72g Bowfront Build *Work in Progress*

[combsatl]

So I've had this 72g for a few months and finally decided to get it out of my basement and do something with it. I work from home and decided to move somethings around in my office and set it up so I could enjoy it during the day.

I'm going to have a few questions as I go along so I'd love any advice people can give.

Here's how far I got today:

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I've got the sump, skimmer, heater and carbon reactor in place.

Question: how should I set up the chiller? Should I run the return pump through the chiller and back into the tank, or should I have a separate pump going out from the sump to the chiller, back into the sump? I've got a chiller on my biocube and the only way I could do it waas running it through the (upgraded) return pump.

 

[gakayaker12234]

I have the same exact tank and chiller. I tried both ways of plumbing the chiller into the system. When I plumbed it in the return line I lost alot of flow to the tank. I ended up plumbing a mag7 to it and having the chiller on its own system. Right now I have the mag 7 supplying a 20 gallon frag tank and my chiller, both dump back into my sump. It sounds pretty confusing but its fairly simple. I can send you pics if you want, but it seems to be working well

 

[combsatl]

Thanks for the reply! That makes perfect sense but I don't have the room for another tank, nor do I have another tank, lol. I'll probably just get a 840 or 900gph return pump which should still put out about 600gph at 4' even through the chiller and run it return through the chiller. I think my 1" bulkhead can only do 600gph so it should work out just fine.

I've got two Koralia 3's and a Koralia 4 that I'm going to stick in there on alternating timers which should give plenty of water flow.

Edit: How does your chiller do? Mine is only a 1/10 but I'm hoping it does well enough so I don't have to buy something else in a few months...

 

[grouper therapy]

What type of lighting are you going to us? You may not need a chiller.

 

[johniii]

I have the same tank no chiller needed. I am running a tek 6 bulb t5 light. 78 night temp 82 after lighting for ten hours. I dp run glass tops. Got tired of carpet surfing fish. Without the tops only had 1 degree of rise.

 

[combsatl]

I've got a 760w setup - 2x 250w metal halides and 4 65w actinic bulbs. My office, where the tank will be set up, is really hot. I'm in IT and I have servers and computers littered all over it. Actually.. my house in general is really goofy - I had to put a chiller on my biocube because the temp was fluctuating so much and stressing out the fish and killing them. I think the chiller I have should do fine.. I read some reviews and what not - some people with the same setup as we have - and it does a great job. I'll probably set it at 79 or 80 and let it do its thing.

 

[gakayaker12234]

Yeah there is no need for another tank thats just what I ended up doing. I would say put another pump on it and have it seperate from the return. Thats my opinion though. I run power compacts and metal halides over my system so I have alot of heat. Also, my tank is on the 3rd floor in a hot area. I use a lot of fans in the summer and I insulated the windows around the tank. The chiller keeps my tank from boiling so i'd say it works well

 

[combsatl]

Gotcha. I may do something like that down the line but, right now, I don't have the room for it.

Update though - I'm picking up a bunch of live sand, another 75 lb of live rock and about 100 gal of water from Mojo this weekend so I can get this project off the ground. I decided to try running the return directly through the chiller because I figured if I add another pump that will only add to the amount of heat in the aquarium. I bought a 840gph rio to start - it was cheap on amazon ($53).

It'll probably take me all weekend to get the aquascaping how I want it but I've got a trash can of dried base rock downstairs and a tube of epoxy putty so I should be able to make some pretty cool stuff. I saw a picture online of my attachment and really wanted to try to do something like that - but we'll see.
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[combsatl]

Progress. Jorge, over at Pure Reef, got me set up with filters for my RO/DI and I have that up and running. 000 ppm so I'm happy. Wife wasn't so happy that I drilled a hole in our house to run the lines out to the garden hose faucet... but what are you gonna do?!

Additionally, I got more on the aquarium done - replaced all the bulbs in the light and got the timers mounted in the stand. Meeting up with Scott tomorrow to pick up 40-50lb of sand and then water and more live rock from Mojo on Saturday. Should have the tank up and running this weekend. Just need a filter sock (here I come, Jorge), plumbing and the afore mentioned rock and water. Very excited

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[combsatl]

All lights on (760w)

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Just actinic

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[combsatl]

More progress today. I used the 75# of rock I already had and set something up, filled the aquarium with water and got everything working. I'm picking up another 50-75# of rock tomorrow so the layout will most likely change but I'm pretty excited with the progress so far.

