Brandon's 180 Starphire Build

[camaroracer214]

I recently acquired a 180 from a buddy of mine. It's 3-sided Starphire, Euro-braced, and has an external overflow box. I believe the tank was made by Aquarium Obsessed in Canada.

I'll spare the long stories and get straight to the tank.

First of all, this tank is in a one bedroom 740 sq ft apartment . It's funny really because I had a 90 gallon in a 1200 sq ft two bedroom apt and downgraded the apartment but doubled my tank size. Oh well.

So...on to the tank.

As you can tell I suck at plumbing. I fought those damn PVC pipes for the last week or so...and I got tired of trying to make it look nice. It just has to be functional.

And here's the plumbing aftermath

wasted and screwed up parts

and the good old pvc primer

and i dropped the pvc primer can with the lid off...luckily i was outside. too bad i am beginning to look like a cross between barney and frodo.

 

[camaroracer214]

btw...the sump is 70 gallons. my friend who had it before me had it configured differently that i would have liked. so i butchered it up by cutting out all the baffles and adding new ones.

 

[camaroracer214]

update. a lot has been accomplished today.

water is in the tank. granted it's only about 90 gallons, but it's a start. i have a pump in there moving the water around and i'm going to be overdosing with prodibio to help get some bacteria in the sand. i'm also going to add a couple of cupfuls of sand from my other tank to help make it "live". i also managed to finish the light rack for the most part. i still have to wire the ballasts and the endcaps, but that should only take a little while longer.

on to the pics:

Tank with water:

Light rack:

I purposely kept a slight gap in the middle of the bulb layout in order to possibly mount some lunar lights in the near future. I like the nighttime look with a few 1 watt blue LEDs.

 

[Anonymous]

Looking good so far. Not bad for a hobbit. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I hear he has a kick A$$ euroreef skimmer in the set up now.

 

[camaroracer214]

I hear he has a kick A$$ euroreef skimmer in the set up now.

lol...yeah, i bought mark's euroreef rs250 and that thing is awesome. it's pulling so much gunk from my water now. i've only had it a few days and i've already had to empty a full cup of dark muck.

 

[Anonymous]

Frodo didn't have a Euroreef. 8)

 

[camaroracer214]

i guess i could update with some good pics.

a nice zoa (either armor of god or armageddon...you decided)

purple deaths

bright red zoas (i've seen these on atlantis aquarium for $50 per polyp)

dragon soul prizm favia (looks so much better in person)

nuclear greens

yellow base, blue polyps montipora

juvenile orange shoulder

lunar eclipse

and that badass euroreef rs250

 

[Mike612]

Awesome tank! I know the coral are the centerpieces of the tank, but I must say I love that Helfrichi Firefish. Can you please post some more pics of it?

 

[Anonymous]

There's too much to like in there. 8)

 

[bleedingthought]

Very nice. Let's see a better picture of the helfrichi!

 

[camaroracer214]

Very nice. Let's see a better picture of the helfrichi!

i'll see what i can do. this, unfortunately is my third one. originally, i purchased two for my nano cube. one was small and the other pretty large. i got them acclimated, but the smaller of the two was just too stressed out. it eventually croaked, but the other one was perfect. it did great for several months. then, i had to move. i got the nano moved over first, then put the fish in (two picasso clowns and one helfrichi). then, the tank took kind of a nose dive. one of my super healthy picassos randomly died. a few days later, my helfrichi stopped eating and died as well. i was very disappointed.

but, i got my 180 up and running, and out of frustration with the nano, broke it down and sold off most of the equipment. i moved the remaining picasso into the 180, along with the rest of my livestock from that tank, and later purchased a third helfrichi. so, out of the two picassos and three helfrichis, i am down to one of each . oh well, it happens. i want to get another helfrichi in the next few months, as well as another picasso. i would even like to get a pair of snowflakes to go in there as well...but i am so nervous about clown-clown aggression. i've even been tempted to get a pair of black onyx clowns. a guy i know breeds snowflake clowns and he says the best way to do it is to get a large female onyx false perc and pair it with a picasso clown, and if they mate, you got some sick looking clowns...hopefully.

well, i'll stop ranting. i'll get a better pic or even a video of the helfrichi. i just have to charge my camera.