180 Reef converted, Planted w/ Sump, BGK, Ropefish, Roselines, etc.

[Kput]

Let me start off by saying that this page seems so much more informative and helpful than the other Freshwater pages I'm part of so I'm looking forward to feedback and info!
I'm pasting most of the build progress over from another site, so there will be a few updates right away.


I currently have 8~ tanks in my home (55gAxolotl, 2x community FW, co2 FW, 120g Saltwater, and 36g frag tank), but have been wanting to get a big freshwater tank for a while. I came across a good deal locally on a 180 gallon Saltwater tank and decided to pull the trigger. It came as a complete saltwater rig, so I've got tons of stuff to sell off and recoup some of my money (Kessils, Skimmer, Vortechs, etc.) so I'll wind up owning the tank pretty well when it's all said and done!

Figured I'd start a build thread. The previous owner's tank crashed and he lost quite a bit of livestock and tons of coral, so it's been sitting negelcted for a year or so. Time to start cleaning!
The tank is a 6' Marineland.

I plan on running a full sump, magdrive return pump, IceCap 3k Gyre, and Kessil freshwater series for lights. No Co2, as I'm bad with plants anyways.
My stock list is as follows;
3-4 Ropefish
1 Black Ghost Knife
6-10 Dennison Barbs
4-5 Australian Rainbowfish
2 Designer plecos
3-4 African Butterfly Fish
1 Leopard Leaf Fish
1 Long-Finned Syodontis Catfish


Got the tank unloaded into the garage (pulled a muscle in my back, wooo) and started the cleaning process. Before and after below.
I need to finish up the overflows, and get a putty knife to scrape the vermitids off the overflows and get them cleaned up. After that I will plastidip the back, and overflows to clean things up, and get it moved inside!
The tank came with a 60g acrylic sump that I could use, so I'm still debating if I'm going to keep it. Ideally I'd like the return area to flow into it's own chamber, then drain into a filter sock/cup area where I plan to run cups with filter floss, then on to media chamber, and the return pump. The current sump design dumps straight into filter socks, which I'm not a fan of due to the extra noise when I switch to cups.

 

[Kput]

Weekend update #1.

Finished cleaning up the overflows best I could. Combination of vinegar, citric acid, a putty knife, a kitchen sponge, and a metal dish scrubber for the back sides you can't see.. they turned out pretty good. The Overflow Weir covers that Marineland has seem to have some gunk on them I can't get off.. Super glue maybe? I scrubbed them to no avail. I've emailed Marineland to see if I can purchase replacements, but my finers aren't crossed. Might have to try a different solution.. any thoughts?

Went ahead and plastidipped the back of the tank and corners of the overflows, and am happy with the way it turned out. I used electric tape along the edges of the plastidip on the sides of the tank where the overflows end. This way I won't accidentallly peel the dip when cleaning the tape, and I get a nice clean edge.

Tank is pretty much ready to go inside, just need to get a sump here and under the tank before I bring it in.

 

[Kput]

Update #2. Spent tons of time over the weekend trying to decide what to buy of what things..

For lighting, spent tons of time looking for used Kessil Tuna Suns. Tracked down a couple A160's, but I really wanted the strength of the 360we's. Unfortunately the price is just too high. I wanted pendant style lights, so that limited my choices quite a bit. I finally came across the Lominie Asta 120 on Amazon. The 20w version was highly spoken of all over the internet, and it seemed like it could be pretty promising. I decided to buy one from Prime, and test the PAR to see if it was worth keeping. At a 24" Depth, with the light 4" from the water I got a 140-160 PAR reading with the sensor directly under the light. 12" from the center, at the bottom of the tank, still read around 100~, meaning I should have 100-150 at the tank bottom throughout the entire tank with 3 lights. Went ahead and ordered 2 more.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075H8CP6C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For the sump.. I really wanted a sump with a seperate filter sock chamber, which limited my selection quite a bit. I searched high and low for a used Trigger Systems Emerald (This tank actually came with a crystal trigger), and finally discovered the blemished section on Trigger Systems website. $310 later, an emerald 34 is on it's way.

Next to decide on was substrate. BGK's and Ropefish / Catfish are all reccommended to have sandy bottoms, so I decided on CaribSea Supernatural Torpedo Beach. I have 150lbs on the way. I will have two heavily planted sections that I need to portion off, for these I will have EcoComplete, topped with sand. I am thinking I will get some 1.5" glass strips to silicone to the bottom of the tank to make some sort of retaining wall to keep the Ecocomplete contained. Ordered a few pieces of driftwood from Manzanita-Driftwood.com and will post photos when they come.

