Hefner's 180 Thread

hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Well, I'm glad to finally have my own Tank Thread!

It's been a year since I started in the hobby. I started with a 55 gal acrylic tank - a nontraditional style tank. The tank itself was kinda what got me interested. Anyway, it was all downhill from there... you guys know how it is.. I got addicted and I couldn't get enough. Plans began immediately to look for larger. I hoped to start sooner on a larger tank, but as you guys also know: this hobby costs so much that it always takes longer than you plan.
Well, I'm finally here... I stumbled upon a used system for a pretty good deal. Well, a great deal... here's what I got:
1.5 yr old system:
180 AGA w/ dual overflows 6'x2'x2'
basic pine cabinet
Coralife Super Skimmer - 220gal
ProClear Model 300 Wet/Dry
Mag 1200 pump
Coralife Fixture:72 Inch 384 Watt (4x 96W CF + 5x LED lamps)
Coralife Turbo Twist 6X 18W/250Gal UV
Hagen Fluval 404 Canister Filter
100# rock
To make a long story short... the tank had some areas that were of concern to me, a couple areas where they glass was "shelling" on the lower corners... I've heard too many horror stories of blowouts, so I called up Central Aquatics (owns Aqueon and AGA), and being that the tank was only 1.5 yrs old, they replaced it. Simple as that. And the proclear wet/dry - it was separating between the baffle and the sidewall - and being that proclear has a lifetime guarantee - they replaced it (I had to cover shipping). So things worked out quite well in the end...
So here we go... pics to come...
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Ok, so here's the initial tank set up in my garage for a quick leak check. I did fill it, and there were no leaks. I had not noticed the areas that were cracking on the tank yet.

Here's the wet/dry.


Skimmer.

And Rock.
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Well, like I said, I hadn't noticed the areas of concern in the tank yet... so my Dad and I carried the tank by ourselves out the garage and around the back of the house to the next level and into my house... I wish I had pics of this... it was quite interesting. It still hurts thinking about it actually...
Anyway, we got it in my living room. That night, my daughter decided it would be great to try out... I thought it would be funny... so here you go:

 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
WELL.... Then the next day: I was cleaning out the tank really well... AND
I saw some areas in the tank that made my heart stop. At first I tried to reason with myself that it would be ok... but then I thought of coming home to a living room full of water.. and so I called Central. Here's a couple pics that I sent them:
Inner right side:


Inner left side:
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Well, a new tank was on it's way... it would be a couple weeks on that.
So I started getting all the rest of the equipment cleaned and ready. And then I noted an area on the wet/dry that I was worried about. The separation was quite small, but I called up Proclear and they asked for a pic also. They said that there was a risk for the side to continue separating, so they said they wanted to replace it and I complied...


They promptly replaced it with the same model, but a new version:


Yeah, I know the outputs are upside down - I fixed that...
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
So the new tank was on it's way and so I started to get ready for the big day... but then my wife started to get second thoughts! The living room was "too small", so I had to plan on a different location...
But I thought about it - she was right, and I decided that the only other place that would work was my son's bedroom... so the plans changed.. but things continued..


New wet/dry in place...

Sump, cleaned and ready...

Well... That's it for now... stay tuned....
 
H

heart & sole

Guest
cant wait to see the tank up and running and full of fish and coral
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
And here she is.....
the tank!
Once again, my dad and I about broke our backs getting it in there, but we learned a couple things the first time around -so it was a little easier this time.
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
I put felt across the bottom of the stand so that it would not damage the wooden flooring if moved. This made things nice when I needed to slide it in/out.
I knew immediately that I didn't want the open back, so I found some vinyl sheeting at a local sign shop. $6 for the roll. With some soapy water and a spray bottle and a razor blade, it went on quite easily.

Here's one part done. I left the overflows viewable just in case.


Here's the whole back done and the front:

 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Originally Posted by Veni Vidi Vici
http:///forum/post/2547554
Your back in business.It had to be torture to have to wait for the new tank after having the first one in place.

Sure was. I must have called the supplier and the receiving store 10 times each. And then on the day it was suppose to ship - it somehow missed the truck.... then I had to wait another week. Gave me time to get everything else ready... but I sure got anxious.
 
spiderwoman

spiderwoman

Active Member
Rave!!!! Good job! I don't envy you one bit. I only helped carrying in the first 135 and I didn't like the weight of it. Luckily I didn't have to carry it out when the 150 came in. UGH!
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
I went ahead and put the light on to see what it would look like - I was pretty satisfied with the background.

You can see a plastic coke bottle tray in there... I was experimenting with ideas for rock platforms..
And next was to hook everything up!

I got the skimmer in the wet/dry.
 
veni vidi vici

veni vidi vici

Active Member
Originally Posted by Hefner413
http:///forum/post/2547558
Sure was. I must have called the supplier and the receiving store 10 times each. And then on the day it was suppose to ship - it somehow missed the truck.... then I had to wait another week. Gave me time to get everything else ready... but I sure got anxious.
LOL when its your own it always seems like it misses the truck ,plane.......
Well im glad you have your tank ,i cant wait to get mine.
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Originally Posted by SpiderWoman
http:///forum/post/2547560
Rave!!!! Good job! I don't envy you one bit. I only helped carrying in the first 135 and I didn't like the weight of it. Luckily I didn't have to carry it out when the 150 came in. UGH!
Well, I sure was glad that I had a few Celebrex samples handy that a rep had dropped off earlier that week. We stopped for a minute in the living room on the way in.. I rested it on my upper legs - I didn't realize it til the next day, but it left a huge bruise on my legs.
You wouldn't think about it - but one of the hardest things is setting the thing down without crushing your fingers - there's just nowhere for your fingers to go!
I definitely recommend finding some extra help to move these things
 
spiderwoman

spiderwoman

Active Member
Originally Posted by Hefner413
http:///forum/post/2547572
You wouldn't think about it - but one of the hardest things is setting the thing down without crushing your fingers - there's just nowhere for your fingers to go!
I definitely recommend finding some extra help to move these things

That is exactly why I was so happy that
1) the LFS brought the tank to our house and helped carry it in
2) our cabinet maker brought the stand to the house and helped lift the tank on top of it
:)
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Originally Posted by SpiderWoman
http:///forum/post/2547579
That is exactly why I was so happy that
1) the LFS brought the tank to our house and helped carry it in
2) our cabinet maker brought the stand to the house and helped lift the tank on top of it
:)
Yeah, well.. that sure woulda been nice. But that was the price to pay -being a replacement tank - the LFS that we went to pick it up at didn't do ANYTHING at all. They gave us specific instructions. My dad and I had to meet the delivery truck on the delivery day and put it directly on our truck. The tank was to not go into the LFS and none of their employees could help at all with moving it. Liability issues, I guess. I thought it would be kinda cool to find a new LFS though - being 45 min away was not too bad... but their store/stock quality was as nice as the way they treated us - not so good.
Originally Posted by MaTT B
http:///forum/post/2547602
YAY!! Another build to watch

Yeah, it's been nice to watch so many builds myself - hoping to remember all the good ideas/mistakes that I've read over the past year.
 
mgatdog

mgatdog

Member
Looks like your hobby just got a little more $$$$. Were did you get your new tank? I'm on a road trip the middle of this month to pick up a new 125 or 150 gal.Hope to talk to you soon.
 
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