RocketEngineer's 75g/125g Setup

No. Purely manual switches. I only use controller for stuff that regularly goes on/off (heaters, fans, lights). Stuff that I want on all the time (pumps, skimmer) I put on these so I don't have to involve the controller or unplug things when I want to shut off say the skimmer for cleaning or a power head to pull the grape algae off it.
 
Makes perfect sense :), after all my research I'm now wondering how I'll fit everything neatly under my tank lol. The stand I have is exactly the same size as the tank and my sump is also exactly the same size lol, I'm hoping I can easily plan a shelf or two to hold the extra bits and bobs that are needed... Time will tell lol.
 
While looking around my tank after lights out I spotted a couple critters I haven't seen since I added them along with the new rocks.





I also spotted a slew of small snails and something I've been missing: PODS :dance:. Its nice to see those little critters on the glass once again.
 
Hey RE, I've been doing a lot of reading on overflows and whatnot and wondered about the bracing on your external. Did you choose that from an engineering standpoint? If I decide to do an external it will most likely be 4" from tank to back of box and maybe 12" wide. 18" at most, do you think the bracing is necessary?
 
I added the bracing under the external overflow because I don't have very good supports on the plumbing. The one thing I didn't want is to come home and find the external box had ripped off the back of the tank.

Drilling a piece of glass that is only 4" wide is a challenge. Mine was that size only because I didn't have any more room behind the display. If I were to do it all again from scratch, I would add another 2" behind the tank. That would have been 6" wide and drilling a 1.875" hole through it would be a lot less troublesome.

In other news, I picked up an orchid dottyback and seven more corals. No pictures of them yet.
 
Sweet!! Can't wait for the picks!! My holes will be 1.75 for 1" bulkheads, I've drilled quite a few holes in glass so that part I'm not too concerned with. I want it to blend a bit more though but I'm having a hard time locating black glass for the internal weir...
 
Drilling the holes wasn't hard. But by not having the 1X hole diameter worth of glass on either side of it, the glass was much more prone to breaking and I broke the first one.

You can either go with smoke glass or black acrylic. I was tempted to install a thin sheet of black acrylic between the tank and box so I wouldn't see the plumbing but ended up not doing so. With the coraline algae coverage the boxes kind of blend into the background but if I need to I can still look and see any issues. Its easier to get the clownfish out of the overflow when you can see it.
 
Lol, i suppose thats true! Ive heard bad things about using acrylic on glass... Im hoping to find black glass. Ive read of others using it...
 
You only have issues if you install acrylic between glass walls. The baffles in a sump are the best example of where not to mix the two as the expansion of the acrylic has been known to break the glass. If the internal overflow box just mounts to the back glass and nowhere else, its fine. The panel to hide stuff in the external box is also risky and should have plenty of room for expansion if you go that route. I know of a 400g professionally built tank that sprung a leak because the acrylic expanded and pushed the end of the tank apart. If you can find smoke glass, you should be OK. You will never find "black" glass though so keep that in mind.
 
Great input, thanks! I am planning full CTC so the acrylic would touch both walls, that's a no no.. So I'll look for smoked I suppose... What if I took some fine grit sand paper to the glass and then sprayed it with krylon fusion?
 
The issue with krylon under water is that it peels and flakes. I had some on PVC and it didn't stick even with sanding. On something like glass which is even harder to stick to, I think you would have more issues. It works outside the tank but inside.....I wouldn't risk it.
 
Ok, too bad. More questions, your skimmer kit. Does it come with everything to run it and to build it? Also, would it be WAY too big for my system?
 
I posted in your thread. You have to buy the pump but they have a package deal which is nice. You will also need a feed pump to which I use a MJ I had on hand for. Properly dialed in it should work fine for your size setup. If nothing else when you upgrade it will still be capable of handling the increased setup size down the road.
 
To me, a lot of this hobby is about the little successes. Last night I saw the orchid dottyback out and about on its end of the tank. It wasn't out where I could get an good pictures of it but I count just seeing it along the front of the tank as a small win.

I also picked up some small tubes of superglue last night and was able to mount my new leather coral to a piece of LR rubble. It had broken off its frag plug on Sunday and I was afraid I would loose it somewhere in the rocks. Now I can put it in place and know its not going to go floating around in the tank.
 
Awesome! Soon you may find the remains of the ever elusive mantis :), or in the least the clicking should stop lol.
 
How's the orchid dotty back doing? Is it in qt? Very interested in seeing if he is successful with the mantis shrimp.
 
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