Fish room build “this is the way”

[amado]

I bought mine from a reefer up near Philadelphia. he decided to go with the 180 instead. he bought new and never used. Not sure how long it sat in his garage or at the store, but it's stamped 2015. I can clearly see that the tank was never used though without question.

I got it for $500 with a half built stand. so yeah I feel like I got it for nearly free too! thanks for the tip about ACC. will keep a lookout for future tanks. only other tank I have is a 15g fluval flex if like to get a couple of quarantine tanks but I don't want eyesores. 30 to 50 for fish and maybe a bit smaller for frags. very curious what you snagged it for.

you got a really good deal. I understand why the original owner decided on the 180.
Lighting this tank is going to be hard and expensive.
I am 6”3 and I have long arms and I have to say working on a 30” tall tank is very difficult.

I got my tank for under 1,000 new.
I purchased the stand used

 

[horseplay]

Love the 30" height, Even though working on it is a pain.

 

[amado]

Love the 30" height, Even though working on it is a pain.

Yeah I just added sand and rocks and it really hard to aquascape a 30” tank

 

[Mark_C]

Gonna be a crazy mess, post the pics

 

[mickeysreef <*))))<]

post them upppp

 

[amado]

So I woke up early before the kids and the wife got up. I installed the drains and transferred water/rocks from the frag tanks to the 210. I use the caribe sea live sand.
it has bacteria and its Heavy enough not to move with high flow.

I also moved over snails and fish
Fish are 4 tangs
Yellow tang
Sailfin tang
Powder blue tang
1 blue chromis
2 clownfish
Blue tang

 

[amado]

I am using the seneye monitor.
to keep track of my temp/ph/ ammonia.
My current ammonia is .003
So it’s safe for the fish.

ph is 8.1
Salinity is 1.025
Temp is 77

 

[mickeysreef <*))))<]

i lost half my livestock while ripping down my 75 and i lost two fish i had in qt. very sad about the whole affair. almost feel like throwing myself off a building over the whole thing but i know they are in fish heaven smoking a lot of good drugs.

so i plan to stock my 210 with a sailfin, a yellow, a tomini, 3 chromis, 2 pj, 1 bengal, 1 blue devil damsel, 1 yellow damsel, 1 blue streak devil, 1 clarkii clown and a powder blue.

i have these true percula pair but they were attacking my sailfin so they are banished to the 15g. i still have that very large bluefin damsel im looking to unload. maybe he'll make it to the 210 who knows

 

[amado]

i lost half my livestock while ripping down my 75 and i lost two fish i had in qt. very sad about the whole affair. almost feel like throwing myself off a building over the whole thing but i know they are in fish heaven smoking a lot of good drugs.

so i plan to stock my 210 with a sailfin, a yellow, a tomini, 3 chromis, 2 pj, 1 bengal, 1 blue devil damsel, 1 yellow damsel, 1 blue streak devil, 1 clarkii clown and a powder blue.

i have these true percula pair but they were attacking my sailfin so they are banished to the 15g. i still have that very large bluefin damsel im looking to unload. maybe he'll make it to the 210 who knows

damsels are evil. I like sailfin tangs they are one of my favorite fish.

 

[mickeysreef <*))))<]

yeah hopefully my damsels will not act up. hate to rip apart the tank to get them.
i got a six line wrasse too

 

[amado]

yeah hopefully my damsels will not act up. hate to rip apart the tank to get them.
i got a six line wrasse too

6 line wrasses are a necessary evil.
they eat a lot of the bad worms in a tank.

 

[amado]

Today I add more rocks and sand.
The water is cloudy but I add some carbon so let’s see if it clears up tomorrow.

 

[amado]

So today I added more bacteria.
I wanted to make sure you guys understand that I didn’t just put fish in a new tank.
I have been running two frag tanks for a few months now with some of my old rock from my last build.

I have been dosing Fritz bacteria to help with the cycle.

I decided to use only one product to make sure if I have any problems I know who to blame.

 

[Hockeynut]

So today I added more bacteria.
I wanted to make sure you guys understand that I didn’t just put fish in a new tank.
I have been running two frag tanks for a few months now with some of my old rock from my last build.

I have been dosing Fritz bacteria to help with the cycle.

