This all started 25 years ago, and yes I can't believe that I am this old that I can say 25 years ago!!! My dad kept angelfish in a 55g. when I was a kid. I remeber him struggling with new tank syndrome everytime they cleaned the tank and washed everything! I am glad that the hobby has advanced past those days when the LFS advise was to break down a tank and clean it!

In 85' my friend John bought a saltwater fish tank(55g) with a wet/dry. We were like kids at Christmas! We read evrything we could about aquariums and hung out at the LFS on weekends that sold reef tanks! I got the bug and never recovered. Today I have the LAB! A dream come true but more difficult to maintain than I imagined.

The first tank I installed in the house was in 97'...a 120g reef ready. It was a dwarf cichlid tank now turned planted community! It was also the first tank to go in the new fish room in 2004!

The plan all along was to have about a dozen tanks. The problem was there was nowhere to put them. No Basement! When I added onto the house I expanded the garage another 36'X24'. 14'X14' of that was transformed into my fishroom! I now wish I had kept it 14'X24'. I have 1,050 gallons of water in there and am having problems controlling the humidity and temp levels. I am going to try a bigger dehumidifier. If that doesn't fix the problem then I will be scaling back on some tanks! I don't want a mold factory!

This thread I will explain my new 180g reef tank! Here is the first part of the data that I am copying from another thread...

Here are some updates...

Here John is drilling a perfectly good new 180g and I am nervously pacing the floor waiting for it to shatter!!!

Here we installed my 7 stage R.O./D.I. W/PUMP that I got from Filter Guys!!!

Here we have our 90g custom sump. John is quite the fabricator!!!

Here we are fabricating the return spray bars. These are 1" with about 60 holes at 1/4"!!!

This is one of the 2 HAMMERHEAD pumps that will be rock'n this 180g!!!

Here John is installing the valves on the sump for a good prefit!!!

Here John is fondling my big equipment!!!

Here john found a non-plumbing task for me to do!!!

Here is the halfway mark after 2 days of setups

Here is the pump install....

Here is the sump with 6" sand bed....

Here I am installing the pumps. Does this give you an idea of how big the stand is?....That sump is a 90g aquarium!!!

New updates on the plumbing....

This is the skimmer installed and waiting on the water.

Pump plumbing w/returns at 1.5" and check the cool union valves...

Skimmer returns and drains into fuge/associated plumbing...

That is 150 gallons of RO/DI mixing w/200g Tropic Marin Reef Pro salt...still waiting...will be filled by morning!