Build thread - 180 gallon - final tank pics added 7/22

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Everything's going pretty well - GSP's are starting to come out a bit more, for a bit longer. Xenia's still don't look great. Anemone's look good, and I added a curlicue anemone - about 3" across - that's beautiful. I should have enough room to keep it away from my other 2.

My condy is still up on the back of the tank, but he's come down about 6 inches from the top - but he's filling out much better now.

I do have one problem. I'm not sure where it came from, but my blue tang is showing some ich. Not sure if my little UV was enough to keep it under control on the old tank, but I must have transferred some of it to the new tank. I could have brought it in with the 2 trigger, which I inspected realy, really closely, but didn't have a setup for QT.

So. I ordered a diatom filter (big one), and am going to get a bigger UV. I hope to not need thed UV, but I can tell by the brown dust showing up on my glass each day that it's not working like it did on my old tank.

I also ordered 2 koralia powerheads - bigger ones, so move more water around - I don't think I've got enough current moving across the tank for the corals. These are supposed to move like 600 or 650GPH, so one at each end should really help. I hope to be able to nestle them in the rockwork so they're not an eyesore.
 
Also ordered a Gamma 40W UV, and a new float valve since I stripped the threads on my current one when I put it on the sump. Between the 40W UV and the Diatom filter, I should be able to clear up any parasites or other troublesome biologicals pretty quickly. Will have everything here by wednesday. Once I confirm the flow rates to kill parasites I'll choose the pump - I've got a Mag 7, Mag 9.5, and a couple others to pick from. the 40W UV should allow a pretty high flow rate for parasite-extermination, so I'm hoping to put a Mag 7 on it, and clear things up pretty fast. I'll use the diatom filter once a week or so once everything is cleaned up.

Curlicue anemone looks great, and the condy keeps filling out even more. I feed all the anemone's yesterday some mysis and brine shrimp, they seemed very happy to be direct-fed.
 
I'm confident - I've dealt with it in the past. Strong UV does wonders, if it has enough flow through it.

The tang actually hasn't shown any signs since I first saw it. A few spots, then nothing (typical). I beefed up the flow through the small UV I have now (within range to kill parasites though), that could be helping.

Condy looks great! It keeps getting bigger since I put the 250's in.

The curlicue also seems pretty happy. I need to get some pics - the "street of dreams" ends tonight, so I'll be able to spend more time out there. It's hard to do much with 200+ people roaming around your house.

I have noticed a pH drop from a steady 8.2 to a 7.8 to 8.0 (hard to tell). Need to do a big PWC once this show is over.
 
Yes. All are doing well, and the GSP's are starting to come back.

Ich has been pretty much wiped out (I'll run the UV for another 2 months to make sure).

Pretty much now just dealing with micro-bubble problems, which is 99% from the overflows. I need to drain into a separate container, with more room, then into the sump.
 
I have been dealing with the same problem. The big skimmer is not making it easy.

All of my drain fall into a 18 gal rubbermaid and my skimmer is in this same rubbermaid. I have holes in the rubbermaid where the water exits but I think I will replace it with one with no holes and let the water pour over the top. Not sure if this will work or not.

Glad your fish are doing well.
 
Most of the microbubbles are coming from the drains - not the skimmer. If the sump socks are VERY clean, the bubbles are minimal. But as they start to get dirty, they really start putting out the fine bubbles. I tried running without them, but the water pouring into the sump generates a ton of bubbles too. This can't be an uncommon problem...
 
Hi Scoot, I am not sure that this is going to help you any but I had issues with micro bubbles as well, I know this may sound counterproductive considering you are already using filter socks. However, have you tried taking off the socks and creating some kind of barrier with reguler filter floss? I had issues with microbubbles in regards to the placement of the skimmer (I have a 30 gal fuge with my aqua-C inside) What I did was stuff filter floss between the skimmer and the wall of the fuge and partially on the corner where the water trickles into for the return to pump back into the tank. I know my explanation may be a bit off, but basically if you create a barrier with regular old blue and white filter floss somehow without obstructing the flow you will reduce those bubbles considerabaly. Wow, I can't explain this without drawing it. But my fuge has three sections. One where the water comes in, then the actual fuge and then where the water leaves the tank. If yours is set up this way, I would fill part of the first section with rock rubble and add filter floss to the top on the rocks. Thick enough to make a difference but not so thick that you run the risk of overflowing the tank. I still get good flow in my fuge. I just change out my filter floss once a month and end of story, no more bubbles (from the skimmer or from incoming water).
 
