Just wanted to share my Tank and get your advice. NEW PICS!!

[salty dragon]

My tank is 3 years old. Just so you know a bit about me I am a fulltime singer/songwriter in Franklin TN and am addicted to Scuba diving. So if you are in the area and know of any clubs dealing in these saltwater sports let me know. Thanx!

Set-Up
180 Gal (72" x 24" x24")
200 lbs live rock
2" live sand
2 3' custom sea life Power compacts w/ moonlight
2 96W blue actinic bulbs
2 96W 10,000K bulbs
Excalibur Venturi hang-on skimmer w/RIO 1700 pump (642gph)
Angstrom 2537 UV sterilizer

LIVESTOCK

Inverts
1 Banded Coral shrimp
2 Scarlet striped cleaner shrimp
2 Scarlet reef hermit crabs
7 Bumble bee snails
1 bumble bee hermit (he ate the snail and took the shell)
2 Emerald crabs
2-3 upside down Jelly fish (Hitchikers)
20 blue legged hermit crabs
8 turbo snails
6-7 gray sponges
1 dark grey encrusting sponge (hope to get name soon)
150+ tube worms of varying colors
5 Fighting Conch
80 Nassirius Snails

Fish
4 Clown fish
1 Sailfin Tang
5 Green Chromis
2 Yellow tail Damsels (had 4 but largest one killed the other two)
2 Engineer Gobies (about 9"-12" in length each)
1 Royal Gramma
1 Sixline Wrasse
1 Mandrin Fish (beautiful!)

Corals
1 Brain coral (6"-7"" in length)
1 Green Frog spawn (4 heads 8"-13"" across when opened 7 new heads growing)
1 Tongan Branching Hammer coral w/ 6 heads plus 4 tiny ones starting (8-10" across)
Yellow Polyps
Some type of mushroom
2 Ricordias (one green and one kinda purple)

I have really appreciated this site and all of the advice I have gotten from this web-site. So much so that I have now braved a Nano Tank. I will also post pics soon of that as well

[michealprater]

The setup sounds really nice. I would keep a close eye on your puffer though, your corals may start to disappear. Some people have successfully kept them in reef tanks, however it is very rare. If you are looking to upgrade your lighting, check out www.hellolights.com . As far as mechanical filtration goes I say there is no need for it. You have live rock and live sand which is biological filtration, and a skimmer which is chemical filtration, thats all the filtration you need. Cant wait to see the pics!

[joey182]

I think it is a great setup. I would take the puffer out just to be safe. would watch that unidenified coral taht is growing it coeld be a aiptasia or maybe a ricorda mushroom. I just joined to and ths i first reply I hopeI did it right. I wish the best of luck to you.

[salty dragon]

Here are some pics of my Tank Set-up. Let me know if you see any potential problems or any thumbs ups. Thanx for the look!
edit
Since I first posted I have added a water top-off system as well as the new Custom Sea Life PC w/moonlights. As soon as I figure out my camera I will post some cool night photos.

[salty dragon]

My TV room sits halfway between the first and second floors making the roof of the Laundry room about halfway up the rear wall of the room. With Just a little reinforcement the Tank sits right on the roof of the Laundry room . The area behind the wall was already a storage area so no major work was really needed.

The Picture of the Wet/Dry filter is in a closet next to the tank. All that took was a dry wall saw and it was done. The other cool thing about being right above the Laundry room is the Vent for the Washing machine drain ran right up the wall and into the storage area where the tank now resides. All I did was make a sink out of an old RubberMaid tub and with fittings I got at Hime Depot plumbed it right into the vent pipe. Any power outage or a valve not working and all water spills into the sewer.

I am sheet rocking next week just to add extra insulation and to protect from insulation dust. My next project will be to finally purchase and add an RO/DI unit somewhere and make this a really sweet set-up. Thanks for looking and please go to the ident section and help me identify some of my unknown growths. Thanx!

[Lahatiel]

That is without a doubt an awesome set up!

Very nice...

[MindRiot]

My TV room sits halfway between the first and second floors making the roof of the Laundry room about halfway up the rear wall of the room. With Just a little reinforcement the Tank sits right on the roof of the Laundry room.

Thats about 1,200lbs of water. What kind of reinforcements did you have to do? I'm interested because I live in a second floor apartment and I'd like to get a bigger tank.

[salty dragon]

The floor joists (laundry room cieling) was already made up of 2x6's spaced 24" apart so all we did was double them up with additional 2x6's. and then Plywood over that. We also added a header for the wall over the fish tank since it was a 6'span. If you are planning to mount a tank in a wall remember to find a way to close off the exposed dry wall so you don't have flakes falling into your tank every time someone bumps the wall. I mounted a small piece of 1"x2" board up under the header that effectively sealed it up. That needs to be compensated for in your original measurements. I hope this helps.

