Marineland 180 - Slow Build

[Rcpilot]

I just went down to the LFS and bought this brand new tank.

https://www.fishtanksdirect.com/marineland-180-gallon-tank-black-w-2-cornerflo.aspx

My plan is an LPS dominant reef. Hopefully not too many fish. I don't really like fish all that much, and they limit your vacation and traveling a lot more than just a tank full of corals. I still have lots of equipment to buy. Need an RO unit and a return pump. I have a Reef Octopus 150 skimmer, but I don't know if its big enough. I think most would say no.

I'm not a carpenter, so if it's just a stand and canopy, I'm paying a local furniture maker to build it for me. My wife wants it to look like real wood furniture.

The other option is the built-in. We may take 5 feet out of the living room and partition it for a built-in. Not sure yet. The living room is very large and hard to place furniture because it's so big. We can easily give up 5 or even 6 feet on an end wall. It would be up to 12 feet wide.

Lighting:
No idea. I like T5HO for tweek factor. You can change up your look or fine tune for corals.
LED has the long life and efficiency, but you're stuck with that color unless you want to buy a new fixture.

 

[glb]

I just went down to the LFS and bought this brand new tank.

https://www.fishtanksdirect.com/marineland-180-gallon-tank-black-w-2-cornerflo.aspx

My plan is an LPS dominant reef. Hopefully not too many fish. I don't really like fish all that much, and they limit your vacation and traveling a lot more than just a tank full of corals. I still have lots of equipment to buy. Need an RO unit and a return pump. I have a Reef Octopus 150 skimmer, but I don't know if its big enough. I think most would say no.

I'm not a carpenter, so if it's just a stand and canopy, I'm paying a local furniture maker to build it for me. My wife wants it to look like real wood furniture.

The other option is the built-in. We may take 5 feet out of the living room and partition it for a built-in. Not sure yet. The living room is very large and hard to place furniture because it's so big. We can easily give up 5 or even 6 feet on an end wall. It would be up to 12 feet wide.

Lighting:
No idea. I like T5HO for tweek factor. You can change up your look or fine tune for corals.
LED has the long life and efficiency, but you're stuck with that color unless you want to buy a new fixture.

Sounds exciting! I’ve read that LPS love t5’s. I just bought an ATI t5 for what will be an LPS tank. Mine is only 40g. Good luck and definitely start a build thread!

 

[Rcpilot]

Drains:
I've been reading a lot about how to plumb these tanks with dual overflows. It seems nobody uses the durso style piping that comes with these tanks. I'm fine with that. They scare me.

Should I run 2 Herbie style drains?

Should I run a single Herbie on one side and do something else with the other side?

Should I try to run a dry standpipe in the 2nd overflow? Is that considered a BeanAnimal setup or does it all need to be in the same overflow box? How do you partially block off the weir to accomplish that? I'm really big on redundancy and usually take an attitude of "plan for the worst - hope for the best" when designing stuff.

What would you do?

 

[Rcpilot]

Sounds exciting! I’ve read that LPS love t5’s. I just bought an ATI t5 for what will be an LPS tank. Mine is only 40g. Good luck and definitely start a build thread!

Thanks!

This will be the build thread. I want to keep it all in one spot. Gonna be slow going.

 

[Rcpilot]

I could really use some help with equipment and drains. I've had reef tanks before, but this is the biggest one. I've never had a dual overflow tank and the drains have me fairly concerned.

Can anyone recommend lighting and return pumps that are decent quality but don't break the bank? I'm not looking for the cheapest stuff, but I'm also not in a position to afford the latest LED's from Kessil or the most techy variable speed return pumps.

I'm thinking of a 3x-5x turnover rate for the filtration system. I will most likely not go more than 10x--12x on the circulation rate since I'm planning a mostly LPS tank.

I do have a Reef Octopus 150 skimmer and I guess I'll try that unless anybody says I absolutely need a larger one.

I'm definitely starting with dry rock. Sand will be white, but not sure which one to buy. I'm thinking probably at least 200-300lbs for a shallow sand bed.

