175 Reef Tank Build

Johnie_West

Membership Expired
My first trip was to Frank's Tanks. (Thanks Frank!!) I ordered the Planet Aquarium 175 gallon reef tank (60-1/2" x 24-1/2" x 29", regular glass, black background and center interior overflow). 3 weeks to deliver. Frank hooked me up with his guy to build a 36" tall steel stand for this awesome tank. Now I decide I need a super nice sump to go under this super nice aquarium so he orders me the Trigger Systems Sapphire 34. I'm out of town when all this comes in. The anticipation was killing me. lol.View attachment 7765Now I have to get this beast home. I'm driving from Jal, New Mexico and Googling for something to help me with this job. I pull in a Northern Tool Company store in Abilene and buy a hydraulic lift table cart (money well spent). I also can loan this out if need be to help save some backs. It jacks it up high enough to get in and out of some pretty tall pickups. It has a 500 lb max weight limit though. My aquarium was just over 300 lbs. Now it's time to move the original aquarium out of the way. Not a fun job.View attachment 7540Drained and saved as much water as I could to be able to scoot it over. Had to make a special trip to Lowe's for some furniture sliders. That worked like a champ! Bring in the new tank.View attachment 7766Obviously I missed a few pics in between here. The lights are from the old tank. They are the Ecotech Radion XR30W G4 Pros (awesome lights - also from Frank's Tanks). I reused my Reef Octopus Classic 110 INT skimmer, the Current USA eFlux 6010 DC return pump and (2) 2100 gph wave pumps. I had to make a temporary bracket for the lights until I can build my canopy. I had a local metal shop build a steel frame and powder coat it for the lights. It turned out pretty nice. The old rock and plus some new rock went in for the aquascaping. None of the old substrate was brought in to the new tank. Most of the old water went in. The fish and coral were moved over and then the last of the old water was transferred in. All in all, I think it went well. Casualties included our blue reef lobster and an Aiptasia eating filefish :( . We did happen to get to see our tiny little snapping shrimp that never gets seen again once it goes in. The tank is up and running now with no leaks in the plumbing (yay!).These are some of my new corals that will be going in. Many thanks to a fellow reefer and club member, Chino, Frank and Art at Frank's Tanks, Gary Lilly, another fellow reefer and Matt Faulkner who bought my old tank and helped deliver the new corals while I was out of town. Gary and Matt brought the corals to me, acclimated them, dipped them and put them in the tank. My wife was very happy about that.View attachment 7770I know everybody likes pictures, so I'll keep this one updated as I go until my goal is reached. This days off, I'll be placing corals and building the stand façade and canopy. My wife will be happy then. She hates clutter and incomplete projects. Lol. I'm sure all the other wives of reefers love the mess and turmoil involved in a tank swap right? To be continued...….
 
Awesome Johnie, thanks for sharing your build!This came together nicely, very nice tank and stand, can't wait to see more pics as it progresses!
 
Wow, great job... I love seeing the progress. Very exciting. Looking forward to seeing more pics.
 
Yes I do all of my own woodworking. It takes a while to get it completed since I only have limited time to work on it. 
 
That's awesome. I've been trying to learn how on my own for a while now. (Wood working) have built some stands and canopies but nothing that compares to yours.  I would love to get some pointers from you sometime. 
 
[Finally! I got my doors built and installed. The finish will have to wait. We are adding more wood flooring soon and I want to use the same stain so it will match perfectly. This will do for now. Equipment wise, I've added a Neptune Trident, DOS, DDR and 2 WAV pumps. I changed out the Reef Octopus Classic 110 INT skimmer for a Red Sea Reefer Skimmer. Now I am starting to stock it with SPS. Fingers crossed.View attachment 9623]
 
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