Michael's 180g Reef

[Michael]

I've decided to upgrade the 180g tank. So far just getting some things ready. I did order the tank already which should be here next week I believe.

Today built a skeleton of the new stand for the tank. I spent decent amount of time in AutoCAD playing with different dimensions etc and finally landed on a 4' tall stand.

Here's the picture of the stand so far. It's a pretty basic design from ReefCentral DIY stand thread. Bottom frame and legs are 2x4 and the top frame is 2x8. Back and one side is covered by plywood for extra strength, inside shelf also has plywood attached to it.

Still need to stand, stain, and apply few coats of PU to it. Then build some sort of face with doors. I am thinking of two big doors so the whole opening remains accessible. Will also need to attach some shelves inside the stand - probably one squarish one on the right side going full depth of the stand and about 1 foot wide, and a bit higher 1 foot deep shelf going all the way across the stand.



As far as set up.

For the sump I will re-use my current 120g tank, which will be on the left side of the stand, it should fit nicely in there.
On the right side I should have enough space for a 20g tank as a top off reservoir.

Sump will be split in two parts as I have now, where one half is devoted to chaeto (right) and another will house the skimmer and the return pump. Hopefully this will work out nice since my chaeto area will effectively be doubled. Already have LED lights that I will be using for the sump. A aquare of 16 Cree XML with 40 degree lenses spaced about 4" apart.

Speaking of the return pump, I currently use Tunze 700ish one, but have purchased Sicce 5.0 (similar design as Tunze) for a bit more flow.

For the tank itself:
- Rocks - already have plenty of brs pukani rock between the 120g and 40g tanks and their sumps, so all set here
- Sand - also should have enough between existing two tanks, will just rinse it a bit in saltwater while upgrading to cut down on any mess being introduced into the water column.
- Lights - Current LED lights will only cover 2.3 of 180g tank, so will need to come up with something else for the last 3rd. For now I will just put 2x 120w fixtures I have on 40b atm.
- Powerheads - same setup just using higher voltage jumpers for more flow - 2x Tunze 6105 and 2x 6095 on some tunze programmable controller that is fairly flexible.


That's it for now

[Flcorals]

Looking good, Keep us posted with the progress

[techbiker]

That is and amazing projects!
like most of you do!

[Michael]

Short on time with school and stuff.

So far just sanded the stand, applied a coat of what I thought would be a dark stain, but ended up being pretty much brown paint lol. I guess I should've paid more attention to intructions - was supposed to put it on, wait minute or two and wipe it off. But with such big stand by the time I was done even with a single side it would be too dry to try to wipe off.

After the "stain" I also did a single coat of PU for some water protection all around the stand. Will need to lightly sand it and apply at least one more stain of that later, probably this weekend.

I don't really care much for how the stain looks for the outside so will create a skin from some wood on the outside. Since only two sides of the stand will be visible I will only need it on the right side of the stand and the front where the big doors will be. I am thinking about using the rough cedar for the main panel and fir (I think) for the edge trim. No stain on these just some sort of protection, probably just PU again.


Also got some things for the upgrade process like salt and buckets Was funny opening the door this morning and the entrance was completely blocked by giant boxes Amazon used to ship these buckets heh, I thought they would just put them all in one box. Reason I got it from them and in that fun color is the price lol. Salt is also from amazon, they seem to finally got that in their own stock at a good price.

[Michael]

Put those brute cans to work today. Drained as much water from the sump and tank as I could. Didn't remove any rocks or equipment and left few inches of water in the sump and few over the sand bed. Tank was still rather heavy, but using the wall behind the tank I was first able to slowly pull it forwards and then push it as I was able to move behind the tank. Will see over the next few days if anything got hurt in the few feet move

Here is the picture of the tank now in the temporary spot and the room to the right is the corner where it used to be and where I will be putting the new tank in. This way I can move in the stand and the tank there while the 120g tank is still running and slowly do the upgrade.



Finished up insides of the stand yesterday by adding two shelves and some rails for the lights and giving it few more coats of PU. For now it is sitting in the garage drying/ airing out the smell.


Inside of the stand looks pretty good, outside I don't really care about as it will either be not visible or covered with some nicer wood panels/doors.

