My 180gal adventure

[tank o tang]

Figured I'd start a thread for my 180. Figure more a tank journal than a build thread but figured this is the place. Tank was set up early 2017. Was set up with a 180gal display and 75gal under tank sump. 2 32" reefbreeders photon v1's, 4 mp40's, mag 12 return, clip on fuge light, and asm4 skimmer.

I had let the tank mature with minimal livestock and only 1 or 2 zoas. Built a basement sump/fish room and had planned on letting it run with the frag tank to let some rock cook and mature in it for 4 months but after finding a piece of firewood in the sump most likely from my little sons, I decided to switch the dt to the basement sump sooner than wanted.

Then earlier this year we upgraded the lighting from the reefbreeders to 3 kessil ap700's and absolutely love them. Also started to add some coral from a few hobbyist and ffm. Moved one of the reefbreeders light to the frag tank.

Picked up a used mag18 to replace the mag12. Also picked up a used mp40 and added it to the dt. Went to Keep on reefing and picked up a black widow nem along with a couple frags and the wife won a bunch. Guy taking down his tank hooked me up with some fish.

 

[tank o tang]

Sorry about pic quality. Taken with cell phone under lights at whatever they were at that time of the day. Corals look much better in person.

 

[aresangel]

Oh how I want me a big tank with that basement sump set up!

It looks awesome!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chris A.]

Basement with fish room
Dreams do come true

 

[tank o tang]

Thanks, anytime you need a hand. Built the stand, canopy, and light rack about 13yrs ago. The sump and fish room about 9months ago. Trying to decide if I should keep the 40gal on the system as the future frag tank or if I should set up a 75gal that I have as a separate system. Both would use the same equipment to run so there would be nothing that I would have to upgrade. Same systems benefit is water volume, different systems benefit is having a separate backup for the tank. Going to fill the top in with sps, bottom is doing well with lps and zoas trying to leave enough room between for a nice size colony grow out.

 

[tank o tang]

Updating with some pics.

 

[kgstei]

Your tank looks great. Those bubbletips sure know how to bubble.

 

[this is me]

Great set up! Can't wait to see how this tank mature.

 

[gurumasta]

Looking good!

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Great set up. Someday I'll have a nice big reef tank. Following along.

 

[Blitzburggirl]

Fantastic! Looking forward to seeing what you choose to do with the 40... and what SPS you choose to put in here! Beautiful tank

 

[tank o tang]

Thanks. Hopefully I'll pick up some sps at Keep on Reefing for the top. Going to be mostly common sps, nothing exotic for me. Had a stupid me moment last summer and forgot to refill the KH dosing container for a while and KH fell through the floor, surprised I didn't loose everything but lost a lot. The 40 is there for when I start to frag stuff. One of my quirks in this is I don't like to see frags in the DT unless they are there to grow. I did change from running my carbon in a reactor to a sack and haven't noticed any difference.

 

[tank o tang]

Tank update. Lost a bit of coral, mostly from not epoxying them as frags and falling into the back or other coral. Didn't make it to KOR so not much new in the tank. Still don't know right setting to take good pics and not changing the tank light to take pics. The black widow nem just split but other half headed to the back somewhere.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Still looking good. I like how your rockwork has matured over time, and those nice big caves you've created.

 

[tank o tang]

Thanks, in past tanks I always tried building caves with big rocks on the bottom but this time used med rocks to stack the supports and saved the longer bigger rocks for the top. Only issue is when corals start growing on the big rocks it's harder to garden them and take them out to move or frag them. I don't like to glue, rod, or anything else that makes the structure hard to take apart if needed.