The Rebirth/Rebuild of my 180g sps thread

**MitchReef** · 11-06-2011, 10:27 AM

Where did you get your starboard?

**philip_r5** · 11-06-2011, 10:37 AM

May I ask your reasoning for using the starboard?

**ACRONUTS** · 11-06-2011, 09:20 PM

Originally Posted by MitchReef

Where did you get your starboard?

Mitchreef it is a bit of a long story but the guy who I had bought the tank setup from about 2 yrs back had star board originally in the same tank.
I hooked up and bought the pieces from him.
Only the middle piece was not from the original setup. It was an extra piece meant for a nano cube he would eventually set up.

**ACRONUTS** · 11-06-2011, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by philip_r5

May I ask your reasoning for using the starboard?

I am using star board because of a couple of reasons.
1. Easier for tank maintanance cleanup. The sand accumilates a LOT of detritus and even though you have sifters and criters that are supposed to keep the sand airated detirus still accumulates and causes phosphates and nitrates.
2. I really like the look of the coralline algae on the bottom.

I have had several setups over time and and the "bare bottom/star board" worked really well for me. So I am going back to it.

**ACRONUTS** · 11-07-2011, 12:23 AM

A few more things that were taken care of this weekend.
Here is a pic of the beginning of the drain. Funny how the fish don't wanna get caught!

Here is the 55g tank that the fish and some of my remaining corals will be housed for awhile.

Star board clean, cut and ready for install next week.

Tank finally empty. Corals and fish are all out. Look at the coralline algae growth on the back of the tank and over flow boxes.

Bleach went in last night and in less than 24 hours the coralline algae has turned mostly white. The anaptasia's were gone after I added just the tap water. The majano's were closed but look still alive until I added the bleach.
This evening I started to siphon any remaining sand and the majanos came off the glass very easily. I do suspect they were no dead.

Here is a fts. Wow it is surreal!

**ACRONUTS** · 11-07-2011, 03:22 PM

Well I decided to rebuild the aquascape and I knew going in that since I had only pics that possibly the rebuild of it may not be exact.
While one island ( the right one ) was easier because of the unique shapes, island two was more difficult.

Here are over head shots so you guys can see how much space there is at the tops of these islands.

The 1st pic I have between 5-7 inches across tapering to about 2 inches
The 2nd pic I have between 9-10 inches at the thickest to 4-5 to 1.5 inches.

I will see if I can add angle shots to show the ledges.

**ACRONUTS** · 11-12-2011, 12:02 AM

It's been a busy week here. After I ran bleach in the display tank for 4 days I got to empty the tank out.

I guess I was feeling paranoid because I decided to remove all the dead dried coralline algae. You can see the difference.

Once done I moved on to test the star board. There was a slight cutting adjustment but took care of it and laid the three pieces inside the tank.

One of the things I found out that even though I took pics of the aquascape, once I tore it down I was freaken out at how hard it was trying to place the rocks back exactly how they were in the pics.
Then guys I was itching to see the aquascape inside the tank. Man what a day!!! 1st the space seemed to SHRINK! What space I thought I had was gone. Either way I made some adjustments. Nothing is mortared yet.

I have some good things to show like: A more natural looking bridge

Another bridge on the rt side island

These bridges I am not so sold on yet. They don't seem natural enough and they seem as though they are just shelves to put stuff on them. I am seriously considering not having this whole middle section.

Here is the FTS without the store shelves section and before I added the more natural bridges

**philip_r5** · 11-12-2011, 10:57 AM

A couple of my opinions.

It looks as if you divided the tank in half. Left side blocks the right with the right wall. While the left blocks the left side of tank with its wall.

The left side looks cool, where the right looks as if you are going to be displaying different things in different sections. To many columns.

I see you have 2 mp40s so I think the water movement in the local area will be fine. However, my question was the walls in the middle stopping flow thru out the tank.

Please don't take this negative, just my opinions and questioning. I do like the left side.

**ACRONUTS** · 11-12-2011, 09:39 PM

Philip, thanks you for your opinions. I am not sure what happened but the second part of my post did not post.

Please i never think that anyones opions are negative.
Please look at the next pot for the rest on the pics and I look forward to hearing your thoughts again.

Originally Posted by philip_r5

A couple of my opinions.

It looks as if you divided the tank in half. Left side blocks the right with the right wall. While the left blocks the left side of tank with its wall.

The left side looks cool, where the right looks as if you are going to be displaying different things in different sections. To many columns.

I see you have 2 mp40s so I think the water movement in the local area will be fine. However, my question was the walls in the middle stopping flow thru out the tank.

Please don't take this negative, just my opinions and questioning. I do like the left side.

**ACRONUTS** · 11-12-2011, 09:42 PM

Here are the pics of the missing post from last nite.

