Blue Water

After flying around the Caribbean for a year and a half... and visiting almost every country there, it has inspired me to build a reef.

Welcome to my tank thread.

I bought my tank, and equipment on Craigslist.

180 Gallon tank with custom made stand and cabinet. It was 91" tall so I had to reduce it 6" to fit in my dining room. That was a whole day of woodwork. It cost me $250 dollars to move it from Houston to Dallas. About a week after Hurricane Ike it was hit or miss whether I would be able to get gas or not. (or food)
Trailer rental, 3 guys to help me move it in, and gas.

After several days of bleaching, soaking with baking soda... my rocks are clean. Today I started attaching rocks to the armature I built yesterday with PVC. I installed my pumps and plumbing.. waiting on the cement to dry. Tank only was filled today and tomorrow will get a full fresh water test run of the pumps and plumbing. I'm kinda nervous the plumbing around the overflow box will leak. Got them as tight as I could, but it's very awkward getting in there.

For some reason the rocks look dirtier in the pics than in person.
Critics and comments welcome.

More to follow as I progress.

Cheers

 

Looking good so far! The only thing I noticed is that your rockwork takes up a lot of room. What kind of fish are you planning on keeping?

 

I can already tell this is going to be an outstanding reef.

 

Well, I don't really know yet. Probably going to get some basic reef safe fish, Yellow tang, Hippo, clowns. I could have made it appear that there's more room by moving all the rocks back against the wall, but I like making it more interesting for the fish to have both sides to move around. It doesn't look as crowded for some reason when you look through the side windows.
After you said that I walked around it and I think it's fine.. You're right though in the pics it looks much more crowded.

 

OK. I wasnt doubting it just wondering. Pics can do weird stuff when trying to compare sizes. A tang like a hippo though can reach over a foot long, just make sure you leave enough room for them to turn-around. Your probably fine.
Beautiful structure BTW! ;D

 

How did you attach the rock to the pvc, It looks really cool

 

Thank you.
I used plastic industrial zip ties. You can get them at the hardware store. Most of the rocks have natural holes to put them through. I had to drill a few holes/break some apart... the rock is really soft and goes through easily with a masonry bit.

 

Haha, we'll .. we'll see. I'll certainly try.

 

Way to go on your build, tank looks like it will give you many years of enjoyment

 

Can you go any faster? I want to see it running;D Beautiful looking setup!