Starting a 180G All Glass Aqaurium Build.

[rvales]

I am starting up a 180G made by All Glass Aquarium. A few years back It was a reef aquarium . I started by resealing the aquarium. It wasn't that difficult. The hardest part was removing the overflows. Once I removed the silicone, I cleaned all the class well with a razor. I was careful not to break the seems between the glass. I then wiped it clean with alcohol. I taped up the aquarium and I applied the new clear silicone. I Then re-attached the overflows with black silicone. It has been drying for well over a week. In the meantime I was working on my LEDs. I had purchased some kits from AquaStyleOnline and I built a fixture for it and added some fuses and fans. These LEDs I had for a few years. I just replaced the chain that I had used originally to hang it and swapped it for Vinyl covered cable ropes. I also had to replace the steel bolts and nuts for brass. The salt water is not very nice to certain metals.

[rvales]

I will post some pics tonight.

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Sorry, but some of the pics are not oriented correctly. I forgot to mention those light kits you have to make a lot of solder connections. I have a Neptune Apex Classic that runs the lights.

[rvales]

I was trying to decide what kind of filtration system I should get and decided I would go with a sump. I was looking at the different options for sumps and I found what I believe to be the highest of quality I could find. I was right. I went with Bashsea. I was so impressed with the customer service. I had sent Bashsea an email and ask about a custom sump for my aquarium and I received an email within an hour from Steve Bashi himself. He did not try to sell me a custom sump, but he recommended a standard sump that he sells and 2 different sizes for the 180 depending on my budget. The Bio-Fuge 48-14 or 48-18. I picked the 48-18. He also recommended if I will have a heavy Bio load the 6-24 Bio-reactor. I jumped on it as well. I also asked him which water and air pumps I should use. He gave me that info as well. The email I received was not a sales pitch email, but an email you would expect to receive from someone that you know. I told him what brand of tank I had and what type of fish and plants I was planning on stocking and when he wrote me back he said that his favorite fresh water fish is the Discus and that he breed them himself in the past. He went one step beyond because I asked, so told me who had free shipping at the time I was ordering it was Premium Aquatics. I contacted Premium Aquatics and received great customer service from them as wells and very quick shipping. I received everything I ordered within a few days. Let me tell you the quality of the products from Bashsea is top of the line I am so impressed and the way it was packed. I never seen anything like it. I think it could fall out of a window and still be okay when it gets to the destination. Bashsea takes pride in their products. I contacted Steve Bashi once again by email asking a technical question and low and behold he called me on the phone. What company does that? He went above and beyond. I very happy with my decision. I can't wait to get the sump up and running. 126458126459126460126461126462126463126464

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I ordered 9 20lb bags of Imagitarium white sand. I should have it in the next few days.

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This build is taking a while. I have mostly what I need as far as equipment. I have 2 Aqueon Mega-flo kits for the overflows, I have an Apex COR-20 for the return pump and I have a Sicce Syncra pump for the Bio-Reactor as well as a Tetra Whisper Air-Pump. I don't have any plumbing yet. I was going to go with PVC, but I am now thinking tubing because it is so much easier to deal with and I don't have to glue it.

I have a Stenner 170 dual head pump for automatic water changes. I am thinking maybe 2 small water changes a day. I have an RO/DI, but I am not sure if I will be using it. Some people use them and some don't with discus. I will post that question on another page.

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Pumps, LED for refugium and overflow kits

[Cove Beach]

Hello, looks like a fun build, the 180 is a great footprint. Something to consider about plumbing material is ease of maintenance down the road. I also came from recent saltwater experience, and used both vinyl hose and hard pvc, but in the end went this time with a middle ground of spa-flex. Vinyl is cheap and easy to fit in small sizes but can be a problem as it gets larger and wants to go where it wants to go. Also disconnecting and reinstalling can be a problem. Hard pvc fixes those issues with the use of unions, but it can be noisy. Since it looks like the tank will be in a living room you will want it to be silent as possible. That’s where spa flex will shine. And since your sump is directly below you won’t need much.
One other thing on tank setup with the dual overflows, make sure to level the tank from the bottom glass surface, not the top edge. Start with a level stand, then verify level in the tank bottom otherwise you will have one drain running faster. Adding gate valves to both drains will give you fine adjustments to balance things out.
One question I had is, will you be running just the bio reactor or additional filtration? Something else to consider would be purigen,which would be easy to add a reactor to the sump. I have found using a reactor makes re-generating really simple and fast. Just thoughts from my experience, I’m sure others will chime in. Looking forward to seeing it come to life.

[rvales]

Hello, looks like a fun build, the 180 is a great footprint. Something to consider about plumbing material is ease of maintenance down the road. I also came from recent saltwater experience, and used both vinyl hose and hard pvc, but in the end went this time with a middle ground of spa-flex. Vinyl is cheap and easy to fit in small sizes but can be a problem as it gets larger and wants to go where it wants to go. Also disconnecting and reinstalling can be a problem. Hard pvc fixes those issues with the use of unions, but it can be noisy. Since it looks like the tank will be in a living room you will want it to be silent as possible. That’s where spa flex will shine. And since your sump is directly below you won’t need much.
One other thing on tank setup with the dual overflows, make sure to level the tank from the bottom glass surface, not the top edge. Start with a level stand, then verify level in the tank bottom otherwise you will have one drain running faster. Adding gate valves to both drains will give you fine adjustments to balance things out.
One question I had is, will you be running just the bio reactor or additional filtration? Something else to consider would be purigen,which would be easy to add a reactor to the sump. I have found using a reactor makes re-generating really simple and fast. Just thoughts from my experience, I’m sure others will chime in. Looking forward to seeing it come to life.

Thanks for the tips. I had PVC plumbing before on this tank. A little noisy for my taste. I decided to go with black vinyl tubing from Bulk Reef Supply this time. It has pretty good customer ratings. I know it is pretty rigid and it will try to curl up to the shape of the spool it came from, but I am going to heat it up and shape it the way I want it and it should cool down the way I want it (in theory).
I will be using media in the sump. In the first section the one with the filter socks I will have the Bio-Reactor and I will run Purigen and activated Carbon. I know there are some out there saying not to, but I have been running carbon consistently for years on my 60G cube. It keeps my water clear, no odor(No Fishy Smell) my fish are healthy and the plants are thriving. The 2nd chamber will be the refugium. I will have Eco-Complete substrate, plants and some fish. The third is where the return pump sits.
I will double and triple check the leveling of the tank since I only did it when I sat the tank on the stand and I have not checked it since I have been working on it. I placed the sand and some drift wood in it.

[Shan_Evolved]

Looking sick man. Keep up the good work!