Anarchy's budget 180

[najer]

Nice to see more progress, I'm not a big fan of BB but I would think going white under it would cause a glare, I'd go black.

 

[anarchy]

Nice to see more progress, I'm not a big fan of BB but I would think going white under it would cause a glare, I'd go black.

I like the cleanliness of BB but the look of sand

 

[anarchy]

Okay let's play catch up!

July 27
Find water in my basement. Call insurance and they send out a company to clean up the water. They ripped walls and carpet out leaving this

As you can see they had to stop at my tanks.

July 29- August 6
We leave for vacation! Went to the U.P. (upper Peninsula of Michigan for those not in the states). Didn't catch 1 fish. That sucked. Got an amazing present from a close family friend that lives up there. He does taxidermy and made this

August 10
Insurance guy comes to the house to tell us what they are paying for. Basically they are going to remodel our entire basement! That's awesome because I hate the oak panelling thats down there. Modern ages (drywall) here we come. Not only that but he tells me the tanks have to move so they can finish ripping the walls out. Meaning my upgrade has to happen NOW which I wasnt ready for. Best part is they are going to pay me for every hour it takes to shutdown the current tanks and set up the new one. Sweet!

August 11
Finish the stand

1st coat on the bottom of the tank

Today's project
Move everything to the basement tonight
Plumbing starts tonight or tomorrow depending what time moving finishes

Unfortunately I'm going to have to do this a way that I don't want to because of the time crunch. Basically everything is just being put straight into the 180 and filled the rest of the way with fresh saltwater. Once the basement remodel and fish room are finished then the 180 will be shutdown again and done the way I want. Not ideal but has to happen this way as my current tanks are holding everything up

 

[najer]

Bummer on the extra work dude but nice to hear that the basement will be sorted.

 

[anarchy]

Bummer on the extra work dude but nice to hear that the basement will be sorted.

Yeah it does but the good thing is since I have to rush to get it going if anything isn't right or I decide I don't like it I have a second chance after the remodel is done

 

[G8trBait16]

Anarchy, I was looking at getting the reef octopus classic 225 int. My overall water volume is way lower, but looking at upgrading to a larger tank in the near future. Just wanted to see how you like it once you got the tank up and running. BTW I am following along it looks like it is going to be a great build!

 

[anarchy]

Anarchy, I was looking at getting the reef octopus classic 225 int. My overall water volume is way lower, but looking at upgrading to a larger tank in the near future. Just wanted to see how you like it once you got the tank up and running. BTW I am following along it looks like it is going to be a great build!

It's currently running on my other system. Unfortunately my other system is only about 150 gallon total water and medium stocked so the bioload isn't enough to keep the skimmer running at all times. It's a beast of a skimmer though. My only issue I have with it is the noise. I feel like the air draw on all of the reef octopus are so loud. Ive never ran another brand of skimmer though so maybe that's normal volume

 

[WetWhistle]

Love to watch builds. I think it's because I have no D.I.Y. skills!

For the wood work portion of a build I prefer the GOPTDIFM approach. (Get other people to do it for me) lol

 

[anarchy]

For the wood work portion of a build I prefer the GOPTDIFM approach. (Get other people to do it for me) lol

I'm not even done. I'm going to keep it open until I have everything like i want then ill skin it and make it look fancy. The canopy will have the anarchy emblem carved into it with red leds behind it. Hopefully that turns out like I imagine

 

[WetWhistle]

I'm not even done. I'm going to keep it open until I have everything like i want then ill skin it and make it look fancy. The canopy will have the anarchy emblem carved into it with red leds behind it. Hopefully that turns out like I imagine

I think this will look very nice. People don't need all high end stuff to have a beautiful reef.

 

[anarchy]

I think this will look very nice. People don't need all high end stuff to have a beautiful reef.

I think its all up to the owner of the tank and how they feel but a big pocket book would be helpful

 

[anarchy]

We have rodi for the first time!!!!!

Tanks filling currently

Getting all of the equipment out of the old tank thats not necessary to run it so it can get cleaned and installed in the new tank

 

[Salt-Lick]

Following

 

[anarchy]

Following

Glad to have you along

 

[anarchy]

Wow this has been a very busy day. Tank is running fully stocked as promised.

Things left to do
-build light rack
-All lighting hung
-Apex board needs to be hung and everything plugged in
-wire management
-ATO installed
-cal rx installed

As you can tell there still alot to do tomorrow to get this completed, but atleast its running and I can see the main equipment on apex.

30 empty

Emptying the sump

Almost filled

Empty

Reusing the old apex board

Running

Sump

 

[najer]

Nice work, you have been busy.

 

[anarchy]

Nice work, you have been busy.

Thanks! It has taken all day. 16 hours

 

[najer]

Keep us updated as it settles, hope everything is well after the move.

 

[anarchy]

Keep us updated as it settles, hope everything is well after the move.

It settled all right

 

[anarchy]

Guess it's time for an update. As you can see in the last pictures I posted I cracked the tank from top to bottom. That was obviously depressing so i basically did nothing with the tank until early september. When somehow the holding tank for all of my livestock got unplugged for 2 days. Caused temp drops to 65degrees. Salinity issues and the loss of most inverts and coral. After this and cracking the 180 I was throwing around the idea of being done with the hobby for awhile. When I went to sell my fish i realized I just couldn't do it so i went on my local Forum and I purchased a very roughly used(huge scratches) 125 for dirt cheap ($100). I cleaned it up and resiliconed an overflow and got it running.

From there I had to finish remodeling the basement. Do all the drywall work and put down new floors. Only wall left to drywall is the wall behind the tank. That should be interesting. Since I've been working on the basement ive been ignoring the tank. It's only a holding tank anyways until I either replace the back glass on the 180 or buy a new 180.

I should mention for now I just used the lights I had. So 2 250w halides and 2 2 bulb t5s. Once the 180 is figured out then ill either go all t5 with led supplements or halide with t5 (and possibly led) supplements.