180 Gallon Journey

[SingAlongWithTsing]

Equipment List for the 180

• Hand me down 180 gallon acrylic tank with a blue background from my dad.
• Abandoned 60 gallon acrylic tank from my uncle. Will be welding acrylic baffles and turning it into a sump.
• ABS Black background, will be siliconed with ASI Black Silicone (they said it works on acrylics so it's a gamble)
• My old DIY CO2 Regulator
• My old ozone cone copy cat CO2 Reactors
• 3x Netlea AT6 Pro
• UNS Soil
• My old Jebao EP-M 10000 as the main return pump.
• My old Jebao EP-M 6500 as the CO2 reactor pumps.

January 2023
All the 2x4s (actual dimensions 1.5" x 3.5") we're ran through a tablesaw to cut off the rounded edges (bringing it down to 1.5" x 3") just to make things easier to fit.

Yeah I know I have a corner clamp but it cracked lol.

The rabbet cuts / detail will come into play later when the stand gets a final coat of BEHR Limousine Leather MQ5-05.

Cut out slots in the access boxes for the optional knitting mesh. The knitting mesh is just to block bugs from getting in to whichever box I'm not using

March 2023
100+ hrs total so far in terms of milling, sanding, cutting, and assembling. not sure how much went to painting cuz my dad volunteered for that lol

pre-planning the drains and yeah i know the box is reversed lol

Probably just gonna re-use a bunch of the old return plumbing from the 125 and order replacement slip fittings for the cepex valves

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

April 2023

Installing the ABS sheet
Black ASI silicone sticks to acrylic just as well as other silicones from what I can tell but it doesn't stick that well to ABS.
The weldon will melt the ABS and can possibly have a bit of runoff? (not sure what would be the correct word here) but it will bond it to the acrylic.

The ABS sheet was suspended to what the front of the tank would be with an old jebao wave maker and gyre I had laying around.
Ran the perimeter and the overflow holes and then some big x's and zig-zags with the weldon.
Removed the magnets and dropped the sheet down on to the back of the tank.
Used a couple of J-rollers to smooth out the sheet and then promptly laid the foam and bricks on top.

Sides have a bit of a gap, think I might use black ASI silicone to hide em. Hopefully that'll be enough to prevent any water form getting in the back in case I missed any spots with the weldon.

solo moved the 180 back to its new stand

buffed out what I could on the would be sump

baffle install

drilling for the plumbing

14hrs to do the sump (buffing, cutting, install)

had to route out a door on the side to get the sump in, didn't want to uninstall the center structural leg and reinstall

and yeah almost set the stand on fire lol, think the router got gummed up some caulking

plumbing install

+ another 36 hrs for cutting the side panel for the door and getting the plumbing right

Getting the reactors in

Plumbing

Co2 Pump to Reactor 1, Main Pump , Reactor 2 to Main Pump

Splicing the Hydros Flow Sensors in

I decided to go with the 1" versions due to the min and max range. Rest of my manifold plumbing is 3/4"

Cable organization

Paneling and doors front the side of the light cabinet

Getting into the 10" space to tighten the bulkheads

and yes my arms were long enough to reach all of the overflow's bulkheads lol

FTS kind of

Techinically the tank is ready for water but I have to fight Fedex and eBay cuz my pumps got delivered to the wrong house.

Planning on building 2 48" x 15" x 75.75" cabinets to go on the sides of the light cabinet.

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

Now for a PAR Reading of the 3x Netlea AT6 Pro

Test conditions

Approximately 36" (33" on tape + 3" from the housing) from the bottom of the tank to the bottom of the diffuser.

3/8" Acrylic center brace, with some scratches

Default settings from the factory

Result

Now to solve how much I lost because of the brace

Approximately 13" between light and the top of the brace. Approximately 517 PAR

PAR meter directly underneath the brace, approximately 397 PAR

397/517 = 0.7678916827852998

so approximately 23.21% loss from the brace lol

PAR Spread seems pretty even at factory settings.

so maybe if someone had a similar set up with a braceless tank they'll be at 175 PAR at 36" ?

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

June 2023

Building the hardscape support

Weldon 16 + egg crate

Got the wood in the tank some how lol

Soil, about 2.5" in the front and back left, sloping to about 4" to the back right

Used the miniblower used for cleaning keyboards to get any aquasoil stuck in the crevices of the wood out

Transferring plants from the 125 to the 180

Need to do something about that mass of windelov javafern on the right.
Got some reineckii mini, chai, rotala jungle juice, mini trident java fern, and bolbitis heudelotti coming in the mail.
The chai is just gonna be an experiment

July 2023
Some random progress shots

Built some cabinets

Not too sure about what to do with the 22 gallon rimless; I know it's gonna be low tech though. Might get a fijicube AIO overflow filter and dunk it in there cuz I dont like the look of a HOB filter being on there. The UNS Delta 90 I might consider cuz it'll blend in with the white wall.

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

August 2023

Relearning how to use the Canon

Random close ups

Think I got regular Altenathera instead of the mini variant lol or maybe I need to trim it down more often to keep it low.

Havent decided between using Rotala Orange Juice or Dwarf Hair Grass as the main carpeting plant yet. I definitely know that I dont want to use Rotala H'ra though lol.

Also planning a Yugan reactor / setting some money aside for it. Going with sch 80 of course, debating on if I want both chambers to be made with clear pvc or not lol

 

[bazz]

That's a big like from me!

