Chris' 180 Gallon In Wall Office Tank

[iced98lx]

Hi All! Migrating here from RC (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2164285) but I'll try to do a very abbreviated version of a 7 year build.

I've condensed 7 years into 140 or so photos. I'll start with the build, then go through the repeated failures and then pick up where we are now. I'm leaving out hundreds of photos of coral and fish but the RC thread will of course live on.

Flikr Link (though most of the old stuff is in PB sadly): https://flic.kr/s/aHskLgYwpN

YouTube videos about the tank: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-JntxuH0Ol50PfCbzq4kEZjt-BhQBsj_

Here is a crappy FTS from this week to start things off:

During this journey I've gotten married, had a child completely renovated the upstairs of our house, lost loved ones and really gained an appreciation for the little slice of coral reef I've slowly been able to build. While I feel like I've finally turned the corner and am beginning to build a successful reef I know it's unlikely to be overly truthful but I am excited to tackle the next challenge.

 

[iced98lx]

Step one, purchase 180 gallon tank site unseen from person you've never met and go haul it out of their basement and into yours!

Buy an ill-fated 55 gallon sump and haul it home in your jeep wrangler:

This is the wall the tank will go in, and I managed to get the RO/DI bought!

Purchased some rock from a local reefer:

Take the tank out of the basement to remove the overflows and size up the rock situation:

Run some LC through the rock to hopefully pull the nutrients out (HA!)

Buy a 150 Gallon Rubbermaid you think you'll use as a sump instead of the 55:

 

[iced98lx]

Life Reef Skimmer picked up for the tank:

"Better" sump:

Mixing station craigslist find!

Clean up the sump:

Drill the tank:

Build the new stand:

Mark:

Cut:

Place:

MerCat:

 

[iced98lx]

Plumb:

Mixing Station:

Add Sand:

Get Salty:

 

[iced98lx]

Post Cycle, add the fish you REALLY REALLY want:

No, MORE of them!

Build your own controller:

Skin the tank:

Build your own lights:

 

[iced98lx]

Add coral and fish!

Lets do automagic water changes!

[Insert adding, dying and adding of Coral, fish etc here]

this is a mess:

Cleaned up!

Home built controllers aren't as reliable as it turns out... lets stop having heating problems:

I think the sump would be better not under the tank, lets build a stand for it

 

[iced98lx]

Wonder how well these black boxes work since my home built lights are losing LED's...

Lets build a light rack!

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Clean a few things up and hang the new lights!

 

[iced98lx]

Okay so I got more and more brief as I went through the timeline and skipped a bunch of FTS's, fish and coral additions and losses, and some equipment additions (Turbo ATS, MP40's Etc) but generally you're caught up.

I've recently dosed fluconazole to do battle with the turf algae plague that is going on. I am dosing BRS 2 part alk and calcium. Corals are growing and happy for the most part. Fish when not jumping out of the tank after my cat removes the nets are happy but few in number.

Current stock list:

• Scopas Tang
• B&W Clown
• 3x Lyretail Anthias (1 male, 2 female)
• 1x Yellow Wrasse
• 1x Bangaii cardinal
• 1x Yellow Watchman Goby
• 1x Blood Red Shrimp
• 1x Striped Cleaner Shrimp
• 3x Tuxedo Urchins

Coral:

• Orange / yellow polyp Monti
• Red Monti
• Green Monti
• Idaho Grape Monti
• Green Zoas
• Green with Red center Zoas
• Tubbs Blue Zoas
• Blue eyed blonde Zoas
• Pink & Yellow Goni
• 15 or so various acros
• Alvepora
• Pink torch
• Maxima Clam

I enjoy photography of the tank (and macro especially) a lot so I'll be posting shots of the various coral going forward of course.

 

[iced98lx]

Digging through my old build thread to get pictures made me want to do a few coral growth shots, so here is one to start with:

 

[iced98lx]

These shards of Idaho Grape monti and a few polyps of Green Zoas:

To a weekly trim situation:

and 1.5 inch frag:

To a thriving piece:

A frag of ORAnge Setosa:

To a nearly dead piece:

To a nice little colony:

 

[iced98lx]

Current Equipment:

• Life Reef 24 inch Skimmer fed by DCS (green impeller) 9000
• DCT12000 Return Pump
• Turbo Aquatics L2 ATS
• 3x Mars Aqua 165W Black Boxes retro-fitted with SB Reef Panels
• 5 ft LET T5 Retrofit kit (both bulbs are ATI Coral Plus)
• Avast Marine ATO controlling a MJ600 pump for ATO duties
• Inkbird Temperature controller powering dual 500W Finnex Titanium heat tubes
• 2x MP40QD's
• 2x BRS Dosers and BRS 2 part
• TLF150 Reactor running BRS GFO fed by MJ1200
• Stenner Dual head pump running AWC (3 gallons/day)

 

[iced98lx]

I have started the process of lowering the tank's temperature. I had boosted it to 79/80 to see if I could encourage SPS growth. I will have a batch of Anthias (5 female lyretails, 4 bartlets, 2 bimac) coming into the tank on 3/6 and I want to make sure it's sitting around 76 for them.

