Alex's 180

[Alex]

I've been meaning to do a full build thread but I've been too lazy. Today I posted some pics on R2R and said I need to get my thread going on BRS. The tank has been running for 5 or 6 months so it's about time.

I've been in this hobby since around 2001 and have had a bunch of very different tanks including a 55 gallon with a rock wall and the latest and greatest PC lighting. I've been successful and failed miserably. I took a break for a few years after a couple of back to back disasters but I always knew I wanted to get back in. Back in December we bought a new house with a finished basement so it was time to get a tank. I ended up buying twiddledogs 180 the second time I bought a former BRS tank of the month and off we went.

I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who has kept this club running over the years. I'd also like to say thank you to all the people on here who post great advice and share all their best practices. I've learned so much from all of you.

 

[Alex]

This is where we are now. Just a baby.

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[Cpage101]

Looks great


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[CAPSLOCK]

Cool aquascape!

 

[Alex]

Thanks so much guys. I put the scape together trying keep as much rock off the sand as I could. I wanted maximum flow that still had plenty of real estate for corals to grow in.

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[KSC]

Nice! Lots of open space. What lights are you running?

 

[Alex]

So when I bought the 180 I decided to take advantage of the fact that everything was broken down to give the stand and hood a little TLC.

I scraped and sanded them down and put a few new coats of paint. The inside of the stand should hold water at this point.

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[Alex]

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[Alex]

Once the stand and hood were done I ran an rodi line and some Cat6 over to the tank. Thank god for the drop ceiling.

Time to get things plumbed up.

I added some float switches to the sump.

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[Alex]

Finally it was time to get some water into the tank.

I am running 3 radion Gen 3s so I cut some holes into the top of the hood and made some brackets to hold the units in place.

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[Alex]

Next I screwed a piece of wood onto the wall for all of the controllers and got the breakout box wired up.

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[Alex]

Nice! Lots of open space. What lights are you running?

For now I have 3 gen 3 radions. Thinking of adding some supplementary T5s.

 

[Jeff.:P]

Nice! sexy plumbing and woodwork. Love the sealed sump area.

 

[this is me]

Very nice Alex! It will grow in nicely.
What kind of sand you use?

 

[Alex]

Nice! sexy plumbing and woodwork. Love the sealed sump area.

Thanks El Jeffe. The nice lady at home depot said that the paint is used to seal pools so hopefully it does the trick.

 

[Alex]

Very nice Alex! It will grow in nicely.
What kind of sand you use?

Thanks Nick. If it looks half as good as your tank I will be very happy.

I actually kept twiddledogs sand. I gave is a serious washing with the hose then gave it a long rinse in rodi. Seems to be working out ok so far. I had a bit of an algae outbreak that I'm starting to come back from. Initially I chalked it up to a new tank but then I realized my rodi filter all needed to be replaced. Otherwise the sand bed seems to be in good shape.

 

[this is me]

It will be better than my tank.
Don't panic about algae during initial set up. It will eventually goes away with good husbandry and some tangs.

 

[Alex]

Having done a bunch of tanks over the years I took advantage of starting over and tried to do the scape right. Most of the rock I have is well over 10 years old. When I bought that rock it was drop shipped from figi. A soaking wet box would show up and you had no idea what you would find. I kind of miss those days. Anyway I cooked it for about 4 months to get some of the crud out. At this point I know almost all the pieces I have and I had an idea of what I wanted to do. I got some E-Marco 400 and some fiberglass rod and went to work.



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[this is me]

The rocks now are mostly junk. All these "sterilization" (and maybe eco-friendly) really killed the cool looking rocks that we got from the ocean 15 years ago. Some of the pieces in my tank are from my 2002 tank!

 

[Alex]

I had this big point piece that I thought would make a great spite for corals to grow off of. I attached it to some dense base rock and got a good flat base.

I had some nice shelf pieces and one long thick column piece so I thought it would be cool to have two towers with shelves connected by a bridge. It is composed of three seperate structures so that I could take it apart to get it in and out of the tank.

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