AV's 180g

[AquaVoyeur]

My buddy posted the next tank video to his channel TVR - a quick tour of the "under the hood" equipment room and how it connects back to the display tank, lighting, filtration, etc., including my low-tech "MacGyver-Ghetto" cooling setup.
Seth's Reef Tank Equipment Tour (180 Gallon Reef)

Here is another recent spot on Ecoxotic's website showcasing the tank. I thought they got some cool shots:
Ecoxotic Customer Showcase - Seth’s 180 gallon SPS Reef Aquarium

Hopefully these can give some options/ideas for other folks starting up a new build.

 

[AquaVoyeur]

Just in case the link above isn't working for you:

[video=youtube;95mjqAp8nto]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95mjqAp8nto[/video]

 

[Dowtish]

Seth, its Chris Dowdy, I forgot that you had a thread on here. I even commented on it early on. Lol. This is where I hang out the most. R2R Rocks.

Sent Via the R2R Forum APP

 

[AquaVoyeur]

Wasup Chris! Good to know you are on here. Yep, I can always rely on R2R for good info and eye candy!

 

[Surferboy1500]

wow, great growth. I love the photos every 6 months. Great work!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Love your tank! WOW!

 

[skinz78]

Wow what a beautiful setup!

 

[trido]

Revhtree is resurrecting another thread on FB. Amazing tank.

 

[AquaVoyeur]

Man I've been slacking, I need to update this thread.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Beautiful tank! Please give us an update!!

 

[ZooZilla]

+1 on updates. Gorgeous tank.

 

[dansreef]

Beautiful Tank! +1 on an update!

 

[AquaVoyeur]

Thanks for the prodding , i will post some highlights of the past year's tank updates shortly.

 

[AquaVoyeur]

I'll start with eye candy from where I last left off, and move forward from there.

From last November, when tank hit the 4yr mark:

Shades of Fall

Close up of SOF polyp extension

Red Planet and Grape Prostrata

Hawkins

Caroliniana - the Blonde beast

Samoenis

FTS Nov '13

 

[AquaVoyeur]

Right around the 4yr mark, I witnessed a very pleasant surprise in my tank - mass coral spawning!!! Was almost 11pm, went downstairs for something and walked by the tank and saw the fish going nuts, and stuff floating around everywhere. Took me a few moments to realize what was actually happening! Hard to see in the pics, but coral larvae was everywhere, rising up from the colonies.

I took a plastic cup and scooped some water out of the filter sock:

 

[AquaVoyeur]

Major Rescape

Things started to get too crowded for my liking, and larger colonies were starting to create flow and shading problems. I first removed all the caps to open things up. I like the monti caps, but they had gotten to the point of growing like weeds and causing some flow restriction on higher-end acros.

After several weeks of allowing the tank to adjust from the cap removal, the big teal stag colony near the center of the tank was next. Part of the issue here was the Birdsnest and Stag were really crowding each other, growing together. So removed the the Birdsnest first. It was pretty large itself, almost 10" across:

I then started on the Teal Stag. It was a beast and quite the PITA, but I finally got it out of there. That is a 5-gallon bucket for size reference:

I basically used a hack saw and cut the dead base off, then cut it into a few major sections. Then I remounted the two best sections, and sold/traded the rest.

 

[AquaVoyeur]

Things settled down fairly well after the major cutbacks and removal. Though still have several others to cut back.

FTS Feb '14

 

[AquaVoyeur]

Some new fish additions:

Klien's Butterfly

Harlequin Tusk

These guys aren't new, but love hamming it up for the camera:

 

[AquaVoyeur]

My pet project - a branching mystic sunset monti. I took an old digitata skeleton and put a small chip of mystic sunset monti on the tip of each branch. Kept it in the frag tank a few months to let the tips grow down the branches. Turned out pretty nice, so mounted it in the display.