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