I've been on RC for several years through the research and planning stages of each tank, but this will be my first build thread and am definitely looking forward to any and all feedback! I started a 55g tank as my first reef tank a little over 2 years ago. I would have to say it was definitely a learning experience. I didn't fully have a grasp on everything until about a year through everything. I had a few small zoa colonies, brain coral, and some easy to keep SPS coral. Unfortunately that tank crashed in the 4 day power outage we recently had here on the east coast, so here starts my first build thread. This tank is a standard 75g tank 48"x18"x20". Originally I was going to transfer everything from the 55g into the 75g, but I got lucky the crash happened before the transfer, because now I can start with an entirely fresh setup while not having to rush the process.
I've already gotten quite a bit done, I've just been putting off getting this thread started...I've got a lot of pictures to post and have never posted pics before on the forums, so this may be a little interesting at first but bear with me.
I got the stand used from another reefer, and refinished it with polyurethane the week before the power outage. It's only about 28" tall which is a little too short for my taste, but for the price it was not a bad deal.
Here is a list of the starting equipment I will be using on this the 75g, along with rock and sand info in the display tank and fuge:
- 48" NOVA Extreme Pro 6 x 54w T-5 lights (from my 55g tank)
- I'm not sure exactly how much rock I'm putting in the tank, but I know it's fine. It's somewhere between 60 - 80 pounds in the DT. I will post a picture of the dry aquascape and would like to hear some feedback!
- probably going with a 1" sand bed. I bought 60lbs of dry Aragamax sand from Drs Foster and Smith. It is definitely a finer grained sand. I previously had a courser sand in the 55g which was about 3" deep which I wasn't very pleased with. I decided to throw out that sand rather than try to re-use it. New sand has been rinsed several times. Hopefully this will be enough for the DT and fuge.
- CPR-CS100 overflow box since the tank is not drilled. Hopefully this thing will be nice and quiet. It is rated at 800gph.
- egg crate top to eliminate my previous carpet surfing problems. Hopefully this will not block out too much light from getting in the tank.
- 2 tunze 6045 powerheads. These are not the controllable pumps, but do have a nice wide flow. I previously had koralias and really prefer these.
- tunze 6206 wavebox
- the most important purchase I have made over the past month has been the Neptune Systems Apex Controller. I added on the PM2 module to have the conductivity probe along with the PH and temperature probes. I don't know enough about ORP to make it worthwhile for me to do that one yet.
- JBJ ATO which I will have hooked up to an aqua lifter pump
- 2 BRS 1.1 ml per minute perastaltic dosing pumps for ALK and CA from BRS 2 part recipes
- 29g aquarium which I baffled into 3 chambers for my sump and fuge area. First chamber is where I will have the filter sock(not sure how long or if I will use it) and the skimmer.
- skimmer is a Aqua C Remora Pro which I orginally used for on the 55g tank and worked pretty decently. May upgrade to another skimmer down the road depending on livestock.
- In the second chamber will be the refugium section. I will get into my questions for this in the post coming up directly relating to the fuge with a picture of it's space. I plan on doing a couple inch sand bed with a couple pieces of LR and a variety of macro algaes. I'm not sure if I will have snails or crabs or what in there yet.
- Third chamber will be my return which is a Mag 7 pump which I think is about 750gph. The return line is about 4ft long so it loses a little flow, but I'd like the fuge to be a little lower flow anyway.
- Lighting the fuge will be a home depot clip on light with a 27w ecosmart true color compact flourescent 5500k light. Hopefully this will do OK for the macro algaes.
I think this pretty much covers the first general over view of things...if I missed anything I'll just have to add it in.
So far I've accomplished:
- refinishing the stand with polyurethane
- giving the LR from the old tank a good vinegar rinse followed by a few RO/DI rinses and left out to dry for several days.
