Rob's 75g to 180g build

wrassie86

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Hello all,
My name is Rob aka Wrassie86 been in the hobby since early 2000's. Took a few years off for life changes, but back again. started a 75g in early 2019. Then had a good deal on a used 180g fall into my lap, always wanted a large tank so went for it. I'm big into DIY and there wont be a lot of high tech here, although that could change, I like things as simple as possible. The focus of the tank will be mixed reef SPS and LPS

The current equipment list
6 Viparspectra led
40g eshopps sump
eshopps skimmer
simplicity return pump
4 head doser and tanks
55 watt UV
will have a few gyres for flow

I built the stand and canopy .

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wrassie86

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The canopy was built at 16 inches high to accommodate the minimum height needed by the leds. My wood building skills are minimum at best, but learning as i go.
 

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wrassie86

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Painting the inside of the canopy. The worst part of trying to get this build done was middle of winter. seemed all our snow hit just after bringing the tank home. So had to do a lot of it in a back room of my house.
 

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wrassie86

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Unfortunately, things started getting a little rushed at this point, so building and filling.
While i spent a lot of time washing sand, a 1000gph pump and a 4 micron sump bag works with floss in it works real good at getting the left over silt. little bit of stirring and all good. I planned on having a few sand sifters so didn't want the cloudiness that could come with them.

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wrassie86

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So one thing i learned from this build is hanging cabinet doors fresh sucks... I found building the stand and canopy much easier than hanging the doors lol. Nothing google couldn't help me out with though and they came out ok, may redo them in the summer and maybe homedepot will have better wood to choose from... seems like slim pickings during this pandemic.
 

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wrassie86

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And a reef is born! Still have trim work to do on stand and canopy but getting there.
 

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Dj City

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I'm glad you started the build thread.

Very good start!
I'm following.

If there is anything I can help you with or advise you on,
I'm here.
 
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I'm glad you started the build thread.

Very good start!
I'm following.

If there is anything I can hero you with or advise you on,
I'm here.
Thanks! still playing catch up with this thread and more pictures to get to, but shortly after moving live stock and taking the 75g down the tank broke out in dino's , been fighting them for a month now and seems that fight may be over finally.
 
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wrassie86

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Tank is still a bit of a mess but growing and doing well. I've been testing a Jebao scp 180m gyre i bought 2 but at this point only need 1 as its making great flow for the whole tank.
 

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Dj City

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Tank is still a bit of a mess but growing and doing well. I've been testing a Jebao scp 180m gyre i bought 2 but at this point only need 1 as its making great flow for the whole tank.
I had the older one from them.
Good pump!
I had no complaints.
 
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wrassie86

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2 weeks ago in my fight to end dinos I ordered 5 pounds of garf grunge. It came loaded with bugs and what not. I added 3 pounds garf grunge+ to refuge and 2 pounds regular grunge to display. Since dinos already seemed to be on the run i siphoned out as much as i could, added the grunge, I let that settle for a few days then put the temp to 83 while some nights letting it drop to 80 then back to 83 added 5ml vodka in the mornings for a week while dosing N&P as of 4 days ago there is none on the rocks and what was on/in the sand seems to be turning into red slime so pretty happy about that.
 
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wrassie86

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I had the older one from them.
Good pump!
I had no complaints.

My only complaint so far is i cant get the wifi to work, but its not pumps fault, they do 2.4 and my wifi swaps between 2.4 and 5g so i would have to change that on my network .Also not sure if there is any more control of the pump through the app then what controller offers. Originally i was wanting to run them both. 1 on for 6 hrs then off then the other on for 6 hrs and so on. but not sure if that was possible.
 

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I used a separate controller to regulate how long each pump was on.

I used the Hydor Koralla Smart Wave Controller.

Worked great for me.
 
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wrassie86

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A few pictures!
 

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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

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  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 14.4%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

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