75 Gallon Rebuild

[MeghanisradxD]

I had a tank crash due to poor planning and rushing things when I shouldn't have, so the fish that survived have been re-homed, corals have been put in a biocube that has been running empty for several months, and the tank has been drained/emptied.

The tank is in my living room and behind the wall is a coat closet that just gets filled with junk, so I've emptied it out and it is going to be converted into a mini fish room. I've attached some pictures of the sketchup plans I've drawn up as well as some pics of the tanks that will be in the system.

There is my 75 gallon on a custom built stand before I tore it down. I will be using the same stand and lights (Mars Aqua Chinese LEDs) but I will be building a canopy that will match the stand and drilling the tank for an overflow box. I would like to get rid of the curtain on the stand and add doors, but my construction skills are limited and could never get doors to look good.

Overflow will drain into a sump, a 29 gallon that I've installed baffles into, in the closet. There is a hex tank on the other side of the closet that will be draining into the same sump and will act as a display refugium.


As I update, please feel free to criticize away, I'd like to do this right the first time which is the main reason I'm posting this here.

Oh, and the RODI unit is not going to be 6 stages, that's just the only RODI sketchup object I could find RODI unit will probably be a 4 stage 75gpd

 

[MeghanisradxD]

10/22/2015

10/22/2015

Tank stand was in bad shape, so fixed it up slightly and painted it to match the rest of the color scheme in the house. Will probably paint the rims on the aquarium black or an off-white color.

The display tank has been emptied completely and hosed out. I need to clean the glass with some vinegar to get rid of the caked on algae and the rock has been sitting in a bleach/water mix for a couple days. I will drain it and soak it in fresh water tomorrow. I'll be starting the new tank off with dry rock.

The hex refugium will have sand in it, but the display is going to be bare bottom. I'm still working out all of the plumbing. I'm not a fantastic plumber, so that's going to be the most difficult part of this build. I picked up a 29 gallon tank with baffles already installed from the shop I work in. It needs one hell of a cleaning, but it was really cheap and ther is no work that I need to put into it.

 

[Bogue Chitto]

Looks like you have a good plan, We will be looking for updates...

 

[MeghanisradxD]

Looks like you have a good plan, We will be looking for updates...

I will definitely be updating! It may go slow, but that's the key to reef tanks, right?

Next up is drilling the glass...Im working up my courage.

 

[MeghanisradxD]

Change of plans

Change of plans

Well, after running into a fantastic deal, the 75 gallon rebuild has officially turned into a 150 gallon new build. It will be a room divider. Same plans as before with the hex refugium and sump in the closet, just a bigger display.

Will have to take this one slow and build as the disposable income comes in, but I am excited!

 

[Bogue Chitto]

That is a good looking setup. You will be able to put a lot of stuff in there.

 

[MeghanisradxD]

Rock is in the process of drying out and the tank was cleaned, so you can actually see through the glass.

Im am going to build the canopy soon, but unsure of how I'm going to match the stain on the canopy to the stand.

 

[Bogue Chitto]

That looks like pine so get a piece of wood and see if a paint store can match the color. You might have to take one of the doors with you.

 

[MeghanisradxD]

That looks like pine so get a piece of wood and see if a paint store can match the color. You might have to take one of the doors with you.

I can take one of the doors off and take it in...didn't think about that.
Will probably get working on the canopy next weekend.


I've been playing around with the scape and haven't found anything that I'm crazy about, yet. I want it to be a minimalist design, but all of the rocks I have are pretty small in comparison to the size of the tank, so it just ends up looking like a pile of rocks. I'll post some pics of scapes I've played with later.

Im also thinking about ordering a quarter of the total rock needed from TBS. I can't afford to do all of it, but the quality can't be beat and I think it would be great rock to start up the tank with.

 

[Bogue Chitto]

Yes, TBS can't be beat. It's the only rock that I have seen come in without leaking bags. They use multiple thick bags to ship them in. You might check on some other kind of rock or pieces of concrete to put under your live rock to build it up. I know a lot of guys will fuss about concrete, but if is is aged and clean, it works well. I have used cinder blocks for years and never had a problem. They just need to be cleaned first.

 

[MeghanisradxD]

Rockscape

Rockscape

This is what I came up with for aquascape using just the rock I have from the 75. I want it to be minimalist, but will probably need to get a little more as I really want to do the valley between two hills type of look. Plus some for the sump as the display won't have as much as it should.

 

[Swope2bc]

By the look of it you will need lots more! It's hard to decide on a scale without all the rock... I tried in my 40b and it looked nothing like the final product. +1 on the TBS rock, I love mine!!

 

[MeghanisradxD]

I will definitely need tons more rock. I'll probably pick up about 50 more pounds of dry and then 50 more pounds of the tbs rock to seed.

Swope, your build thread is actually what got me hooked on TBS!

 

[Swope2bc]

I will definitely need tons more rock. I'll probably pick up about 50 more pounds of dry and then 50 more pounds of the tbs rock to seed.



Swope, your build thread is actually what got me hooked on TBS!

Lol, it was the most expensive part of my build but well worth it! Talk about instant reef!! I'm working on convincing a friend to go full TBS package on a 125g build lol

 

[MeghanisradxD]

First hole halfway drilled....I have an old, crappy, battery powered drill that dies in about 10 minutes. Drilling is going very slowly, but almost done with the first hole. It probably would have been faster to drive an hour away and borrow my father's wired drill, then drive an hour back to return it. lol

Oh well!

 

[MeghanisradxD]

Lol, it was the most expensive part of my build but well worth it! Talk about instant reef!! I'm working on convincing a friend to go full TBS package on a 125g build lol

Believe me, if I could come up with the money to do the entire thing in TBS rock...there would be no question at all!

 

[Swope2bc]

First hole halfway drilled....I have an old, crappy, battery powered drill that dies in about 10 minutes. Drilling is going very slowly, but almost done with the first hole. It probably would have been faster to drive an hour away and borrow my father's wired drill, then drive an hour back to return it. lol



Oh well!

Lol, fun! I used battery too but had spares... I also didn't get my area as wet as many others do.. I just stuffed some Polly wool into the hole of the bit that had been soaked.. Every so often I gave it a little rinse to freshen up the water. Worked like a charm [emoji3]

 

[MeghanisradxD]

Lol, fun! I used battery too but had spares... I also didn't get my area as wet as many others do.. I just stuffed some Polly wool into the hole of the bit that had been soaked.. Every so often I gave it a little rinse to freshen up the water. Worked like a charm [emoji3]

You might have just saved me some headache. We've gone through so many towels spraying water onto the drill bit! I'll try that when we get started on the last of this one.

 

[Swope2bc]

You might have just saved me some headache. We've gone through so many towels spraying water onto the drill bit! I'll try that when we get started on the last of this one.

Lol, I hardly made any mess at all.. Btw, don't forget to tape the inside of the tank so the piece your cutting out does not fall and break, or worse break the tank.

 

[MeghanisradxD]

1 hole drilled! waiting on the drill to charge, so I can get the other drain line drilled. I haven't decided if I'm going to drill a hole for the return or have it hang over the back into the tank with a U-shaped return nozzle. We'll see how I feel after getting these two holes drilled.

Hoping to get some rock soon, so I can aquascape the tank and I should be ordering the rest of the hardware (one more light, powerheads, etc...) in the next 2 weeks.


Going with a couple Jebao WP40's for flow and I am going to get one more mars aqua LED, so the light will cover the whole tank.