[salty dragon]

Just for insight, being in an apartment, you can also purchase those thick mats that Gyms use under their weights to help insulate the sounds vibrating through to your neighbors below.

[MindRiot]

One other thing. At those dimensions, shouldn't your tank be 180 gallons, not 150?

[salty dragon]

Actually after a quick course in conversion.....Yes the tank is (at those deminsions) exactly 179.53........... So I guess I do have a 180. that's the first time an LFS told me a fib to my advantage!?

[MindRiot]

See what taking calculus and physics courses does to me? I'm looking at peoples tank dimensions and wondering if the volume is correct :shock:

Sweet! A free 30 gallons! Well I"m glad I wasn't just imagining things again :)

[Mikeaveli21]

See what taking calculus and physics courses does to me? I'm looking at peoples tank dimensions and wondering if the volume is correct :shock:

Ya it's a disease :shock: . I suffer from the same thing! :D

[nanoman123]

that is one of the best setps ive ever seen :mrgreen: i love tanks that are built into the wall. i find it so cool! :mrgreen:

[nanoman123]

that is without a doubt one of the best setups ive ever seen :mrgreen: :mrgreen: i love tanks that are built into the wall. i find it so cool :mrgreen:

[salty dragon]

Thanks Nanoman! This is my first tank and is about 3 years into the process. Lost some fish and moldy carpet along the way but am learning. I have added a new water system to this set-up and will post pics of that soon. My next step is to convince my wife that a nanoreef in the bedroom would be cool too!

[NB2SB]

That Is By Far The Nicest Tank I've Ever Seen

[1996 cobra]

def a well done tank. i like how you plumbed it into the drain line from your washer very cleaver. btw to the guy who wanted to add it to his apartment it all depends on where in the apartment. if its on a load bearing wall you would have to get into some blue prints to check the stress factor on that wall and the load is alrdy carrying. one of the main problems i see with putting any sizeable tank into the apartment is that it would be extremely difficult to reinforce the joists considering you would be cutting up someones roof and on top of that i doubt the land lord would let you. one thing tho is i never buitl an apartment and alot of older houses have joists set on 16". it wasnt until recently meaning last 10 - 15 yrs or so they started lettin it go into 24" spans on floor joists unles sits on a load bearing wall or a wall that has to support having a header built into it. hope this helps and sorry i was a little late commenting on this post just had time to go threw some of the different forums.


thanks justin

[Lahatiel]

So, how is that gorilla working out for you? It disturb many corals, it increase your nitrates any?

:mrgreen:

[nanoman123]

i wonder y i posted the same message twice :? ................



how is ur upside-down jellyfish doing in a reef? i have read that they are a single specimin, and sometimes get along with only octopusus

[hounddog]

Very nice setup. I also like to see tanks in the wall. I like that it is neat and not cluttered. You did a great Job.

[Furious D]

Nice setup....my only suggestion - more light, less UV sterilization. If you can bump those bulbs up to 40w on your next purchase of bulbs, that would help, but I would try to add another 2 bulbs (one of each). UV Sterilization - a lot of people are of the belief that it kills a lot of the "good" life that your corals and invertes are dependent on...good for an all fish tank, bad for a reef tank. Just a thought.

[salty dragon]

I appreciate all of the advice. I upgraded to new Custom Sea-Life power Compacts with two 96W bulbs. I have two of these fixtures on the tank. So it now stands at 4 96W bulbs (2 actinic and 2 10,000k) They also have 3 led moonlights per hood and a power cord for each type of bulb (repectively actinic, 10,000K, Led's) so you can use some timers to get some pretty realistic sunsettings, risings and moon settings and risings. kinda fun but don't know how much it really efffects the tank inhabitants
I have also gotten rid of the puffer (ate a tone of fish after he grew) and the Powder Blue Tang (ate all my Xenia)

I am now thinking about adding a refugium into the system. How large of a one would someone suggest on this size tank? and What would you stock it with, light it with, etc. I have enough space to add a decent size refugium in the tank room so no holds barred.

[doobie]

Hey,

Looks great!

I would raise the lights a little to get some air underneath them (looks like glass top?) but hard to argue with your success so far.

What kind of Xenia do you have that your Powder Blue was eating?Haven't heard of that one before.

As for fuge size, something like 45G would be more than enough if you just want it as a macroalgae/sand/critter fuge. You can go pretty easy on the lighting for these. PC with 10k, 50/50 or even some kind of "grow lights" will work fine.

