Start big and go bigger

[mmpadi3d]

New to the life of aquarist and I purchased myself a used 180g 72x25x24. I picked up the tank and canopy but turns out that was all that would fit in my vehicle. I will go to pick up the rest from the seller this upcoming weekend. It has bottom drilled holes with two downspouts a 45-gallon sump, a heater, and a return pump. He did include many live rocks, crushed coral substrate, various chemicals, and a full test kit. I already have an RO setup but have a lot of work to do. The seller was very helpful and was a little upset that he had to part with his tank. So far I have cleaned everything that I have and will give the stand much-needed attention when it arrives. I also intend to completely dry and cure the rock and substrate as I know he at least had some pest starfish (not sure if that's a thing). Generally, I just want to start fresh with my build so that I can learn everything there is to the hobby. Currently, I'm trying to figure out how I want to do the plumbing because I don't like how he had no unions or valves for maintenance. The first 4 pictures are what he had set up. I will continue to post more pictures as progress is made. I intend to take this very slowly as I give myself a very strict budget. So if it takes 2 years to get this up and running, I'm ok with that.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[mmpadi3d]

Picked up the rest of the tank today. Still figuring out everything that I have. I'm having a little buyers remorse but I keep telling myself that for $900, a 180g tank and stand with a 45g sump is worth it. I've liked everything out and stuck it all in bleach with a wave pump circulating the water. Not sure if this is the right move but I want to start fresh with everything. I don't want to bring in any existing pests and I want to learn from my own mistakes. I intend to dry all the rock then cure it. I will clean the sump completely then rebuild the stand. It is not in the best condition. Brand new to the hobby, any advice is more than welcome. What I do know I have is a follows:

180 gallon with two downspouts
45 gallon sump
Crushed coral substrate
Not sure how much rock but enough to fill the tank.
A sump pump
Dct-12000 Jecod DC pump
A working wave pump
Some test kits:
Calcium
Nitrate
Kh
And a nice spectrometer

 

[mmpadi3d]

Got all my rocks, substrate, and pieces parts bleached and separated and layed out to dry. Now we wait. How long should I wait? I'm also working on cleaning out the sump and making plans for the new stand. I stole plans from rocket engineer. Seems to be the go to standard on the forums.

 

[mmpadi3d]

Finished my stand yesterday using the plans by Rocket Engineer. Next step is to skin the stand. I'm thinking I will use 1/2" sheet for structure (not that it needs it, this things pretty solid) and have doors on three sides for access.

 

[mmpadi3d]

I'm glad I didn't go with the old stand... why would anybody use mdf for a stand?

 

[mmpadi3d]

Just need to put some doors on it and it's done. Now to take it outside and test everything.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Just need to put some doors on it and it's done. Now to take it outside and test everything.

Stand is looking incredible!

 

[mmpadi3d]

Finally got the plumbing done. I'm taking it slow I know but I want to get it done right. With that said my methods may not be traditional but so far it is working. The only problem I've ran into is that my stand is a little bit short which causes me to have some slight angles in my piping. In the first two pictures below red is pump discharge and white is sump return.
Picture 3 is probably difficult to see but I have two water reservoirs setup, one is fresh water being made which auto turns off once it is full. The other I can shift the valves and pump the water from the freshwater bin to the saltwater bin, then shift the valves again and circulate the saltwater to mix it, then shift the valves again to pump it up to my tank above. Picture 4 is a picture of my RO/DI setup. May be a little overkill but I think it will save me in the long run. Picture 5 is a zoom out of the reservoirs. Give me your feedback, tell me what I did wrong. I will say from the start that none of my pex has metal anywhere.

 

[azank]

The valves on the tank I would switch to gate valves. Will be very difficult to fine tune flow with a ball valve.

 

[mmpadi3d]

The valves on the tank I would switch to gate valves. Will be very difficult to fine tune flow with a ball valve.

Thank you for the input. I went with ball valves partially for room restrictions and partially for cost restrictions. I have the tank circulating now and it seems to be pretty decently balanced naturally. I don't know maybe I got lucky. Do you recommend them on the tank inlet or the sump return?

 

[mmpadi3d]

Got water in my tank and cycling. Here are the parameters after two weeks:
Ammonia=.5 ppm
Calcium=280 ppm
KH=90 ppm
Nitrate=5 ppm
Nitrite=0
Ph=8.2
Phosphate=.25 ppm
Salinity=1.023 sg
I know salinity is a bit low and I'm about to do my first water change. How do I calculate raising salinity to the proper level during my water change? I also don't have a heater in the tank yet which I'm aware is going to slow things down but just to get the rocks wet and water moving I think is a big step forward.

 

[mmpadi3d]

So made my first major oops . Left my fill valve on overnight. Flooded out my carpet. . . After a couple/few months, my whole house floor is now changed to tile and I have started working on my aquascape. This is my first crack at aquascaping. This is one of 3 sculptures that will be in my tank. I think on my next one I will step by step track the progress to show what I finally came up with as my preferred method. I have learned a lot during this process as far as what works or doesn't work including some built structures that had catastrophic failure and starting over from scratch. This structure is very sturdy and it also comes apart half way up so that it is manageable and able to be carried. I used acrylic rod, thin super glue, and that will be in the tank, and some smashed coral dust.

 

[mmpadi3d]

So it's been a while but my tank is back up and running with a couple lights.