180 gallon reef

[850csmith]

January 2016 I started my first saltwater tank. My plan was to keep the tank a couple of years and then upgrade to a 90 or 120 once I got some experience. Fast forward 3 years My wife and I are buying our first home and moving. So we decided to get a larger tank because we have to tear down the 56 column to move anyway. 

So here we are. I want to give a huge shout out to R1ant04. Without him this wouldn’t be happening so thank you when you see this.

Now this is what I have, 180 gallon acrylic with 3) 1 inch holes for overflow and 4) 3/4 inch holes for returns with most of the plumbing. Stand and lighting mount for on top of the tank


Along with a 200 gallon vertical water tank

And a few odd end parts like a couple external pumps and a bubble magus curve 7 skimmer.

Now here are some plans for the immediate future
-Clean everything and re-assemble it
-Reinforce the stand, honestly I’m sure it will hold up but for peace of mind and longevity I will be adding 2x8s and 2x4s for strength and painting all the inside
-AND this is the most important part wait for taxes to come in to upgrade the other parts lol

This build will be slow!!!! And that’s the way it should be in this hobby so after I finish the above 3 things I’ll get a parts list and hopefully update this thread once a week or so, so let’s get started

 

[SPR1968]

Sounds like a great build thread and thanks for the pictures. Keep them coming!

 

[850csmith]

Stand is now reinforced and painted. So far that’s two coats of primer and last will be some water proof paint and Calk to seal the stand

 

[Dragon52]

You could use Flex Seal to seal the bottom, that's what I did when I built my stand for my 185gl. Bought a can of white flex seal & a brush to make sure I got it in the seams & 4" up the sides

 

[850csmith]

Nice idea I’ll look for that tomorrow when I go out to get stuff to finish up

 

[Dragon52]

it's already saved me a couple times when I refilled my ATO. lol

 

[850csmith]

Yea my last build the ato container was outside the stand and I spent more hours than I like to admit using a shopvac to get water out of the carpet lol

 

[850csmith]

Ok time for some up dates. Having a new house really slows a build process but now that things at home have calmed down I can focus on the tank more.

So current build list

180 acrylic reef tank

Skimmer - bubble magus curve 7

Return pump - reeflo dart ( I think it’s something like 2500-3000 gph I’ll have to double check)

Sump - Deep blue pro maxx reef 200 ( I haven’t seen or heard much about these but I got it for a steal so we’ll see how it works)

Reactor - goereef FMC415P for carbon/Gfo

Controller - apex

Rock - mix of pukani/reefsavers/miscellaneous

Lights - one Chinese black box and one 48 inch aquatic life 4 bulb t5 with ATI blue+ x2 and ATI coral+ x2
Want to upgrade to aquatic-life 61 inch hybrid with Ecotech or Kessil

Power heads - mix match sun sun / hydor koralia / something else that I don’t know the names lol
Want to upgrade but not sure which ones yet

Co2 scrubber using BRS deluxe reactor and BRS co2 media

I have bought all the pvc pipes and fittings. I have painted the pipe red so plumbing will be red and white so I’ll try to put it all together tomorrow and post it on here

 

[850csmith]

Got the plumbing mostly where I want it going to start gluing tomorrow

 

[Irishman]

Any updates on the tank?

 

[850csmith]

Sorry no updates in a while life likes to get in the way sometimes lol I just finished the plumbing and filled it up last week sadly 3 of the 7 bulkheads leak two have striped threads and one is my fault seals are in the wrong place so now I have to drain the tank and do a few tweaks and refill then I’ll start the rock work. Not long now and I’ll be posting more often