180 gallon dual octogon AGA

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Faciosity

Faciosity

reefer
Joined
Mar 26, 2009
Messages
1,181
Location
Spokane
No more 100 gallon project, got a 180 instead:D! It's 72"x36". A friend really needed to get rid of this, so I gave him a few corals for it. It's a 100 gallon and a 80 gallon octogon connected together. Drilled with bulkheads, plumbing, sump and pump. Just need to clean it up, fix one of the seals and put a new board on top of the stand (reason a seal needs redone is because the stand wasn't built properly to support the center, and one of the seals connecting the two tanks went out).
This is gonna be fun!

16588_20101001023317.JPG
 
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That's an interesting setup! So is that in the picture all the main display or is one tank used for the sump and the other for the display? If the latter, will you run it with everything exposed or just the main display?? It's like a huge all-in-one tank!! Very different! :)
 
This tank was beautiful when he had it up and running. I just don't know where I can fit it!:lol: It will be great to have the larger side for display and the smaller side for frags. Or I could use one side for my reef, and the other side for non reef safe fish and inverts?:rolleyes:
 
krish75 said:
That's an interesting setup! So is that in the picture all the main display or is one tank used for the sump and the other for the display? If the latter, will you run it with everything exposed or just the main display?? It's like a huge all-in-one tank!! Very different! :)
Click to expand...

It is all the main display. Sump fits under it, and both sides are drilled in the middle. Pump water up through the big side, runs into the smaller side, and use a pvc pipe for the overflow back to the sump.
 
Well you have tons of options that's for sure! It will be nice to see what you do with it. Good luck! :)
 
Thanks! First I need to make the stand a little more proper, then I can clean it and fix the one small seal. Hopefully I can fill it for a test within the next week! Just really don't know if there is room in my house, and my garage isn't heated!:(

Will have to figure something out, I can't wait any longer to upgrade my system.
 
Just really don't know if there is room in my house, and my garage isn't heated!
Click to expand...

Move here...They are all naturally heated :lol: It is a big tank though! I couldn't imagine where something like that would go in my house! What is the height on it? When it was up and running in your friends house could you hear that water draining down into the smaller side because the drain looks pretty high compared to where the water level would sit on the smaller side :)
 
Faciosity,

So, just put a heater in the sump and call it good..

IMO, there are many upsides to keep a tank in the garage.

First, you rarely have to worry about pH vacillating as there normally is enough oxygen--> CO2 exchange to keep it stable. Second, if your garage is like mine, it is the coolest spot in the house, and you most likely will NOT need a chiller during the summer months.

All of my equipment including my 375g tank and 125 sump is in the garage. I've had this for 4 yrs and my pH has never fallen below 8.2. (normally is in the 8.2-8.3 range), and the highest my temp has been is 83 (and this was 2yrs ago when we had the 100 degree temps). I do not have a chiller, but do have an attic fan that turns on when the temp is 72degrees in the garage, it sucks cold air from the crawl space into the garage.

Just something to think about b4 you shone the idea of not having a tank in the garage.

Kirk
 
NC2WA said:
Faciosity,

So, just put a heater in the sump and call it good..

IMO, there are many upsides to keep a tank in the garage.

First, you rarely have to worry about pH vacillating as there normally is enough oxygen--> CO2 exchange to keep it stable. Second, if your garage is like mine, it is the coolest spot in the house, and you most likely will NOT need a chiller during the summer months.

All of my equipment including my 375g tank and 125 sump is in the garage. I've had this for 4 yrs and my pH has never fallen below 8.2. (normally is in the 8.2-8.3 range), and the highest my temp has been is 83 (and this was 2yrs ago when we had the 100 degree temps). I do not have a chiller, but do have an attic fan that turns on when the temp is 72degrees in the garage, it sucks cold air from the crawl space into the garage.

Just something to think about b4 you shone the idea of not having a tank in the garage.

Kirk
Click to expand...

But then I can't stare it it every time I walk by! I would have to go out of my way to look at it, and then my family would never see me again!:lol: If I can't fit it inside, I will have to deal with it in the garage anyways. Spokane gets pretty chilly in the winter though, I would need a couple pretty hefty heaters to keep them good. Not to mention the freezing walks out there in the morning and at night to feed, since my garage is not attatched.
 
krish75 said:
Move here...They are all naturally heated :lol: It is a big tank though! I couldn't imagine where something like that would go in my house! What is the height on it? When it was up and running in your friends house could you hear that water draining down into the smaller side because the drain looks pretty high compared to where the water level would sit on the smaller side :)
Click to expand...

The larger side is 19" tall and the shorter side is 15" tall. It does make a little noise, but I don't mind the waterfall, it is kind of soothing once you are used to it. A while back I had up to 8 tanks including at least 1 in each bedroom, so you couldn't walk through my house without hearing water movement. I'm pretty used to it.
 
krish75 said:
No way!!! That's alot of tanks! Well good luck man. I'll tag along to see how it goes :)
Click to expand...

Most of them were freshwater. A little while after I moved into this house, I had a 10 fw, 20 sw, 29 fw, 40 fw, 50 fw, 55 fw, 75 sw, 100 fw.
I quickly had to make decisions of what and who to get rid of. It was really hard. I got rid of my rare pleco collection, all my fw community fish, my breeding convicts and their hundreds of babies, a couple south/central american cichlids, and all my african cichlids including a breeding trio of Aulonocara bi color 500s and a couple babies.
Now I have a 100 gallon large south and central american cichlid tank, a ten gallon with a couple small african cichlids that I'm watching for my sister in law, and my 75 gallon reef. I just broke down my 10 gallon nano reef. Now I have this big project, and then I can keep my 100 cichlid tank and get rid of EVERYTHIG ELSE!
 
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Faciosity said:
Most of them were freshwater. A little while after I moved into this house, I had a 10 fw, 20 sw, 29 fw, 40 fw, 50 fw, 55 fw, 75 sw, 100 fw.
I quickly had to make decisions of what and who to get rid of. It was really hard. I got rid of my rare pleco collection, all my fw community fish, my breeding convicts and their hundreds of babies, a couple south/central american cichlids, and all my african cichlids including a breeding trio of Aulonocara bi color 500s and a couple babies.
Now I have a 100 gallon large south and central american cichlid tank, a ten gallon with a couple small african cichlids that I'm watching for my sister in law, and my 75 gallon reef. I just broke down my 10 gallon nano reef. Now I have this big project, and then I can keep my 100 cichlid tank and get rid of EVERYTHIG ELSE!
Click to expand...

Nice!! If only saltwater aquariums were as easy as fresh :p
 
That would be cool with a center overflow in the top tank, to a sump. Then have a waterfall going to the lower one. With a closed loop connecting the two displays.
 
Actually, I think that's pretty cool in and of itself....

If it were me, I'd consider doing two seperate types of reef's.

Larger one would be and SPS with minimal rock work and high flow.
The smaller/lower one would be an LPS/Lagoon type tank with less flow.

That would, (IMO) give you the best of both worlds and keep it all in one single (less maintenance) system.

Keep in mind that the water overflowing from the bigger tank to the smaller one will cause you to evaporate more water than normal. This evaporation will cause salt crust to collect, but will also allow for some evaporative cooling as well.

Cant wait to see where you go with this!

Nick
 
awesome setup. You can have one half SPS and the other softies if you choose. So many options with this to combine 2 completely separate environments in one system.
 
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