This is the Aquascape look I'm wanting to go for. I will have to source some rock locally.
I know I will need good hiding places for the Plecos, Ropes, and BGK. I will have to do some work to figure out how to incorporate caves, etc. and still keep a natural look like above.. I know Plecos like driftwood. Will I need some larger pieces, as opposed to the stick-like Manzanita I've ordered?

 

[deeda]

Welcome to MFK!!

Great pickup on the tank and fantastic job on cleaning up the tank and overflows. Looking forward to seeing more updates.

 

[twentyleagues]

Great job cleaning that beast up! I know I've got one. That lominine light is a great algae growing POS. I know I've got one of those also. I had it on a 65 and it's now on my 300g poly/rope Paradise it's still causing so much garbage algae. It's going once I get this all figured out.

 

[Kput]

Great job cleaning that beast up! I know I've got one. That lominine light is a great algae growing POS. I know I've got one of those also. I had it on a 65 and it's now on my 300g poly/rope Paradise it's still causing so much garbage algae. It's going once I get this all figured out.

I wasn't aware a light could cause garbage algae growth like you're talking about.. generally isn't is a lack of growth in other parts of the tank? I plan on auto-dosing liqued ferts, and having a moderately heavy planted tank to outcompete any algae..

The PAR readings on the light were pretty phenomenal, so I don't think it could be a lack of light strength causing the growth?

 

[twentyleagues]

I think that's the issue, it's to strong or a "bad" light wavelength. I think it may have to much blue to it. I took it off the 65 and the algae issue cleared up. So I figured it's to much for the 65 I'll put it on the 300 pond, same algae poping up. I have a kessil a160 on my 37 cube with plants no weird algae and a ton of bioload. The pond is on a drip and has marsh plants along with some aponogeton. I could be wrong but I don't think so. When I figure out another light for the pond I'll test that one on a test tote with a kessil next to it.

 

[burntrubber]

Speaking from personal experience.
You'll need a hiding space for a foot long BGK in a year.
Some plecos are extremely territorial towards other bottom dwellers as they put on size so pick carefully. Panaques will eat wood and leave a really huge mess.
Whiptails and bristlenose work well with plants.
Try out with tougher plants first.
Once I had a tank with featherfin cats only. I introduced some Anubias nana. They were stripped bare overnight.

 

[Kput]

Speaking from personal experience.
You'll need a hiding space for a foot long BGK in a year.
Some plecos are extremely territorial towards other bottom dwellers as they put on size so pick carefully. Panaques will eat wood and leave a really huge mess.
Whiptails and bristlenose work well with plants.
Try out with tougher plants first.
Once I had a tank with featherfin cats only. I introduced some Anubias nana. They were stripped bare overnight.

What type of hiding spots do they need? They don't need room to turn aorund, just in and out correct? I plan on working in some "caves" / hidhng spots in the planted areas best I can, just not sure what is best.

 

[Kput]

Update.
Almost everything I need is either here, or will be here in the next couple days.
Emerald Trigger systems sump arrived yesterday so I was finally able to bring the tank in the house (Actually moved it with just one other person, wasn't that bad).
The Emerald was a "blemished" unit sold new from Trigger.. $310 shipped, was an incredible deal, and I honestly can't even find the blemish. I went with the Emerald because I wanted to use filter cups in their own chamber instead of socks. The Icecap cups were a tight fit, I had to do a lot of squeezing to get them in, but I shouldn't have to remove them often so I think it'll be alright.
I mocked up and dry-fitted all plumbing last night. Started by removing all the red lettering from the PVC for a clean look. Goo-gone and Acetone did the trick.
Two True-union ball-valves to control the flow from the drains, Jebao DCP8000 return pump will be here Friday, and two gates valves for a manifold. One will go to a AquaUV 25w sterilizer that will be here in the next week or two, the other will be used for expansion or emptying the sump if needed.
I will glue all plumbing once the Emerald ATO resivoir gets here and I get it in place on the left side of the sump. Next step will be to make up two new Durso standpipes for the overflow, get the weir covers cleaned up, and start aquascaping. I've got 150lbs of Torpedo beach Caribsea sand, and 60lbs of Ecocomplete. I am going to purchase strips of glass to silicone to the bottom of the tank to make boxes for the ecocomplete, then cap with sand.

Also picked up an Icecap 3k Gyre for flow.
Hoping to have aquascaping done and water in the tank within the next week. I've got cycled media from my Axolotl tank, as well as a giant jug of Matrix, and ammonia. Hopefully cycling will go quick. I need to snag a used 55 and get my QT tank set up, the 10g I use now probably won't cut it for the size of fish going in.