ROMN8R
Community Member
Hello. My name is Romie. I'm from Texas.
This thread is to document my new 175 gallon tank build.
I started in saltwater about 15 years ago with a small 20 gallon tank and of course it grew many times all the way up to a 125 gallon 6 foot fresh water tank that I bought used and converted into a saltwater tank. I moved and had no where to keep a 6 foot tank so I had to break it down and sell it. That tank meant a lot to me and my wife because we had it before our kids were born and they loved to watch it when they were newborns all the way up to when we tore it down. We have been in the new house for a little over two years and I we have finally decided to build a new tank.
We don't have the most ideal spot but we are converting our breakfast/dining area to be a sort of lounge area with the tank there. Biggest size that I think fits the space is 5 foot. Although I love the rimless tanks, I do want to keep maintenance to a minimum and evaporation will happen more than I'd like. Also, we do have two kids. 5 and 9 so things will probably end up in the tank. We decided on a planet mega matrix 175 gallon with stand and canopy. I know there won't be a huge difference in evaporation but every little bit helps. Also sometimes we will be viewing by sitting as well as standing so we did go with the standard height stand, and a taller tank. I love the extra gallons as well. The tank is 30" tall and 24" deep.
Here is the space we will be putting the tank.
I decided to go with Marco rock instead of live rock just to limit the number of random hitchhikers and pests as well as give me something to do while waiting for the new tank to arrive. Me and the kids smashed up about 150lbs of it and have been playing around with thick gel type super glue. I wanted to go with sort of an NSA style scape but leaning more towards arches with many caves and branches. After building something, I fell in love with the "impossible" floating style and tried to come up with a sort of mixture of the two. I really like the exposed sand and longer overhangs. I'm not sure if this is going to be the final aquascape at the moment and I'll post more pictures once it's done but here's what I have so far:
I'm sure most of ya'll know that pictures really don't do a good job showing depth but there are a lot of platforms for coral and caves for fish to call home. I do still need to build a little extra height to fill the tank. I'm struggling with adding height because I feel like it takes away from the long overhangs but I will still continue to modify and if I can't end on something I love then I'll just smash it again and do more of arch type base and build up from there. I think anything higher than this point won't be glued/cemented together and just make the upper portions removable because I do want to be able to do that without destroying everything. Please feel free to share some input on the aquascape or give me some pictures as inspiration.
For some of the equipment I know for sure I'm using a trigger 36" sump. Simple but solid. I don't plan on running filter socks or fleece. I will be adding a protein skimmer later once I have a couple fish and corals in the system. I have some lights picked out but I have not purchased so I will share that once I am for sure what I go with. Most likely they will be ecotech. I plan on hard plumbing with either schedule 40 pvc with schedule 80 valves or just go with all schedule 80. I also have some power heads picked out but just like the lights and are also ecotech. I have not purchased them yet but it will be as minimal as possible just to keep the display tank as free from clutter and wires as possible. The return pump is an ecotech vectra m2. I like the ecotech equipment because you can run all them from one ap without any sort of extra control system even though I may add that way later down the line if neccessary. Heater is a aquatop 500w titanium heater. I do need recommendations for an additional temp probe preferable one that can run in the ecotech ap but I have not looked into that yet.
Delivery date on the tank is October 1st. I will be setting up a quarantine tank this week and taking the kids to pick out the first couple fish with will be clowns. More than likely they will be "storm" or "snowflake" type. I do plan on working up to a pretty heavily stocked tank. 15-20 fish. I do not have a complete list of fish that we will be getting but I know that about half will be tangs. I plan on posting or searching for a post of the best order to introduce tangs because I do have a couple of tangs that I must have. Powder Blue being one of the top. I would also like to add a purple tang and gem tang. The rest will probably be overall pretty easy as far as aggression goes like a some sort of Naso and also a Blue tang. At least one Mandarin will be in the tank as well. I would like some cool shrimp but I don't know how that limits me as far as fish goes so I will be asking for a little help with that. We like Trigger fish but I worry about them eating the shrimp snails and crabs. I've heard they will also eat clams. So I am battling with coral and inverts versus fish for selection. I think adding a cleaner shrimp or two and a couple more cool looking shrimp and crabs is a must just for the diversity when viewing especially for the kids and guests. If aphasia pops up then I'll be considering some sort of butterfly fish or anything that can naturally combat them.
This may be the longest post I've ever done on any forum so I'll leave it with that. I will be trying my best to document this journey and hopefully it will help me stay interested and consistent at least for the initial establishment period.