Also, in march I will be taking on a similar project in our new house. They start building our house this month. We have a 150g now and we will be going with a 180 in the new place. I wanted a 240 long but there is just no room. We are going to do an inwall. From reading this thread I hope I am not going to regret the tank being in my office. We are going to be using halides as well. 3 250w 14k, no atinics. We have the same skimmer and I'll be using that too. I have *I think* a 9w UV sterilzer turbo twist, whichever one it is, it is the lowest wattage they sell. It was my husbands. What TT do you run. I noticed that you adjusted the flowrate to maximize it capabilities. Is it still working for you? Do you trust it? I ask becuase I want to know how useful mine would be in a 180? I have a ton of rock, sand and corals so water volume would be on the lower end.
 
I got a Gamma UV 40W (had a chinese-made jebo 36W that probably actually put out about 5W). I doubt your 9W TT would do much good in a 180. I think I read somewhere that 40W is appropriate for a 180G (which is why I went with a 40!)

The Gamma 40W is big - like over 3 feet long. And it has huge connects - something like 1 1/2". But it's working - ich has been pretty much wiped out (a single spot will show up once in awhile but not for long). The flow rate to kill parasites with it is around 900GPH - I'm only pushing around 700GPH with a Mag 7 (probably 600 with head loss), so it's much slower than it could be if I put a mag 9.5 on it - but I stole my 9.5 to overdrive my EV-180 which has worked out great. And it should definatley kill anything that goes through it.

The Gamma UV definately adds some heat though. Have had to deal with that by moving my 2 ballasts out of the canopy and up on top, but its high enough (8' or so) you can barely see them.

I thought about using filter floss. I fixed most of the microbubble problem by only running a single return pump - cutting water flow in half, which I'm trying to make up for with powerheads (Koralia's) in the tank.

I'm trying to figure out how to do a closed loop at the tank, but the built-in cabinet is up against a wall, so I'd have to cut into the wall to do it.

Livestock update - my bubbletip, which I almost lost a year ago and virtually had no tentacles at one point, LOVES the new tank. It's in the top center, in the back of the tank, and has at least tripled in size. it's tips are getting bigger and rounder, it's getting greener, and it's eating better than ever (frozen squid and such). My curlicue and condy are also both doing really well.

'nother update, I think I lost my blue devil damsel. No idea what happened to him, he never showed signs of stress of illness - he just dissappeared one day. Checked the overflows of course, and couldn't find him.

My clown trigger is growing, and my niger trigger is too. Blue tang is also growing fast now, and is probably about 7" long now (was 2" when I got him).

GSP's never really did recover - they come out a little ways, but never reach the flowing, grassy-field look they used to.

Shrooms look awesome - one reaches almost 5" across during the day.

Xenia's aren't so great, my curcliecue got too close to them, and wiped out a small patch.

Zoo's look good, but I'd like to see them start growing.

Nitrates are still stable from 0 - 10PPM. Hard to tell at the lower ranges with the AP test kit. W00t!

Sump socks still dirty and overflow within a day. I'm sick (sock?) of messing with them. Looking for bigger ones, I found 16" and 22" socks online somewhere. That might make a big difference.
 
Update - the UV wiped out the ich. Haven't seen a sign of it since the first week I added it.

I'm going to let it run for another month, then shut it off. It's adding quite a bit of heat to the water which I've had to deal with using cooling fans.

Everything's going perfectly. GSP's still aren't back to full bloom, and actually seem to be getting worse again, but the fish, anemone's and shrooms are all doing great.
 
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