OP
OP
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,855
Reaction score
3,673
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Following. I too am waiting on a 180g tank from Crystal Dynamics. I like your rock work. How many pounds of rock did you use?
Im not exactly sure.
We had/have a big 100G stock tub in the garage, that we cleaned all of our previous tanks rock in and then just used that. Never bothered to actually weigh it......
I think we are also going to have a marinepure block or something similar in the sump to add extra surface area for the bacteria to grow on since we are going on the lighter side of rock in the tank itself.
We wanted to keep the main display somewhat open so that the fish have room to swim and the corals have room to grow.
 

SkiCatTX

Sustainable Reefkeeping
View Badges
Joined
Jan 10, 2019
Messages
1,050
Reaction score
3,295
Location
South of Houston
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
yea i don't know why everyone kept coming back with such crazy numbers.... We even had someone who was another reefer, who i had a loong talk with them about how i wasn't looking to spend $4500 on a wooden wrap, and he was like yea i totally understand that, no way itll be that much.... he comes over, talks, takes measurements and then finally gets back to with his quote... of $4200...o_O like what??? guess you didn't understand our conversation like you thought you did.....

Its insane to me that these guys want more money to build a fake finish/door than the tank builder did for making the whole tank and metal stand...... And im not even asking for anything crazy like raised panels or anything fancy, just wrap the thing so its not visible, and not noisy....
Totally, shouldn't be more than a few hundred dollars in materials and I also couldn't believe it would take many hours of work. LFS wants to wrap mine in 4 magnetic panels for $600, but after wanting just a few customizations it went up like 3x...
 
OP
OP
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,855
Reaction score
3,673
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Totally, shouldn't be more than a few hundred dollars in materials and I also couldn't believe it would take many hours of work. LFS wants to wrap mine in 4 magnetic panels for $600, but after wanting just a few customizations it went up like 3x...
I’d be happy to pay $1800 at this point ;Wacky
 
OP
OP
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,855
Reaction score
3,673
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Made a few changes to the layout of the rockwork. I brought the 2 islands together to form a single longer wall, and then added some extra rocks for height and depth focal points.

What you guys think of this setup?
 

SkiCatTX

Sustainable Reefkeeping
View Badges
Joined
Jan 10, 2019
Messages
1,050
Reaction score
3,295
Location
South of Houston
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Made a few changes to the layout of the rockwork. I brought the 2 islands together to form a single longer wall, and then added some extra rocks for height and depth focal points.

What you guys think of this setup?

Looking good! I’m totally in favor of the open look, and especially space in the back for flow. Room for corals to grow and fish to swim...
 
OP
OP
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,855
Reaction score
3,673
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I’d be happy to pay $1800 at this point ;Wacky
So we finally made progress on this front.
Met a guy at a local glass event who seemed eager to do it so after talking and having him come by and take measurements, we’re getting the stand wrapped and also a separate small cabinet to house all the apex equipment for materials costs and then glass trade. I love the barter system. :)

I leave to head to Oregon in a couple weeks to help a buddy harvest his farm, so hopefully everything will be ready by the time I get back middle of October.

Maybe we can get this thing filled up by the new year!

Looking good! I’m totally in favor of the open look, and especially space in the back for flow. Room for corals to grow and fish to swim...
exactly. Now we gotta figure out what flow pumps we are gonna use and placements for them.
 

SkiCatTX

Sustainable Reefkeeping
View Badges
Joined
Jan 10, 2019
Messages
1,050
Reaction score
3,295
Location
South of Houston
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So we finally made progress on this front.
Met a guy at a local glass event who seemed eager to do it so after talking and having him come by and take measurements, we’re getting the stand wrapped and also a separate small cabinet to house all the apex equipment for materials costs and then glass trade. I love the barter system. :)

I leave to head to Oregon in a couple weeks to help a buddy harvest his farm, so hopefully everything will be ready by the time I get back middle of October.

Maybe we can get this thing filled up by the new year!


exactly. Now we gotta figure out what flow pumps we are gonna use and placements for them.
Yeah, I need to decide on my pumps, I really wanted to use Gyres, but after 6 months with an Icecap version, they are just such a PAIN to clean ALL THE TIME...Thought I would do two Gyres and two MP40s on my new 180, but every day I am more convinced to just get a bunch of MP40s and extra wet sides...then I just swap them all out in a few seconds with clean, then soak the dirty ones overnight, rinse, and put away until the next swapout...no wires to reroute, no magnets an motors to remove...
 
OP
OP
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,855
Reaction score
3,673
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Well it finally happened!
The tank is full and the cycle has started!
Now to just sit back and wait while it does it’s thing :cool:
DAD6AE1F-082D-4BFF-8C63-D90BCDC06B8C.jpeg
 
OP
OP
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,855
Reaction score
3,673
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Loving the scape!
Thanks! :)
Looking good!
Thanks buddy.
The person we found to do the woodwork for the stand wrap came over on saturday to install the panels, but ran into some issues with our floor not being flat/level along with the wall, so things didn't quite fit, so we decided to have him just take them back to his shop and make the proper adjustments and will be coming back this weekend instead. But since we had prepared all the water in anticipation we decided to just fill the tank now rather than have the water sit in our unheated garage for a week.
Overall though we are super happy with how the project turned out. Everything fits together with mortise and tenon joints and magnets so its super easy to remove and put back together. Will post up more pics once that gets installed.
 
