Wow, according to my own posts, I got the 180g tank in January of 2023. It's taken a lot more than a few months to set it up. Life happens. Anyway, here is the update. I installed the 180 gallon tank. I built the stand and put in the tank. I peeled back the carpet to put the tank directly onto the plywood subflooring. It was pretty rough from some leaks from the 125 over the years. It was solid enough that I didn't have to replace anything but it was still startling. It was completely dry as there haven't been drips in several years.
The stand is 80" across because I like the way tanks look with a little practical shelving on the sides. I have about 2" in the front, 2" on the left, and 8" on the right. This also helps disperse the weight over an additional floor joist. The front is 58" thick plywood held in place by cupboard magnets. The color is a Home Depot color called Fishing Village.
The 180g shares a 27g sump with the 125g for a total of about 330 gallons to help keep the chemistry predictable. I made the sump returns for each tank and have fiddled with them to get them as quiet as possible. So far, I have quieted them the most by reducing the water flow through the aquaponic system. This happened by accident. Dropping the Mag 9.5 another 2.5 feet down slowed the flow at the head of the waterfall so much that the drains in both tanks are plenty quiet. The 125 has a Fluval 407 and the 180 has a Fluval Fx6. The aquaponic wall has at least 2 cubic feet of bio media in addition to what's in the filters. Since I haven't added any fish to these tanks in years, the filters are overkill which is always fine with me.
The current population is 2 12" pictus cats, 1 9" gold severum, a 12"+ pleco, 5 tiny clown loaches, 8 5" silver dollars, and 3 community fish left over from their schools from several years ago.
I have an Inkbird heater controller and two heaters in each tank. Lighting on the 180g has not been finalized. I'll be buying something soon. I installed a new custom-painted background on ceramic tiles of Little Mermaid characters (my wife's request). We painted them ourselves.
Here are some photos.
Now, life can finally get back to normal. Tank upgrades are a lot more work than I remembered.