Reefing on a Budget: 75g Tank Build
- Thread starter Travis L. Stevens
- Start date
Travis L. Stevens
New member
Alright, it's definitely time to update. Through the Memorial Weekend, I pulled out all the rocks out of all my tanks so I could build pillars in the 75g.
First off, we had to line the carpet with towels and rugs.
Then, it was time to pull out all the rocks to get things started.
While we were pulling out rocks, I found an old pal of ours. Our Chiton. We've had this Chiton since he was about 1/2" long and we see him only one every couple months in the middle of the night. We haven't seen him in almost a year and assumed he went to the big ocean in the sky. Well, we found the opposite. GODZILLA CHITON!
In the middle of pulling out the rock, I got a good scare. I was holding a large rock and about to hand it to Sonya to place with the rest of them when she screams out as loud as she can "HONEY! WATCH OUT!" I flipped out thinking one of my kids were about to get mangled by a bear or something. By the time she could calm enough I felt something brush across my hand. I had moved my finger just enough to move out of the way of a large Emerald Crab pincher hunting my fingertip down. I'll tell you what, my heart was pounding more about the scream than the crab. We had a good laugh though.
After about an hour of pulling out rocks, three hours of drilling, and an hour of putting the rocks and corals back in, this is the 75g. Because I don't have a cleanup crew and uncycled DIY Rocks tend to have a little extra nutrients, my backwall has a little extra hair algae on it. My two turbos are doing everything they can, but I'll have to wait until I get a real cleanup crew in there.
Here are some shots of some of my corals. They're VERY mad at me since they were under an older MH and then had to wait 6 hours before getting in the tank, but you get it.
I'm still waiting on things to settle down, sell some stuff, and decide what I want to do with other things before placing the frags in the rockwork for their permanent homes and off the eggcrate.
First off, we had to line the carpet with towels and rugs.
Then, it was time to pull out all the rocks to get things started.
While we were pulling out rocks, I found an old pal of ours. Our Chiton. We've had this Chiton since he was about 1/2" long and we see him only one every couple months in the middle of the night. We haven't seen him in almost a year and assumed he went to the big ocean in the sky. Well, we found the opposite. GODZILLA CHITON!
In the middle of pulling out the rock, I got a good scare. I was holding a large rock and about to hand it to Sonya to place with the rest of them when she screams out as loud as she can "HONEY! WATCH OUT!" I flipped out thinking one of my kids were about to get mangled by a bear or something. By the time she could calm enough I felt something brush across my hand. I had moved my finger just enough to move out of the way of a large Emerald Crab pincher hunting my fingertip down. I'll tell you what, my heart was pounding more about the scream than the crab. We had a good laugh though.
After about an hour of pulling out rocks, three hours of drilling, and an hour of putting the rocks and corals back in, this is the 75g. Because I don't have a cleanup crew and uncycled DIY Rocks tend to have a little extra nutrients, my backwall has a little extra hair algae on it. My two turbos are doing everything they can, but I'll have to wait until I get a real cleanup crew in there.
Here are some shots of some of my corals. They're VERY mad at me since they were under an older MH and then had to wait 6 hours before getting in the tank, but you get it.
I'm still waiting on things to settle down, sell some stuff, and decide what I want to do with other things before placing the frags in the rockwork for their permanent homes and off the eggcrate.
Travis L. Stevens
New member
Ya, Im contemplating various algae control methods, but I'm not a big fan of tangs or foxface. Im cool with Lawnmower Blennies, but I don't know if they would want to munch on something so long. In addition, Sea Hares and Lettuce Nudibranchs are out since I don't believe in keeping anything that I can't offer sustained food to. I would get a Sea Hare if I knew it was already eating nori. With my personal opinions, it looks like I'm going to have to resort to good ol' fashion water quality control and a good cleanup crew and lots of patience. In the mean time, I can only hope that the two Turbos and GODZILLA CHITON are really hungry.
J4Life
Premium Member
Nice to see that you got your 75 gallon up and running. I have been away from RC for awhile due to others things. Mainly the kids getting bigger and my oldest playing recreational sports now. My 75 gallon looks like a zoo and I have clown fish that is getting on my last nerves because he keeps stirring up the sand and throwing it all over my corals.
Can't wait to see how it looks once those ricordia settle in and start spreading. You have some nice ones there.
Can't wait to see how it looks once those ricordia settle in and start spreading. You have some nice ones there.
Travis L. Stevens
New member
I got my DIY Moon Lights set up on my tank about a week or two ago. It turned out really nice. I got these LED Blue Lights from a previous COMAS meeting about a year or more ago, I just now got to get them set up on my 75g tank. I did a similar project like this for a local tank at a Japanese Steakhouse; Kyoto. I used various sized PVC to build a rack, then I sprayed it with Black Matte Krylon Fusion. I haven't done that step with mine yet. Not sure if I will.
It was a simple project. Your basic stand would sit on a "T" and the lights would go straight down from the crossbar. But, because of height restrictions, I had to set mine on the side and point down at a 45º angle. To fix the lights inside the PVC, I just took a Coupling that the light fit in to (I believe 1 1/2" in this case) and cut the coupling in half where on one side there is a little ridge. I took the half with the ridge, slid the light down in it, and took a piece of PVC tubing and pinched the light between the ridge and the tube. I then threaded the wires through the PVC and put it all together for a nice result.
Structure
Action
Video
It was a simple project. Your basic stand would sit on a "T" and the lights would go straight down from the crossbar. But, because of height restrictions, I had to set mine on the side and point down at a 45º angle. To fix the lights inside the PVC, I just took a Coupling that the light fit in to (I believe 1 1/2" in this case) and cut the coupling in half where on one side there is a little ridge. I took the half with the ridge, slid the light down in it, and took a piece of PVC tubing and pinched the light between the ridge and the tube. I then threaded the wires through the PVC and put it all together for a nice result.
Structure
Action
Video
Travis L. Stevens
New member
And, here's my most recent shot of my aquarium. it was taken about a month ago. I'm still getting past the typical tribulations all maturing aquariums go through such as algae issues, but they're slowly dying away revealing a cleaner tank.
Travis L. Stevens
New member
Thanks! The tank came down just the other day, actually. The ecosystem became unbalanced and unrecoverable after we moved, and thus I didn't have the time to invest in to it. We're going to reset up with a 26 gallon bowfront to make things easier and quicker for maintenance.
nanoreef13
New member
Great job!!