 

[ian_m]

Nice.

Be careful as silicone does not actually stick to most plastics. Quite a few peeps have come a cropper with their tanks, especially with sump baffles being the favourite, where over time the silicone come away from the plastic.

Silicone is fine for bonding glass any possibly sealing plastic pipe threads, but is a no no for bonding plastic tank sides or baffles or pipe manifolds or anything made out of plastic. To bond tank sides solvent cement is the way to go.

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

I used weldon 16 for the sump baffles, it just looks silicone cuz i did a bad job LOL

ABS back ground was welded to the back of the tank with weldon 16 also. Only used the ASI black silicone to fill in any gaps on the back ground cuz the tank is old and a lil bowed.

 

[JohnCooke]

I especially like the wood you chose, and its careful placement. I know it disappears from view once your planting matures, but, all the same, it creates good "bones" for your aquascape.

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

Reactor built

Space was really tight at the front. The horizontal reactor is about 1"~1.5" away from the manifold, 1.5" ~ 1.75"away from the doors, and about 2mm from the euro hinges LOL

Each chamber is approximately 44" after the fittings so I have a total of 88" of 2" pipe giving me about 176" sq in. I only needed 141 sq in or so.

Using my old jbl proflora inline reactor without the ceramic as the injection point. Gonna see how well this works before I decide to drill a 3/16" hole into the reactor and pull 1/4" co2 tubing through it.

This is a $300 gamble (cuz I'm ocd and went with fancy stuff), if any of the unions leak or if the reactors somehow fall down there's a good chance I cant my sump and display tank on the floor. To remedy this I'm thinking of getting a leak detector and setting it front of the sump so if things start spilling it'll auto shut off CO2 Pump and Solenoid. If I had more room both reactor chambers would of been above sump and if anything leaks it'll just go back in the sump.

 

[_Maq_]

If you built that tank in Guinea, it would double the GDP.

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

degassed pH 7.93 | kH 8 | gH 14
Speece cone + Cerges | Plumbed into a T-fitting into the main pump | Injection Rate 116 cc/min | 0.8 pH drop in 2hrs
DIY Yugang reactor | Just an elbow in front of the main pump intake | Injection rate 100 cc/min | 0.86 pH drop in 2hrs

Yugang reactor is already a 16% improvement over my old set up, just need to tweak my injection rate to get a 1.2 pH drop.

 

[MichaelJ]

Yugang reactor is already a 16% improvement over my old set up, just need to tweak my injection rate to get a 1.2 pH drop.

👍🏻

Cheers,
Michael

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

Hardware updates:
cable organizing

Jebao EP 1000M for the reactor, tort figurine for scale

Built a mini cabinet for the doser and containers

and of course the dosing container would leak into the other chamber lol

plant updates:

not much to say, it's a bit of a mess lol

 

[hydrophyte]

Amazing!

 

[bazz]

not much to say, it's a bit of a mess lol

All looks good to me!

 

[Luciën]

Looking good and interesting to read.. I'm a big fan sump builds .. I think I remember you from barreport a few years ago?

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

Redid the left side a bit

Downsized the Rotala orange juice, there's still a bunch in the back that idk what to do with

Buce bouncing back slowly

Random shots

FTS:

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

Changed the recipe about 2 weeks ago. Dropped from 7ppm PO4 per week to 5ppm

Need a hedge trimmer for the tank.

 

[SingAlongWithTsing]

Jan 5th 2024
Decided to split my return since I have 2 return pumps.

Flow from each side went from 330gph each to 440~448 gph each. Lowered my wattage consumption from 110 watts to around 94 watts too.
Previously I had the 2 pumps on a wye barb fitting and didnt have check valves on the pumps so they were fighting each other to get the flow out if that makes sense lol.

Jebao 6500 EP-M is on the left, 10000 EP-M on the right.

I split the return line in case one pump fails I'll still have flow with the other one. Haven't had a Jebao return pump fail yet though.

If I was setting a new tank I wouldnt bother with EP-M series due to the wifi controller's signal being kind of weak + Im already controlling the on/off
with the coralvue hydros. If the EP series (the non wifi variant) was on amazon I would of rolled with that.

If anyone is wondering about the release order of the Jebao pumps
DCP 2016? -> DCS -> MDP/ADP 2021 -> EP/EP-M 2023.

More shots with the Canon EOS M50 before the maintenance on Jan 11th

Funky algae, dunno if it's regular hair algae or some type of kleb. It's easy enough to clean off with a tooth brush

Maintenance shots with my phone

dont really have an FTS of what it looked like at the end lol. forgot to grab one

Might need to build a guard for my overflow box in case the rotala gets too tall and blocks it again.
My bedroom is on the other side of the wall of the back tank so anything that messes with the flow I can hear it.

Smarter idea would probably to replace all the rotala at the back with the limnophilia hippuroides, they look sturdy enough.

As for how the horizontal reactor is going, it's been fine so far.
Oddly enough I think my flow meter might be lying to me cuz there's no way in hell I should be pushing 146 days at 116 cc/min with the 20lb co2 tank and still be able to get my ph drop. I know my ph probe is still calibated and hasnt drifted yet.

Theoretically I should of ran out of co2 at around 83 days.
Math is based on the assumption that there is approximately 231 liters of CO2 per lb.
Dont mind the L/day thing is just based of what Tom Barr injected in his 180 gallon 10 years ago.