My 180 Reef Build!

Sounds like you're making good progress, it'll be a sweet setup!!  One thing that is amazing is it seems you're moving at the pace you have planned, which is always harder to do than it is to think about.

I'm really excited for you, man. Ive' seen the preliminary set up and It is going to be awesome. I'll be stopping by for the Reef Tour with my family to stare!

I have yet to receive them but they have been ordered. I will let you know as soon as they arrive. Today I stacked some of the rock, and moved the first three fish into the tank along with most of my sponge collection and a couple non-photosynthetic gorgonians. I'll hang the light fixture tomorrow and move pretty much everything else. I am making my rock arrangement as open as possible with lots of arches and holes for fish, while still having plenty of room for corals. I Will also have a very open sandbed for maximum filtration capacity. I'll be moving the rest of my rock fish and corals over the next 2 days, so I have my fingers crossed. The rock and sand are fully cured and I have seen no evidence of any sort of cycle. Ammonia and nitrite are both at zero with nitrates around 20ppm. I will be able to bring this down pretty easily after I move my huge assortment of macro algae to the new fuge. The sandbed in the display is also 3-4" deep and all oolitic sand. My skimmer is my insurance policy, so that in the event of something bad it should help reduce the pollutants in the water along with AC and my UV sterilizer. I took a bunch of pics but ran out of time before heading into work so I'll post them tomorrow.

Edited by CapnMorgan - March 30 2010 at 8:09pm

Posted a few pics of the tank as it sits now. Everything has been moved (minus a couple RBTA's) but I will move them tomorrow. Everything is doing well and levels are all normal.

Updated Pics

More pics coming today, everything has really settled in nicely, and I only have a couple more corals I'm going to add, with plenty of room left for grow out. It turned out WAY better than I though it would and didn't lose a single fish or coral to the stresses of the move; now I'm just going to let everything grow out. My levels are still rock solid and I think I can put most worries of inadequate bio filtration behind me, but I will still keep a close eye on it over the next couple months. I'm just waiting on my PAR38's and I'll be all set as far as appearances go. I still need to hook up my RO and ATO. My next project is to set up a small tank for the Frogfish so he doesn't have to be in my frag tank anymore.  

Looks great man just wish you didn't live so far away... would love to see it in person

I agree.  I'm in Roy, and I plan on getting out there for the reef tour.  Your tanks are pretty cool.

hmm.. a food bribery. I might just have to swing by Tooele!

TheFu- You did. It was about 1" long when I got it in November and is now almost 4". It's grown in nicely.