It's build time

[tcampbell23]

:yay::yay::yay:

After downsizing from a 55 gallon in July of this year (as I moved into a dorm room and couldn't bring a 55 gallon:sad, the time has now come for me to upgrade my little 15 Column as I have gotten my first apartment and of course the first thing on my mind is a new tank!

Originally, I was going to rebuild the 55 gallon due to financial constraints and the convenience of already having most of the equipment for it but, I took the opportunity to upgrade and I settled on a 75 Gallon due to the extra depth that it provides and the extra water volume without causing me to have to change and buy a whole bunch of new equipment.

The set up as of now includes:
-Odyssea Skimmer
-MarsAqua Chinese Black Box LEDs
-40 Gallon long custom sump
-Aqueon1700 Return pump
-1 inch PVC throughout

As of now, my plans for the future involve AI Hydras and a mag 7 or mag 9 for return as well as a reef octopus skimmer. But, without further ado,

LETS GET REEFIN'!!


I'll upload pics of the current progress once I get home.

 

[tcampbell23]

Just getting home and able to post some pics.

The pics show the space the tank is going in. It measures about 26in deep (front corner to back wall) and 8 feet from wall to wall. This gives me room for equipment storage as well as an ATO bin.
<fieldset class="gc-fieldset">
<legend> Attached files </legend>

 

[tcampbell23]

So as I mentioned in the original post, I changed my plan from the 55 to the 75. The pics from the previous post show the setup of the 55 gallon. Here are some pics of the stand build for the 75 as well as a pic of the 15 column.

Just showing a little progress.

 

[jbdreefs]

Looking good. I liked the 15 gallon!

 

[tcampbell23]

Thanks John! I really enjoyed it for the few months that I had it up, but I definitely missed the space that the 55 offered.

 

[tcampbell23]

It's late but today's progress include finishing the stand structure, drilling the tank, and siliconing my
Overflow box in.... And slicing a couple fingers open &#128517;.

Of course I have pictures.. Enjoy!

Next step is to plumb everything, do a water test, place the sand and aquascape and skin the stand with plywood. I'm going to eventually add doors and molding to trim everything as well as stain the stand. I'm waiting until I get the furniture put in the apartment to choose a stain color so the stand will be pretty bland for a couple days but that's okay!

Looking forward to the canopy build..

PICTURES:

 

[grouper therapy]

Hey Trevor
What are the shorter 2x4 s for in the corners?

 

[tcampbell23]

grouper therapy;1062450 wrote: Hey Trevor
What are the shorter 2x4 s for in the corners?

They are screw strips. I didn't have a pocket jig so I screwed those into the base and screwed everything else into those.

 

[tcampbell23]

Todays Update...

Painted the stand,plumbed everything together, and.. WATER!

Pictures!

 

[tcampbell23]

 

[myreefclub0070]

nice build, more so I see you have your priorities right tank first, furniture later....lol.
looks like you have done this before, not sure I would have put foam under that tank though.

 

[tcampbell23]

havent updated in a while but I will post pics when I get home

 

[shrimpy brains]

Everything looks good. Are you keeping the 15g, too. Nice QT if nothing else.

 

[tcampbell23]

I said I was gonna update and I didn't buttttt here it is.

Tank has been running for a few weeks now .. I've done a lot as far as upgrades and additions and I'll try to get it all in one go.

Equipment:
1. Red Starfish SC-260 DC Protein Skimmer this is essentially the Jebao Coralbox DC700 just another brand of it. It's fantastic and was definitely a good pickup (thanks Casey!). It has a Jebao DC3000 running it and has the controller. Awesome skimmer.

2. Red Starfish Gravity ATO. Not sure of the model
Numbers or anything like that but it holds approximately a gallon of water and lasts me 2-3 days. I believe I'm going to DIY something very similar that had a bigger capacity so I can almost set it and forget it, though I love my tank and don't my mind fumbling around with stuff lol

3. HDX Clip on work lamp and Phillips 6500k bulb. This serves as my Refugio light and will run on an opposite schedule as the display tank to avoid the nightly PH swings. All in all this cost me like $18 bucks. Can't wait to see how Chaeto grows under it.

4. eBay/marine land/aqueon powerheads these work for now and I'm okay with them but within the next month or so I'll be upgrading to Jebao RW-8s just for controllability.

5. Lastly, I'll have a reefkeeper hooked up and running by Friday which I picked up at such a great price that I'm practically stealing it but shhhhh. I'll take it!

6. TLF Phosban reactor. I already had one and in it I was running Seachem PhosGaurd but I also wanted to run carbon so I daisy chained another one on and filled it with carbon.

Lighting Changes
1. So I believe in the original post I stated I was going to upgrade to AI Sol or EcoTech Radions but after some thought, I decided to stick with my MarsAqua 165w fixtures but to supplement them with 4 t5s. I bought an old fixture from Nick and stripped it all the way down to hair the wires, ballasts, and bulb mounts and then attached everything to the inside of my canopy. It's not the prettiest but it's fictional and that's what matters to me.

Inhabitants
1. I'm not huge on fish like I was when I initially started in the hobby (I've become a coral geek lol) but to please my girlfriend I added a couple fish to the system. When the tank first cycled the only inhabitant was my green mandarin goby that I've had for a year or so and after that I added 2 clowns. I waited a couple weeks and added a Flame Angel and Female Blue Jaw Trigger as well as numerous blue and red leg hermits, nassarius snails, s couple serpent sea stars and a host of emerald crabs. As far as coral additions I've added many different SPS including 3 or 4 different Montiporas, a Green slimmer, some sort of acropora and a red chalice. In addition I added a gold hammer and 5 or 6 different Zoa frags in efforts to start a nice garden at the base of some of the rock islands.

The tank has been running pretty smoothly minus the sudden
Death of my frogspawn. All parameters check out well and I do a 15gal water change weekly (about 15%) of the total water volume.

I'll keep this thread updated maybe once or twice a month to show progress but of course I added pictures to the Flickr and here's the like for that

 

[crew]

everything looks good so far. Can't wait to see more

 

[tcampbell23]

Haven't updated In a couple weeks but, I'll be sure to take some pictures when I get home tonight. Added a yellow tang to help with some of the algae but if you saw the other thread I'm troubleshooting to get it under control. Otherwise no new equipment as of yet.

Calcium reactor and RW-8s coming soon.

 

[tcampbell23]

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[tcampbell23]

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alt="" />couple pics from today


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[tcampbell23]

Some updates:

Equipment:
1. 2 Jebao RW-15s
2. H&S 110 Calcium Reactor
3. FINALLY got the Algae Scrubber running. It's been a long time coming but it's in and doing a great job.. Almost too good as some of my SPS lost a little color from the rapid drop in phosphates.


Livestock:
1. Powder Blue Tang.. Easily my favorite fish in the tank.
2.Fire Shrimp.. He's beautiful but I never see much of it.
3. Anemone Shrimp. I added this guy in hopes that he'd encourage my RBTA to open up more which it has a little.
4. 3 Nassarius Snails. I bought a few to see how'd they help keep the sand stirred up and they are doing just that. I could use 5 or 6 more though.

Corals:
1.Green Hairy Mushroom
2.Unkown SPS. If someone could help that would be great.

Pictures!


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[tcampbell23]

since hooking up the calcium reactor, ive seen some amazing growth. No new branches or anything but my SPS and montis are encrusting their plugs and the two mini birdsnest colonies have fused together to form one larger colony


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