New 72gal tank build thread

[lostmyz]

I have decided to upgrade my little biocube 29 to a 72gal bow front! Here is my build


The Tank

The drilling! - Glass-holes.com 700gph overflow box

The Sump - standard 29 gal with baffles

The Goods
Coralife Turbo Twist 16 UV sterilizer
BRS Dual Stage Reactors (with Phosban and Nitrate pellets)
Reef Octopus NB110
Chiller - AquaEuroUSA
Tunze Osmolator
Ecotech MP40
Ecotech Radion XR30W

My little puppy wanted to get in the shots!
My pumps:
Mag 3 - Chiller
Ma9 9 - Return
Maxijet 1200 - BRS
Aqueon 2500 - UV sterilizer

 

[lostmyz]

The sump all set up

And the finished Tank!
I used 80lbs of Argalive Indiopacific black sand
30lbs of Tonga
40lbs of dry rock

I am going out of town so for now its just going to cycle. I plan on adding a MP10 on the other side and getting another Radion XR30W

 

[guy9smiley2]

looking good! cant wait to see it get some water. whats the livestock plan?

 

[BigCountry74]

LOVE that diamond bit!!! Where did you get that one from? It's huge.

 

[Newsalth2o]

Are you still running the nitrate pellets? If so will you share your experiences?

 

[lostmyz]

Live stock is from my existing tank:
2 black and white clowns
Black Capped Basslet
2 Helfrich Firefish
Yellow Watchman Goby and Tiger Pistol Shrimp
Social Fairy (Longfined Fairy) Wrasse
Mystery Wrasse
Mandarin Dragonet that I trained to eat frozen food and he eats pods too

I want to add:
A Chevron or White Tail Bristletooth Tang (to eat whatever algae growth that comes out with my coral and frags)
Copperbanded Butterflyfish
Marine Betta (to match my freshwater betta... lol)
A Blenny maybe (Tiger, emeral or tailspot... havent decided)

Plumbing is great... but man that maxijet 1200 pump is noise!!!! I decided today i am going to plumb the BRS into the UV sterilizer pump. Also thought of plumbing the Chiller pump into the Uv sterilizer pump but I think splitting 485 gph 3 ways will create too low of flow even with the resistance from the BRS units smaller piping. Or I can put the chiller plumbing into the main return. The mag 3 is pretty noisy too.

The hole saw bit I got with the overflow kit from glass-holes.com

As for the nitrate pellets once i get back from out of town and its done cycling I will let you know where everything sits.

 

[fishandsail]

I have a bowfront 72 gal too, and I wanted to make a suggestion to put some type of background on it. After putting a black background on mine, it looks soooo much cleaner. You won't be able to see all the ugly PVC piping on the back.

Trust me, it looks sooo much better.

 

[Michael cicco]

i found out that using the pvc over reg tubing works well because you dont have a problem wit any leaks, when you setup your sump is it best to have the drain lines 2 of them going into the sump instead of 1

 

[lostmyz]

decided to put all three, the Chiller, UV sterilizer and BRS dual reactor on the same 485gph pump... only have about 14" of head with a 3/4" pvc pipe so everything worked out!!! Plus I free'd up two outlets and cut my electric bill down. haha. Still my mag9.5 is pretty loud! my aqueon pump is dead silent so i dunno. I might just get an aqueon 4000. Also I am trying to quiet the gurggling sound on my overflow box. My wife doesn't like the sound of running water. I find it to be just fine. Any suggestions?

 

[lostmyz]

Just finished doing my lighting...sorta i need to put molding on it and paint it but here is a solid preview!

 

[NYCBOB]

nice. that thing looks bright.

 

[lostmyz]

yeah its bright I have it set on the default when u turn it on for now till next week when i switch my Biocube over with all my coral and fish... it will be se to 12k's cause thats what i have on my current tank i might mess with it but who knows

 

[Newsalth2o]

You might try a modified benanimal to quite your overflow..not sure what you plumbing looks like on the back of your overflow

 

[lostmyz]

I am going to attempt a modified Durso this wknd with my buddy thank god i have a few unions in there i knew i was going to have to mod it till i got it just right...

And what is a benanimal? I can't find it on the internet

 

[allsps40]

Nice. The Radion LEDs are sick.

 

[lostmyz]

http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx
found it.... I'd love to do that but I am not sure with a glass-holes.com overflow box and only having 1 hole drilled if its possible I wonder how I could modify it...