I will probably change up the chiller configuration because even though I picked up a 840gph return pump the water flow is pretty puny since I'm running it through the chiller. The only problem is I have very limited sump space for another pump. I'll mess with it and see what I can do.

Pics from today:

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[gnashty]

Wow! Looks great man...

 

[combsatl]

Thanks man! I got some more rock today (Thanks, Mojo!) and finished the rock work... now she cycles. I'll report back in a week or two when it's done.

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[combsatl]

So the tank has been up for three weeks and I thought I'd give an update. After week 1 the ammonia and nitrate levels were 0. i waited another week to make sure and everything looked great. I transferred some of my soft corals in the aquarium and they thrived. My zoas, at first, weren't too thrilled because I stuck them a bit too high. I ended sticking them lower in the tank and they're doing great. In a week they've already started two new heads on each (I've got eagle eyes and some orange ones). Last week I decided to go to the LFS and pick up a few fish - a Kole Tang and a Copperband Butterfly. Both are doing great and I thought I'd share a few pics (sorry the glass is so dirty - need to clean it):

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[combsatl]

Thought I'd give another update. I added a few SPS and two more fish. I added a blue tip acro, pink monti setosa, two garf bonsais, a bird of paradise, two different monti's - a lime green one and a purple rimmed green monti, a green slimer and a huge rock with about 200+ zoa frags. I also migrated my small yellow tang from my biocube downstairs and a small sailfin tang. I've read a bunch about the horror stories about them fighting and not getting along but they actually swim along together and I haven't sheen them fight or anything at all.

Here are some pics:

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[combsatl]

And the fish decided to come out from behind the rocks and be social. Here's a pic of the group

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[gmpolan]

Looks great, but honestly i would slow down allittle as far as adding things. I estimate it at week 2 or 3 after it finished cycling and you got alot going on already. More than some people add in two months....

As far as the tangs, I def got yelled at for having three tangs in a 72 as its not quite the adequate swimming room but it is doable. And as far as the salfin, he will def need to be rehomed eventually as he is gonna outgrow that tank and become quite aggressive. Usually the min size for them is above 100 gallons.

Not try to bash as i think youve done a great job with the set up,equipment, etc as ( i had the same set up) but just offering some advice from my past mistakes in hopes that you ll continue to keep an awesome aquarium.

 

[combsatl]

Thanks, gmpolan. I'll definitely listen to your advice and hold off on adding anything else - the only other fish I'd planned to add were two clowns but they can definitely wait.

I completely understand the risks of having the tangs in this tank but they're all very small. I've seen how 'quickly' they grow and figure i have some time before the sailfin gets too large and, by that time, I'll have a much larger aquarium and will move him.

Seriously though - thanks again for the feedback. I'll definitely hold off on adding anything and work on making sure the things that are in there do well.

I guess I'll post an update in a few weeks with how everything is doing.

 

[maelstrom79]

Looks great man! Is that a toadstool coral on the bottom left?

 

[combsatl]

Thanks guys. Yeah - that's a toadstool leather and it's grown a ton (as you'll see in the pics, below).

So here's a bit of an update. My Copperband Butterfly unfortunately died because he wouldn't eat anything.. at all - and I lost two diamond goby's due to acts that would make Houdini look like a novice. Other than that, the tank has been up for almost four months and all the other inhabitants are doing great.

The stock currently consists of: Kole Tang, Sailfin Tang, Yellow Tang, two Onyx Clowns (thanks JJ!), Melanarus Wrasse, a tiny Flame Angel and two cleaner shrimp. For corals I have the toadstool leather, several types of Zoas (LOTR, Blue Tubbs, Orange something, Eagle Eye, Radioactive Dragon Eye), green hammer coral w/ purple tips, green frogspawn with neon green and purple tips, a Blue Tort SPS, Garf Bonsai, Pink Setosa, two types of Monti's, two RBTA's (one split into two, woo) and an Aussie War Coral. Everything is growing very well and the tank is doing quite well. I'm really loving the LED's I put over the tank.

@Stingray: I decided to not have them running on a timer. I ran out of spots on my RKE and I'm too lazy/poor to buy another outlet for it, lol. I leave all three run at once and the fish seem to really like it - it creates a lot of flow.

Here are some pics:

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