New 75 Reef

[Symbiosis]

It's good to be back on the forums! Iv'e been so busy I haven't had the time for just about anything but work and school. Just got my new 75 AGA back from the shop. Had it drilled, painted, and got a custom overflow on. Now all I need is the expensive stuff, haha.

The stand for it I made myself and turned out pretty good. The only thing I can complain about is the doors as I rushed them. Luckily those will be easy to redo.

I'll post some more about what I intend to run with this system as well as some pics.

[Teeka01]

Welcome back. Do you have your system planned out?

[FragOutpost]

Great! I can't wait to see some pics!

[Symbiosis]

I'll hopefully have some pictures to post by the end of today. My goals for this system are to keep mostly sps and a few softies, with the softies being in the low section of the tank. Im shooting for about 1" fine sand bed with approx. 60lbs LR and 20-30lbs base rock. As far as fish, I think i've narrowed it down to a group of Ptereleotris zebra, a Zebrasoma flavescens, a group of Chromis veridis, a Ocellaris clown, and a Synchiropus splendidus after about 6 months to a year. Clean up crew will include a zebra brittle star, trochus snails, scarlet hermit crabs, and two cleaner shrimp.
Some coral's ive had in mind were froqspawn, assorted mushrooms, pineapple brain, and then after the tank matures, some assorted Acro's. I will probably sell the brain coral before I get any acropora as I know brains are need large territories and I doubt I will want to give that much room to one specimen. But who knows!

As far as equipment goes heres what I plan on running for at least the first 6 months:

75 gallon tank with custom overflow
rubbermaid sump/fuge
Aqua C urchin/pro skimmer
1100gph pump (haven't decided on make/model)
300 watt titanium heater (not sure about this, wanna try it, but cautiously)
Return manifold as decribed on WWM for return
46.5" 110watt VHO's x 4 (3 10ks, 1 Actinic)
Custom hood with exhaust
Custom stand

Fuge will have DSB, live rock rubble and Cheato and possibly tang heaven lit by a screw in flourescent. Will also be running carbon in the sump for clarity.

Well thats all I can think of for now. Any suggestion would be much appreciated.

[Symbiosis]

Here's some pics of the tank thus far. Just filled it with water... not that I will be putting anything in it for a while now. At least I know it doesn't leak.


Tank on stand. Will look much nicer with canopy and painting of 'wood' trim

Long shot of inside (with water)

Overflow

Bulkhead, painted black backside

[Symbiosis]

Here's some pics of the stand.


Building materials, haha

Getting a sump in will be fun

Trim on the stand turned out pretty nice

[Teeka01]

That is looking great.

[FragOutpost]

The tank is looking great so far. Can't wait to see it when you get some rockwork established. How many overflows are you going to have? 1100gph return pump seems like a lot. You will need to ensure that your overflow(s) can handle that much flow. Most people will agree that you really don't need tons of flow going through the sump/fuge. The flow through my fuge is pretty light at around 550 gph, but I have a tunze 6060, a Seio 1100, a maxijet, and a rio 600 in my tank for increased flow and I have a 75 gallon. Personally I would use a smaller return pump and slow down the flow through the fuge and use a closed loop or efficient powerheads (like tunze streams or seios) for extra flow in the tank. 1100 gph on the retun pump will overpower a 1" pvc return line easily. Is there any reason that you plan on running 46.5" Vho's instead of T5HO's? VHO's last around 6 months whereas T5's will last around 1 year or longer and the bulbs are roughly the same price. T5's also use half the electricity as VHO's (54 watts compared to 110 watts) and produce far less heat. Plus you can fit more T5's over your tank than you can VHO's. Before making the plunge into a VHO setup I would suggest that you do some research on T5's and get some opinions from other people that are using them. Personally I think that you will be much happier and get better results from the T5's.

Anyways, Thanks for sharing your photos and please keep us updated on your progress. It is always great to see progression photos that start from the initial setup.

[Symbiosis]

Im pretty sure the overflow will be able to handle the input, which after head loss will should be about 900gph, but the size of the bulkead does have me worried. When I took it in to get it drilled I specified a 2" bulkhead. Unfortunately for whatever reason, I recieved a 1" bulkhead. I didn't have time to discuss the situation when I got the tank back, so I am going to have to call them tomorrow. More than slightly irritated the more I look into my situation. Just glad im in no hurry to get any of this up and running. After I talk with the LFS about what can be done, my pump situation my change. If he doesn't want to re-drill it, im going to try and get store credit to help reduce the cost of buying two pumps, one for return at a lower gph and one for a closed loop manifold.
As for T5HO's, I haven't looked into these that much and I should. I'll probably go over it tonight and compare costs for complete setups, etc.
On another subject, just read an article about the pro's and con's on activated carbon in a back issue of TFH magazine. I had heard many of the same agruments to why people don't use it and why people due. Iv'e come to the conclusion through my own experience that carbon is good stuff to run all the time. Just did a 10% water change on my 20 gal and decided it was time to replace the carbon thats running in the filter as it had been in there for about 4 weeks. Had slacked a bit on up-keep so the tank wasn't so clear and needed a good cleaning/scraping to remove some algae and pesky worms that insist on blocking my view. Anyways, after changing the carbon, the water is crystal clear and looks better than ever. I'll be sure to run it in any tank I keep.

