will be good.

I set up my vectra and dialed in the min and max. I did not properly plan out my plumbing though. I did not add any valves on the returns so the right hand side facing return pumps a little more water than the left hand side. I do not think it is enough to make any substantial difference though so I am not going to worry about it. Ultimately it all flows through the same place anyway and I am only running approximately 450 gallons per hour through my sump anyway. The vast majority of the water movement will be handled by by power heads.

So I should be able to get the LFS to come by on Tuesday and deliver the initial fill of salt water. So rock, sand, and water will be in Tuesday night. YEAAA!!

Here are some pics of my plumbing. I like the way it looks.

 

[Joel B in FL]

Yipppeeeeeeee!!!!!

Finally got water in the tank. Nothing like a sand clouded tank!!

 

[TUSI]

Welcome, thanks for sharing this beautyfull build

 

[Joel B in FL]

Welcome, thanks for sharing this beautyfull build

You are welcome. It has been a journey just to get water in the tank but finally I can start with the real fun stuff.

 

[TUSI]

You are welcome. It has been a journey just to get water in the tank but finally I can start with the real fun stuff.

Take your time as we all know patience is the key to this hobby. It's going to be great, it all ready look it

 

[Joel B in FL]

There has not been a whole lot of movement on the tank the last few days. But here are a few tidbits.

Apparently the skimmer I purchased came with a bad pump. BRS has sent me a new one which should arrive tomorrow. So hopefully I will be able to fire it up one day this week. I have to say that the customer service from BRS is top notch. Anytime you are dealing with manufactured items there are bound to be lemons or defects but the way BRS responds to and handles those issues is better than anyone could hope for.

I ran out of hose clamps when I was setting up my reactors. I have those in now and will work on getting those finished out this week as well.

I still have to get float switches setup in the sump so I can power up my ATO and do some shutoff programming for the skimmer. I also plan on adding some sensors so the stand light will come on when I open the front doors.

I am having a terribly hard time getting my PH probe to calibrate. I have opened a case with Neptune and now just waiting on some calibration solution to try again. Any suggestions on how to get this done would be appreciated.

I guess my attempt to get the rock established with bacteria prior to adding it to the tank did not go as well as I had hoped. I added rock, sand, and water on the 11th and as of today I can finally say the tank has cycled. I added 2ppm ammonia yesterday at 630pm and as of 7pm today ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate were all at 0ppm. I am going to let the tank sit just a few more days just to be safe before moving everything over.

The tank is in full blown ugly diatom mode right now.

I will be moving everything from my 29g over to the new tank this weekend.

I placed an order with reef cleaners today for a cleaner pack with ceriths and nerite snails to get the diatoms cleaned up. From what I found online they have about the best prices on cleanup crews. A few weeks back I ordered a couple of barnacle clusters from them and was happy with their service on that order. I have them set to come in Friday so they will go in the tank about the same time as my stuff from the 29g.

I also ordered some pods from AlgaeBarn today. They should be in Wednesday. I want to add them to the tank prior to adding any fish so they have a chance to get in the rocks and sand and get settled before fish start eating them up. I will also start feeding phytoplankton when I add the pods.

Here is a pic I took with my iPad a few days ago. We are full blown brown rock/sand now and pics from an iPad are never great but it does give a glimpse of the aquascape.

 

[Joel B in FL]

I cannot believe it has been a month already. I should have been updating more as things progressed but work has been a little hectic so I have been neglecting this build thread.

So between May 28th and May 30th I moved everything from my Biocube over to the new tank. So far I do not have any corals with any fancy names but this is the basic list. Several different types of zoas, mushrooms, florida ricordia, lobos, red birdsnest, green sinularia, greens birdsnest (green stalk purple polyps), chalice, duncan, pocillopora, and another green birdsnest (green polyps). I had two ocellaris clowns, royal gramma, and a tailspot blenny for fish. Inverts that come over were cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, brittle star, and a bunch of snails and hermit crabs.

The only issues I have had since moving the Biocube over was some of my zoas and SPS lost a little color at first. The SPS bounced back really quick and are looking nice, while the zoas have been a little slower recovering the color although it is coming back. I also am not sure my tailspot blenny has survived the move. After moving him I saw him once or twice, then did not see him for a little over a week, and now have not seen him in a couple of weeks. I am hoping his is just hiding and will eventually come back out but I am not very optimistic at this point. However I have not seen any signs of a fish dieing in my system. I have seen no remains, nor have I had any spikes in parameters that would normally accompany something dieing. So I am hopeful he is still alive and will make his way back out so I can see him.

I ordered a 105 gallon clean up crew pack from reef cleaners that include hermits, nassarius snails, dwarf cerith snails, florida ceriths, and nerite snails.

Two weeks ago I added some additional fish. Those included 2 helfrichi firefish, a yellow coris wrasse, a blue flasher wrasse, a yellow banded possum wrasse, a temmincks wrasse, a multi color lubbocks wrasse, and a red head solon fairy wrasse. I also added a nice RBTA that the LFS gave me a good deal on since I spent so much on fish that day.

Today I placed an order with Unique Corals for a few pieces that will be arriving tomorrow. I have to say they are really friendly and helpful with making requests and odd scenarios that might come up. So far their customer service has been awesome. I am looking forward to receiving my new items tomorrow.

Here are a few pics of how the system looks now. I still need to figure out how to get my camera to take some good pics in blue light.

 

[FrankAbagnale]

Looking good!

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

The amount of detail you have put into this project is astonishing! Not only did you put in hard work and dedication: the tank, the clean layout of the reef, the tubing management, and the marine life all look amazing!!! Great work! Truly amazing!

- C. Smith

 

[BumsParadise]

Well Done! Will you post a pic or two of your sump and Apex?