The 180gal Family Project

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nikkipigtails

nikkipigtails

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Thanks for looking everyone. Tommy's been working really hard the past couple of days to finish the stand. It's not perfect, but a lot of it will be covered with trim anyway, so you'll never know. I'm getting SO excited! We turned one set of the MH on tonight and they're a lot bluer than I thought they would be, but I really like them. We'll just have to make sure to add more white actenics to balance them out a little. Our background is really cool because when the light is dim, it looks dark, sparkly purple but as they get brighter, it changes to a really pretty royal, sparkly blue. It's really awesome.

Lynette: Thanks for looking. We've been at this project longer than I want to admit. Things just keep coming up...life really...hopefully you won't run out of popcorn before we're finished.

JoJo: Thanks! We'll definately be putting back a few once we get the rock in there. We can't wait for it to be finished either.

Mucci: Thanks. I've been making water all afternoon and got about 40 gallons. I'll probably make another 50 tomorrow, put the rock in tomorrow or Saturday and make the rest so I'll know how much to make. Then the cycle begins!!!

G!N+TON!K: Thanks. I've wanted an RBTA for the longest time but I want a reef too. This is the easiest way to have both without constantly worrying if it's going to take a walk and wipe out half of the reef. Yeah, it's big...yeah, it takes up half our living room...but it'll look SO freakin cool once it's finished.

Craig: Thanks for looking.

Terry: Our lights are ~12" from the top of the tank so they'll be ~13"-14" away from the top of the water. We did this because of the heat. We got a chiller to keep the water cooled but I don't like the idea of having 4x400W MH + T5's that close to the rather large glass support in the middle of the tank. But, because our lights are so strong, I figured we had some wiggle room.
 
nikkipigtails

nikkipigtails

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We have rocks and water!!! This isn't the final aquascape, I changed it after this picture was taken and Tommy added the sand so the water's too cloudy to see it now. I'll post a new picture when it clears up.
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thelastmucci

thelastmucci

Active Member
I love the sizes with the LR Nikki..and the T5's look really blue. Glad it's all coming together now...now the hard part begins...owning the aquarium
 
nikkipigtails

nikkipigtails

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We were able to make enough water to cover the top of the rocks and turn the CL pump on. The water is a lot clearer today than it was last night so I got a couple of pictures. We're still making water today. It took us about 7 hours to make just over 40 gallons so we just left it on last night while we were sleeping so we woke up to a nice, full container of water.

In case you missed this part, we were curing LR in a trash can and doing 50% water changes about every 2 weeks. Everything was going great until the trash can started to leak. So we took everything out and put it in a different trash can. Then, after about 2 weeks, it started to leak. Well, not just leak, it was gushing! So, we kicked it into high gear and got everything to the point where we could put water in the tank. In the meantime though, we had to put all the rock in 5 gallon buckets because we didn't have another trash can. They were only in there for a couple of days, but let me tell you that they stunk up to high heaven when we took them out last night. To my suprise though, all the sponges were still alive. We even have some really cool orange sponges on the rock that have definately grown. They look like really thick spiderwebs. I pulled each rock out and scrubed it all with a toothbrush, gave each rock a little dip in some SW and put them in the tank. We also put in the 200# (I previously said 150# but when Tommy brought the buckets in, he said it felt more like 200#) of sand in the tank. It used to be live sand, but someone's tank was about to crash so we bought it from them really cheap. I rinsed it out really well before we put it up then I just rinsed it out again a couple of days ago. Note to others: ~100 gal of SW + 150# of LR that is cycling + 200# of sand that is cycling = a really stinky house! I had to make some BBQ chicken and sweet potatoes to cover up the stench.

Ok...enough words...here's pictures:
The water's still cloudy but here's the 'scape with all the lights on. The rocks on the left are going to get re-'scaped becuase I forgot that I have bigger rock in the little tank that I'm going to have to switch out for some of these guys.

wj89dk.jpg


We had to turn off the MH because it was getting too hot so we'll have to figure out a way to get some air flow back there to get the lights cooled off.
A little closer:
fyewap.jpg


Left side:
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Right side:
ngq54n.jpg


The water's getting clearer and clearer every minute so I'll post new pics once the water gets clear enough to really see it all.
 
thelastmucci

thelastmucci

Active Member
Nikki I loce the caves....very cool aquascaping, and it matches so I always like that. I do have a few questions if you'll indulge me.


1. When you put the LR in how high was your water level...I'm trying to see if I can make X amount put it in the tank and then it will be raised by adding the LR and LS. But if I make it in the tank I have to figure out how many gallons so I know how much salt to put in to get a salinity of 1.023

2. Your aquascape is beautiful but I'm curious did you use any reef epoxy or did you just stack it.

Thanks Nikki I know I'm a pain.
 
nikkipigtails

nikkipigtails

Well-Known Member
Thanks guys.

No prob Mucci.
1. We put eggcrate in first. Then we put about 4" of water in the tank, put the rock in then we filled it up the rest of the way. It's too much of a math problem to try to figure out how much the rock would displace the water.

2. We didn't epoxy any of it. This is a very different 'scape then we were going to do but we didn't want to have to deal with epoxy (which I've never been able to get to work) or pvc and nylon screws and pond foam (which I was never able to find). Everything fits together very snug though and none of it moves even with the CL pump blasting the sides of the bases.
 
AnotherLousy1

AnotherLousy1

Member
Right side:
ngq54n.jpg
Click to expand...

Ok, so I just have to ask, I know it's a big tank, but how did you get that car in there. <heh> Just kiddin' with ya.

On a serious note, WOW, Nikki, truly lookin' great and I have to agree with Mucci, the cave and layout are awesome. Maybe I missed it, but did you use epoxy or pvc to hold those together or are they just stacked that way?
 
nikkipigtails

nikkipigtails

Well-Known Member
Thanks everyone.

Lynnette: They're just stacked. I've never had any luck with epoxy and we didn't feel like messing with pvc and nylon screws.
 
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