- Joined
- Mar 22, 2017
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Well, I have been waiting for awhile to do this. Now, being stuck at home due to Covid-19, it seemed like the best time to start it.
I picked up a Marineland 180 about a year ago to upgrade my 60 gallon cube that is full of coral at this point. I didn't think it would take me a year to get the tank in my house. But it happens.
Lets start from the beginning.
Here is the tank the day I got it. Its about a year and a half old. The lady I got it from upgraded to a custom 400 gallon. Came with the stand, canopy, sump and a few other bits and pieces.
(ignore the 125 in the background. I flip tanks to make extra cash when my garage space allows me to)
After initial cleaning of the tank
I HATE the internal overflows that these come with. Pain to clean and I don't like the plumbing dumping into the bottom of the tank. So my first step was to rip these out and patch the wholes with half inch glass.
After patching with half in glass
Next step was to figure out my overflow situation. So I decided to go with Crystal Reef Aquatics ghost overflow. It is beefy and well built.
Next up was the stand. I don't have any before pics of the stand. But it was your typical wood finish Marineland stand. I refinished it to match the colors of our house a bit better. As well as modernize it a bit.
Alright, so tank and stand are moving along. Now for plumbing.
Was not a fan of the Eshopps sump layout, so sold it and picked up a Skimz up39 sump instead. This meant, second iteration of plumbing needed to happen.
The gate valve I picked up initially ended up sucking. So went with Spears (obviously should have just done this in the first place). Here is after plumbing was up and done.
I am going to run a Geo's Calcium Reactor off one line, a UV off another. Eventually I will have a turf scrubber on there for the last one.
While I leak tested this in my garage, I started to mess with my rockscape. Using Marco shelf and foundation rock.
This is all just stacked together. My final iteration will be much more tiered for SPS predominately. With some LPS towards the bottom of the tank.
Finally, after a year, got the tank in the house!
So whats next?
I need to refinish the canopy. Which I will do what the tank is up and running. I need to finalize the rockscape and get it in the tank. Then I will start to fill it up.
The tank will be lit with 3 xr30 gen 3 pros and 4 t5s.
Skimmer is a Vertex Alpha 200.
Any other questions on the setup happy to answer! Will try to keep posting pics as often as possible.
Cheers,
Mick aka Micksfish
I picked up a Marineland 180 about a year ago to upgrade my 60 gallon cube that is full of coral at this point. I didn't think it would take me a year to get the tank in my house. But it happens.
Lets start from the beginning.
Here is the tank the day I got it. Its about a year and a half old. The lady I got it from upgraded to a custom 400 gallon. Came with the stand, canopy, sump and a few other bits and pieces.
(ignore the 125 in the background. I flip tanks to make extra cash when my garage space allows me to)
After initial cleaning of the tank
I HATE the internal overflows that these come with. Pain to clean and I don't like the plumbing dumping into the bottom of the tank. So my first step was to rip these out and patch the wholes with half inch glass.
After patching with half in glass
Next step was to figure out my overflow situation. So I decided to go with Crystal Reef Aquatics ghost overflow. It is beefy and well built.
Next up was the stand. I don't have any before pics of the stand. But it was your typical wood finish Marineland stand. I refinished it to match the colors of our house a bit better. As well as modernize it a bit.
Alright, so tank and stand are moving along. Now for plumbing.
Was not a fan of the Eshopps sump layout, so sold it and picked up a Skimz up39 sump instead. This meant, second iteration of plumbing needed to happen.
The gate valve I picked up initially ended up sucking. So went with Spears (obviously should have just done this in the first place). Here is after plumbing was up and done.
I am going to run a Geo's Calcium Reactor off one line, a UV off another. Eventually I will have a turf scrubber on there for the last one.
While I leak tested this in my garage, I started to mess with my rockscape. Using Marco shelf and foundation rock.
This is all just stacked together. My final iteration will be much more tiered for SPS predominately. With some LPS towards the bottom of the tank.
Finally, after a year, got the tank in the house!
So whats next?
I need to refinish the canopy. Which I will do what the tank is up and running. I need to finalize the rockscape and get it in the tank. Then I will start to fill it up.
The tank will be lit with 3 xr30 gen 3 pros and 4 t5s.
Skimmer is a Vertex Alpha 200.
Any other questions on the setup happy to answer! Will try to keep posting pics as often as possible.
Cheers,
Mick aka Micksfish