New 75g Build

[skibum1681]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12242385#post12242385 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Avgou
I am on week 6 of my 75 gallon Marineland Corner Flo Tank. I have photos up recently in the Photography forum. Check them out there on the first page. I will upload some photos soon of the plumbing. I have a 15 gallon sump and a 5 gallon refugium which is tee'd off from the overflow line and gravity feeds into the return section. That way copepds and biologically cleaned water return to the tank.

I used a Quiet One 3000 and that kept up with the overflow that's tee'd off providing a bit of backpressure.

I guess it depends on how you plumb your tanks together. What a learning experience. Everyone who sees the plumbing of my tank thinks I should join a pipe fittters union or NASA hahaha.

I have for now the CurrentUSA Dual Satellite Sunpaq lights. They are good enough for the first year or so once my tank is still being estabished.

The only piece Marineland screwed up on was the elbow for the return plumbing nozzles. It's siphon is too low and sprayed water everywhere in the overflow chamber. I bought a new elbow and drilled a couple holes in the loc-line. It works great. No flooding issue here.


I will take more photos of the plumbing, the pics I have right now are just the tank itself.

I just checked out your "day 34 & 35" thread. Nice looking set up. I'd love to see some of your plumbing pics as i am starting to think about how i am going to plumb them together.

Thanks everyone for your comments, please keep them comming!

 

[skibum1681]

I'm gonna ask again about where to buy live rock online. Any suggestions?

P.S. - I got my 30g long tank for the sump today. I'm hoping to get the glass baffle walls measured and ordered by the weekend.

 

[skibum1681]

I just ordered 110# +/- of live rock. I got 30# of dry fiji shelf rock, 30# of dry Fiji spagetti rock from bulkreefsupply and a 50# box of premium Fiji rock from marinecenter.

It should be here by next weekend!

 

[skibum1681]

Well Marinecenter sent me an e-mail today saying they cancled my order because the items i ordered are not avaliable... so I just ordered a 45 lb box of Premium Fiji Live Rock from drs foster & smith.

We also have 2 hatchling bearded dragons on their way this week to add to our reptile collection. We already have a 4yr old Sulcata Tortoise, a yearling Leopard Tortoise, a 2 year old Russian Tortoise, and 3 Leopard Geckos. Maybe I'll add some pics of our herps while im waiting on the live rock.

Oh yea, i got another 20 lbs of fiji pink sand for the 75 build over the weekend.

 

[kudora]

i will be tagging along, nice work so far

 

[skibum1681]

Its great to have you along. As always constructive critisism and comments are welcome!

 

[kelt_22]

I have the Currant USA T5 Novas and they have worked just fine on a 55Gal( 14 months). I just moved them to a 90Gal 2 weeks ago and so far all good. they where about $230 have 216watts and four moon lights. I am still new to the hobby but Frog spawn a finger leather, colt coral, mushrooms, zoos and a carpet anenome have all done well and grown/spread.
Good luck

 

[skibum1681]

Thanks. I think i'm going to go with a T-5 retro kit and mount them in my hood, when i build it. I'm still kicking around lighting though.

 

[skibum1681]

I just checked my e-mail, one box of rock is due here tomorrow and the other is due on friday.

 

[skibum1681]

The 65 lbs of dry rock got here today. Its in a tote with the aquacleer PH that ate one of my percs and a valentini as well as a heater. The live rock gets here tomorrow and that will go into a tote with 50% water change water and 50% new water and a PH and another heater.

Im prolly gonna split up the dead rock and live rock so there is some of each in each tote.

The two baby bearded dragons got here today too. They are sweet!

 

[skibum1681]

I know its off topic but here are some herp pics while the tank is on hold:

Zoey our 8 month old Leopard tortoise - 2 1/2" long

Iggy our Russian Tortoise - 4" long

Zucc our 4 year old Sulcata - 8" long

Our new editions - 5 week old & 10 week old bearded dragon.

I hope you like them.

 

[Rustylugnuts]

Sweet reptile setups thx for posting. If I had the spare cash after the cat and the reef a lizard or snake would definitely be on the list.
Any chance I can get you to post some pictures of the dry rock? I would like to get a good idea of the kind of shapes I could expect from your vendor of choice. I may need to get an order in so I can have a batch cured to enable me to cook some of the more algae-infested pieces currently in the display.

 

[skibum1681]

Well my build has been on hold for a while... ok a long time. I finaly had some time to start working on it again. Here are a hand full of up dated pictures:

New FTS of my existing 40g (it's about a year old - No sump, no skimmer, fighting red slime):

Here is my rock chilling out in what was supposed to be my sump tank:

Here is the last piece of dry rock (it don't fit in the 30g and i dont want to break it):

Here is my 75g waiting patiently full of parts:

Left front stand shot:

Right front stand shot:

Rear stand shot (notice the bottle of liquid engineering ;-):

The stand currently being trimed out to cover the Birtch &Poplar plywood edges. The inside is going to get a few coats of Klitz Premimum sealer & the outside is going to get stained dark walnut with a few coats of clear. I will be making raised panel doors as soon as i can afford the $200 router bits to make them (the stand may need to door-less for a while).

Well i think thats it for now. Hopefully i wont need to take another 6 month break.

 

[Moonstream]

cute beardies, but you might want to get them onto a solid substrate (I prefer tile, zero risk of impaction and MUCH cleaner) and separate them if they are living together (it is very likely the more dominant of the two will kill the other).

 

[skibum1681]

The beardies are in seperate 40g breeders. When they were young they were on that felt like reptile carpet. now they are about 9 months old and quite big. I have put them back to aspen shavings and they are much happier.

Here's a pic of their setup that i built:

The bottom slides out like a big drawer so i can clean & feed them easier. When i get outta my apartment and into a house they will get a big encloser... maybe 3' x 5' and maybe 3' tall so they can climb a little.

 

[skibum1681]

As for the tank build my next stand most likely wont be made of 2x6's and 3/4" Birtch plywood. That stand is heavy. I think 1/2" plywood & 2x4's would have been plenty. I think i can park my 3/4 ton truck on it. I'm not an engineer though so better to be safe then sorry.