I am now 21 days into fluconazole and while it has not melted all of the turf algae it has made a major improvement. I have set the skimmer back up to skim again and will do a large water change prior to adding the anthias on 3/6.

No fish or coral lose during fluconazole treatment, though coral growth seemed to slow as my ALK uptake dropped (and I was lazy and didn't check it) so it jumped up to 10DKH leaving a few bleached looking corals. I've turned off dosing to let it drift and those who looked upset are starting to gain some color back.

The scopas seems to take more joy in eating this algae when it's dying/dead than when it's alive which is great. Still running GFO in an effort to catch the uptick in phosphates with the dieoff of the algae. I plan to continue to run GFO into the foreseeable future, but am not sure if I will run another round of fluconazole yet.

I don't know if it's just looking for a change or if it's really changed but the fish seem more active with the drop in temperature as well today. I don't think I'll go back to 79/80 despite the last few months being the highest coral growth of the system.

 

[Janci]

Welcome Chris, good to have you here.
Nice tank and built. Your corals look great and seem to have grown well.
Will be following to see those anthias soon in the tank.

 

[iced98lx]

Welcome Chris, good to have you here.
Nice tank and built. Your corals look great and seem to have grown well.
Will be following to see those anthias soon in the tank.

Thanks for the warm welcome! I look forward to the Anthias as well. Anthias are my passion in this hobby but after the first attempt I have steered clear until I felt my tank is really stable, less aggressive fish wise and able to handle the large feedings to get them fat and happy. Hopefully this try will be a winner!

 

[Victoria M]

That was a very nice revisit! Welcome to R2R! Umm...how did you get your thread build stuck on the bottom of your posts? I wanna do that too.

 

[iced98lx]

That was a very nice revisit! Welcome to R2R! Umm...how did you get your thread build stuck on the bottom of your posts? I wanna do that too.

if you're a supporter you can embed links in your signature, that's what I used to have a link to my build thread there.

 

[iced98lx]

I came back after 5 days on the road (my last trip for a long time, thank goodness) and my wife had already warned me that my several year old yellow wrasse managed to get between the screen and the overflow and end up in the overflow box. It did not end well for him, I fished his body out this morning.

Looking fine coral wise outside of WWC Yellow Tips Acropora Tortuosa which appears to be doing a game of STN. Unsure why, as it was growing previously but the fluconazole (and dead fish) induced nutrient swings and a drop in temperature, and ALK peak surely could have contributed so I'm going to hope he makes a come back as the tank stabilizes again. Now that I write all that I guess I shouldn't be surprised!

Goal for today is to do a 20 gallon water change, clean the glass (which was not as bad as expected!) and get ALK/CAL checked. Maybe change GFO.

 

[iced98lx]

Completed a 50 gallon water change today but haven't yet been able to get my GFO changed. I am seeing some Cyano pop up (no doubt nutrient from algae die off and a dead fish fueled) so if I get GFO changed and it stays ChemiClean will happen, as I do not want to give it time to get out of hand.

 

[iced98lx]

I snagged a Trigger Systems Tideline Tide48 Sump today from a local reefer getting out of the hobby!

Specs:
Dimensions: 48″ long x 20″ wide x 16″ high
Skimmer Section: 14″ x 19.5″
Center/Refugium Section: 14.5″ x 19.5″
Return Pump Section: 8″ x 19.5″
Total Water Volume: 64 gallons
Skimmer Water Level: 7″ to 9.5″ adjustable
Drain Input Fittings: two 1.5″, one 1″
Filter Socks: 2 (7″)

I'll get it cleaned up and stored this weekend, won't go on the tank for a while based on everything that would need to be moved to get it to fit.

 

[iced98lx]

Changed GFO today, want to keep up / catch up on nutrients with the dying fish and algae.

Also Dosed ChemiClean. I know what I'm seeing is getting more in volume and I don't want to let it get to plague proportions and kill coral again (though that blue/green cyano was a crazy trip vs the red stuff). People said after the fluconazole I'd likely see the cyano, so I'm not surprised and I am ready. I have had awesome success with Chemiclean in the past, so hopefully it works just as well this time.

On a sadder note, no anthias will be joining the tank as they developed tell tail signs of uronema. I do not have the medication and time to try to save them so the LFS is treating and keeping the fish.

FTS of the micro-bubble-festival from the skimmer being allowed to just overflow:

20% water change Friday, hopefully then a lack of cyano will be my news.