My path to reefness

[terryscf]

I'm working on my first reef tank. I got a 75 gallon from a cousin.

The tank was used previously for freshwater. I brought some diamond circle bits and had a friend come help me drill the holes. He did the drilling, I took the pics.

Here is where I am so far. I put in the overflow and the bulkheads for the return. Next is to finish the plumbing, get my equipment, rock, and water so I can start cycling.

 

[saltyeddie]

Hey, where did you get your overflow box? And how far did you come down from the top of the tank to drill? I'm going to be getting a 75 gal and will probably have to drill it. I was thinking of doing a coast to coast overdflow.

 

[terryscf]

It's an Eshopps Eclipse Overflow from AquaCave.com. I used the guide that came with it. I don't know if you can see from the pic above but I put the guide at the top of the tank and that's where we started.

 

[LIFishGuy]

Looking forward to seeing the progress. Can't wait to see it with water.

 

[terryscf]

This past weekend was plumbing weekend. I learned way more than I expected. This weekend consisted of 5 trips to Home Depot, 4 to the lfs, 3 to petco and 1 to lowes.

In the middle of my plumbing I put together a 40g freshwater tank for my two daughters. Their tank was simple and was done and populated with a few fish within 3 hours. Here is their tank.

My tank is...well.. Still in progress. My plumbing is a hot mess but there were no leaks. I need help trying to find the best way to get the water from my RO/DI unit in my basement to my tank in the living room. I have a 50ft siphon but today we tried a test of the plumbing and it was a mess. Running up and down the stairs to "help" the water flow was crappy.

Well here are the pictures.

 

[ksigaekdb]

Nice job installing that overflow, drilling glass is always exciting!

 

[terryscf]

Nice job installing that overflow, drilling glass is always exciting!

Thanks. The drilling part was fun but the rest of the plumbing has been a nightmare.

 

[terryscf]

This is the picture from two nights ago.

I was able to start putting water in but after about 50 gallon realized that I hadn't added the salt. Then I was having trouble figuring out which outlet was which on the Apex.

The used Vortech said it had an update so I tried to do that and now its blinking red and white.

Right now I'm frustrated and feel like I'm screwing up. On the positive note I am able to use remote software to my Mac computer across the room from the tank to use photo booth to see the tank.

This is right now.

 

[terryscf]

My path to reefness

Here is where we are now...

I don't know if I screwed up the tank or not when I had the RO/DI water in the tank. It was in there for a couple of days before I could make new RO/DI salt mix. I also tried to put some salt in the tank but I may have just made the situation worse before fixing it. I think I killed my two pieces of live rock. Any advice? I'll try to post pics of the rock in the morning.

 

[terryscf]

Here are the pics of the LR. Also, I think one had a clam.

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[terryscf]

it has been quite sometime since I have posted about my tank. Since April, I have worked with my LFS with my tank parameters. They have done water tests and made suggestions and then I went on vacation. I figured I didn't want to put anything in the tank and then be gone for 5 days and come home to a mess (water, dead fish, dead corals, etc). So here I am trying to figure out what to do now. I had lights on in the tank and then algae started to grow. LFS said turn the lights out so I haven't seen any algae in a while but I think I want to get something to manage the algae since I do plan to turn the lights on eventually. I want to get a soft coral or a fish.. I'm so afraid to make any decisions since I had so much trouble with my tank before trying to cycle and i'm worried about "the wrong choice". I know this hobby is all about trial and error so I need to just jump in to the fire (so to speak). Any body still following my threat got any ideas or advice. thanks. I'll post a new picture soon but after I do something cause right now it's the same pic as my last post. lol.

 

[breck]

Looks great so far. I hear ya about not wanting to make a mistake. Question, what size do you post your pictures at? Are they from your phone?

 

[terryscf]

Looks great so far. I hear ya about not wanting to make a mistake. Question, what size do you post your pictures at? Are they from your phone?

I do post the pics from either my phone or iPad. I believe I select medium.


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