High Tide Aquatics

Bljohnson's 180 Re-build

Hey guys.

I'm going to be moving within the next few months and wanted to start planning my next tank now to work out some of the flaws. I think I'm going to do another 180 again because I already have most of the equipment I need already. My main problem with my current system is how much crap I have to plug into the wall. I would like to minimize this as much as possible.
My hopes/plans are to focus on building a stable/healthy tank. I'm not 100% sure on what I would like to keep. I'm at the point in my life where we are just going to start having kids so I'm thinking about having an anemone/LPS tank and maybe some select SPS down the road. Any critiques/help would be greatly appreciated. Here are my ideas so far:

1) Tank - 180 Gallon. My current tank is an old AGA and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm thinking about going with an Oceanic this time. When I was surfing the Oceanic site, it looks like the 178 gallon Reef Ready they sell now only comes as an "Ultimate" with a Starphire front pane. I like the custom stuff you can do with acrylic but I'm afraid that living in the Central Valley will cause alot of heat issues for me. Right now I run my tank without a chiller but I run the tank at 79-80 and I keep the house at 73-74 during the summer. I'm using about 4x canopy fans right now and 1x small clip on fan right now. I'm thinking about putting my sump on a stand behind the tank (have the main tank in the center of an office) so I can just have 1 big fan flowing on the sump. Here is a link to Oceanic.
http://www.oceanicsystems.com/products/ultimate88574.php#

2) Stand - I'm not sure what I'm gonna do here. I have found a couple really good threads on RC they show some pretty crafty DIY but I'm not sure if I have the skills to do that. I may end up getting the father in law to help build the "core structure" and just pay a cabinet maker to skin it for me. Here are the threads I was reading if you guys wanna check them out.

"Core plans" designed by a Mechanical Engineer
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1169964&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

Different DIY Project with a very nice skin (1 thread over the building and 1 thread of the finished project)
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=787189
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=867050

3) Lighting - Right now I'm using a 72" Maristar and some moonlights. I think I'm only gonna use the Maristar on the next tank. The moonlights were just another thing to plug in and I'm not convinced if they really had any affect on the health of the tank at all anyways.

4) Circulation/Return - Right now I'm using 2x small Eheims (not sure about the exact model, but they put out around 600 gph or so) feeding the stock returns and 1x Mag 18 feeding 2x 3/4" Sea Swirls. I'm thinking about using 2x of the large Eheims (898 gph) on the new tank. I'm not sure if I'm gonna be using the Sea Swirls or not... I just see them as 2 more things to plug in and have to maintain. Right now I'm using 2x 6100s and 1x Wavebox for water movement. I'm thinking about getting 1x of the new 6101 just so I have the option of a battery backup.

5) Bottom of Tank - I think I'm gonna go BB and use Starboard this time. I just like how clean these tanks look.

6) Filtration - Right now I have my sump under the stand and I absolutely hate doing maintenance because of the location. I'm thinking about setting up a 120 gal sump behind the new tank. Right now I'm using a BK SM 200. I also have an older ER 8-2. I'm not sure if I should use 2 skimmers or go with the BK and use the extra area in the sump for a refugium.

7) Calcium - Right now I have the smaller Geo Ca Reactor and his Kalk Reactor. I have a Pinpoint pH monitor inside the Ca Reactor and have my AC Pro monitoring the pH of the tank and controlling the CO2 solenoid. My only gripe about this unit is that I have a hard time maintaining a consistent bubble count. I think I am using a Reef Fanatic Solenoid and I'm not sure about the needle valve. I'm using the Kalk Reactor in line with a Tunze ATO. I like the redundancy and the optical sensors in the Tunze... but i'm not impressed with the electrical connection from the pump to the ATO. Do you guys cover this with silicone or something to prevent corrosion?

Thanks for reading my wall-o-text.
 
Sounds like you've got a solid plan going, Take a look in to DJ Power Centers, they're cheap, and have individual switches for each plug. They can be mounted descreetly in your cabnet, and can handle quite a bit of power as they're designed for DJ's and lighting guys.
 
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