75gal: "Some day my Reef will come ... "

[vic622]

So I'm jumping in and getting the 75gal up and running.

Pls feel free to add comments/ideas/feedback - especially observations of anything you see that makes you scratch your head and say "I wouldn't do that if I were you!" 

The Tank:
It's a 48x18x21" on a 5' black BigAl's stand that's back-drilled with a 1" closed-loop on a Mag-9.5, an AquaC Remora and at least 1/ea Koralia 1 & 2 for additional circulation.

The Closed-loop is free hung right now, held up by a single bungy on the Mag-9.5 side. I don;t know how to support this without adding a shelf & then making the pump vibration audible - Any ideas?

The Ballasts for the MH & the fluorescent will be on a shelf on the floor below the closed loop plumbing.

All the electrics will be plugged into a GFC outlet.

I think I have about 50-lbs of (no-longer live) rock, and unlike my last tank which had a deep sand bed, I'm going to go for a 1/2"-1" substrate layer.

I'm hoping the rock is not too slimy and so the initial cycle (live-dead-live) won't need too much time & I can start seeding coraline and crustaceans.

I'm considering adding some Sailfin Mollies to kick-start the nitrogen cycle & so it doesn't look so empty - Any thoughts on this?

Vic

Here's the first batch of pics:

Tank with lights on top - They'll be suspended from the Ceiling


5' BigAl's Stand - Rescued from side of Road


Closed-loop


Closed-loop - Intake Plumbing


Closed-loop - Return Plumbing


Closed-loop - Intake Side - Remora Placement


Closed-loop - Intake


Closed-loop - Return

[vic622]

1st Update:

Put the rock in the tank and added water. Plugged in the Koralia 1, a MaxiJet 1200 & AquaClear powerhead to circulate the water and dissolve the salt.

Plugged in the Mag 9.5 and Nothing! 

Now I'm sure that I checked it before I did the plumbing and it was running, so I think I'll be doing a tear down to see what's up with the pump. Hopefully it's just some silicone that migrated and is jamming the impeller.

Film at 11:00

[vic622]

2nd Update:

Got into something that REALLY didn't agree with my system.
I was just finishing off setting the tank up at about 9:00pm, I started to feel like a bout of allergies was coming on - Boy did it come on.
My eyes started to water & my nose stuffed up then my chest & throat started to feel like they were closing down.
Every time I took a regular breath, my lungs would seize up.
This went on until about 3:30am this morning when I could finally breath normally again.
No idea what triggered it but scared the crap out of me & I even considered going to the hospital a couple of times.
Better now, except for only 4hrs of sleep ...

[salvini55]

whoa scary stuff. peaceful way to go though... playing with the tank lol

dont put the mollies in to cycle the tank. The rock is enough on its own assuming its live rock and if its good the tank doesnt even cycle / very fast cycle but test the ammonia and nitrite and nitrate for sure

[salvini55]

oh and what do you mean by "film at 11:00". of the tank? cuz i dont see it and it broke my heart 

[vic622]

...
dont put the mollies in to cycle the tank. The rock is enough on its own assuming its live rock and if its good the tank doesnt even cycle / very fast cycle but test the ammonia and nitrite and nitrate for sure

Yeah, I was wondering if the mollies would make any difference, plus they're cheap and I don't have to tear down the rock to remove them like I needed to do with a certain trio of 4-line Humbugs in another tank ...

The rock was live rock, but its been out of water for a few months hence the "no-longer live" crack. It was bagged, so it stayed a bit humid but not wet. I'm hoping some coraline might be still viable. There is some colour in places but time will tell if it spreads.
Incidentally, I think something that came off the rock is what triggered the allergies. They smell a bit musty or mildewy(not strongly at all). It was shortly after I put them in the tank & started filling it that the attack came on. Hmmmm.

If I don't see an ammonia spike, what do I want to look for? Nitrites, nitrates? Or?

Film at 11:00 was supposed to be the pump/plumbing tear apart & repair. Unfortunately allergies & exhaustion have put that off for a couple of days. Stay tuned

[vic622]

Well a month and a week into the adventure & the tank has cycled.
As of this weekend NH4=0, NO2=0, NO3=<0.1ppm

I've found a novel way to figure out that the tank has cycled: Buy a rock covered in coraline that's home to some mushrooms, hammerhead & polyps, put it in the tank and see if the mushrooms pout or if they come out to play 

That was last weekend & I added a Magnificent Foxface, Yellow Tang & a Neon Dottyback (all courtesy of Aqua Valley). That same weekend I added a couple of Green Yumas (thanks Phil) - one is hiding somewhere in the rock & a mystery mushroom & some more polyps from Big Al's.