- rinsing new dry sand
- got the empty aquarium and sump setup, and made sure they all passed what my buddy has coined as the witch test (making sure they hold water)
- mounted all the aquacontroller pieces, dosing pumps, and situated everything within the stand (the sump/fuge is actually going to be outside the tank on the right side)
- I measured out a cardboard piece with tape and got an aquascape organized with my dry rock.
I'm going to make several posts with pictures of things so far....we will see how the picture posting goes
I've already gotten quite a bit done, I've just been putting off getting this thread started...I've got a lot of pictures to post and have never posted pics before on the forums, so this may be a little interesting at first but bear with me.
I got the stand used from another reefer, and refinished it with polyurethane the week before the power outage. It's only about 28" tall which is a little too short for my taste, but for the price it was not a bad deal.
Here is a list of the starting equipment I will be using on this the 75g, along with rock and sand info in the display tank and fuge:
- 48" NOVA Extreme Pro 6 x 54w T-5 lights (from my 55g tank)
- I'm not sure exactly how much rock I'm putting in the tank, but I know it's fine. It's somewhere between 60 - 80 pounds in the DT. I will post a picture of the dry aquascape and would like to hear some feedback!
- probably going with a 1" sand bed. I bought 60lbs of dry Aragamax sand from Drs Foster and Smith. It is definitely a finer grained sand. I previously had a courser sand in the 55g which was about 3" deep which I wasn't very pleased with. I decided to throw out that sand rather than try to re-use it. New sand has been rinsed several times. Hopefully this will be enough for the DT and fuge.
- CPR-CS100 overflow box since the tank is not drilled. Hopefully this thing will be nice and quiet. It is rated at 800gph.
- egg crate top to eliminate my previous carpet surfing problems. Hopefully this will not block out too much light from getting in the tank.
- 2 tunze 6045 powerheads. These are not the controllable pumps, but do have a nice wide flow. I previously had koralias and really prefer these.
- tunze 6206 wavebox
- the most important purchase I have made over the past month has been the Neptune Systems Apex Controller. I added on the PM2 module to have the conductivity probe along with the PH and temperature probes. I don't know enough about ORP to make it worthwhile for me to do that one yet.
- JBJ ATO which I will have hooked up to an aqua lifter pump
- 2 BRS 1.1 ml per minute perastaltic dosing pumps for ALK and CA from BRS 2 part recipes
- 29g aquarium which I baffled into 3 chambers for my sump and fuge area. First chamber is where I will have the filter sock(not sure how long or if I will use it) and the skimmer.
- skimmer is a Aqua C Remora Pro which I orginally used for on the 55g tank and worked pretty decently. May upgrade to another skimmer down the road depending on livestock.
- In the second chamber will be the refugium section. I will get into my questions for this in the post coming up directly relating to the fuge with a picture of it's space. I plan on doing a couple inch sand bed with a couple pieces of LR and a variety of macro algaes. I'm not sure if I will have snails or crabs or what in there yet.
- Third chamber will be my return which is a Mag 7 pump which I think is about 750gph. The return line is about 4ft long so it loses a little flow, but I'd like the fuge to be a little lower flow anyway.
- Lighting the fuge will be a home depot clip on light with a 27w ecosmart true color compact flourescent 5500k light. Hopefully this will do OK for the macro algaes.
I think this pretty much covers the first general over view of things...if I missed anything I'll just have to add it in.
So far I've accomplished:
- refinishing the stand with polyurethane
- giving the LR from the old tank a good vinegar rinse followed by a few RO/DI rinses and left out to dry for several days.
- rinsing new dry sand
- got the empty aquarium and sump setup, and made sure they all passed what my buddy has coined as the witch test (making sure they hold water)
- mounted all the aquacontroller pieces, dosing pumps, and situated everything within the stand (the sump/fuge is actually going to be outside the tank on the right side)
- I measured out a cardboard piece with tape and got an aquascape organized with my dry rock.
I'm going to make several posts with pictures of things so far....we will see how the picture posting goes
nice scape!