OP
OP
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,855
Reaction score
3,673
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So now that the tank has water and is cycling, we are finalizing the fish list and getting ready to order the first fish soon. All Fish will be sourced from @tsm corals since they have the space and resources to properly QT fish (I dont really have the space or knowledge/experience)

But now we gotta figure out in what order we want to get the fish in so i was hoping for some help from you more experienced fish keepers, as i mostly did corals with a couple fish, and none of the size of these guys.


⁃Orange Spot Rabbbit Fish (Siganus guttatus)

⁃Powder Brown Tang (Acanthurus japonicus)

⁃Desjardini Sailfin Tang (Zebrasoma desjardini)

⁃Achilles Tang (Acanthurus achilles) ? (If we can make it work with the others)

⁃Long Nose Hawkfish (Oxycirrhites typus)

⁃Orange Spot Blenny (Blenniella chrysospilos)

⁃Golden Rhomboidalis Wrasse (cirrhilabrus rhomboidalis)

⁃McCoskers Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus mccoskeri)

⁃Bellus Anglefish Pair (Genicanthus bellus)

⁃2X Dragon Face pipefish

⁃Blue/Green Reef Chromis (Chromis viridis)

- Some other colorful wrasse's still yet to be decided
Pintail? Naokos?

⁃Two Spot Bristletooth Tang (Ctenochaetus binotatus) ?

- Copperband Butterflyfish(Chelmon rostratus)?



Possible first round :
⁃2X Dragon Face pipefish
⁃Golden Rhomboidalis Wrasse (cirrhilabrus rhomboidalis)
⁃McCoskers Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus mccoskeri)
-Bellus Anglefish Pair (Genicanthus bellus)

Second Round:
-5x Blue/Green Reef Chromis (Chromis viridis)
-Long Nose Hawkfish (Oxycirrhites typus)
⁃Orange Spot Blenny (Blenniella chrysospilos)
⁃Orange Spot Rabbbit Fish (Siganus guttatus)

Third Round:
⁃Powder Brown Tang (Acanthurus japonicus)
⁃Desjardini Sailfin Tang (Zebrasoma desjardini)
⁃Achilles Tang (Acanthurus achilles)
-Two Spot Bristletooth Tang (Ctenochaetus binotatus)

Thoughts on addition order?
 
OP
OP
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,855
Reaction score
3,673
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Cycle is doing its thing, shouldn't be too much longer till she's done.
Hoping to add all our corals from the coral QT around the new year and add the first batch of fish around the same time
. Still dealing with some red planaria in the coral QT though, but we will be taking serious action on that this weekend by taking everything out the tank, dipping all corals multiple times (in different dips) and cleaning all the equipment and setting the tank back up again, which should hopefully get rid of the little buggers.
I think ive accidentally created a strain of flatworms thats resistant to normal strength flatworm rx over time, and ive even gone as far as dosing 5x strength and they still persist which is why we have to go so crazy with them.

Screen Shot 2019-12-18 at 5.49.25 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-12-18 at 5.50.22 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-12-18 at 5.49.59 PM.png
 

Blue Spot Octopus

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 30, 2016
Messages
3,321
Reaction score
1,397
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So how hard was it to move the tank, ,stand and sump back to the correct orientation?
 
OP
OP
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,855
Reaction score
3,673
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'll compile some more photos over this week and update this weekend.

Thanks for the push, and good luck with the new tank!
 
OP
OP
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,855
Reaction score
3,673
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Well it only took me an extra month to get around to compiling all the photos to make another post lol ;Playful

So a lot has happened since the last update, The stand wrap was finished and installed, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out! Also the New Lid from TOPLIDS showed up and its awesome as well.

Pics of the stand right after it was finished
Stand1.jpg

Stand2.jpg

Stand3.jpg

Stand4.jpg

Both Side doors are fully magnetic and come off for easy access
Stand5.jpg

And then the separate Equipment Cabinet to house all the powerbars and such.
EquipmentCabinet.JPG


And the TOPLID
TopLidsCloseUp.jpg

FrontViewLid.JPG
SideViewLid.JPG


HD Video of the Lid



we've since also gotten another couple groups of fish so the total fish count is now up to 11 i believe.
3x Dispar Anthias (One just turned Male!)
3x Firefish
1x Fathead Anthia
2x Bellus Angel (Male/Female Pair)
1x Orange Spot Rabbitfish
1x McCosker's Flasher Wrasse

Anthia Trio right after being added to the tank

And then as of yesterday I'm pretty sure we now have a fully transitioned Male


We also added the first group of Corals out of the QT tank, which were all the holdovers from our old system, mostly all LPS (couple of montis)
But the tank actually looks somewhat like a reef now.

With that said, all the new fish in the tank created a bit of an algae issue since our CUC is still in QT for another week along with the second batch of Corals. They all get transferred to the DT Next Weekend (April4th)
Heres a video of the tank this morning during feeding time.
FTS1.jpg
 
Last edited:

Rock solid aquascape: Does the weight of the rocks in your aquascape matter?

  • The weight of the rocks is a key factor.

    Votes: 12 8.5%
  • The weight of the rocks is one of many factors.

    Votes: 48 34.0%
  • The weight of the rocks is a minor factor.

    Votes: 47 33.3%
  • The weight of the rocks is not a factor.

    Votes: 32 22.7%
  • Other.

    Votes: 2 1.4%
Back
Top