180 Gallon Mixed Reef Living Room Build

[Streetdoc77]

Super slick ! Love all that negative space !

 

[Maximitsurugi]

Is this the final height of the T5 fixture? How high above the wet stuff is it?

 

[backdraft_reefer]

Did a ton of work on the new build today! Got all of the fish and coral moved over to the new tank and got the Kessils and the 2-part dosing set up. It is definitely function before form right now. I have bunch of wires that I have clean up and get organized. Today my priority was my fish and coral and getting them safely transferred into the new tank. I started with any coral and inverts that were not attached to rockwork. I then moved to my acro colonies and moti’s. I had to finish off by removing the old rockwork out of my tank to catch and move my fish to the new tank. I also had cut dremel off a few encusting corals that I did not want to lose. Overall, it took me about 10 hours of solid work to get everything moved over and set in the new tank, good news is that I only had one fatality. I did lose a talbot damsel fish while move the old rock out of the tank, everything survived and is looking great in the tank.

 

[backdraft_reefer]

Here are some more pics of the move from today:

 

[backdraft_reefer]

And a few more.....

 

[backdraft_reefer]

Is this the final height of the T5 fixture? How high above the wet stuff is it?

It sure yet, going to play with the height some more of the next few weeks. I do have some cheap acrylic sheets acting as a cover until my custom glass lids are made. They help protect the fixture from saltcreep and planned.

 

[backdraft_reefer]

Super slick ! Love all that negative space !

Thank you! I hope to try to keep it open through out the build.

 

[backdraft_reefer]

48 hours in and everything is looking good. I am having to shorten the lighting period on the T5s to 6 hours due to the tank heating up too much. The next few weeks I will be fine tuning all of the settings and ensuring all of the corals have good placements. This is a pic of tonight with the Kessils running full blue.

 

[backdraft_reefer]

Did some more work on the tank tonight. Mainly added the moon lights to the light rack and organized a bunch of cords for the lights also. I picked up three 18” audio cords with the 90 degree connectors on amazon for $5 each to link the kessils together. Provides a much cleaner look

 

[backdraft_reefer]

Here are some before and after shots

 

[MrWheelock]

Looks great! Sorry about yout loss in the transfer

 

[Tom Stevens]

Great work. I just pulled the trigger on the T5 Hybrid for a 180 (72x24x24). How did you attached to the ceiling? Your wire organization skills are spot on

 

[MrWheelock]

Here are some before and after shots

Do you think 4 a360s are too much for a 4 foot tank?

 

[backdraft_reefer]

Looks great! Sorry about yout loss in the transfer

Thank you!

 

[backdraft_reefer]

Great work. I just pulled the trigger on the T5 Hybrid for a 180 (72x24x24). How did you attached to the ceiling? Your wire organization skills are spot on

Thank you! I ended up using 4 drywall anchors and a metal latch found on sliding gate locks that I got at Home Depot. I am paranoid about something crazy happening and everything falling out, so I definitely way over engineered it. I painted the parts white to match the ceiling, but still need to clean up metal wire at the ceiling to keep the sleek look.

 

[backdraft_reefer]

Do you think 4 a360s are too much for a 4 foot tank?

Not really. I ran all four on my SR-80 for three years and it worked out great. I love the Kessils and shimmer that they have. However, I do believe that you need one about every 12-18 inches in order to reduce the shadowing. My new tank is a standard dimension 6ft 180. I decided to supplement with the T5 Hybrid to eliminate any shadow and add extra par since I will be adding a custom lid to the tank.

 

[MrWheelock]

Not really. I ran all four on my SR-80 for three years and it worked out great. I love the Kessils and shimmer that they have. However, I do believe that you need one about every 12-18 inches in order to reduce the shadowing. My new tank is a standard dimension 6ft 180. I decided to supplement with the T5 Hybrid to eliminate any shadow and add extra par since I will be adding a custom lid to the tank.

Awesome thank you, I plan on having 4 on my 75 with a 4 bulb Aquatic life t5, and was just concerned it would be too much.

 

[backdraft_reefer]

Awesome thank you, I plan on having 4 on my 75 with a 4 bulb Aquatic life t5, and was just concerned it would be too much.

I definitely think you should be good with that. I did mount mine about 16" off the surface when they ran on my 80 gallon and had them max out around 85% intensity.

 

[backdraft_reefer]

Did some more work on the tank today. Getting some more cords and dosing lines cleaned up and organized. Took some pics of the NYOS 220. I will say I absolutely LOVE this skimmer! It is quiet and extremely efficient. The Avast Marine Swabbie is also doing some great work. It keeps the neck super clean and working efficiently. I have it draining into a BRS 1 gallon slim container which has yet to fill up yet. Tank is looking great!

 

[ReefHomieJon]

Super nice build