F&FMgr's Wifey's 180 build

[F&Fmgr]

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Angelique, Sean's "wifey". We used to have a display tank in the store (80 bowfront) which crashed while we were at the hospital having our first child. So, we scrapped it and decided to get a 180. This tank is going to be used as a display in the store, but is fully out of our pockets. At first, we were toying with a smaller system (since this is my first tank), but decided a larger system might be more stable while I stumble my way through a new tank. Sean's lending a MAJOR helping hand, like guiding me with the plumbing, but most of this is on my own.

 

I wanted pink sand so Sean suggested we go with the Samoan Pink #1. I put 12 20lb bags of sand in there to make a 3.5"-4" sand bed.

 

I was really excited to place the rockwork, so I put a mix of Tongan & Fiji base rock as well as some of the really nice Polynesian rock in the tank. The scaping took about an hour. I did the left side myself, but the right side required some help from Sean. I'm obsessed with tunnels, caves, and bridges, but Sean wanted some room for corals (of course).

 

Next, we plumbed the closed loop. Sean showed me how all the pieces should go together and then let me glue most of it. That's about as far as we've gotten so far!

 

Since this is my first tank (and we still have some time to change a few things), I'd really appreciate any input from the WAMAS family.

 

 

 

Thanks!

Angelique

[Der ABT]

Cant wait to see water go into this, i know its going to be nice, Very cool your getting into the salty side of things and learning the best way (by doing it). not to mentio you have a good coach and already do enough with the rest of the tanks.

That isnt alot of holes for a closed loop so the flow inside the tank may be a little constricted but powerheads are an easy fix.

 

only 2 suggestion i can offer straight off the bat seeing the life rock:

GET YOUR BABY IN THERE FOR A MERMAID SHOT

and

if your going to fill it with frags often, DRILL THE ROCK with tons of little holes that a frag plug will fit into that way you can swap them in and out and not have to deal with glueing things.

for an example you can see in my tank build thread the rock on the top left has holes drilled into it and thats how all those high up frags sit in there....just my 2 cents but i wish i had done it on some of my other rocks, its too annoying when glue fails or a resting spot ends up with frags on the bottom, and with sand not barebottom like mine sps frags get angry fast sitting in sand.

 

Ill be watching this build, in person and online haha.

Leah says hello and if you want to do the mermaid shots she is all for it.

[Noobalicious]

looks good so far

[Happyfeet]

Hahaha @ the mermaid shot.

 

Looks like its going to be a nice tank! Is the pink sand in there maybe it's just not showing up well in the photos.

 

Have you already picked out fish yet?

[Origami]

Very nice, Angelique. Just another reason to stop by F&F. Like we all needed another reason.... I'm looking forward to seeing how this build proceeds.

[F&Fmgr]

Thanks guys...

 

Evan, Jacy is too prone to throwing things in her mouth for me to want a mermaid shot in there...but leah is welcome. We'll even set up a baby hammock for her

 

As far as fish go, Sean wants me to do a variety. All I have designated right now is a mature powder brown, but I would like some colorful fish like anthias in there. I also want a diamond goby (girl's best friend). As I figure out which fish I want, I have to check all the compatibility. Sean could easily tell me, but he wants me to do my research

 

As far as corals go, I think Sean wants to put in larger pieces. I hope no frag plugs, though, since drills and I do not get along well. There is pink sand in there, but no it does not show up well in the pictures. It's not all pink, but it has pink flecks in it.

 

Angelique

[randumbwit]

If you're putting a goby in, I'd make sure that your rock is sitting on the glass. From the pictures it looks like its sitting on top of the sand, and I know that my yellow watchman does a LOT of tunneling under rocks.

[Supreme Reefs]

Thats a nice tank

[darkcirca]

If you're putting a goby in, I'd make sure that your rock is sitting on the glass. From the pictures it looks like its sitting on top of the sand, and I know that my yellow watchman does a LOT of tunneling under rocks.

 

100% agree with this - both my previous diamonds made my rocks unstable and I was lucky to not have them crash down. Boy did they make a mess, but they were so neat. I put eggcrate under my rock now, then sand around it, in hopes to help for the next goby I get (1st one carpet surfed, 2nd one just vanished one day...)

[rioreef]

Your going to want to move the rock column on the right side away from the glass. It looks close enough that a magnetic glass cleaner would not be able to get between the rock and glass. Keeping the viewing panes clean make for a nice tank.

[davelin315]

Cool, now you can throw the combination of big tangs in there like we talked about awhile back!

[wfoxfox]

Looks great. I have a scripts(sp) green acro colony I got from Hunter as a SWAP. You are more than willing to have it :-) The Bazooka Dendro is spoken for LOL

[F&Fmgr]

Finally got the skimmer. This one's all Sean. He decided on the Reef Octopus 5000:

 

 

Sorry...couldn't help myself

[zygote2k]

Hey Sean- that's not a snack

[F&Fmgr]

Here's some more of the plumbing and the skimmer under the stand. Hopefully we'll be putting water in this today!

 

 

Angelique

[Novi]

This is gonna be a sick setup. Looking forward to watching it grow!

[F&Fmgr]

Okay, so after minor delays, we finished the plumbing. At the last minute, Sean decided he didn't like the right end of the scaping, so we moved things around to make more surface area for corals. Then, we had the baby stand on a sturdy rock to take a mini mermaid shot

 

We filled the tank with water, and turned on the skimmer. Within an hour of its first run, it started pulling dirt!

 

[Der ABT]

NOW THATS HOW YOU DO A BUILD THREAD > Love the mermaid shot thanks for getting it haah.

 

I like the aquascaping though they both looked good. Skimmer really is insane was good to see it running today i still cant belive the amount of air it puts in there. Tank is going to be darn nice once it clears up and get running.

 

Congrats on the progress i hope the closed loop cooperates with you

[russell_wiley]

I saw this tank. It's gonna be awesome!

[Black Mammoth]

SWEET! I didn't realize you guys were doing this. This shows how out of touch I've been lately. I like your rock scape...it kind of reminds me of something I saw somewhere...now only if I could put my finger on it Speaking of, the algae in my tank disappeared overnight. It was very weird. I was starting to think that you & Sean stopped by one day while I was at work and cleaned my tank Anyway, your tank is looking good. So now that you got a 5' tank, when does that mean Sean gets the 10' tank? <ducks>

[dbartco]

Adding ammonia to cycle the tank?

 

 

[zoozilla]

Adding ammonia to cycle the tank?

 

 

:laugh:

 

 

Very nice tank build, Angelique!!!

Edited May 18, 2010 by zoozilla

[Mountaineer]

Adding ammonia to cycle the tank?

 

That is exactly what was going through my mind too! I can't wait to see this progress.

[F&Fmgr]

Doug, you are too much!

 

 

So I haven't updated in a while, but the tank's up and running, fully cycled, and has a few new additions. These are terrible pictures, as I'm still a novice, but here goes:

 

 

I've named the powder brown "Hank". He will soon be joined by a purple tang (one of Sean's favorites!) and a few lyretail anthias.

 

 

 

Shaun...you never know.....ps. daisy wants a playdate!

[F&Fmgr]

got the purple tang in there (aka Larry) and the anthias. also added a few more corals.

 

 

Angelique