[Michael]

LOL wanted to move the stand from the garage to the back porch to give it a wash and let it air out for few more days... it is so heavy haha. I flipped it around and wore it like a turtle house to move it, could barely walk lol.

But anyways, I did give it a quick wash to remove any oils etc remaining on the surface, so it is almost ready to be put inside.

Once I finish the outside skinning of this stand I imagine it will be very hard to move even for two people heh.

[Michael]

One step closer Now can start working on the trim for the stand as well as the canopy.

Also got some new toys for the new tank. Apex controller with just a standard pH probe for now, might expand to ORP and salinity later and a GHL 3 pump doser.

[Michael]

Just did some tests with loc-line.

- Sicce 5.0 fully open
- About 5' head through 3/4" hose for about foot, then 1' pipe with one union and 2 elbows at the top (basically a U turn to go over the rim into the tank)
- Two 1/2" loc-line split from 1' pipe with a 1" T into 6" long loc-lines with flat nozzle on the ends
- Pump 3 gallons

Results:
About 12-13% decrease in speed with loc-line on.
But what's more interesting is that Sicce 5.0 was delivering only about 500gph at five feet, seems rather low vs their estimate of a bit over 1000gph at 5'. Of course I have union and 2 elbows, but they should not cut flow that much. Wonder what is going on. Of course I did a fairly quick test with pump initially at rest, but still I doubt number would nearly double in normal flow setup.

[CoralolisEffect]

new tank looks nice, cant wait to see its progress.

If i understand correctly they state 1000gph at 5 ft head pressure and your geting half that. Sounds pretty stinky for only two elbows, yes they will have a loss but not half!!!! If i remember correctly adding a 90 is like adding a additional 3-6 ft of st pipe. do you have any restriction on the input or, is there a drop in pipe diamater on the output. You may have just tested there numbers to say BOOOOOGUS, or there numbers are for 0 ft of head pressure. As most of our pumps are not good at pressure but more volume oriented and any head is significant on performance.

[Michael]

Moved to the 180 this weekend. Still have a fair amount work to do to finish, but at least all the vital parts are up and running now. Will need to mounts some more outlets and run all the wiring, connect the dosing system, switch to ranco heater controller, make a better fitting screen lid for the top of the tank, fix up wiring up in the lights, adjust how the sump leds are mounted, and of course build doors for the stand

[Flcorals]

Looking great

[Michael]

Slowly progressing through post upgrade things. Almost everything is done now. I've made doors yesterday, just have to give them another coat of polyurethane. Trim on the stand is installed as well, although that it just raw wood. Will have to apply some sort of protection to it while it's on the tank. PU would be best, but I'm not sure I want to do it with open water right there possibly absorbing fumes.

Anyways, few shots of the sump for now.

Sump - Right side


Sump - Left side


DIY sock holder. Unions easily detach, pipes come out, holder slides from under the pipes and I can pull it out.


DIY top off with a simple float valve. A small pumps comes on few times a day to top off with RO water.


DIY doser tube holder - Ca, Alk, Mg


DIY probe holder


DIY sump lights for chaeto - 16 Cree XM-L U2 with 40 degree optics


And a quick shot of the tank

[Michael]

Apex status - http://reef.verynotgood.info/apex/program/

Need more php skills to make it into an actual webpage

[CoralolisEffect]

Looking good. Like the diy. Esp the diy led sump light.

[philip_r5]

I might have to take your probe holder and dosing holder ideas :p

[Michael]

The lights finally arrived yesterday, although they are missing 90 degree optics I have requested. I have added them to the tank anyways, just running them at higher %s for now, hopefully won't be too long before I get the optics to set it up properly.

[philip_r5]

colorful lol

[SaltWater]

looks great so far

[ccampo]

looking very good, I like those lights

[Michael]

Been a while since last video, so decided to make one today. The usual shots from the front side of the tank followed by a new perspective from the inside of the tank with underwater camera

Algae outbreak that I've been having ever since the upgrade is still going on to some degree although brown haze has lifted at this point and things are slowly getting better. Corals never seem to mind it all, but all of the snails did die off, so will have to replace them at some point. Not sure if it's safe for them as of yet though.

Recently added some new equipment to the system - two Foscams for a little better remote monitoring than an old cellphone allows (pan/tilt etc) and another 8 outlet bar for the Apex. Now waiting for those gyre powerheads to come out