Carey's Final Reef Upgrade- 180g

[Evansimp]

I forgot you guys have to mix your own water and salt!! Here in San Diego we have scripps water which is filtered ocean water for aquarium use! I haven't mixed my own water in a long time haha! Can't wait to see the tank!

 

[redsea]

Ahhh, this is so exciting! Congrats on the tank filling!

 

[carey]

Thanks guys. Theres about 6-8 inches of water so far, so a long way tog o still. lol As soon as it gets halfway though i am adding the rock, so the water level will really jump.
I still havent done those water tests on the rock containers, lol, took a little nap but i guess i will do that now.
Still havent figured out where to put the power strips, I am leaning towards the inside right wall, its about 3 feet away from the sump. I considered putting a plastic shoebox over it like was mentioned here but I would need 2 of the boxes and they just wont fit really. This build i am looking for simplicity and cleanness, I dont want a squid of wires or a messy pile of crap LOL.
On a bright note i have been window shopping for leds. So far the cheapest dimmable ones are like $130 each with free shipping so that would be $390 total which is a steal. I've also been pricing the ones with timers and the cheapest I have found are about $200 each. While I would love to have them I dont know if I will be able to swing it. So far I have about $50 saved in my paypal account towards them. I guess it will kinda depend on how well i sell stuff. LOL I got married one month ago today and have an entire room full of wedding decorations, linens and so much other stuff that I have been listing online and selling. If a few of the high price things sell then i can do the timer led's, if not I will be stuck with the regular dimmable panels.
I also checked out my reefkeeper controller's warranty and it expires around Christmas, so I sent them an email about the 3 bad power strips and am waiting on a response from them. Keeping my fingers crossed but I dont think it will work out, but its worth a try.
Hmmm Hmmmm..... trying to think of the thousands of things I have planned or am doing, so much to do! I love it! The best part of a build right next to stocking is this part. hehehe
Does anyone use power strips that have individual controllers and on/off switches for each socket? I use one on my biocube and it rocks!
I have this one

Amazon.com: Mr. Dj PSC200 8 Channel Power Strip with Lighted Toggles ON/OFF Power Panel: Musical Instruments

ANy other options that you guys know about?

 

[huma-huma]

Idk if it would hold for months at a time but why not use epoxy or something to hold the powerheads in place?

 

[carey]

Thanks for the input, but the theme of this tank is clean and neat. lol

Do you know if the larger koralias, the magnums have stronger magnets?

The previous owner had little dinky rio pumps held by a bracket into the water, they are nasty gross and really really weak, not even worth it all to use. I cant use those brackets either cause they dont fit, tried that thought already. lol

 

[Scooterdragon]

Home Depot sell super magnets on the hardware

 

[Scooterdragon]

Try this they may be strong enuf to hold it up

 

[aquandrew]

is that tank to the left of your 180 your 125 reef?

 

[carey]

yep, thats the 125g to the left.

tested the water in the garbage cans with all the live rock and it definitely is doing something....
ammonia: maybe .25-.50
nitrite: 0
nitrates: about 40+
phosphates: .80

This water was fresh saltwater with 0's across the board so in a week I;ve gotten these results. The tank is almost half full so I want to get that rock in asap so it can cycle with the new sand.
here's my test results:

 

[aquandrew]

can't wait to see all of this come together i am following from this point on what kind of sand are you planning on using, fine grade?

 

[carey]

i already put the sand in, I went with the pool filter sand again. Got 200lbs for $22, cant beat the price.
I wont have a huge selection of sifters if any so the medium grain should be fine.

Well, its 3:34 am and the tank is still only almost halfway. lol I threw in a heater and a bunch of salt so it has a chance to mix so I can get an accurate reading in the morning.

 

[Sniperhank]

Carey I believe all koralia power heads have magnets on them.

 

[Arklatex]

As someone else already you could try some extra strong rare earth type magnets to hold up those power heads.

 

[Ericwm]

As someone else already you could try some extra strong rare earth type magnets to hold up those power heads.

That was my thought as well. I would be careful with them on glass since they are strong and you don't want it to slam down. I would recommend placing the magnet against the tank on the outside then bringing the power head to it on the inside.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Thanks for the input, but the theme of this tank is clean and neat. lol Do you know if the larger koralias, the magnums have stronger magnets? The previous owner had little dinky rio pumps held by a bracket into the water, they are nasty gross and really really weak, not even worth it all to use. I cant use those brackets either cause they dont fit, tried that thought already. lol

The Magnums do have a stronger magnet that works up to .5" thickness, but just barely.

 

[mr_X]

I'm still happy with my Aqueons. They haven't fallen off on me, but I do remove them every few months and scrape the glass and re-attach them just in case.

 

[carey]

I've had the worst luck with my aqueons lol. They make a racket and always fall off. :-(

Maybe I will revisit them and give them a try.

Started moving the rock over, but boy are they heavy! The water level is almost where I need it too, just a couple more hours. Got the temp matched and the salinity is good after a few adjustments.

Still have pretty murky water though, wish I had a filter I could use to polish the water up a bit, maybe once I get the system running the sock will catch stuff. Looks like tonight is the night to get it all running. Seems like forever ago that I first mentioned getting this bigger tank and here we are ready to roll.

I priced some magnets but they seem awful expensive so I will have to think about it, I'm hoping the wp40 will holdup better than the koralias.

 

[carey]

Got one trash can full of rock into the tank! yay! Now just filling the water the rest of the way up. The murkiness of the water leads me to believe I will have to do a large water change after everything is situated. Probably would have to do it anyway as the rock is cycling. Anyways, here are some shots of where i am now:

 

[Gregcoyote]

Once your rocking and rollin the new tank, I want to hear how your tangs like it. If their behavior changes.

 

[carey]

Will do Greg.

My plan is the following as far as stocking:

Get the tank stable of course. lol Then add a new copperband and a filefish. I will NOT have my tank destroyed by aipastia again. Maybe a few days later I want to move some of the "happy" fish from ,y 60g and 29g biocube. I'm thinking the falco hawk, combtooth blenny and royal gramma from the cube and then the barnacle blenny, lawnmower blenny and perhaps the citron goby from the 60g. Then a few days later I will try to catch the non aggressive fish from the 125g and move them over. That would be the melanurus wrasse and purple dottyback. That would leave the 3 tangs, the pink spotted goby and the pistol shrimp, which I wont be able to get til I empty out the 125g of rock most likely.
From there I will let it sit for awhile and make sure I dont have any parameter shifts. The plan from there is to stock the tangs all at once. I am debating getting 2 more tangs or one more tang and a foxface, not sure just yet which way I wanna go. lol
And once they are all happy and situated which will be at least a month I plan on adding the rest of my stock which most likely will be some more chromis, some anthias and a yellow coris wrasse or two. Sounds like a lot when I list it but I think it will be just fine. I have a boatload of established rock so the tank should be able to handle it.