civictuner's 180 build

[civictuner04]

so i have been keeping a reef going for a year and a half. its a 56 gallon column and im stepping up to a big tank. i got a deal off of craigslist for a 180 gallon tank(back drilled for 2x 2" bulk heads) and a 125 sump for an unbeleivable price. i originally bought it to sell and make a couple bucks off it but the wife gave the green light to set up. im going to go as slow as possible and use quility parts.

on sunday i built the frame work for the stand of plans on reef central. i did 2x8 box on top 2x4 box on bottom and 2x4 connecting the 2. my plan is to use good 3/4" plywood screwed to the back. and for the front and sides 3/4 plywood but instead of screws using magnets so all 3 sides come off for maintance.

today 7/9/13.....i ordered custom overflow boxes from melves reef. guy has been super responsive up to this point hes making them 12" wx 4" deep and 11" tall with a lid to limit escaping fish.

for equipment...

i will be using the rlss dc12000 return pump. I really like the variable speed dc technology. im in the hvac industry and love the motors and stuff so it would make sense to use them on her to lower temp of the pumps resulting in lower water temps. 1/4 of the elcetric and beable to adjust flow by key pad to turn up flow or lower the flow.

i also plan on using the rlss skimmer im torn between the the r8 or r10 and then internal or external pumps i like the smaller footprint on the internal but i also like the fact that if the pump dies or turns out to be junk that i could easily swap it out for a standard skimmer pump.

i have a brs twin reactor that im going to use but already have it with a mj1200 pump to feed it.

i dont want to use power heads but if i have to i will take my mp10wes from my 56 column and put it on the new tank and if i need to buy more i will be using the jaebo wp40x2 again love the variable speed technology.

i do have a reef angle that im torn between weather to use it or not. its a love hate thing with it .

im looking for feed back on a sketch that i did for the plumbing. im thinking about having each overflow line run to different filter socks to lower flow through the fuge. with one sock then the second sock before the skimmer so at that point i have all the flow of the tank at the skimmer.

and for the return im going to use 1 1/4 return line ran up to the top of the tank and across on the outside of the tank then 3/4 line loc run over the back of the tank and in with a Y on each one in the water to get flow everywhere. i plan on putting a gate valve on each 3/4 like before the line loc and one check valve right after the pump to prevent siphoning and over flows.


for stock list i want to do
corals- a bunch of zoas, torches frog spawn, i have 1 small green birdnest, duncans,cloves
fish- 1 trigger, 1 puffer, 1 or 2 angels (prob small) 3 tangs, dwarf lion, 1 eel like a snow flake, i have 4 green chromis now, 6 line wrasse(i may get rid of him hes pretty mean to new smaller fish),
i have 2 clowns 1 picasso who is small but host in my multi color bta and a black clown (i bought them as a pair and after 2 weeks the black one started beating up the picasso pretty bad so i have him in a 20 gallon by him self) i do like gobies and jaw fish but not sure if they would just get bullied and die.

i have thought about setting up a small like 20 gallon tied of the same filtration because i have everything but im not sure yet. this was i can keep my clam and coral banded shrimp but again i dunno

i will attach the little microsoft paint thing i did to see if my plumbing makes sense.


thanks for your feed back and opions in advance.

george

 

[civictuner04]

heres plan

 

[mnat]

I am not a plumbing guy so I will let someone chime in on that.

Looking at your stock list as far as corals go, you might be able to get away without a ton of extra powerheads as you are not really looking at SPS. I don't know what your return pump pushes, but considering you don't have a ton of head loss plus the fact you are using a spray bar, you should be able to push a ton of flow through that. Add in two overflows, you might be ok. An mp10 might not even work on the tank depending on how thick the glass is.

Stocking wise, it looks like you are going for a bit of an aggressive tank which is fine, you just have to keep it all kind of aggressive. Puffers can get huge (like 3 feet huge) so take a look at tobies or some species that stay smaller. They can (and probably will) be aggressive so keep that in mind. They have no problem nipping other fish with that beak of thiers. Same with triggers, research the different species as some will do great with a community tank, others will not (look at the blue jaws, cross hatch, sargassums). You can get away with three tangs in a 180, you just have to be careful with which ones you choose, like say a yellow/purple/scopas, kole, blue hippo etc. You want to avoid clowns and sohals. Eels can obviously get huge and will eat smaller fish, your chromis might just become an expensive snack. Take a look at the golden dwarf, which stays around a foot and it not quite as aggressive as the others. Gobies would probably not do well in that tank.

Just throwing out a bunch of stuff, good luck with the build and it is great you are asking the questions now before the build is done and cannot be changed.