180G Office Reef Tank

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by fishoholic

Looking good! Love the skimmer upgrade, glad it fit, it should work better for your system

Thanks Laurie.. I'm definitely impressed with the build quality.. It's no BK, but it is still built extremely well, very solid. My only complaint with it is the twist-locking collection cup style neck..

I still need to decide if I am gonna T off my return pump to feed it, or if I should just pick up a 500gph pump to feed it.

I hope it pays off.. the extra that it cost me came out of my own pocket.

[JDigital]

@#%^&**!!!!

Just finished typing up my update and accidentally switched to youtube to upload the video of the swinging light rack, and lost everything I typed!

So.. attempt #2.


Tuesday I got around to welding up my light racks using 1"x1" steel tubing. Sealed up all the ends to prevent salt creep and corrosion and finally finished with a few coats of black paint to tie them into the color scheme of the tank.



One issue I came to realize was that with the size of these Lumenbright Pendents, and the annoying glass brace (pictured above) it was going to be a bit MORE of a pain when it came to maintenance on this 30" deep tank. Thus I decided to make it super easy to swing these lights out of my way, freeing up the whole top of the tank for access (except for the brace).

Quick video of how simple it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzkff...ature=youtu.be

After that was done I installed the ballasts inside the stand, setup my timers and tested the lights. I gotta clean up the cables a bit.






And finally before leaving for the evening cut out and laid in my egg crate floor. I've never done this before in any of my previous tanks, but figured I would give a try with this, hoping that it provides a sold base for the rock to sit on rather that the smooth glass. We'll see how that goes tomorrow when I mock up an aquascape.




As much as I wanted to get the RO/DI flowing tonight and start filling, I held off as I wasn't comfortable leaving it running all night without being able to check on it. So I will be into the office bright as early tomorrow after Formula 1 Qualifying to start getting this tank wet!

[gridley]

Wow! This is looking very, very good. I really like what you have done with the lights.

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by gridley

Wow! This is looking very, very good. I really like what you have done with the lights.

Thanks gridley! That little trick should save me some pain during maintenance.

[JDigital]

Well I am back at the office today...... I gotta say, it's not so bad saying that when I'm not actually here for my 9-5 job!

I finished the aquascaping... and I am liking my first attempt quite a lot.. I was originally worried when I did my mock up (pictured above I think) that I was gonna have a hard time creating a good looking aquascape with such a deep tank... I've never had a tank deeper than 20" before, so this was a bit of a challenge but like I said, very happy with how it looks right now.. Lots of tunnels and passages for the fish.

Couple shots of the aquascape..



Left side at an angle...


Middle at an angle.... I purposely left the middle section of the rock lower due to the fact that the stupid glass bracing that I wasn't able to remove cuts my lights spread through the center of the tank.. So I will use that area for low light coral most likely.


Right side at an angle...



And the water is flowing!.... Slowly @ 100GPD...

[Aquattro]

The biggest regret I have with my build is adding eggcrate like that. I would never do it again. I've always just put the rock on glass, and the egg crate made no difference.
But with the sand moving around, it's exposed and looks like crap. And there's no removing it now. I'd really re-think that before you get too far....

[Doug]

If its bare bottom would that not collect detritus? If covered in sand, {and not exposed as Brad mentioned}, would it matter? Under a sand bed the crawlies can still get in there.

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

The biggest regret I have with my build is adding eggcrate like that. I would never do it again. I've always just put the rock on glass, and the egg crate made no difference.
But with the sand moving around, it's exposed and looks like crap. And there's no removing it now. I'd really re-think that before you get too far....

I will be adding a fairly good sand bed... In my experience I've never had sand blow around so much that its exposed any part of the bottom of the tank.. I did find it to be rather beneficial actually while scaping for supporting some pieces that would have otherwise been rocking back and forth.

I'm really liking the rock work as it stands now. I've seen plenty of builds go this route with no issues, so I'll just to live with any consequences which I think will be nil. If the sand is moving around that much, I will be thinking more about altering my flow before worrying about a bit of exposed egg crate.

Originally Posted by Doug

If its bare bottom would that not collect detritus? If covered in sand, {and not exposed as Brad mentioned}, would it matter? Under a sand bed the crawlies can still get in there.

Certainly won't be BB.. I am waiting to add the sand until I get the salt mixed in, and as mentioned, I'll have a decent depth sand bed for the crawlies to travel through.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by JDigital

I've seen plenty of builds go this route with no issues, so I'll just to live with any consequences which I think will be nil. If the sand is moving around that much, I will be thinking more about altering my flow before worrying about a bit of exposed egg crate.

Hope that works out, it sucks to not want it after it's there I didn't even have a good reason to add mine, just read about it somewhere -lol

[JDigital]

Me too.. lol

It seems like a 50/50 debate on various forums as to whether to use it.. Mostly varying opinions on dispersing pressure points and whether or not it "traps" nutrients. Personally I think fauna is gonna travel vertically and horizontally through the sand bed, so I hardly see it as a nutrient trap.

I'm obviously on the side that says it doesn't have any/many serious negative side affects to the tank. but it's also something fairly new to me. Meh!

One argument against it that gave me a chuckle was "Have you ever seen a TOTM with it?" While possibly true, I wouldn't know as I'm not one to follow every TOTM out there.