**Mostly Rock** · 11-13-2011, 12:06 AM

Me, Myself, Personally... I like the end product. I will probly have a set up more like the first two islands of rock, only turned, oriented from the far left wall, and the far right wall, with a nice Gigantor Gap in the middle. I have a big 'ol 24 X 24 X .5 in piece of glass as a cross brace in the middle of my 180, so I will have a nice area dedicated to sun corals and open fish area in the middle. Another humongous difference is I'm a DSB fan, Yeah, I'm Old School. For my lighting, I was just sold on 2 250 watt LED systems from Ocean Direct today... I'm not buying them yet, but Kevin pointed out the benefits and, after I did the math, they really panned out to be the best and easiest decision of the 180 build. Once I actually start setting it up, I'll post a thread.

**philip_r5** · 11-13-2011, 01:36 AM

I think your rock layout will work great. The side views help out

Looks great

**ACRONUTS** · 11-13-2011, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by Mostly Rock

Me, Myself, Personally... I like the end product. I will probly have a set up more like the first two islands of rock, only turned, oriented from the far left wall, and the far right wall, with a nice Gigantor Gap in the middle. I have a big 'ol 24 X 24 X .5 in piece of glass as a cross brace in the middle of my 180, so I will have a nice area dedicated to sun corals and open fish area in the middle. Another humongous difference is I'm a DSB fan, Yeah, I'm Old School. For my lighting, I was just sold on 2 250 watt LED systems from Ocean Direct today... I'm not buying them yet, but Kevin pointed out the benefits and, after I did the math, they really panned out to be the best and easiest decision of the 180 build. Once I actually start setting it up, I'll post a thread.

Your idea reminds me of the 600 plus gallon setup in the lfs called "The Coral Corral" ocean direct has some amazing chalice's waiting for me, lol! Or for someone else! Can't wait to see your build thread mostly rock!

**ACRONUTS** · 11-13-2011, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by philip_r5

I think your rock layout will work great. The side views help out

Looks great

Philip thanks for your input. Chances are I am gonna get rid of the middle section and possibly build another archway or train some birdsnest or plating type coral to form a bridge across the top. Sort of like a bonsai.

**ACRONUTS** · 11-17-2011, 12:36 AM

This update is a short one
I went ahead and siliconed the star board to the bottom of tank. As luck would have it one of my tubes of silicon bursed from the opposite end and made a big mess.
I took a trip to lowes bought a larger tube of 100% clear silicone and a trigger gun. Boy did it ever make the application easier.

Once that was done I went for rebuilding the aquascape so that I could get it memorized.
For one I made the decision to get rid of middle section. As I was frustrated with the right section I noticed a rock that was shaped just the right way. Shaped enough that when placed at a certain angle, voila made an archway.

Getting the kinks out of the aquascape is very important as once things are mortared you're stuck and pretty screwed. Even though you guys like the rock work I realized that the placement would not work. The rocks would have to be mortared in such a way that it would get too top heavy once the sps's grew. I opened things up a bit and arranged so that the rocks had more stability with each other.

Right side

This is it, FINALLY!! LOL!! FTS

Well this weekend is mortar time and fill up time!

**ACRONUTS** · 11-18-2011, 07:30 PM

Update:
Was able to start mortaring the aquascape today. The process was a bit troubling but working fast was the key.
The product from Marco Rocks is good but definitely you need a spray bottle. Mixing small amounts worked for me and a plan of action.
The places you plan on mortaring together need to be sprayed. The product as directed starts to harden within 10 mins. Working fast is key but as murphy's law things will not go right. LOL! I took the material in hands instead of the trowel and made balls about 2 inches round. You place the material then place your rock. Work the material quickly around the rock and crevices because it starts to dry. If you notice the material pulling away spray it with water and add a little more material and bingo the material stayed in place.
Be ready for possible mishaps and excess material falling off! Its ok next day it easily pics off glass or star board.

Tomorrow is filling up day!!!

**ACRONUTS** · 11-19-2011, 10:08 AM

I have two questions that I am not sure about.
Since I am adding some of my old seeded rock to the sump, and adding bacteria,

1. Should I be ok adding a filter sock during the cycle ?
2. Should I be ok adding charcoal to the system yet?

**swirlygig** · 11-19-2011, 12:19 PM

Crap you make me want to redo my tank and go bigger! Did you mortar all the rock as one piece...I hope you only did segments in case it needs to be removed later? Sometimes keeping some smaller unmounted pieces is a good thing in case you need to rescape a bit or frag...I love it though!!! Kudos!

**ACRONUTS** · 11-19-2011, 09:42 PM

Originally Posted by swirlygig

Crap you make me want to redo my tank and go bigger! Did you mortar all the rock as one piece...I hope you only did segments in case it needs to be removed later? Sometimes keeping some smaller unmounted pieces is a good thing in case you need to rescape a bit or frag...I love it though!!! Kudos!

Yes I did not mortar everything together. Thought I would but just as you said if I needed to move or cut something later on I wanted to make sure I could remove it.
Thanks for the kudos and you can redo your tank too ya know!