180 Build Thread

palvyre · Jun 28, 2012

Ordered the oak canopy and glass top. My wife and I are going to paint them black this month and move it into the house toward the end of the month. I'll probably need the suction cups then and some muscle to move it.

revsgirl · Jun 28, 2012

Lookin' forward to it!

pickupman66 · Jun 28, 2012

so you will have a canopy and Glass lids on it? just curious as I would think the glass tops would be redundant.

Dowtish · Jun 28, 2012

pickupman66 said:
so you will have a canopy and Glass lids on it? just curious as I would think the glass tops would be redundant.

I was wondering the same thing?

And I will help you move the tank, just let me know. I'm sure us Smyrna/LaVergne folks can team up.

palvyre · Jun 28, 2012

Oak canopy makes it look nice for my wife. Glass top slows down evaporation, keeps my fish in the tank, and keeps salt creep off my lights.

Thanks for the offers of help moving it, I'll post here when we are ready. I'll be adding pictures to this thread as we get parts ready. Off to lowes this weekend to pick up the paint and what not. I found these powerstrips I really like too, I am going to mount them toward the top under the tank in the back of the stand. They have 12 outlets each, half facing into the stand and half facing out.

http://www.amazon.com/Cyberpower-CP...r-Surge/dp/tech-data/B00077INZU/ref=de_a_smtd

Dowtish · Jun 28, 2012

I hate to tell you this, but glass tops are going to discourage gas exchange, which will affect your ph levels. Also the glass is going to lower your PAR levels andthe salt creep is going to build up on the glass making it worse. If you are really concerned about jumpers, you should make one of these.

[video=youtube;F0CzorCknWQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0CzorCknWQ[/video]

SmyrnaReefer · Jun 28, 2012

i got reid of my glass top for all of those reasons.... low par, saltcreep with no light coming through the glass, heat, all the above....

palvyre · Jun 28, 2012

I have a glass lid on my current setup and the evaporation dropped by about 90%. Part of my tank maintenance is cleaning any salt off my glass tops. Plenty of gas exchange occurs in my sump with the skimmer, my PH holds steady in the ideal range. Heat shouldn't be too much of an issue, I'll be running LED.

Dowtish · Jun 28, 2012

Are you going to only keep softies and LPS on this tank, because PAR will be an issue with the glass.

palvyre · Jun 28, 2012

From what I have seen on reviews of the Apollo blast dimmable, I shouldn't have an issue with PAR as long as I position any sps appropriately. I.e. toward the upper part of the tank and more directly under the fixtures. I plan on mixing and initially I am mostly softies with some LPS. Right now sps are not doing well in my corner tank, likely due to poor lighting and nitrate/phosphate levels. I will likely need to do biopellets or something similar in the new tank.

palvyre · Jun 28, 2012

Just checked my parameters and been dosing a little too much alk reef builder. KH was up to 15, PH 8.0. I don't trust my nitrate and phosphate tests, they were both reading < 1 ppm best as I can tell from the color chart. I have some nuisance algae growing which makes it hard to believe that. No hair algae or diatoms, but I see bubble algae in 1 spot and some green algae in low flow area in one of the corners.