Greg’s 180 upgrade

[Greg Williams]

Hello everyone. I wanted to share my 180 upgrade build with you. I hope this is the right place to do this.
I got a really good deal on a 180 tank and stand. I’ve been sitting on it for about 2 yrs because I had a very serious honey do list to complete before I could start my build. That list included turning a 1/2 bath into a pantry/ water closet. And in order to put the tank where I wanted it, I had to move the 1/2 bath door opening over 6” and install a pocket door. With that task complete, I am now ready to work on my tank.
The stand was pretty worn looking, but sturdy. Just needed some tlc. So I started by removing all the hardware. I then scraped and sanded the stand.

 

[Greg Williams]

This is what the stand looked like after sanding and no doors.

 

[Greg Williams]

Once sanding was complete, it was time to paint the inside. I went with white so things would be more visible and brighter when I have to work down there.

 

[Greg Williams]

Time to paint the exterior of the cabinet and put on new hardware. For hinges, i went with soft close hinges. I have a 3 yr old and he loves slamming cabinet doors. I hate slammed doors. So I thought this might help.

 

[Greg Williams]

Next, I wanted to build a cabinet to put within the cabinet to keep my electronics desperate from the sump/ fife area. This is my first time doing any sort of cabinet work from scratch. So I bought a router and some wood and went to work.

In the above pic, I mapped out where I wanted things to go.

My first routered cabinet door!

 

[Greg Williams]

I decided to recess the electronics cabinet in the side of the main cabinet with access from the side. I thought it would look cool using dark acrylic for the door panel. This way I could still see controller lights and display.

 

[Greg Williams]

Since I was doing a plumbing color scheme to match my Apex, I thought I would paint the inside of the electronics cabinet and the parts recessed into the main cabinet gray. I had an auto body friend paint it using automotive paint. He matched the paint with a sch 80 90. The door I sprayed to match the main cabinet.

 

[Greg Williams]

Update: I ordered a new sump/ refugium because I wanted a bigger refugium. I made a rookie mistake in assuming that a bigger sump meant a bigger skimmer area. Needless to say, the skimmer area was a 1/2” off, not allowing my skimmer to fit. So modifications were in order. I used a multi tool to cut out the baffle and move it over that 1/2”. I only moved one baffle. So ai did lose space between baffles. But I couldn’t afford to lose room in my return area.

 

[Greg Williams]

I video’d the process of cutting the baffle out. But I’m having trouble loading it, so ai took some snap shots from the videos.
It was a lot easier then I thought. I set the multi tool to 5 in order to prevent melting the acrylic. I also taped the walls to prevent the multi tool from scratching the acrylic.
The blade I used is for cutting wood and plastics.
I decided not to buff where the baffle was originally. With water in it and the location it’s barely noticeable.

 

[Greg Williams]

Now it’s time to start plumbing. I went with orange and gray to match the Alex color scheme. I had the pipe and fittings before I got the new sump. Thinking back on it, I probably should have matched the sump.
I went with 1 1/4” drains because I wanted to make sure had good drainage. 1” probably would have been fine.

 

[Curtis Skinner]

Nice transformation of the stand. The electronics cabinet looks cool as well.

 

[Greg Williams]

Because I went with 1 1/4” drains, I had o make yet another mod to the sump. That was making the drain holes in the drain area bigger. I put a scrap piece of acrylic over the bottom of the hole and used a hole saw to make the original hole large enough to except the 1 1/4” fitting. Because I have two overflows, I ran separate drains and separate returns. I’ll be running two varios 6 returns.

 

[Greg Williams]

I think it’s time to water test. Left water in for 48hrs and no leaks.

 

[Greg Williams]

Time to break it down and move it inside!

 

[Greg Williams]

She’s in! Now to get sand and rock in! The rest will be coming from the other tank.

 

[Greg Williams]

Now to get her wet!

 

[Greg Williams]

Transferred everything over to the new tank. It’s been up and running for about 3 weeks now. I did go through a little cycle that I got through with prime and stability. All inhabitants seem happy. I’ll give it a few more weeks and will add a few more fish. Once I complete my stocking list, I’ll start adding corals. Right now I just want to make sure everything is happy and healthy.

 

[Greg Williams]

These are more recent pics.

 

[Greg Williams]

When I started this thing, I left regular durso stand pipe. With the amount of flow I have running through this thing, it was WAY too loud for my living room. I ended up replacing the durso with a stockman stand pipe. What a difference! I’ll NEVER go durso again!

 

[Greg Williams]

Thank you. I still have a little tidying up to do. But I am happy with everything so far. I won’t lie, i was a little intimidated at first because I have no experience with cabinet work at all. Lol