My new and improved 72 gallon bow front (lotsa pics)

vanmo92

New member
Well its time to start this thread. As some of you may remember I used to have that hair algae infested, unhealthy,overcrouded tank which had a trainwreck of a thread in the nano reef forum.

Well it has officialy been upgraded :D .

This all started back in June when there was a pre-drilled (reef ready) tank in the calssifids in the paper. It was pre-owned but was never set up so the tank was brand new and came with bulkheads,standpipes, a light, and galss covers for the front. All that was only $120!!!! And then he sold the stand sepearetly for $175 which was a good deal I could not pass up so we got that too.

pics right after we got it:

emptyfts.jpg



sideshot.jpg



We got rid of my desk in my room and cut away the carpet to make room for this beautiful tank. We placed it on the stand and it looked so nice I wish i could set it up right away. But only a few day after we set it on the stand we went on a trip to Norway for 3 weeks until the 17th of July.

On the 18th of july me and my dad took the tank off of the stand because it wasnt totaly flat and we worked for several hours on leveling it out.

After we finished that we put the tank on the stand, centrerd it and started filling with RO/DI water.

Pics of when I started filling:

startintofill3.jpg


startintofill4.jpg


stillfillin.jpg


half.jpg



In the meantime we placed an order with Doctor foster and smith for all the dry goods, my order included:

Phosphate test kit
Jager 125 watt heater
Jager 150 watt heater
10' of 1" flexible tubing (clear)
10' of 3/4" flexible tubing (clear)
Mag 9.5 pump
Nori
Nori clip
3 maxi-jet 1200's
Digital thermomiter
3/4" ball valve
Formula two
Aqua lifter pump
Blue moon light
Replacement UV blub
90 lbs of carib sea argonite sand
160 gallon bucket of IO salt

I ordered a new ASM G3 protien skimmer from a store on e-bay, heres the link to that:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ASM-G3-PROTEIN-...ryZ46313QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The sand came a few days before anything else and the tank was only about 3/4 the way full when it came but i put it in anyway and it looked like this:

mudwater.jpg


milkwater.jpg
 
At this point I went to wal-mart and picked up a 20 gallon rubbermaid that just bearly fit through the door. That will be my sump.
Pics:

sump2.jpg


sump3.jpg


The rest of the stuff came the same day the sump and tank were done filling.

I hooked up the pluming to the pump and to the botton of the bulkheads. I put stainless steel hose clamps on there just for security.

bulkheads.jpg


At this point I ordered the live rock. I got 60 lbs of premium fiji live rock from here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/WaltSmith-Premi...9QQihZ009QQcategoryZ66793QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Heres some pics of my tank rihgt after I got the rock:


tankrockandsump.jpg



withnewrock.jpg


The skimmer came. This is the point where the water started to clear up a bit. I am very pleased with this skimmer and would recomend it to anyone.

pic:

skimmer-1.jpg


The rock came and the skimmer went crazy, as well as the ammonia.

It took about 1-1/2 weeks for the ammonia and nitrite to drop off and at that point I added the first fish.

This is the point where I realized that I am evaporating over 1 gallon a day so I got an auto top off system. I already had the pump (aqua lifter) and the float switch came in 4 days and It workes very well and I love it. I got the ifloat float switch from aquahub.com:

http://www.aquahub.com/store/ifloatfloatswitch.html

The first 2 fish I added were my two chromis from my 20 gallon.

Now i have diatoms and am still waiting for their retreat:

Diatoms.jpg


After that it was about 5 days and then I added the two clowns out of my 20 gallon.

After that It was exactly 1 week (which BTW was yesterday 9-2-06) when I moved the 50 lbs of LR and my 6-line wrasse from he 20 gallon. That was the only things left in the tank. So now it is completly moved.

I am really trying to grow many copopods in the fuge section in my sump, which contains grape calurpa, and chatomophea. I know my 6-line loves those copopods and i have seen my clowns eat them also so I want to promote them in every way possible.
Heres the bulb I am using over my fuge:

sumplight.jpg


I do not plan on getting any corals in this tank so I am just sticking to the NO bulb. Stocking plans for the tank are

A yellow tang
A royal gramma
2-3 more chromis
1-2 neon goby(s)
A Firefish
 
Looks good since you wont be doing corals it sounds like the stocking list is decent. O nly thing i can think is there may be aggression with more then 2 clowns but im no expert on the matter
 
Looks like your off to a good start.. Same tank i started off with. I like your stocking choices i would add the yellow tang last. Nice skimmer espically for that tank gives options to upgrade to atleast an 180g tank. I would save money for atleast T-5 lighting cause sooner then later you will eventually want to try a few corals.. Good luck! Keep us Updated!
 
I never (at least not for a very looooong time) plan on corals. I got in this hobby for the brautiful fish. I think that the yellow tank will be last (probrobly arround christmas) and all the others before then.
 
If I ever do want some softies or something would it be ok to just a 75 (or something) watt MH light over one spot, and just have corals in that one area?
 
That looks like its going to be mighty fine. Good idea with the Auto top off. I did not see any baffles in your sump, the auto top off should keep the water level stable and your skimmer will be a lot happier. nice job.
 
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