New 180g Custom Planet Aquarium

JPK_Esquire · Jan 8, 2020

S2G said:
Rock work looks great imo.

Sand wise that's a preference thing, but I personally think sand looks way better than bare.

Fuge vs scrubber. I would of started with a fuge since you have an area for it, but since you want a kessil h380 thats scrubber money right there. A properly designed scrubber is quiet and very clean aesthetically. An ats is way more efficient than fuge at a fraction of the size. There's a guy here selling a used CW-50 scrubber that would be perfect and it's priced very nicely. A fuge may be more your style though and its very low maintenance.

Ive had your same skimmer in my old 180 with a higher flow sump and it worked great. Chaeto likes flow ime and i run a lot of rock in my sump so that's my reasoning for higher flow. It's really not that critical as long as you dont have class 5 rapids.

Thanks. Your comments are really helpful!

Skard · Jan 8, 2020

Hello, looking good so far JPK I have a 280G Planet Aquarium tank I am setting up as well (very slowly!) My two cents I have run both refugiums and scrubbers, I prefer scrubbers mainly due to the ease of maintenance and their efficiency. I run a turbo aquatics on my 60 gallon frag tank & it does a great job, and I also have a larger one that ran my old 150G cube. They do a great job of keeping phosphate/nitrate in check. The bonus on the refugiums is more diversity with the pods and critters.

I like your rock work but IMO it's a little to uniform and all the same height. I prefer sand as well, & I use the Special Grade CaribSea. It has a larger grain and does not blow around as bad as your sugar fine sands. You will like your PA aquarium they are built like a tank. (real similar to the old Oceanic tanks)

S2G · Jan 8, 2020

Skard said:
Hello, looking good so far JPK I have a 280G Planet Aquarium tank I am setting up as well (very slowly!) My two cents I have run both refugiums and scrubbers, I prefer scrubbers mainly due to the ease of maintenance and their efficiency. I run a turbo aquatics on my 60 gallon frag tank & it does a great job, and I also have a larger one that ran my old 150G cube. They do a great job of keeping phosphate/nitrate in check. The bonus on the refugiums is more diversity with the pods and critters.

I like your rock work but IMO it's a little to uniform and all the same height. I prefer sand as well, & I use the Special Grade CaribSea. It has a larger grain and does not blow around as bad as your sugar fine sands. You will like your PA aquarium they are built like a tank. (real similar to the old Oceanic tanks)

Do you have any pics of your scrubber?

Skard · Jan 8, 2020

This is the smaller newer version which I believe is a L2.

JPK_Esquire · Jan 8, 2020

Skard said:
Hello, looking good so far JPK I have a 280G Planet Aquarium tank I am setting up as well (very slowly!) My two cents I have run both refugiums and scrubbers, I prefer scrubbers mainly due to the ease of maintenance and their efficiency. I run a turbo aquatics on my 60 gallon frag tank & it does a great job, and I also have a larger one that ran my old 150G cube. They do a great job of keeping phosphate/nitrate in check. The bonus on the refugiums is more diversity with the pods and critters.

I like your rock work but IMO it's a little to uniform and all the same height. I prefer sand as well, & I use the Special Grade CaribSea. It has a larger grain and does not blow around as bad as your sugar fine sands. You will like your PA aquarium they are built like a tank. (real similar to the old Oceanic tanks)

Thanks. +1 on the same height. I think its a little too symmetrical as well. I have a couple of weeks to work with it. I am leaning towards the Tropic Eden Reef Flakes and maybe mixing with the Meso Flakes. Haven't seen anyone knock them, and they are a little bigger than the CaribSea Special Grade.

Jimbo662 · Jan 8, 2020

JPK_Esquire said:
Many thanks! I’m leaning towards sand and larger grain. I’m reading good things about the Tropic Eden Reef Flakes and maybe missing with some of their Meso Flakes. Also considering CaribSea Special Grade.

I used to only use Caribsea special grade. On the current tank went with reef flakes on the recommendation of a local guy. It'll be my go to on any future tanks.

JPK_Esquire · Jan 9, 2020

Flow!

Flow is obviously all the rage these days. I’m going for SPS-dominant but don’t plan to go to 100x flow or anything crazy. I’m looking to stay in the 50x to 60x.

With 2x MP40s, 2x Nero 5s, and the return going full I’d be at like 88x turnover. But the powerheads aren’t going to be going 100% intensity 24/7. So at like 50% intensity I’m at like 44x.