I decided to use only one product to make sure if I have any problems I know who to blame.
View attachment 28208

I have never used that. But I have always used dr Tim’s and know it makes a difference, I switched from my 40 to 120 and used half a bottle of dr Tim’s bacteria and things went ok. Here’s where it got interesting, 4 days later I got a ton of brown algae the next couple days there was a lot of brown algae, there were a couple white patches where good bacteria had a hold. Anyway I decided to dump the rest of the dr Tim’s, the next day the white patches go bigger now the brown algae is non existent except for the glass. Good bacteria will only help.

 

[mickeysreef <*))))<]

So today I added more bacteria.
I wanted to make sure you guys understand that I didn’t just put fish in a new tank.
I have been running two frag tanks for a few months now with some of my old rock from my last build.

I have been dosing Fritz bacteria to help with the cycle.

I decided to use only one product to make sure if I have any problems I know who to blame.
View attachment 28208

looks good. I went with bio-spira. was pretty cheap and easy to get from petco.i will not be moving my rock over though. I'm going to put in new rock and leave my old rock fallow for 90 days. I don't think my old tank had ich but I'll do the ttm before moving any fish into the new aquarium.
my fish have previously had waste away disease but if I see it again, I would treat with food+general cure+focus.

 

[amado]

When I first setup my 1st tank I used DR Tim’s bacteria. I also used all dead caribe sea rocks and I had a bunch of algae problems.
now I have live ocean rock mixed in with my caribe sea rock. In my opinion live ocean rock if you can get it is best thing for growing corals. From what I can see and feel the caribe sea dry rock looks nice but it’s not as pores as ocean live rock. in my last build I put small pieces of live rock in my frag tank and I noticed better growth and no algae using the same corals.
I cut corals and they immediately encrusted on the live rock faster than frag plugs and faster then the dry rock.

last time I build my tank I cared more about how my rocks looked. I got that caribe sea shapes and I made a lot of arches and the rocks look really nice. I also used marine cement to glue everything.

this time I have decided not to glue anything down. To leave it lose and easy to remove pieces. I also don’t care how the rocks look.
I care more that the rocks I use come from the ocean. If you are doing things right the tank will be full of corals and nobody will see the rocks. I look online and A lot of people have really nice rocks with a lot of arches and intricate rock work using dead rock but then in a few months those nice rocks are full of algae.

this time I am also not putting lights over my tank for the first 90 days. Just fish/live rocks/live sand and Bacteria.

so I am going back to keeping it simple and the default rock wall of rocks from the ocean.

 

[amado]

looks good. I went with bio-spira. was pretty cheap and easy to get from petco.i will not be moving my rock over though. I'm going to put in new rock and leave my old rock fallow for 90 days. I don't think my old tank had ich but I'll do the ttm before moving any fish into the new aquarium.
my fish have previously had waste away disease but if I see it again, I would treat with food+general cure+focus.

I know I lot of people that have used bio-spira with good success. I think You can use your old rocks. Just clean them out and leave them in a brute can for a few months. BRS has a good video on how to do it.

 

[amado]

I have never used that. But I have always used dr Tim’s and know it makes a difference, I switched from my 40 to 120 and used half a bottle of dr Tim’s bacteria and things went ok. Here’s where it got interesting, 4 days later I got a ton of brown algae the next couple days there was a lot of brown algae, there were a couple white patches where good bacteria had a hold. Anyway I decided to dump the rest of the dr Tim’s, the next day the white patches go bigger now the brown algae is non existent except for the glass. Good bacteria will only help.

I agree I think tanks with a diverse population of bacteria are more stable.

 

[mickeysreef <*))))<]

When I first setup my 1st tank I used DR Tim’s bacteria. I also used all dead caribe sea rocks and I had a bunch of algae problems.
now I have live ocean rock mixed in with my caribe sea rock. In my opinion live ocean rock if you can get it is best thing for growing corals. From what I can see and feel the caribe sea dry rock looks nice but it’s not as pores as ocean live rock. in my last build I put small pieces of live rock in my frag tank and I noticed better growth and no algae using the same corals.
I cut corals and they immediately encrusted on the live rock faster than frag plugs and faster then the dry rock.

last time I build my tank I cared more about how my rocks looked. I got that caribe sea shapes and I made a lot of arches and the rocks look really nice. I also used marine cement to glue everything.

this time I have decided not to glue anything down. To leave it lose and easy to remove pieces. I also don’t care how the rocks look.
I care more that the rocks I use come from the ocean. If you are doing things right the tank will be full of corals and nobody will see the rocks. I look online and A lot of people have really nice rocks with a lot of arches and intricate rock work using dead rock but then in a few months those nice rocks are full of algae.

this time I am also not putting lights over my tank for the first 90 days. Just fish/live rocks/live sand and Bacteria.

so I am going back to keeping it simple and the default rock wall of rocks from the ocean.

good idea about deading the lighting for 90 days, I may go that route as well. my wife is big on huge arches and glueing rocks. I just stack them, but I do make caves and small arches etc for my fish to hide in.