 

[lostmyz]

I found this...

http://www.glassreef.com/basics_overflow.php

Thats is how I will do it but I need to make sure my holes line up and than i need to figure out how to make the connection waterproof... Maybe a slightly longer bulk head? Suggestions?

Here is a link to my DIY thread on this...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19980269#post19980269

 

[savageAJC]

sump looks nice and clean

 

[lostmyz]

After running the BioPellets and the Phosban for 2 months..... My Nitrates are ZERO and my Phosphates are ZERO.... LOL I even ran them wrong like BRS and Two LIttle Fishes told me.... I am not suppose to run the phosban into the nitrogen. So I bought a separate reactor for the BioPellets.... I am going to hook it up to my return and run the dual stage as it was intended to.... Phosban followed by Carbon... I also positioned the return from the reactors next to the Intake for the skimmer (like ur suppose to.... I didn't know that) and boy oh boy is that skimmate smelly now (but thats suppose to happen) But i have also noticed some reddish/brown debris settling at the base of random places in my sump.... I think its because I don't the GFO (Phosban) to Carbon (which is suppose to catch the particulates... That will be fixed this week and I am redoing my plumbing to my UV sterilizer and adding a quick disconnect 4-PIN DIN so i can change the light bulb w/o removing the entire thing or disconnecting the PVC... Those are my updates...

Oh yeah all my coral have like exploded with growth. Only thing is my ORA Purple Stylo isnt very dark purple its like a light purple and white... I am running my Radions at 20k and 18k throughout the day... I might drop it down to 12k and 18k i dunno.... Suggestions?????

 

[lostmyz]

Here is an update....

Hmmm what have I been doing with this tank.... Current Updates....

1) MP10wES
2) Bought a new BRS BioPellet Reactor and used the GFO/Carbon Reactor the proper way.
MY Nitrates and Phosphates are Zero but **** does my skimmate smell like ammonia remover solution (that you put in freshwater tanks) when i clean it now (your suppose to have the biopellets empty towards the skimmer)
3) Installed my radions... Made a custom floating shelf (its not fully finished yet... need to paint it)
4) Got a Calcium Korallin 1502 reactor with 7.5# CO2 tank, Also got a Kalk reactor.... Just need to plumb it and get a CO2 regulator.
5) Added my fish and coral.. Added a small Purple tang and my mystery wrasse. I havent seen my black capped basslet in about 2 weeks, but that doesnt mean hes dead because i didnt seen my YWG and the pistol for 2 wks till the other day and they are doing fine. But I will give the black capped a month and than consider it dead (sad I really loved that fish... they tend to hide like nobodies business.. very shy fish and well i dont think my wrasse and my tang are bothering him bc when i saw hi m before they werent.... and my helfrichs are always out and well lets face it... I'd pick on those first if i was an aggressive fish)
6) I added some more live rock for hiding places and LOL I have some more TOnga that i need to add to give myself some more surface area on the back for coral placement.... I just got a bunch of rare sps: Nick's pink dahlia, Nick's Blueberry Bush Nasuta , Yellow Suharsona , Tyree $500 Efflo, Rainbow Granny, Tyree Undata, Upscale Microclados, Tyree LE Lovelli, Leng Sy Cap. Also got a nice sized Torch peach with white tips for my clowns. Because I am really tempted to remove my rose anemone (its not a bubble tip) because it decided to up and start moving around and is making its way across the tank through the SPS patches. Its an amazing deep red and I love it but I love my SPS a little more!


My plans
1) Im going to get a RO/DI system and plumb it to fill my top off tank.... I hate going to get ro/di water and nothing else from the store. And I calculated it out and its cheaper in the long run. Kinda like my Radions. I live in an apartment so this should be fun! Going to connect it to my washing machine and carefully run the line through the walls to my pucket. I only use less than 5 gals a week so I will just run it when i need to. Looking at a 75GPD BRS 6 stage chloramine remover with a TDS meter and the whole shebang because I'd rather get one i will use later when i upgrade again.
2) Neptune Apex controller
3) Going to redo some of my plumbing so its easier to get to my UV Sterilizer and I bought a 4pin DIN quick connect I am going to connect to the sterilizer so that it makes changing the bulb easier... hahaha wish i did this to start with. But than again the next build is always better than the previous one!

I will post more later today when my lights turn on and I can snap coral photos.