My 75G Tank Build
- Thread starter mlott132
- Start date
mlott132
New member
Update
Update
Well it has been a while since I gave an update on my tank. For the most part thing have been going well. Found that some of the advice I received from my LFS was not the best, and have been working to correct that. The major issue I had was my overflow. The LFS told me to just us a PVC elbow and stick a strainer in it. Setup looked like this.
As you can imagine my surface skimming sucked ***. After talking to a few people in my reef club, one of them told me about H2Overflow. Best part about his piece was it would work with my existing 1 1/2" bulkhead. Took a chance and ordered it, and could not be happier. Now I am getting a ton of surface skimming and it actually quieted my tank down a bit. Here is what the H2Overflow looks like.
I have also upgraded my powerheads to a set of Jebao RW-4. That has helped my get a more random flow pattern versus the Tunze's I had before. I can tell my corals are a little more happy now that they are not getting constantly blasted. The last thing I wish I would have done was to use gate valves instead of globe. That would have helped me dial in the flow a lot easier. Will remember that for the next setup. I have also upgraded the lighting. I initially tried a set of cheap Chinese LEDs from Twilight Group. Major mistake! One of the fixtures lasted only 6 months. Tried to get them to send me parts under the 3 year warranty I supposedly had, but they were only interested in selling me more lights. I ended up replacing them with a set of AI Vega's. My current problem that I have been fighting has been my Nitrate levels. For whatever reason they are running really high, peaked at 80. I was dosing the Red Sea NO3 PO4-X for a while and that has helped a little, but not completely. I also switched salts to Tropic Marin Bio-Actif because of the carbon dosing benefits. After talking to their rep, I switched over to their Nitrate reducer to complement the benefits in the salt. Going to give this a month or two to see how it works. If I don't see a complete elimination of Nitrate, I might have to consider installing a bio pellet reactor. If anyone wants to chime in on other way to reduce the Nitrate level please let me know. Here is an updated full tank shot of my system.
Update
Well it has been a while since I gave an update on my tank. For the most part thing have been going well. Found that some of the advice I received from my LFS was not the best, and have been working to correct that. The major issue I had was my overflow. The LFS told me to just us a PVC elbow and stick a strainer in it. Setup looked like this.
As you can imagine my surface skimming sucked ***. After talking to a few people in my reef club, one of them told me about H2Overflow. Best part about his piece was it would work with my existing 1 1/2" bulkhead. Took a chance and ordered it, and could not be happier. Now I am getting a ton of surface skimming and it actually quieted my tank down a bit. Here is what the H2Overflow looks like.
I have also upgraded my powerheads to a set of Jebao RW-4. That has helped my get a more random flow pattern versus the Tunze's I had before. I can tell my corals are a little more happy now that they are not getting constantly blasted. The last thing I wish I would have done was to use gate valves instead of globe. That would have helped me dial in the flow a lot easier. Will remember that for the next setup. I have also upgraded the lighting. I initially tried a set of cheap Chinese LEDs from Twilight Group. Major mistake! One of the fixtures lasted only 6 months. Tried to get them to send me parts under the 3 year warranty I supposedly had, but they were only interested in selling me more lights. I ended up replacing them with a set of AI Vega's. My current problem that I have been fighting has been my Nitrate levels. For whatever reason they are running really high, peaked at 80. I was dosing the Red Sea NO3 PO4-X for a while and that has helped a little, but not completely. I also switched salts to Tropic Marin Bio-Actif because of the carbon dosing benefits. After talking to their rep, I switched over to their Nitrate reducer to complement the benefits in the salt. Going to give this a month or two to see how it works. If I don't see a complete elimination of Nitrate, I might have to consider installing a bio pellet reactor. If anyone wants to chime in on other way to reduce the Nitrate level please let me know. Here is an updated full tank shot of my system.
scubaguy2010
New member
I'm 100% behind using bio pellets to reduce nitrates. I have a submersible bio-pellet reactor in the same sump chamber as my Skimmer so the outflow from the bio pellets can flow directly into the skimmer. My nitrates are always zero now which they weren't before.
mlott132
New member
What pellets and reactor are you using?
scubaguy2010
New member
Arcadia Marine Bio Pellets and an Arcadia Gyractor G400 Bio Reactor. You can see it here:
http://www.marineaquatics.co.uk/shop/gyractor-fluidize-reactor-g400.html
Takes a couple of weeks to bed-in but then the nitrates start dropping. I just leave it running. Plug and forget.
http://www.marineaquatics.co.uk/shop/gyractor-fluidize-reactor-g400.html
Takes a couple of weeks to bed-in but then the nitrates start dropping. I just leave it running. Plug and forget.
Teenreefer15
New member
Nice display
