BigBarnacles big build thread.

BigBarnacles

BigBarnacles

New member
Alright friends, the time has come to start posting pics of my build. Now, I didn't take pics of everything (skipped a few steps along the way). I'll add pics in steps and describe what was going on at the time. Saltwater has always been a passion of mine and I'd previously had a 30 gal hex FOWLR from 2001-2004. After a few house changes the tank finally crashed and I decided that until I got married and planted my butt in a permenant location I wouldn't have another saltwater Aquarium.
Fast forward to January 2012. Here I am, finally married and in a great new home (married Sept 2011). The wife and I agreed on a budget (which was quickly and greatly surpassed) and would use some of our income tax $ to fund the start up. February and income tax $ arrive, as well as a huge sale at Aquarium Adventure in Bolingbrook. Carpe diem. We ordered a custom stand/canopy stained to match our furniture (per the warden...I mean wife) as well as a pre drilled 75 gallon Aqueon aquarium. The stand and canopy had an ETA of 6-8 weeks while the aquarium would be ready in 1-2 weeks.
The first pic was taken in February of this year, 2 weeks after I ordered the custom drilled 75 gallon tank, stand and canopy from Aquarium Adventure in Bolingbrook.

SHE HAS ARRIVED!
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nice! my wife was the same... at the start. lol now she LETS me get stuff as long as she can help choose! and she always spots some nice stuff i missed!
 
Now, I knew I had a minimum of 6 weeks to research and start purchasing equipment for my build. I also decided that I was going to create a reef (this is where the budget started going up). I was freaking out, what do I need? Where do I find out the correct information? Well, I created a Reef Central account and the rest is history. The vast amount of info available to a reef newbie is overwhelming. I mean, I thought I knew what I was doing. I've done saltwater before...WRONG! And the advances in equipment for this hobby since 2000 were vast! So what to buy first? I figured I'd research and purchase the biggest budget expenses first...picking up some of the smaller stuff along the way. In the meantime I had to learn how to plumb an aquarium with a built in overflow and figure out what to do for the background of the tank.

The pre drilled 75 gal Aqueon storage container.
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I had no where else to put all of my new toys for the aquarium since I had a while to wait for the stand and canopy.

Plumbing the overflow (in the garage).
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Applying one of the many thin coats of Krylon Fusion "Ocean Blue" as my wife called it (and chose).
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I finally decided on my sump. The Trigger Systems crystal 30. This decision was based on my stand size as well as quality of product and design features (as well as countless hours of research on sumps and refugiums). I now had to find a skimmer to match my sump. It needed to fit nicely in the first chamber as well as have a good reputation in the saltwater world. I decided on the Reef Octopus SSS-1000.

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Somewhere and sometime during all my research I decided to go with the Aqua Illuminations AI SOL BLUE fixtures. I knew I wanted two fixtures and decided to post on an AI thread about this. I later received a PM from a local RC reefer that was selling his 5 month old setup to try something else (still LED, just a different brand). I was a little nervous as I'd never met up with an online reefer and questioned his motives for selling them. He said to him it was like "changing cars, just want to try something different." He assured me there was nothing wrong with them...and he was telling the truth! We ended up becoming friends and he helps me out all the time with my annoying questions (thanks AYCKOREA)! So now the dilemma of how to mount these bad boys in my canopy. I luckily stumbled upon a thread here on RC with someone that had the same problem. Somehow, with a stroke of mad genius, he discovered that these T-tracks used for work benches would fit the AI SOL mounting track screws perfectly when turned upside down and mounted in a canopy!

Installing the two tracks in the canopy top.
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The two AI fixtures slid right in perfectly.
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Canopy placed back atop the aquarium, lighting installed.
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Filling the tank. Ran my 4 stage BFS 100 GPD RO/DI tubing from utility/fish room to the tank. Decided on BRS Pukani dry rock and Tropic Eden mini flakes aragonite.
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The wife created the aquascape.
 
I'll post a few pics of the current set up of the aquarium, including the sump setup, tomorrow. Thanks for reading my build thread so far.
 
Wow awesome job!! I'm happy your wife helps you too my wife got so into it that she went out and got.herself her very own 75g reef tank LOL.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2
 
Very nice clean build ! Cant wait to see it once its cycled and alive. Looks like you have some space to the left of your tank between wall, build yourself a nice cabinet to hold a top off tank. I did, worked out great, as well as I added a draw on top to hold my controller and electronics , so there not in the salt environment.....
 
Nice build so far.

I might have to order the canopy you have....the one I have only allows me to have the AI SOL's a couple inches off the water.
 
aussie_chicago said:
Very nice clean build ! Cant wait to see it once its cycled and alive. Looks like you have some space to the left of your tank between wall, build yourself a nice cabinet to hold a top off tank. I did, worked out great, as well as I added a draw on top to hold my controller and electronics , so there not in the salt environment.....
Click to expand...

I actually have plenty of room still in the stand for my (soon to be) ATO. I have my electronics board on the far right back of the stand away from the sump/saltwater. I'll post pics of the sump/electronics set up hopefully by tonight. Thanks for all the positive feedback guys! After months of hard work it is very rewarding to hear good things.
 
nice build, did you consider leaving the back of the overflow unpainted, it would of been better cause if anything jumped over or you dropped something you can see.
good luck!
 
faisal629 said:
nice build, did you consider leaving the back of the overflow unpainted, it would of been better cause if anything jumped over or you dropped something you can see.
good luck!
Click to expand...

Hindsight is always 20/20, but had he started this thread months ago, we coulda warned him, lol...

I don't think the tank is far enough off the wall to see back there anyway, so it's a moot point. Next time! ;)
 
jayjigga said:
Hindsight is always 20/20, but had he started this thread months ago, we coulda warned him, lol...

I don't think the tank is far enough off the wall to see back there anyway, so it's a moot point. Next time! ;)
Click to expand...

I did think about it, but like Jay said, it wouldn't matter...can't get behind tank anyway. Planning on screening off overflow.
 
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