A few years ago I was fairly active on this forum. I was a student at Georgia Tech and only had a 30 gallon cube tank. Since then I have moved to Oklahoma in February of 2009 to start a new job. Now I've finally gotten around to setting up a new tank here. I was posting my progress on the local reef club site, but they're miniscule compared to ARC, and I don't get any feedback, so I thought I'd post on here, since many of you will still remember me.

Anyways, here goes....

I've been surfing Craigslist and the local reef club forums waiting for a good deal to pop up for several months. Finally one did. I bought a 185 gallon Deep Sea Aquatics (the new company formed from ex-Oceanic tank builders out of Dallas, TX) tank. It came with some high end supporting equipment that I'll highlight throughout the build. Unfortunately, the tank had been neglected for some time and needed to be started over from scratch.

So begins the build. I welcome any comments and suggestions that ya'll have. Thanks for following along!

~Chris

I made some progress this past weekend on my tank.

Here's day 1. Two of us were able to carry the stand into my house. However, I had to recruit four friends to carry the tank into place! That's my pup Lily checking out the new addition.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_3983.jpg

Here's the tank filled with tap water. I scraped down the glass, which is why the water is so cloudy. That's a 65 gallon sump in the stand.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_3985.jpg

The return pump is a Reeflo Snapper. I gave it a good cleaning since there was a bunch of sediment stuck in the pump vanes.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_3988.jpg

The skimmer pump is also a Reeflo Snapper.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_3990.jpg

Double union ball valves to make cleaning and random tank maintainence a snap! The previous owner installed the bracing in the stand. Not sure why, but it couldn't hurt with all that weight above!

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_3991.jpg

I then drained it and re-leveled with some plastic shims. If anyone knows where I can pick up some black PVC, that would be appreciated!

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_3993.jpg[/QUOTE]

Leak checking with my pup.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_3995.jpg

It took me about 3 days to eliminate all the leaks. Erg...

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_3998.jpg

Filled up with water and got the canopy on. I'm running six 5 ft T5's.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_4000.jpg

Tank and sump lights on. One of the sump T5 bulbs is burnt out in this pic. I've got some new bulbs on the way.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_4003.jpg

EcoTech Wavemaker. This thing is freakin' sweet. I also really like the side opening doors on the sump. Very handy!

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_4004.jpg

Aquatronica controller. I've got probes for temperature, pH, specific gravity, redox, leak detector, and level sensor. I also have the ethernet probe that allows me to control any channel from the net. I'm still on the fence about this controller. I would have preferred an Apex, but we'll see how this one goes. I'd never heard of it before I bought the tank, probably because it's a company out of Italy. I've read some negative reviews online, but we'll see how it goes. Does anyone here have any experience with these?

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_4008.jpg

Aquatronica software. Love the data logging.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_4006.jpg[/QUOTE]

I'm nuking the live rock that came with the tank. There was lots of aiptasia, green bubble algae, and ugly zoas/palys.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_4009.jpg

I bought two 44 gallon brute trash cans for RO-DI. These are sitting in my garage. I bought a pair of Mag 7's to pump the water upstairs to the tank. A new RO-DI unit is in the mail. I'll be building a shelf over the top of these containers to do work on.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_4010.jpg

I also have an extra 4 ft tall Lifereef skimmer that I likely won't use. If anyone is interested, PM me. I'm running a Trigger Systems becket skimmer in the sump currently. I also got a calcium reactor that I have yet to hook up.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/IMG_4011.jpg

Good to see you back man! The build is looking great...can't wait to see what goes it!

Nice! Great to see you back

Congrats on the new system. I'm anxiously watching your thread as I am geting ready to start up my new DSA Neo 185. I agree that the tank is a beast to move!

Wow really nice work. Very cool. Can't wait to see more pics.

I want an all in one controller for my tank.

Only problem I see is in the 6th picture, the inlet is so low that if you lose power, it will siphon back into the sump and overflow the sump and drain your tank. Maybe you have a solution or a small siphon break hole in it. But looks like a nice setup.

Only problem I see is in the 6th picture, the inlet is so low that if you lose power, it will siphon back into the sump and overflow the sump and drain your tank. Maybe you have a solution or a small siphon break hole in it. But looks like a nice setup.

It already had siphon breaks when I bought it. Just hard to see.

I got the ro-di unit mounted last night. Does anyone see a problem locating it near my hot water heater?

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l392/CGill311/556c56f0.jpg