180 gallon LPS reef build

[hobogato]

thanks brandon, kia was a yellow back chattering lori - we really miss him. the drill bits came from a guy on ebay, if you want a link, shoot me a pm.

ricks, i would normally agree with you, but these are at the top of the tank, so i think they will be fine.

finished the assembly of the stand today, just have a little sanding, staining and finishing to do on it.

[Marko9]

Very nice work. Is this tank going to have a canopy?

[hobogato]

yep, it will match the stand.

[hobogato]

here's what we got done yesterday:

got the foam framework built for the fake rock in the tank and finished construction of the canopy.

canopy

some pics of the foam framework made of egg crate and plastic zip ties

[hobogato]

we foamed all of the vertical pieces last night while the tank was on its back, then turned the tank upright and foamed the shelves this morning.

nine cans of foam later....

it looks like this




and from the ends

[khoivo1]

is this form gonna hold on glass?? i tried my 180g back wall with blackform from dr smith,,,,and it didn't stick to glass after a month with water filled,,,it start flood up and come off,,hope this work for you ,,,keep picture up,,,,i like the stand,,and canopy,,,,

[hobogato]

i applied a thin layer of silicone on the glass a couple of days ago, and the foam was then sprayed on top of the silicone.

[saltydragon]

great stand and canopy work......

but never was a big fan of the foam thing.....so all that is going to be one piece ?

[kurplunk]

Ace- Great Work. Big fan of your build thread. How heavy is your canopy, and does it have hinged doors for maintenance?

[woodycb]

Looks good man, love the foam thing. I am building a 125RR right now and I am using the black pond foam on egg crate and going to silicone it to the back wall of the tank.

[MAthU]

i like the foam, every thing looks awesome!

[Marko9]

Very nice Ace. Can we get a shot of the front of the canopy? Thanks

[hobogato]

thanks for the comments all

Originally posted by kurplunk
Ace- Great Work. Big fan of your build thread. How heavy is your canopy, and does it have hinged doors for maintenance?

not too heavy, but the entire front panel is a door, so we wont have to take the canopy off for anything.

here are some pics of what we got done yesterday. today, we will be water testing the system.

pumps and sump in the stand and plumbed together - forgot to take pics of the drain and return plumbing before i moved it against the wall

pumps up close

tank stand and canopy together


assembling the skimmer - just have a little pvc work to do to finish it.

[ricks]

I have a question about the long term effects of foam leaching chemicals back into the system??? Also does the foam work as well as rock for biological filtration?? Great woodwork....

Thanks,

[hobogato]

i have a friend who did this in his tank, and now - two years later - you cant tell it is foam and it is one of the nicest tanks around. there will be some live rock in the system as well, in the sump/fuge and a little in the display. i poked tons of holes in the foam to allow the water to penetrate into it, so it should function somewhat as liverock eventually. also planning on lots of live sand in the tank and the fuge.

[Elliott]

I agree, the foam becomes indistinguishable from live rock and functions similarly

[spookey]

nice tank ace...did u use a epoxy coated on the foam? and did u put sand or some crushed coral on there to help keep down the uv off of the foam?



chris

[hobogato]

Originally posted by spookey
nice tank ace...did u use a epoxy coated on the foam? and did u put sand or some crushed coral on there to help keep down the uv off of the foam?



chris

thanks, no just coated the glass with silicone and after that cured, sprayed the foam on. after the initial swelling stopped, we threw sand and crushed coral on so that the coraline would cover it faster. once the tank is running, we will be adding scrapings of coraline from our other system to seed this one.

[spookey]

o ok ..that is good u have some sand on the foam..keep some of that uv off....

[RayAllen]

Looks great ACE. It will Purple of super fast.

[texreefer]

The UV will not affect the foam as long as it is under water, or at least not enough to notice

[bbehring]

won't it leach toxins into the water column without an epoxy sealer or some sort of sealer?

[RayAllen]

As far as I know it doesnt leach anything into the water. It is only toxic in its semi-liquid state, but once dry its just a dry foam. This has been done for the last few years in many aquariums with know ill effects.

[hobogato]

well, it was one of those days - but it could have been much worse.

1. finished up the plumbing and around 1pm, filled the tank.

2. as the pumps are started, a small leak appears on the intake line of one pump. also, christy now realizes how loud external pumps are compared to the submersibles we run on the other tank. also, one of the foam structures decides it would rather be an island than an underwater reef - will have to silicone it into place much better while the tank is dry.

3. when i get the return section of the sump drained and take the line off at the quick connect, i notice that the o ring is missing - well, that could be why it was leaking.

4. while talking on the phone with christy who is on the way to lowe's (stopped counting how many times either of us has been there at this point), she has the idea of running the plumbing thru the wall and putting the two pumps in the utility room behind the tank. so while she picks up the necessary stuff, i start cutting holes in the walls.

5. get everything back together and notice a couple of issues one of them being that the water is splashing over the side of the sump in the back - not sure it will do it when that section is full of LR rubble and the drains are down in it.

6. after an hour i start to relax a bit and eat some dinner when an interesting cracking noise sounded from the breakfast room where the tank is. then, another. and another really loud. at this point i am inspecting the tank for cracks everywhere with a flashlight.

then i find it. the bracing around the top is cracking because of the bow in the front and back glass.

so... i drain the tank and move it away from the wall to see if the back is damaged.

the good news - no damage to the actual tank or seams. tomorrow, i will order some glass to make a couple of center braces like i should have in the first place and we will try again in a few days

[MAthU]

thats dam scary! good luck