This thread is to document my new 175 gallon tank build.
I started in saltwater about 15 years ago with a small 20 gallon tank and of course it grew many times all the way up to a 125 gallon 6 foot fresh water tank that I bought used and converted into a saltwater tank. I moved and had no where to keep a 6 foot tank so I had to break it down and sell it. That tank meant a lot to me and my wife because we had it before our kids were born and they loved to watch it when they were newborns all the way up to when we tore it down. We have been in the new house for a little over two years and I we have finally decided to build a new tank.
We don't have the most ideal spot but we are converting our breakfast/dining area to be a sort of lounge area with the tank there. Biggest size that I think fits the space is 5 foot. Although I love the rimless tanks, I do want to keep maintenance to a minimum and evaporation will happen more than I'd like. Also, we do have two kids. 5 and 9 so things will probably end up in the tank. We decided on a planet mega matrix 175 gallon with stand and canopy. I know there won't be a huge difference in evaporation but every little bit helps. Also sometimes we will be viewing by sitting as well as standing so we did go with the standard height stand, and a taller tank. I love the extra gallons as well. The tank is 30" tall and 24" deep.
Here is the space we will be putting the tank.
I decided to go with Marco rock instead of live rock just to limit the number of random hitchhikers and pests as well as give me something to do while waiting for the new tank to arrive. Me and the kids smashed up about 150lbs of it and have been playing around with thick gel type super glue. I wanted to go with sort of an NSA style scape but leaning more towards arches with many caves and branches. After building something, I fell in love with the "impossible" floating style and tried to come up with a sort of mixture of the two. I really like the exposed sand and longer overhangs. I'm not sure if this is going to be the final aquascape at the moment and I'll post more pictures once it's done but here's what I have so far:
I'm sure most of ya'll know that pictures really don't do a good job showing depth but there are a lot of platforms for coral and caves for fish to call home. I do still need to build a little extra height to fill the tank. I'm struggling with adding height because I feel like it takes away from the long overhangs but I will still continue to modify and if I can't end on something I love then I'll just smash it again and do more of arch type base and build up from there. I think anything higher than this point won't be glued/cemented together and just make the upper portions removable because I do want to be able to do that without destroying everything. Please feel free to share some input on the aquascape or give me some pictures as inspiration.
For some of the equipment I know for sure I'm using a trigger 36" sump. Simple but solid. I don't plan on running filter socks or fleece. I will be adding a protein skimmer later once I have a couple fish and corals in the system. I have some lights picked out but I have not purchased so I will share that once I am for sure what I go with. Most likely they will be ecotech. I plan on hard plumbing with either schedule 40 pvc with schedule 80 valves or just go with all schedule 80. I also have some power heads picked out but just like the lights and are also ecotech. I have not purchased them yet but it will be as minimal as possible just to keep the display tank as free from clutter and wires as possible. The return pump is an ecotech vectra m2. I like the ecotech equipment because you can run all them from one ap without any sort of extra control system even though I may add that way later down the line if neccessary. Heater is a aquatop 500w titanium heater. I do need recommendations for an additional temp probe preferable one that can run in the ecotech ap but I have not looked into that yet.
Delivery date on the tank is October 1st. I will be setting up a quarantine tank this week and taking the kids to pick out the first couple fish with will be clowns. More than likely they will be "storm" or "snowflake" type. I do plan on working up to a pretty heavily stocked tank. 15-20 fish. I do not have a complete list of fish that we will be getting but I know that about half will be tangs. I plan on posting or searching for a post of the best order to introduce tangs because I do have a couple of tangs that I must have. Powder Blue being one of the top. I would also like to add a purple tang and gem tang. The rest will probably be overall pretty easy as far as aggression goes like a some sort of Naso and also a Blue tang. At least one Mandarin will be in the tank as well. I would like some cool shrimp but I don't know how that limits me as far as fish goes so I will be asking for a little help with that. We like Trigger fish but I worry about them eating the shrimp snails and crabs. I've heard they will also eat clams. So I am battling with coral and inverts versus fish for selection. I think adding a cleaner shrimp or two and a couple more cool looking shrimp and crabs is a must just for the diversity when viewing especially for the kids and guests. If aphasia pops up then I'll be considering some sort of butterfly fish or anything that can naturally combat them.
This may be the longest post I've ever done on any forum so I'll leave it with that. I will be trying my best to document this journey and hopefully it will help me stay interested and consistent at least for the initial establishment period.