I was watching the BRS flow episode on the WWC/BRS method where they put 2x MP60s and 4x MP40s on a Red Sea XXL 750 (approx 170 gallon tank), so about the size of my build. I like the design of four powerheads in the back (two opposing each other at top and two bottom) and two in the front (on the sides where you’d normally see powerheads). They’re using MP40s for the back and MP60s (which they say are driving most of the flow in the tank) in the front. The MP60s seem like overkill, so I’m thinking of just 6x MP40s, using the same design but using MP40s in the front instead of MP60s.

Why use MP60s in the front instead of MP40s? I’m sure the MP40s are strong enough. Thoughts?

JPK_Esquire · Jan 23, 2020

Aquascape Attempt #2

JPK_Esquire · Jan 23, 2020

Aquascape Attempt #3
Similar to #1, but the right side has some more character and the side view on left (picture to come) looks better.

Pickwun · Jan 23, 2020

Since you asked:
Scape #2 slide the right stack to the left about 4" to hit the upper intersection.
Scape #2 move something to create a diagonal from lower right to upper left in the right-center pane.
Right now you're too symmetrical. That's just my opinion.

JPK_Esquire · Jan 23, 2020

Pickwun said:
Since you asked:
Scape #2 slide the right stack to the left about 4" to hit the upper intersection.
Scape #2 move something to create a diagonal from lower right to upper left in the right-center pane.
Right now you're too symmetrical. That's just my opinion.

So scape #2 instead of 3?

Pickwun · Jan 23, 2020

JPK_Esquire said:
So scape #2 instead of 3?

I think either one works with minor adjustment to honor the intersections of your strings, and that might be accomplished with the corals that are currently living in your head.
Most importantly do whatever feels right to you since I won't be spending much time in your living room. Set it up where the tank will be and leave if for a few days to see how you feel when you see it.

CasaReefer · Jan 23, 2020

JPK_Esquire said:
Rock came today. Below is the first attempt at an aquascape. I don’t hate it, but it’s far from done. Good thing i have 4-6 weeks to work and rework it.

Looking for sincere honest critique, both aesthetic and practical (I.e., that’ll be hard to do flow or you’ll have a hard time cleaning this or that). I know need to bring some of the arches back towards the center and intersection points, but my concern is real estate. Do these arch like scapes provide enough real estate for an SPS-dominant (acro) tank?

Nice Job on the Rock Work...

JPK_Esquire · Jan 26, 2020

Aquascape attempt #4 (wife is beyond annoyed at this point).

Dj City · Jan 27, 2020

Looking good so far.

When it comes to your rockscape, do what YOU like. Have it the way YOU like it. Its your tank. You are the one that lives with it.

Keep in mind coral placement and growth of future corals.

Having said all that...
I like #1, #3 and #4.
I would add a little height to one side so it does not look so....
Even.

Osric · Jan 27, 2020

JPK_Esquire said:
Aquascape Attempt #2

I like this one because I can imagine different fish calling one side or the other 'home'. All your rockscape efforts look good to me, though.

JPK_Esquire · Jan 27, 2020

Dj City said:
Looking good so far.

When it comes to your rockscape, do what YOU like. Have it the way YOU like it. Its your tank. You are the one that lives with it.

Keep in mind coral placement and growth of future corals.

Having said all that...
I like #1, #3 and #4.
I would add a little height to one side so it does not look so....
Even.

Thanks. I don't think this picture does a very good job of showing the height. The right side is quite a bit higher. If you look at the top string it somewhat will demonstrate. However, the height of the left tower is a little distorted because of the angle. Thanks for the advice.

ReefChef19 · Jan 27, 2020

Congratulations on the new build, as stated do it and leave it for a day or 2. I like my aquascape but I wish I would have taken my time some more and done some things differently. Just picture your coral placement but also getting to watch your fish swimming around I love caves! Good luck and enjoy!!! Ps. Most of the wives only like to see the end product mine at least!!

JPK_Esquire · Jan 27, 2020

ReefChef19 said:
Congratulations on the new build, as stated do it and leave it for a day or 2. I like my aquascape but I wish I would have taken my time some more and done some things differently. Just picture your coral placement but also getting to watch your fish swimming around I love caves! Good luck and enjoy!!! Ps. Most of the wives only like to see the end product mine at least!!

Thanks for the comments. The leave it for a day or 2 has been what gets me in trouble. I've been building and re-building for like 3 weeks. I leave it for a few days and see stuff I don't like, then go change it and curse myself for doing so.

The most recent one I think might stick though. I want SPS sticks so I am trying not to go too high. The left side doesn't go over half-way, so should be good room to grow. Glue is being purchased today though and the rock is going in plastic bins this weekend to start the cycle.