I know I lot of people that have used bio-spira with good success. I think You can use your old rocks. Just clean them out and leave them in a brute can for a few months. BRS has a good video on how to do it.

yeah I think my old rocks are from Tampa Bay, just tons of life on them, they're at least 5 years in use. really nice color on them too. way too many worms imo though. also I don't like the sponges on them either. I'll try to address those issues before using them if I end up using them at all.

I have never used that. But I have always used dr Tim’s and know it makes a difference, I switched from my 40 to 120 and used half a bottle of dr Tim’s bacteria and things went ok. Here’s where it got interesting, 4 days later I got a ton of brown algae the next couple days there was a lot of brown algae, there were a couple white patches where good bacteria had a hold. Anyway I decided to dump the rest of the dr Tim’s, the next day the white patches go bigger now the brown algae is non existent except for the glass. Good bacteria will only help.

hate algae. am dealing with a ton of it in my nano. used chemiclean for the brown algae, cleared that right up. now m having a bad outbreak of green hair, already cleaned out the entire tank twice, hopefully this time I used enough peroxide to kill everything. will also cut down my light. I think the fixture I have on there is way too powerful and probably causing most of the issues.

I'm running carbon, gfo and matrix with only two clownfish 4 or 5 mixed snails and 50% weekly water changes. the only weak link is that I'm using ro and not di. but I ordered my di canister so closing out that issue in the next week or so.

you got a really good deal. I understand why the original owner decided on the 180.
Lighting this tank is going to be hard and expensive.
I am 6”3 and I have long arms and I have to say working on a 30” tall tank is very difficult.

I got my tank for under 1,000 new.
I purchased the stand used

yeah as far as lighting I found a super cheap solution. 100w Nicrew HyperReef LED on Amazon is definitely strong enough to light up 30". they are just $120 so 3 are only $360. that's less than the cost of just a single ai32, but it does lack Bluetooth and timer.

I have one on my nano. I would have brought it to the last meet, I didn't know there was going to be a par meter there. would really love to have it tested.i think one of the guys here said something about testing without a par meter?

 

[amado]

good idea about deading the lighting for 90 days, I may go that route as well. my wife is big on huge arches and glueing rocks. I just stack them, but I do make caves and small arches etc for my fish to hide in.



yeah I think my old rocks are from Tampa Bay, just tons of life on them, they're at least 5 years in use. really nice color on them too. way too many worms imo though. also I don't like the sponges on them either. I'll try to address those issues before using them if I end up using them at all.



hate algae. am dealing with a ton of it in my nano. used chemiclean for the brown algae, cleared that right up. now m having a bad outbreak of green hair, already cleaned out the entire tank twice, hopefully this time I used enough peroxide to kill everything. will also cut down my light. I think the fixture I have on there is way too powerful and probably causing most of the issues.

I'm running carbon, gfo and matrix with only two clownfish 4 or 5 mixed snails and 50% weekly water changes. the only weak link is that I'm using ro and not di. but I ordered my di canister so closing out that issue in the next week or so.



yeah as far as lighting I found a super cheap solution. 100w Nicrew HyperReef LED on Amazon is definitely strong enough to light up 30". they are just $120 so 3 are only $360. that's less than the cost of just a single ai32, but it does lack Bluetooth and timer.

I have one on my nano. I would have brought it to the last meet, I didn't know there was going to be a par meter there. would really love to have it tested.i think one of the guys here said something about testing without a par meter?

I have 3 kessil 360x from my last tank.
but those lights are not strong enough to penetrate a 30”deep tank. So they will move to the frag tank and I will looking into buying a new kessil AP9x and set that up in the middle with two 360x on the side.
I have a seneye as a par meter and that works really good for me. If you could find a used seneye I would recommend it.

I could also get 3 used AP700 and that should also reach the bottom and give me the spread I need.