Is it okay to just pile rocks on the bottom, or do I need to use egg crate or plastic cutting boards to spread the weight out?

 

[Rcpilot]

Still slowly planning and gathering parts. I had some used LED lights that turned out to need a complete rebuild, so I threw them away (recycle bin for electronics). Still trying to decide which way to go with lighting. LED would be the most energy efficient, and our power isn't cheap.

Electrical is an issue for me. I don't have near enough outlets in the wall for this size tank, and I'd really like to avoid using power strips when possible. Not saying I won't end up using them, just don't want to use very many if it can be helped.
We enjoy using our kitchen a lot, but we have an induction cooktop that we don't like. The house already has natural gas, so we're going to swap out the induction for a gas cooktop. The abandoned induction cooktop circuits just became my new fish tank circuits. I'll be stealing those 2 slots in my electrical panel to branch over and supply a sub-panel in the garage. I'm planning to use a lot of small 10 amp circuits in the sub-panel and also I'll set some type of outlet panel in the fish room with each outlet labeled to corresponde to the breakers in the sub-panel in the garage. Hoping this will get a clean look, without a fire hazard. There's still a lot to be planned.

I also have water and drain issues:
Due to where the tank HAS to sit, I'm far away from any drains or water supply. That means I'll need to go up into my attic. The house sits on a concrete slab, so no basement is available. I'll need to punch a couple holes in my ceiling and build at least 2 little chases or utility gutters to run power and water lines. I wouldn't run water and power in the same chase, so I'm planning to build 2.
I think the best thing to do is put my RO unit in the garage. There's power, water, and a drain all located in a small erea. There's a mop- sink, so I can tap into that water and drain for the RO unit. There's a GFCI outlet close by for my RO pump. The saltwater mixing station will also need to be in the garage.

With that setup, I'll only need to run 3 water lines between the garage and the tank. The top off water line, the drain line and the fill line for new salt water. I'm sure some check valves will need to be used. I don't have a freeze issue in Floirda, but I still don't like the idea of water sitting in lines in the attic, so I want to route the lines so they either drain backwards or forwards into their respective buckets or tanks or wherever... after the pumps shut off.

 

[Rcpilot]

Change of plans. The tank is to be set up in one of the spare bedrooms. This bedroom shares a wall with my garage. The wall has my main power panel, water and a drain line. Setting the tank near that wall will make this a whole lot simpler and cheaper.

 

[Rcpilot]

I took advantage of the local Petco $1 per gallon sale today. My store only allows that deal up to 29g tanks. Other tanks are 50% off.

I bought a 40g breeder and a 55g. Planning to use the 55g as the sump. Maybe the 40g breeder will be my refugium or a frag tank.

 

[Rcpilot]

Looking for opinions on this 55g sump design. Does this design work as a base to add an Apex and a few different reactors later?
Top sketch is a side view.
Bottom sketch is a view from the top, looking down. (plan view)

(sketch in the middle is garbage -- Disregard)

I'd like to drain the display into the left corner of the sump and have a couple 4 inch filter sock holes. I don't plan to run them all the time, but having the option to run the socks for occasional water polishing sounds like a good idea to me.
Skimmer in the middle and return pump on the left.

The last baffle on the left side will not go all the way to the top rim of the tank. It will need to have some slots cut and it will need to be a few inches below the top rim, so everything can equalize during power off situations.

I'm hoping this design leaves a lot of room for me to mount probes and floats in the sump. I never used a controller in the past, so I'd sure appreciate any input on where and how to install brackets and accessories for the controller.

 

[Saltydog69]

I would love to see how you plumbed the tank and overflow, also the return. I hope you got it all done the way you wanted. I'm sorry more people did not respond amd help you with this awesome project. I'm thinking of going with the Marineland 180 or aqueon. I've heard bad things about them leaking but I love the price amd that I get to customize the plumbing and filtration myself. I have a waterbox 90 gallon and I want to go much bigger on my next build. Hope you reply thanks.