[FragOutpost]

IMO - The key to carbon is to run small amounts of it and to change it frequently. There are probably as many different opinions on the use of carbon as there are types of carbon, so find what works best for you and stick with it. Personally I don't run it all of the time but when I do use it I use about a cup and change it after a week to prevent anyhting from leaching back into the water. I usually will drop in some carbon if I notice my water starting to yellow and needs some "polishing".

[Symbiosis]

I usually change mine every 3-4 weeks. Not really because I think the carbon is 'full' but more because the filter pad is saturated with gunk.

[Symbiosis]

Called my the guy at the shop yesterday and he had me bring my tank back in so they could re-drill it with a 2" bulkhead. A slight annoyance, but at least he's fixing it. Anyways, I looked into T5HO's and the price is quite a bit more for about the same amount of output. Also I think the VHO's will be easier to make the transition to HQI's later where I will be running 2 HQI's and two Actinic VHO's. But seeing as this is all the planning stages and will be for several months, anything can happen.

[Symbiosis]

Went to pick up my tank today with the 2" bulkhead installed. Got it all the way home and was looking at it when it was on the stand and decided that a scratch on the back paint was really a crack in the glass. So I got out my flashlight and had a look. Sure enough, on either side of the bulkhead, 2 opaque lines were running opposite each other. So what did I do? Filled it up and said to hell with it all! Jk. Called the guy.... and he had me bring it back in. Normally they don't guarantee drilling, but since he hadn't told me that or put it on my invoice, he said he would either replace the glass panel, or order a new tank and re-drill it. For review purposes, I've made 6 trips to this store in the process of having TFH (tank from hell) drilled. It's a 30-40 minute round trip each time. This equates to about 3-4 hours in drive time alone this tank has cost me, not to mention the 3 times I've loaded, and unloaded it into a Jetta, which is no fun btw. Hopefully I will have my repaired/new tank in about a week. But then the next weekend I go on vacation so I won't be able to buy anything for it or tinker. Oh well.

[FragOutpost]

At least the guy is willing to work with you on getting the situation fixed though the multiple trips back and forth must be a PIA not to mention the cost of gas, yikes. Hopefully he will order you a new tank. Did he drill the tank himself? He had to of noticed the crack while drilling it, I would think. Hopefully you will have better luck getting the next one drilled.

[Symbiosis]

Yeah, I'm just gald its going to be fixed. I think he'll probably just end up ordering a new tank instead of risking taking the existing one apart, putting in new glass, only to run the rick of it leaking or breaking more. He doesn't drill them, but sends them to someone who works for him. I think the fact that the glass was painted made it hard to see the crack. Also, the guy that drilled it had told him that their 2" bit was getting dull, so I think he felt like it really was their fault. And with a $500 price tag I don't blame him! When I get a bigger place, im going to get an acrylic tank for sure. No more of this glass nonsense.

[Symbiosis]

Got offered a new job today which means more pay and hours. Translation: more money to spend on my tank! With that in mind, I had decided I would need an Aqua C Urchin Pro for my system, but for only $20 more I can get a Tunze 9005 or 9205. All three skimmers are supposed to be excellent, but I like the Tunze's setup more so I believe that will be one of my near future purchases.

[Teeka01]

Congrats on the new job.

[Symbiosis]

Quick update, got my new tank back about a week ago. No cracks this time! The new tank has black trim so that was kind of a bonus as it will match the stand better. Unfortunately I won't be able to set it up at all for a few months . I decided I was tired of the same old everyday job so I got involved in wildland firefighting! Took a class, met some awesome people and if all goes well I will be out on the fireline within a week or two. This of course means that doing anything with the tank right now would be worthless as I wouldn't be able to maintain it or tinker. Also I plan on moving after I get back at the end of the season, so taking it slow is probably the better choice, even though its not as fun.

[FragOutpost]

Wow! Fighting wildfires...That sounds like an adventure. You would definitely never run out of work here in FL. Good luck with your tank when you are able to get it up and running again.

[Symbiosis]

Haha, from what i've been told by guys that have gone to fight fire in florida, it's horrible. Heat + humidity + fire = a bad time. Lol