New 180 Gallon Aquarium

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

Introduction:
Hello everyone,

I had a 55 gallon mixed reef tank a while back but because of life circumstances I shut down the tank and donated the inhabitants to the fish store with much regret. It's been a while since I dabbled with saltwater aquariums. Anyway to the point, I bought a used 180-gallon aquarium that I'll be picking on the weekend. I organized everything below and included a picture of the tank, thank you for taking the time to help everyone.

Equipment

Old Equipment:

• Eheim 900 GPH (type 1262310)
• Neptune system controller with temperature probe, ph probe and auto top off.
• Spectrepure 4 stage RO/DI unit
• Aqua illumination Blue Led Sol x2
• 40-watt Aqua Ultraviolet UV Sterilizer

New Equipment:

• Trigger Systems Crystal Sump 36S - 36 inch
• Eshopps PF-1200 Hang on Overflow Box
• Coral Vue Technology AC20287 Octopus Needle Wheel Skimmer
• Jebao OW-25 Wavemaker x2

Objective: The overall goal here is to build a mixed reef tank.

Desired Fish List:

• Yellow Tang
• Blue Tang
• Kole Yellow Eye Tang
• Magnificent Foxface
• Naoke Wrasse and Ornate Leopard Wrasse (or Six-line Wrasse I want a parasite eater)
• Princess Anthias x4 or x5
• Clown Fish x2
• Shrimp Goby
• Midas Blenny
• Lawnmower blenny
• Potter's Angelfish or Coral Beauty Angelfish

Desired invertebrates List:

• Cleaner Shrimp x2
• Blood Red Fire Shrimp x2
• Sexy Shrimp x2
• Hermit Crabs
• Astraea Turbo Snails
• Orange Sponge
• Maxima Clam (ultra grade)
• Crocea clam
• Derasa Clam

What I need help with at the moment?

1. Deciding what to put in my sumps refugium (things other than equipment such as Bio-blocks and Cyclopoida's)
2. Deciding the type and amount of substrate to get
3. Deciding what brand of salt to use
4. Deciding what heater to buy
5. Deciding what lights to buy (while taking into account that I still want to use my current LED's)
6. Deciding how much dry rock I should buy.
7. Need to know whether I should use FritzZyme TurboStart to cycle the aquarium quickly
8. Need to know if my pump can handle the overflow (not sure if this is an issue, but it seems like it could be)
9. Need to determine whether my desired fish are compatible
10. Need to decide what order to buy the Fish (to prevent aggression issues and to account for hardiness)
11. Need to know whether I need to change the filters and membrane on my RO/DI unit (I used it for a year). If I need to change them can I buy any 4 stage filtration replacement kit or does it have to be the same brand?
12. Need to know how many hermit crabs and turbo snails I'll need.

 

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

New Equipment:

• Trigger Systems Crystal Sump 36S - 36 inch
• Eshopps PF-1200 Hang on Overflow Box
• Coral Vue Technology AC20287 Octopus Needle Wheel Skimmer
• Jebao OW-25 Wavemaker x2

I went for the Reef Octopus Elite 200INT and two Jebao SDW-16's (320-4250 GPH) instead. So the new list is:


New Equipment:

• Trigger Systems Crystal Sump 36S - 36 inch
• Eshopps PF-1200 Hang on Overflow Box
• Reef Octopus Elite 200INT
• Jebao SDW-16 wave pump x2

 

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

Update 1:

Hey everyone, here's a quick update

I've decided to not use my old LED's in this setup and instead save them for a frag tank later down the road. So, I put in an order for a 60-inch Aquatic Life T5HO Hybrid mounting system. For the system, I grabbed 2 Tuna Blue Kessil A360WE's LED's and 2 60 inch ATI True Actinic T5HO's, and 2 60 inch ATO Aquablue T5HO's. I'll grab two more Kessils to fill in the other two spots on the mounting system at a later date.

Regarding dry rock, I found a local guy that's willing to sell 100lbs of dried out live rock for $80.00 so I'm going to grab that and use the 70lbs I have leftover from my previous setup. So I'll be using 170lbs of dry rock in total. I'm not sure if that's enough some input would be great thanks.

 

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

Update 2:

So the tank I was going to pick up on Sunday ended up being a dud, It's extremely old, the top of the tank is basically completely covered with acrylic, it was just a horrible design for my build sadly. But it's not the worst news ever, since I found two other tanks. So now I have 1 and a half alternative choices. I say half a choice because someone is selling an 8 ft 265-gallon aquarium (black) which is pending pick up. So if the other guy doesn't pick it up by Monday It will go to me. The alternative choice is a 6ft 210-gallon aquarium (white), that I can grab anytime. So if I don't end up getting the 8ft tank, I'll definitely be getting the 6ft tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This will be a nice one !!

 

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

This will be a nice one !!

Hopefully! I'm already spending a fortune on the equipment, so I figured why cheap out on the tank.

 

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

Update 3:

The good news is, I almost bought everything now except for the tank (on Monday); the bad news is we broke the bank, so adjustments had to be made. To save money, I decided to use my two Aqua illumination Blue Led Sols and three Kessil’s. The funny thing is my credit card company thought I was committing fraud because of the number of purchases I’ve made over the last couple of days. There are some changes to the new equipment and old equipment lists. Also quick note I thought my RO/DI unit was a 4 stage unit it turns out it has 5 stages. I didn’t even realize that until I took it out of the box in my attic along with a few other things as listed below.

New Equipment:

• Kessil A360WE Tuna Blue x3 (Pending Shipment)
• Trigger Systems Crystal Sump 36S (Pending Shipment)
• Jebao DP-4 Auto Dosing Pump (Pending Shipment)
• 300W Eheim Jager Heaters X 3 (Pending Shipment)
• Triton Method - Core7 Base Elements (Pending Shipment)
• AquaIllumination Prime Fuge Black (Pending Shipment)
• Reef Octopus Elite 200INT (Pending Shipment)
• Jebao SDW-16 wave pump x2 (Pending Shipment)

Old Equipment

• Neptune apex lite system with PH and Temp probes
• Tunze Water Level Controller
• Eheim 900 GPH (type 1262310)
• Spectrepure 5 stage RO/DI unit
• 40-watt Aqua Ultraviolet UV Sterilizer
• TDS Meter
• Sybon Refractometer

Things are looking good so far. I only have $1000.00 CAD left to spend after purchasing the tank, hopefully that will be enough for piping and whatever else I may need. But I think I got all the equipment I’ll need now, unless you guys can think of something I’ve missed.

 

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

Hey guys,

I was doing some reading and realized that the skimmer I bought previously when considering the 180 is just not going to come close to cutting it for either the 220 or the 265. I'm super frustrated because the company I bought it from went through a lot to order it for me and they had it ready for shipping on Monday. So I had no choice but to make them cancel it and get a bigger skimmer. So instead of the Reef Octopus 200INT Protein Skimmer, I'm going to get the Reef Octopus Regal 300SSS Protein Skimmer. The only issue is Trigger system crystal sump doesn't have enough space to house it. Therefore, I have no choice but to put on my DIY Belt and build a custom sump. Yes, this may be an inconvenience to me and the company, but it's beneficial for my wallet and setup. I ended up saving money and got a better skimmer. If any of you can refer me to an excellent guide to building sumps, that'd be great.

 

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

For anyone that was following this thread, I made a lot of changes as I was shopping. To organize everything I made a new official thread. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/innovative-marine-200-gallon-int-build.759106/