This weekend saw the addition of an orange, a green & a blue Monti, a Duncan (thanks Jeff), Some Zoo's, a Pulsing Xenia & Green Star Polyps (thanks Christiaan).

Along the way I've added a CUC of Nasarius, Astrea & Turbo snails, a Scarlet Hermit & a pack of Blue Leg Hermits.

I had to do a 24hr lights-out yesterday as I had a Diatom outbreak. I turned the VHO's on last weekend at 9am & forgot to reprogram them on Sunday so they were on 14hrs a day all week. Oooops !

Here's some pics I took tonight:

[Vincenzo.]

is that a orange monti on the top? looks good so far Vic.

[vic622]

is that a orange monti on the top? looks good so far Vic.

Thanks, I'm pleased with it for being a mere baby
Yeah that's the Orange Monti I got this weekend - it actually is almost dead-centre of the tank. If it likes the location, I'd really like to see it become the centre-piece for my long-term plan. The colour is very strong & will offset all sorts of other corals.
Vic

[NjOyRiD]

OMG OMG look at those nice Yumas!!!!!

[vic622]

OMG OMG look at those nice Yumas!!!!!

I wonder where they came from .... 

[vic622]

More better coral pics:

Green & Burgundy Favite (Thanks to AZ for ID'ing it for me)



Hammerhead


Yellow/Orange Monti


Yellow/Green Monti


Polyps + Mushrooms + Favite


Green Star Polyps (I have a couple colonies of this)


Pulsing Xenis + Polyps + Zoo's


The center section of the tank showing where everything is. That's a Frogspawn above the Green Star Polyps & left of the Hammerhead.

[vic622]

Okay so it took a while, but I finally got all the parts together, the tanks drilled and I have taken the leap!

The intent was always to use the closed-loop as the overflow for a sump/fuge but I couldn't set it up like that from the start.
In the mean time, it looked kinda confused & messy - I never tied the wiring up to make it look pretty ...


I did give myself enough room between the tank and the wall to put a sump - ~12".

In order to make the sump/fuge fit behind the tank, I picked up a 29g tall (20"x10"x24" tall) & a 20g tall (20"x10"x20" tall) to use as a combined sump & refugium.
After careful consideration (about 5 minutes ... I decided to put them on a plank on wheels so I could roll it out to do maintenance. this transformed into fridge rollers that are able to handle ~1200lbs.


The 29g is the fuge - I got this drilled for two 1-1/2" bulkheads.


One bulkhead ...


Two bulkheads ...


I left a gap between the two tanks so that the downspouts don't extend too far into the skimmer chamber (10"x10"x 16" deep).
The current skimmer iwill be my AquaC Remora placed in-sump like an Urchin.
I've left enough room in the skimmer chamber for either a SRO 1000 Internal or a Bubble Magus NAC7 - I haven't decided which one, yet ...

The 20g is divided in two by a 16" tall glass divider. This gives me a skimmer section 7 a return pump/heater section, each 10"x10".

[vic622]

The Display drains (temporarily) only from the 2" Bulkhead straight down into the fuge.

This is the 90-elbow turned up to let me work:


That let me to disconnect the closed loop so I could install the sump:


There is a 90-elbow to a 45-elbow to a section of 1-1/2" pipe with the top cut out to serve as an overflow. This will eventually be extended to the other end of the tank and connected with the same elbows to the other bulkhead - Double the drainage, double the flow


I found a dishwasher connector that has a 1/2" connection set at 45 degrees that will give me a vent to prevent air locks.


Starting to fill the sump.




The double-overflows work!


Needed to use ~45g of make-up saltwater to fill things up ...


When all is done, the Bulkhead on the other end of the display will also drain into the sump. I was going to use this as the sump return, but it became brutally obvious yesterday when I was plumbing things that using flex hose from the Mag 9.5 direct to a return spout would be a lot easier ...

[vic622]

So I had thought of using the smaller (RH) bulkhead on the Display to act as the return from the sump.
What the ?!@#@!@ was I thinking?

It only took about 5mins and a look at the flex-pvc I had to decide to go from the Mag-9.5 directly back to the tank.

When all is done, I'll plumb this Bulkhead to the overflow on the other end of the display using a long piece of 1-1/2" abs with a slot cut in the top as the overflow and then both sides will drain into the sump.


I know the flex needs to be cut to length, but I haven't decided how to install the return pipe, yet ...


Must fix the wiring octopus ...
At least it's up and away from the water - but I Have to find a solution I can live with & won't result in popped circuit breakers ...


That's it for now.

Going to move the AquaC skimmer to the sump, today.

Next big stuff is to get a 12"x4" diameter pipe to go around the main pipe in the sump. Then I can start to put live rock in the sump without it moving when I move the system for maintenance.

After that ... Who knows!