Bevo builds a reef (1 Viewer)

[bevoboy]

I got the bug to go big(ger) a few months back and started shopping for a used setup. Found an Oceanic 180 setup in Austin early last month and made the drive to pick it up. Setup included the tank, stand, canopy, plumbing, and some MH lighting. Also scored an SWC Extreme 250 with an octopus pump and gate mod.

Here are some pics of the goodies sitting in my garage.

And the skimmer. This thing is 26 inches tall and has a footprint of 20" x 13".

 

[bevoboy]

The stand was pretty beat up and had some water damage and I really struggled with whether to strip and refinish or just try to restore the original finish. Decided to give a restorer a shot and Voila!

Not sure why but I also decided to pain the inside of the stand with Kilz. I like the way it ended up.

The next step was the first leak test. Filled it with water and let it sit for a week. No leaks!

 

[bevoboy]

The tank had blue pain on the back when I bought it and had been drilled for some sort of closed loop (plugs on back wall). I stripped the blue paint and painted the back black and then painted the plugs black with fusion. Here is the tank on the stand with the canopy.

I'll be transferring the livestock from my 75G mixed reef into this tank and was vacillating on lighting. I run 2x250 hamiltons and 2x54 actinic on my 75. I have plenty of fixtures/ballasts to run halides on the new tank but was concerned about heat and electric costs. As luck would have it, D-Max was unloading an IceCap retro that was perfect for my new tank. So...we're going with 6x80 in IC660s with ATI bulbs. I'm going to run 4xStunner Blues for actinic. Here's a pic of the T5s in the canopy.

 

[mike13oy]

Looks good. Remove 2 centerbraces if u can and replace them with a steel brace while the tank is empty.

 

[HorseyStripe]

yay! new setups are fun to watch!

i'll keep my dial tuned into the Bevo channel!

 

[tmgrash]

Agreed with removing the center braces while its empty, youll be glad you did.



Bevo, its whats for dinner! Gig'em

 

[bevoboy]

I have a pretty big sump in the stand on the 75G. Problem was the size of the SWC skimmer (this thing is really big). I shopped around for an acrylic sump but couldn't find anything with the right compartment dimensions as I wanted a three compartment sump. So picked up a 40B and some cut glass and made my own. I neglected to take pics of the sump build but there are some pics of the completed sump below.

The plumbing that came with the tank was all glued together and had some really funky turns. I toyed with the idea of going PVC but decided to use soft plumbing instead. Flex hoses for the drains and black Lee's pond tubing for the returns. No ball valves on the drains. I'll regulate flow with a ball valve off the return pump. Using a Mag12 for the return.

 

[tmgrash]

The return chamber looks a little small, going to fluctuate a lot, do you have an ATO?. Have you thought about using the middle section for the return? Then you could operate a fuge on the right.
I love new builds, probably my favorite part of the hobby.

 

[bevoboy]

Thanks for the comments guys. No-go on removing the center braces. The tank is now in place in my bedroom (because we needed a good night light), mostly filled and loaded with sand. Going with Seaflor Special Grade aragonite in a shallow bed.

 

[bevoboy]

The return chamber looks a little small, going to fluctuate a lot, do you have an ATO?. Have you thought about using the middle section for the return? Then you could operate a fuge on the right.
I love new builds, probably my favorite part of the hobby.

Travis,

The return chamber is about 6.5 gallons. I run ATO and have a 20 gallon reservoir for top off. I thought about running split drains with a skimmer/return/fuge setup and decided to go with linear flow through the sump.

 

[coolname1]

Great job on restoring the stand. Looking good.

 

[flexrac]

VERY NICE!

 

[RR-MAN]

Jim, have you made a decision on the rock yet/LR or Dry Rock?

Another large tank in Katy. :cheers2:

 

[bevoboy]

Hey John,

I moved most of the live rock from my 75 into the 180. It looks kind of bare in comparison to the "pile o' rocks" that was in the 75, but I'm digging the look. It's kind of minimalist and I think leaves lots of swimming space/grow out space.

I finished the transfer tonight and will post up some new pics tomorrow. So far all the corals and other livestock seem to be doing well. Fingers crossed and knocking on wood.

 

[bevoboy]

FINALLY done with the transfer. Doesn't look like anything is having trouble acclimating. I worked hard to make sure the parameters matched in both tanks before moving the corals. Had one small boo-boo. Broke off a chunk of my orange cap (so I have a frag for sale/trade now).

Here are some more pics. They are with a P&S so they aren't very good will try to get some better shots later on.

And the money shot for your skimmer-obsessed reefers...

Much thanks to everyone who provided input along the way. I'm very pleased with how the tank turned out and it doesn't look nearly as barren as I thought it might.

I'll be setting up my two-part dosing system this weekend and will finish routing cables then. Will update pics after I'm done with that. Also planning on hitting up Aquarium World tomorrow to snag the pair of Yellow Coris Wrasse they have (nobody better buy them out from under me 8) ).[/b]

 

[Llama]

Lookin good!

 

[bevoboy]

A couple of crappy phone camera pics. Efforting better pics from a real camera...soon as we find the battery charger.

Left side

Right side

FTS (kinda)

Have had no cycle at all and everything still doing well.

 

[thenewone]

NO CYCLE AND YOU ADDEDD ALL THAT YOU BRAVE GOOD LUCK

 

[bevoboy]

Actually...all that stuff was transferred from my 75G except the green cap and the 2 coris wrasse.

 

[thenewone]

OHH OK SORRY DIDNT READ EVERYTHING WELL LOOKS GOOD