180 gallon with fish room build - Waterbox 220.6

[Fred2482]

Super well thought out build. I wish I had the space for such an awesome setup! Nice job.

Thank you! I got lucky with the space

 

[Tim Richardson]

What a nice setup! I'm simply blown away!! Great job and detailed build. Thanks!

 

[Skullring]

Very nice.

 

[r.garrett]

Started setting up a new QT tank pictured below, and thought why not utilize my current tank that I am transferring from. So I grabbed the clowns, wrasse, corals and all the inverts and moved them to the new tank. Got my salt down to 1.015 (LFS) and will add copper tonight. Picking up some new fish Thursday morning any suggestions on the tangs would be great! (currently leaning towards the Yellow - heard horror stories about purple although they look amazing, Kole/ Tomini and Blue Caribbean)
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The above picture will be future hospital/QT. Below is the original tank transformed into a QT for the Tangs / Anthias. I plan on running copper @2 and adding metroplex. Letting that run for 30 days, then removing with polypads/carbon/water change and adding 2 separate doses of prazipro. Any additional recommendations welcomed. Never QT'd or owned Anthias before.
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A Gem tang is needed in this collection. The price is now right, the Gems are more economical that Yellow Tangs.

 

[Fred2482]

A Gem tang is needed in this collection. The price is now right, the Gems are more economical that Yellow Tangs.

Agreed. I'm hoping to get my FOWLR tank up soon so I can add one!! Its other top of the list for this tank.

 

[Adirondackgold]

Amazing build and video!! Thought you could be running the Atlantic form your basement -- made me want to get on a plane and go diving. I am just starting too stock a large tank. How did you go about sequencing livestock coral?

 

[Fred2482]

Amazing build and video!! Thought you could be running the Atlantic form your basement -- made me want to get on a plane and go diving. I am just starting too stock a large tank. How did you go about sequencing livestock coral?

Thanks. The overkill filtration allows me to enjoy the tank more than work on it as well as add another DT in the near future.

The sequence for fish was:
1. Foxface
2. transferring from 80 gallon (clowns, wrasse, cardinals and Zebra dartfish)
3. Fire fish
4. Tangs

For coral:
1. Transferred from 80 Gallon (Leather, GSP, a few zoas, hammers)
2. Ordered WWC Club for 3 months for an "affordable" way to fill out some of the tank
3. Added a few corals from WWC live sell here on R2R.

 

[Fred2482]

Most recent Parameters:

Alkalinity	8.7	Hanna
Magnesium	1275	Salifert
Nitrate	12	Nyos
Phosphate	0.08	Hanna
Calcium	415	Red Sea
Salinity	1.025	Milwaukee

 

[frasey]

Wow, great set-up

 

[Fred2482]

Wow, great set-up

Thanks

 

[DKPminus]

Sweet set up.

 

[Fred2482]

Sweet set up.

Thanks

 

[New&no clue]

Nice building. I’m doing a similar tank with basement sump. For the anthias have you thought about ordering from TSM? They QT for you and typically the same price as liveaquaria

 

[Fred2482]

Nice building. I’m doing a similar tank with basement sump. For the anthias have you thought about ordering from TSM? They QT for you and typically the same price as liveaquaria

I am considering both TSM and Marine Collectors. Do you have experience with TSM? I am going to connect my predator tank into the same system, its very important I do not introduce any issues.

 

[New&no clue]

I am considering both TSM and Marine Collectors. Do you have experience with TSM? I am going to connect my predator tank into the same system, its very important I do not introduce any issues.

I got my anthias and blue hippo tang from TSM. They all arrived healthy with no issues. However, I’ve only had them for a couple of weeks.

 

[revhtree]

Very nice build!

 

[Fred2482]

Very nice build!

Thanks

 

[dopeameanreefguy]

About two months into the new build and currently waiting on items to be shipped so why not use this down time to update the build thread! Rewind a few months ago I decided to upgrade my current 80 gallon (48"x20"x20") reef tank to around a 500 gallon in my basement. Unfortunately, my wife and I can not decide on how we would like to finish the basement. We have been going back and forth for a while and decided to move on to other projects. I could have still installed the tank, however no finished basement would result in no attention..... My answer was to get a new 180 for my office as I work from home the majority of the time and it would get plenty of attention. After getting some quotes from custom aquariums, planet aquariums and looking into Red Sea I was convinced on the Red Sea 900 3XL. That thing is BEAUTIFUL, and I hate euro-bracing. My issue was the tank is literally a few inches too big for my office plans, which I had to change anyways . I read some articles about waterbox here on R2R and ultimately decided to give them a try. So far, no regrets. As you will see through out this thread, I did not go with their pre plumbing assembly which looked absolutely awesome! There where times I really wished I would have as I could of had it running in a day. Due to the ultimate goal of the bigger tank I decided to centralize the filtration in the basement which will hopefully be directly behind the larger tank.

Before I go any further, I would like to disclaim, I am NOT the "handy man" type, this was really outside my comfort zone and I spent hours (understatement) reading forums, watching videos and researching almost every aspect of this especially the construction phase.

Below is what I have completed thus far, I ordered the Aquarium on Feb 20th.
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I have tried my best to keep up with this project in the best detailed manner possible for me. I have all receipts in case anyone has any questions in the future such as actual part numbers.
I will attach pictures below in the same order of the list above. From now on I will try to update as items are complete to maintain some sort of organization and try not to miss any of the details.

Fish room before any construction, the wall shown is the hopeful home of the new tank!
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Created wall:

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Raised floor

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Plumbing from Display tank in Office on first floor (don't mind the purple primer, I HATE it. I ordered clear primer, however Amazon decided to send me some sort of water flavoring that my kids actual end up loving)

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Plumbing the return
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Plumbing the drains

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Aquabus cable from fish room to Display tank

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Below is the electric wiring, aquabus cable wiring and Humidity vent. Just as an FYI, both receptacles by the return pump and salt mixing pump have an on off switch that control the outlet, all outlets in the fish room have a pull string from one to another in the case I want to daisy chain devices in the future.

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Plywood Walls, as a note I did add insulation behind the walls.

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Painted floor with epoxy shield and everything else with flex seal

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Drilled holes in Waterbox sump

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Progress... This will change

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Headache of trying to aquascape, dont worry it changed...

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Tank up

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Used E Marco 400, great stuff however definitely a learning curve. Most of my first attempts fell apart and this is what I got finally. I ordered some glue to stick a few of the last rocks that I dont want moving around.

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I utilized 100 lbs of reef saver rock, 4 reef saver base rocks and 8 - 20 lb bags of CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink sand. Added bacteria to help ammonia/Nitrite cycle.

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Now I am getting my shelves, and cable management boards prepped.

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Wire management board so far consists of Microsoft surface book for apex dashboard, echo dot for voice commands, BRS heater controller, Reef octopus Varios controller, and templates for DOS, Energy bar, Apex, and 2 Neptune modules.

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Still a long way to go. As I am waiting on some items to be shipped I am trying to figure out flow. I am really leaning toward a Gyre, but need lots more research. I hope everyone enjoys the build and I am open to any suggestions, constructive feedback or questions! I will be updating as I progress. If I missed something I do apologize, I tried to sum this up in the best way I could.

this looks absolutely incredible.. this is so inspiring

 

[c.poindexter]

Nice. Great looking build.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Would love to see an update!