[salty dragon]

That picture is of the old lights, I will get a new picture this week. I added the stands that the CSL PC's came with so they are up about 9" above the water. It is an open top aquarium with a glass piece in the middle for support.

The Xenia were the common pulsing Xenia. He did great with them for about 6 months and I had a huge crop growing to where I was going to sell a bunch back to the LFS. Then he just got a taste for them and in two days he wiped out all but a few stems. He went back to the LFs after a year and a half of adding cool color to the tank. Sad day. I had never heard of a Tang going for a coral like that either after about half the crop disappearing I spent an hour watching to see who was doing it and sure enough he went to town right in front of me.

For the Fuge how deep of a sand bed should I have? I know there are opinions about the different types of filteration done at what depths in the sand etc. Also Live rock?
As for light I guess I could use my old PC's if there isn't much light requirement.
Any specific critters? I was thinking Nassirius snails (if i have live rock), a few turbo's ? and most importantly what is the best kind of macroalgae to have or is it best to have different kinds?
Thanks for the help.

[salty dragon]

Nanoman asked about the Jelly fish. I ended up finding 4 total and eventually they found there way into the overflow. (At least one that I found. The fish were curious about them when they would swim around but never tried to bite them. Just another cool hitchiker that gave me even more of a reason why I love this hobby.
PS Sorry it took so long to repond to that one

[doobie]

Hiya,

It's hard to answer the "what to put in a refugium" questions because there are so many ways to do them. Some people use no substrate, some people throw in sand, sand critters and macroalgae and let it get all gunked up, some people keep them as second display tanks with things like seahorses in them. Lots of times they are part of a wet/dry system. They are always nice for the sump function too and a good place to hide heaters, skimmers and such.

Best thing to do is look around here and other places on the net to see what people have done and get an idea what you want to do.

To try and answer some questions though, I like sand. Live sand will get you going faster but is not necessary if you're adding to an established tank. 2-4" of plain ole aragonite is good. If your only goal is to reduce nitrates and phosphates and feed fish with the extra, it's hard to go wrong with a caulerpa macroalgae. Nassarius and Cerith snails are good additions. Sometimes people put a few turbos in to help with the microalgae.

[salty dragon]

You're right about getting clear on the goal for the refugium. My intent is to both help with filtration, and to add extra food for my mandrin, six-line and other pod eating creatures. I also have a 30 gal tank dedicated as a sump for my heater. skimmer, UV etc. so I won't have to worry about doiubling the refugium as a sump.

So my plan and the holes:
Custom built refugium
2"-3" live sand
LR 20+ pounds (allot of small pieces scattered for macroalgae to grow on and can be removed as anchor for food for the tang)
small pump for min agitation of surface
PC w/4 36W bulbs (2 actinic, and 2 10,000k)
Pod friendly Cleaning crew (4-6 Turbos, 10-12 nassarius snails, 5 Cerith snails)
Macro algae seed package (calupera, feather)

The refugium will be mounted to the wall at a heigth partialy above the level of the main tank so it will all work on gravity to be pod friendly. The water will be pumped out of the sump up 4' and over 15' to the top of the refugium. The lights will also be timed to run opposite themain tank. So my remaining questions are these.

What would be a nice sized fuge for a 180 display tank with a decent size bio load?

Should I add a Plenum to the live sand?

Should I add Grow lights to the existing lights for the fuge?

What are some other cool sand seed critters that are Pod friendly?

What other kind of macroalgae should I get?

What other cool and/or odd clean-up critters are there?

Everyone who can is welcome to answer these questions and give me their opinions. I would love to hear them especially on the PLenum and anything I may have left ou that could really make this a cool adn smooth running Refugium. As I upgrade my sump and frame out the support for the refugium I will update with photos. Thanks again for everyones responses.

[salty dragon]

Here are the pics of some improvements. If you notice I have also recently run new electric boxes with plugs for each part of the system that requires electricity. The water will have it's own for powerheads etc as well as the sump and even the tank itself. Theentire tank system will have it's own dedicated circuit with it's own "battery" in circuit to give up to 24 hrs of constant running even during a power outage. Thanx!

[salty dragon]

Here are some pics of the sump and how I have it plumbed into the washing machine vent pipe. Inside the "sump box" is a rubbermaid conatiner that I cot a hole into and added a standard drain fromHome Depot. Then I cut the dry-wall exposing the washing machine vent pipe cut and plumbed. took some work but what a difference when you have a place right next to the tank to dump water during water changes as well as if the sump overflows during a power outage etc. Let me know what you think!

[bigal]

Excellent tank and set-up. You must have some cash

[salty dragon]

I used to and then I found this hobby!

[salty dragon]

Some more inhabitant photos

[salty dragon]

a couple more