My 75 Gallon Build

[JuJuMan16]

Hey folks. After several years of getting out of the hobby, I decided to start all over in my new home. I have been meaning to do a post for a while now, just haven't had the time, so I will start from the beginning and in the next few days I will catch up to how it looks now.

Since i wasn't in a hurry, I was able to hunt down a tank on craigslist for the right price. I picked up a pre-drilled 75 gallon tank with a custom stand and canopy, over 100 lbs of rock, a wet dry turned into a sump, a small skimmer, fish, corals, a dual 150 hqi / pc light fixture (from aqualight if i remember correctly).

The tank was neglected, hair algae was easily 6-8 inches long on all the rocks exposed to the light, sand was not syphoned for a very long time and was brown... After tearing it down, there would be no way I could rebuild it fast enough to be able to keep the fish, so I gave them to my closest LFS. Thats when the fun started.

For a few weeks my living room was decorated with large tupperwares filled with rocks, equipment, buckets with water, stuff was being cleaned with vinegar in my garage in buckets. Fun stuff. Wife was loving the smells. It took me a whole afternoon to clean the tank. Hair algae gas growing on top of the coralline algae and the glass was a pain to scrape clean. I did not get any before pictures, but this is the tank after it was cleaned.

I let it all dry for a few days, painted the back glass, put the plumbing back together in the overflow, and this is how it looks. This is just the tank, stand and canopy, at this point I was iffy about the filtration so I took some time to plan it out better.

 

[JuJuMan16]

I was not happy with the idea of using the old filter on the new build. They basically turned a wet dry into a sump with the very thin home depot plexi glass, pieces had broken off, it was just a mess, I wanted to scrap it and start all over, so I went back on Craigslist. I found an unused 40 gallon breeder tank with a metal stand (bonus) for $40. I had a local guy cut the glass baffles for me to size and I turned the 40 gallon breeder into a sump/fuge. Here are the pics of the process.

Materials used.

Alcohol was used to clean the glass with a rag and make sure no oil was left. The grout tool was used to apply and scrape off excess silicone. The 1" dowels were bought at Lowes, and cut down to 6-8 inch pieces. They were used as dividers for the glass baffles and to hold the glass from moving around. The clamps were used to fix the dowels to the tank and the baffles. The pics will give you a general idea.

I did a baffle at a time, and gave it about 30-45 minutes to dry and harden before taking off the bar clamps and doing the other baffles. The dowels gave me a 1" gap between the baffles without having to go crazy measuring.

Dowel and baffles sandwiched together to hold up them up evenly.

Lessons learned.

USE A LEVEL! Double and triple check if you have to. You will be thankful when you fill up the sump with water and the flow is all even.

I started off applying the silicone and trimming the excess with a blade; cleanup was very messy and time consuming. After the first baffle I got smart and started using masking tape, the cleanup was pain free. You place it about 1/2" from the baffle. After 10-15 minutes the silicone is soft but not as sticky and runny. At this point you peel off the tape along with the excess silicone, and it comes out very clean and neat. Be patient and do it right if you decide to do your own sump, you will be very happy with the results.

Use a scraping blade while the silicone is wet to clean up after drips, smears, etc. Not only will it be more tedious to clean up after, you may forget to clean up between the baffles and you will leave behind drips and globs you cannot get to unless you dismantle it.

This is the final product.

I let it cure for a week, and the weekend after, I tested it out with the hose.

 

[Biggar]

Welcome back, looks good

 

[JuJuMan16]

The next step was picking a protein skimmer. The skimmer the tank came with was a coralife super skimmer 65. I wanted to upgrade it to something better without a high cost. I went with an SCA-302 after reading good things about it. So far I'm happy with it.

The return pump that came with the tank was starting to show signs that it needed to be replaced. If I'm not mistaken, it was purchased in 2003, a screw had rusted out and cracked a corner of the housing, so I decided to go with something new. I researched pumps, and went with a Jebao DC-6000.

My previous tanks did not come with the pre drilled/megaflow system, so I am still learning and fine tuning the flow going through the tank. The Jebao pump is running at a minimum with some restriction from a ball valve. I am getting a lot of bubbles and toilet flushing noise at higher flow rates. I'm sure I can get more flow out of the system, just need to keep fine tuning it.

Tank was cycled with the old rocks. Some had massive die off, really rotten smelling rocks. I pressure cleaned them and put them in the tank to cycle. I added sand, and waited it out. After 5 weeks, the tank went through the spikes, and levels were back to normal right before i left on vacations for 2 weeks. When i got back, I re tested the parameters and they were perfect. Last week I did a large water change and ordered a cleaner crew from reefcleaners.

So far so good.