75 gallon build

[aryiman]

Hey everyone! I have been lurking on this site for a little while and figured I would show what my plans are for my tank. I'm always doing something and would like to help out other people who had the same questions as I did.

Equipment:

75 gallon tank
29 gallon sump tank
70 lbs of BRS eco rock
CPR CS 100 overflow
Koralia 1050 powerheads (x2)
Mag 7 return pump
Vertex IN-100
Eheim Jager 150w heater
Eheim Jager 100w heater
6x54w canopy
ATI Lights (1 atcnics, blue plus, blue plus, aquablue plus, purple plus, blue plus)
RO/DI unit


On the way:
90 lbs of Tropic Eden Miniflake substrate
IO salt
filter for my overflow
Red Sea test kit to get me started

Pictures:

Day I got the tank home (came with sump, tank, stand, canopy, plumbing, return pump, overflow). Cleaned it really well and put my already purchased lights on:

Sump with 3 baffles:

My dry rock from BRS:

Aquascaping ideas:

This is the one I have right now:

 

[aryiman]

Different angles of the tank:

First round of RO/DI water in:

RO/DI unit in garage:

I have replaced the bucket with a 32 gallon trash can with a float valve installed

Plans:

I am getting 15-20 lbs of live rock on Friday from a person local to seed my dry rock.

I want to do some corals and some fish but have not researched much into those sections to determine what I want. I am open for suggestions on what to get for both.


Thanks for looking! Will update when there is something new going on

 

[Brwestern]

Looks awesome. I like that background. How'd you do it?

How'd u mount the rock to the wall too?

 

[aryiman]

Looks awesome. I like that background. How'd you do it?

How'd u mount the rock to the wall too?

I purchased the tank as it. The previous owner painted the back of the glass with black paint.

The rock is just sitting on top of the other rock leaning against the tank walls.

Changed up the scape tonight so I didn't have that problem anymore:

 

[duncantse]

Good progress! I wished I bought a used tank with everything. Then I don't have to worry about plumbing.

 

[aryiman]

Good progress! I wished I bought a used tank with everything. Then I don't have to worry about plumbing.

Thanks! I actually lucked out when I bought the tank with mostly everything.

I had a 55 gallon that I ended up selling after I saw this tank on craigslist

 

[aryiman]

Got the rest of my supplies in the mail today. Waiting for enough RO/DI water to fill up the sump then in goes the sale. Preparing to do 1/2 cup of IO Salt per 1 gallon of water.

Questions on the cycling:

Should I run my protein skimmer from the start?

What should I do light wise during my cycle?

 

[dzfish17]

Looks good so far. You can run the skimmer but with dry rock there really isn't anything for the skimmer to pull out. Most skimmers need a break-in period anyway so you can run it now or wait a couple of weeks. I usually run the lights a little bit just for my own viewing pleasure.

 

[aryiman]

Looks good so far. You can run the skimmer but with dry rock there really isn't anything for the skimmer to pull out. Most skimmers need a break-in period anyway so you can run it now or wait a couple of weeks. I usually run the lights a little bit just for my own viewing pleasure.

I am picking up 15-20 lbs of live rock tomorrow so I'll just run the skimmer now

 

[duncantse]

Run the skimmer. Break-in time can take from serveral hours to serveral weeks.

 

[Angler7]

Tank looks great. Fish suggestions.

Harlequin Tusk if you are going FOWLR.

Harem of 3 Flasher Wrasses if you are going reef.

 

[aryiman]

^ I plan on going corals and fish with the tank. I will research the fish a little more when I'm ready to make my purchase. First and foremost is to cycle the tank.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[jhs]

You got a great start....great job keep going......

 

[aryiman]

My testing equipment that came today:

Added the salt:

 

[almostazoo]

you have a nice setup, keep the pics going

 

[aryiman]

Well after day three of adding salt I got my salinity down to 1.026. I was at 1.030, just took out some saltwater a couple times a day and replaced with fresh RO/DI water.

Will see that I added 15 lbs of live rock to help the tank cycle and to seed the dry rock.

Some pictures of everything

Also you will notice I added 1/2 of my sand to the tank. The other half is rinsing over night

 

[duncantse]

I like your new aquacape!

 

[aryiman]

Some more updates. Saturday I put the rest of the sand in the tank.

Took some readings as well:

March 25, 2010 - Day 3

pH 8.4
Nitrite 0.1
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0.25

March 28, 2011 - Day 5:

pH 8.4
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 5
Ammonia 0.5

I also added the raw shrimp today as well.

Pictures from 3/28/11:

 

[duncantse]

Looking good so far!

 

[aryiman]

Looks like I picked up some snails with my live rock. Also starting to get some green algae on the rocks, can see some purple coming through on the live rocks as well.

March 31, 2011 - Day 8

pH 8.4
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 10
Ammonia between .25-.5

Pictures from tonight: