Hydro's 75g "budget" reef

[100%hydrophylic]

Hey everyone. I haven't been very active on here recently, but my tank has been pretty stable for a while now, so i thought id share it with you guys:

these are some progression that i could find

may 2014

july 2014

august 2014

may 2015

october 2015

The reason i call this a budget setup is because 100% of the equipment is 2nd/3rd hand or DIY from 2nd/3rd hand parts. The livestock is also probably 80% from "adoption" or from local peoples tanks that they had too much of.

equipment:
-DIY light: 48 3w cree high output LED driven by meanwell, plus 5 T5HO
-offbrand skimmer, dont even know what it is. all the markings wore off a while ago. its an old fashion venturi driven.
-two little fishes phosban reactors, one with GFO the other with GAC
-10g refugium with T5 HO light
-DIY auto topoff from float switches, relay, and aqualifter
-4 unknown koralias on a wavemaker

 

[100%hydrophylic]

other pics

 

[sporazoa]

Looks very sweet & healthy. Purple coralline looks awesome on the glass as well.

Does your venturi skimmer still pull out skimmate, about how much does it pull out per week?

 

[Bent]

Does a torch have to be in the sand like that? Mines epoxied to my rocks.

 

[sk8elenex92]

Very nice. are you dosing anything?

 

[100%hydrophylic]

Looks very sweet & healthy. Purple coralline looks awesome on the glass as well.

Does your venturi skimmer still pull out skimmate, about how much does it pull out per week?

id say it pulls out maybe 1/8 to 1/4 a cup a week, and i skim kinda wet id say. its kinda finicky though. it gets clogged every couple months. when i upgrade ill definitely get a bigger, better skimmer, but for now its really ok.

Does a torch have to be in the sand like that? Mines epoxied to my rocks.

i put mine in the sand because it has the lowest flow in that particular spot, and in my opinion torches shouldnt be blasted with flow. also, they are where they are because its really not good if the tentacles are constantly rubbing on the rocks. I believe that is the reason the larger, darker green one lost a few heads over the last couple months unfortunately.

Very nice. are you dosing anything?

i dose kalkwasser (calcium hydroxide) in my auto top off, and magnesium about every 3 weeks. other than that, water changes keep everything in check (reef crystals salt)

 

[100%hydrophylic]

Update

April 2016

Traded out the large chalice on the top left for a small leather that has since quadrupled in size. Smaller birdsnest on left side of tank got stung real bad so i fragged it and gave away the frags.

 

[Bent]

Dang mang my 75 will never be that baller.

 

[100%hydrophylic]

Dang mang my 75 will never be that baller.

Thank you! It's all about patience and consistency.

I forgot to mention that I traded out my old skimmer and picked up and old ASM G3 that was broken. I drilled three holes in it and did recirculation, gate valve, and mesh wheel mod. Honestly I'd feel comfortable running this skimmer on a 180g med stocked tank. It's a beast in size and pulls out a ton of gunk.