180 Gal Build w/ Sump

Finally got the stand in the house! Tank is being held at the aquarium shop, and sump is on it's way.

This is an Aquarium Masters 180gal tank build. The sump is a Trigger System Emerald 39gal. Our stocking list will include discus, eartheater cichlids, and GBRs as the main fish. We will have a few bottom dwellers as well, likely pictus cats.

Current progress - sealed bottom of the tank, wired in some lights that automatically turn on and off for when we do maintenance down there, power strips installed out of the way (thank god I have an electrician spouse!) Mat to soak up vibration from the pump, and of course me being a woman, I wanted to make it prettier so I added cute door handles

 

Following along !
Nicely prepared stand.

 

Few changes with the lighting, switched it around a bit. Installed shallow strut for places to secure all the hard piping up high, out the way, and least visible as possible. The original light layout wouldn't allow for that.

 

I just love the cute door handles. Nicely latex out stand.

 

In for a penny in for a pound. I can't wait to see how this progresses.

 

Tank and sump will be in the house tomorrow!

 

Tank and sump will be in the house tomorrow!

That's what weekends are made for !
Well that and water changes !

 

Well it was quite nerve wracking watching the boys bring the tank in the house, but she made it in safely. 330lbs dry!

Plumbing is all purchased because we are using hard pipe for the majority. Tubing will be used to attach the pump. Also got the overflow set up for now, with the end of the tube pointing downward into the overflow column.

Tank is sitting on a pair of saw horses while we paint the back black with Flex Seal (so it can be removed if we want.) A few more coats and then the tank can go on the stand this weekend.

Should we also paint the side of the tank a few inches to hide our overflows? Or should we keep them fully visible?

 

I like to be able to see into the overflow but if it is in plane sight you may want it painted ..
Looking Good!

 

Amazing!

 

I like to be able to see into the overflow but if it is in plane sight you may want it painted ..
Looking Good!

In the living room. He wants to put a few cherry shrimp in the overflows to help with any algae. Going to keep it unpainted so we can make sure we can see them. I imagine they'll probably end up going into the tank though. I don't think they're going to stay in that area lol.

 

Nice idea with the light under the cabinet, I have a 125 that I will do that to. Cant wait to see this all set up. Keep posting

 

Nice idea with the light under the cabinet, I have a 125 that I will do that to. Cant wait to see this all set up. Keep posting

It sure helps with doing maintenance down there. One sump light just doesn't cut it when the stand is 6' long!

 

Put a black piece of coroplast on the back to aid with the darkness of the back, and also to add wall backlighting.
Today we received our pump - Vectra M2. Ordered Coralife 12x UV Sterilizer and 2 36" Fluval Planted 3.0 lights.

 

Plumbing is all done, and we test filled tank and sump yesterday. No leaks, all equipment running great. We will keep it running for one week, then drain and do substrate and our scape and can finally begin cycling at that time.
On black Friday we also scored a 45gal with Fluval 307 to use as quarantine. We will have this tank simple with a few tetras to hold cycle and just keep it running and mirror all parameters of the big tank. We figured it's the easiest way. It is too stressful to rush to set up a quarantine last minute!

Added the following equipment:
- 2 Hydor In-Line heaters. Each with their own Ranco temp controllers for safety and accuracy.
- Coralife Turbotwist 12x UV sterilizer
- Vectra Pump (plus 2 other small pumps due to all the plumbing.)
- 2 Fluval 3.0 Planted lights

 

Hardscape done today, just filled the tank. Plants should go in next weekend. Quarantine tank is cycling as of yesterday with pure ammonia.

 

Wow ! Nice ,I really like the QT!

I can't wait to see the 180 with fish ..

 

That is some great plumbing work.

Excellent build so far.

 

That is some great plumbing work.

Excellent build so far.

Thanks! Funny enough, he is actually an electrician and hates plumbing, but sure did a good job

 

Cycling is coming along and we have biofilm on the driftwood, hopefully it doesn't get out of hand although we are going to get some big vampire shrimp eventually. The quarantine will probably be fully cycled by the weekend so we are planning on getting some fish Saturday! Just neon tetras for now.
Couldn't help myself yesterday, brought home "plants" Marimo moss balls lol. Also got an El Nino fern tree for the sump which if it grows too tall will be moved up. Tried to plant some dwarf hair grass but it wouldn't stay due to the current. Bought NilocG ThriveC but haven't dosed any yet because I wasn't sure if I should. Haven't bought root tabs because I simply cannot decide on which ones to buy.

 

First batch of fish in QT! Got two little pots of plants, and changed it a bit. Had to get gravel because the stone wasn't working out. Day 2 and everyone seems super happy, good color, the tetras are schooling, otos happily skipping about and the bamboo shrimp have their little fans out catching food in the water column. We have noticed some spots this afternoon though so have slowly increased the temperature to 86... sucks. We noticed one tetra sick on arrival yesterday, but there were no spots yesterday - we "euthanized" him. One other tetra died today. Parameters are perfect 0-0-nitrates between 10 and 20 this morning and we did a 20% water change and gravel vac after that test.

The current stock:
28 cardinal tetras
8 Otos
12 Amano shrimp
4 bamboo shrimp

 

Looks great. I’m interested to hear about pictus cats with discus. Ive heard that isn’t recommended but I have never tried it so I would defer to others with experience. I love pictus cats though!

 

We decided no pictus and also no Geos. Have gone back and forth on stocking.

 

Haha, that's probably for the best. Feel the pictus would have made quick work of your shrimp, cardinals and otos.

 

Update! 20 tetras have survived and seem to be here to stay. Have 14 amano shrimp, we thought they were dying but it was molting. Added another bamboo so 4 bamboo shrimps. 6 Otos. Tank is looking great.
In the quarantine we have had 8 veiltail GBRs and 3 Polar blue parrots for a week now! The polar blues we will probably have to rehome 1 if 2 hook up, but we shall see. The parrots are so friendly, they are adorable.

 

Your Polar Blue looks gorgeous.

 

I have the same tank and stand. I love that tank! Looks great!

 

Your Polar Blue looks gorgeous.

They are! Can't wait to see them grow.

 

Life has been crazy. Yesterday we got our first 3 discus though YAY! They are about 3.5in. Also now have some panda garras, which we absolutely love. Added three small plecos
Wormline
Striped Planaque
Sultan

 

Life has been crazy. Yesterday we got our first 3 discus though YAY! They are about 3.5in. Also now have some panda garras, which we absolutely love. Added three small plecos
Wormline
Striped Planaque
Sultan

Beautiful Plecos

 

Awesome build and stocking choices. I just read through this whole thread!

 

Looks great. Great looking fish. Discus are beautiful.