My first solo tank, 180 gallon build thread

[Blutspitze]

Wow! Everything looks gorgeous! Love the custom work, scaping, the whole thing. Looking forward to seeing some stock in there!

 

[TARHEEL78]

Wow! Everything looks gorgeous! Love the custom work, scaping, the whole thing. Looking forward to seeing some stock in there!

Check back later today!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

It’s later...;Woot

 

[TARHEEL78]

It’s later...;Woot

I'll be ready to show soon.

 

[TARHEEL78]

Here are my new additions, thanks to a fellow R2R member.

An Ora BoP birdnest from TSA.

Multiple Zoas and an angry duncan from WWC.

Some scrambled egg zoas from a local that was moving.

Acan, micro and monti from wwc and some gsp and mummy eye from a local reefer.

Hollywood stunner from wwc.

Ultra orange ricordea from wwc.

And finally a FTS.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Congrats, looks good.

If I may suggest one thing. Slow down a bit.

Tanks just cycled. Worried about some of those coral making it long term due to how new the tank is.

The Ricordea should be ok, but the acan, bird nest and other may have an issue. I may think about asking the fellow refer to hold the more delicate ones for a bit until you have you numbers dialed in.

I have a few questions if you are ok with me asking about the tank and your progress

 

[TARHEEL78]

Ask away, I've had all of those corals for a while in a QT tank and they've never looked better than they do now. They've been in this tank for days now.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Sorry, I should have said I have a question.

Sorry if I missed it. Did you get a dosing plan or other method for stability. That was really my only concern about the coral. Since the tank is newer it may be a bit harder to keep numbers stable. Like mentioned it’s not really an issue of chasing the numbers as it is get it into a good range and keep it there.

Tank looks great. I would hit up GK for more as you go along.

 

[TARHEEL78]

I have the red sea reef foundations elements kit and I'm testing every day but I haven't had any major changes yet. When I do I'll dose by hand until it gets too much and then I'll set up a real doser. I've been contemplating automating my testing but I wanted to wait for a while and I don't even know which tester I would want to go with yet anyway. The only issue I had was low PH at first but I added airstones from a pump outside and ran a line from outside to my skimmer and it's been good since then.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Awesome. Can’t wait for more updates.

Still likin that floor also. Are you finding it a bit hard on feet? I really want to do that and like yours, but in NC the slab gets cold in winter. Worried floor wood be cold

 

[TARHEEL78]

I grew up walking on hardwood floors during NC winters, in FL it feels great with the cooler floors under your feet. I'm just glad the rest of the trim pieces that were backordered finally came today so I can finish this project and move on to the next.

 

[TARHEEL78]

So, not much new going on. I added a C02 scrubber yesterday because I still had PH issues. I lost a couple corals in the move over from the QT tank. The week I was setting the 180 up I kind of neglected that tank and they just never recovered. Maybe I'll get some new pics up this weekend.

 

[Murica]

So, not much new going on. I added a C02 scrubber yesterday because I still had PH issues. I lost a couple corals in the move over from the QT tank. The week I was setting the 180 up I kind of neglected that tank and they just never recovered. Maybe I'll get some new pics up this weekend.

Have you thought about running a line from your skimmer to the outside? I never had ph issues but when I did, I noticed that it stabilized a little more.

 

[TARHEEL78]

Have you thought about running a line from your skimmer to the outside? I never had ph issues but when I did, I noticed that it stabilized a little more.

I did that but the line had to be so long to get outside it didn't really help much. The scrubber has already brought my PH up .01 so I'm going to let it do it's thing and see how it goes. I have a 5 gallon bucket of soda lime, might as well use it.

 

[TARHEEL78]

Thought I'd post a small update with some pics of all the new friends I've added in the last month.

Foxface that just went in the DT Saturday. He's still pretty skittish but seems to be doing well.

The original clowns and the 3 wrasse I added a while back. Not the best pic but I'm no pro. Lol

Added a lot of frags recently, some of them had some issues as I fought cyano and then dinos but they are recovering.

FTS
The GHA is finally starting to take hold again after the dinos died off. I'm going to let it ride for a while and get my nitrates up a bit. After that if I'm still having issues I'm going to start a small refugium in my sump. That's it for now, I'll have more new additions in a month or so.

 

[Blutspitze]

Pictures are looking great! Love the Foxface. Crossing fingers that the GHA doesn't give you too many problems this time around.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Thanks for the update. Looking great. And glad to see the birdnest and others doing well.

Still think that looks great on the new floor.

 

[Tuffloud1]

Any update?