Build thread (finally)

So for the past couple of months I have been slowly building my new 75 gallon tank (with 20L sump) to its current status. I wont bore you with too many mundane details but I can confidently say that it is the best tank that I have had yet. I like the depth compared to my 55 although I was yearning for a 6 foot tank I just couldn't find the one I wanted (100 gallon long) and this one popped up on the market. If you cannot see the pictures let me know and I can try to figure out how to make it work (I have attached links beneath each one anyways.

The Tank.

Went down to Easy Aquariums just for fun one day and out of nowhere decided to look around to see what type of tanks he had gotten from Deep Sea Creations. Lo and Behold Denis' prized 75 gallon RR tank was up for sale. I picked it up but it was in a pretty miserable state as seen below.
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It was literally the most disgusting thing I had ever seen. It took me nearly 7 hours to make it look at least somewhat presentable. But it was in good working condition, minimal scratching and was RR.


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The Stand.

Was perusing petco one day, generally never buy anything but noticed a 75 gallon stand on sale. 155 dollars down from 300. Sold, get to the counter guy charges me 59$. He said they were on sale this week. Biggest bonus I have ever gotten from petco.


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The Sump.

Then I went and bought a 20L at PetCo, waiting precisely until their dollar per gallon sale. Got some glass cut at Portland Glass in Lewiston for 25$ and siliconed it in. Also picked up a MAG 7 pump used at Easy Aquariums to make sure I was getting enough flow.



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The Transfer.

I did some more fancy work with plumbing and such, so far no leaks, although initially a bulkhead wasn't tightened and it did leak during the first test. I did paint the standpipes black with Krylon Fusion, hasn't chipped yet, nor have I seen any adverse effects. Makes it a lot cleaner looking when it is open top to see black rather than white.

One day I decided to take the plunge, made 50 gallons of RODI and I was off to the races for the transfer. Everything went well, put them all in a 10 gallon holding tank along with some corals to complete the SUPER NANO. Luckily they did not stay in there for more than 4 hours.

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This is what it looked like after the transfer, cloudy as all get out and completely dysfunctional rock.


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Refuge Light.

Then I setup this light over my refugium that someone on here was looking into. I think it was scoobnoob. It was such a great idea, it lights perfectly, was only 18$ and does not have huge light spill. Here is how I have it mounted.


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Lights Pt1.
I then got in the still controversial LED lights that gotareef ordered. For the first few weeks all these lights did was sit on pieces of wood, talk about stupid if they had dropped in.


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Power Strip.

I decided then that it was time to do wire management, so i ordered a rack mount power strip with buttons on the front to turn equipment on and off, I like to call it the poor man's ReefKeeper. It did take a little time to mount properly in the sump though.  And it only cost me 16$.


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Light Pt2.

If you noticed in an earlier picture my previous lighting was a 36" 4 bulb t-5 fixture putting out 156ish watts. not nearly enough to cover the whole tank let alone grow any corals with that amount of volume. So I started seeing noticable growth when I put on the LEDs. Much to my suprise I thought it was too blue even with the whites on. I have since adjusted my eyes and like the 14-16k look I am getting. I am still in the stages of ramping them up slowly week by week, the corals hated me for a couple of days but now are loving it and getting better polyp extension than ever. The blue at night though is ridiculous though, almost UV, and the corals that have any mettalic in them light up like Christmas. So I decided to tackle the lighting fixtures head on in order to mount them properly. There was only a little bit of trial and error, mostly with how to mount them, but I managed to make a partial canopy for under 35$.

This first picture is without the front and back skirt to show how they are hung.


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Here is the semi finished product, with no lights on.


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And with just blues


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Still needs some cord management but it looks awesome in person, I was truly surprised it came out so well. I am just glad it does not have to be huge like it would have if I had gotten MH's.

Frag Rack.

Lastly I created a frag rack out of an old magnet and some acrylic, Looks pretty good although I made some holes too small initially and had to redrill which was a mistake.


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Finished Product at work.


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So there you have it, my build since July. I only have a couple more things to purchase on the equipment side in order to finish it up. A new skimmer is on the list, suprisingly though my seaclone is working better than ever and pulling out tons of crap when it is sump mounted and not tank mounted, the varying level of 55 made it impossible to dial in. I need an ATO which I think I am just going to build myself, refilling every 2 days is getting annoying and I had already set aside space in my stand for a 5 gallon bucket and already have the aqualifter pump. Another purchase will probably be a Jebao wp40 or WP-25. But only 1, as I dont think my tank needs that much turbulent flow and I hear those pumps are monster movers, I have seen next to no detritus as the return and Koralia do a great job of circulating the tank. If you have any thoughts please feel free to leave them, or if you wish to know how I did certain things or built certain things feel free to comment as well.

And yes I will be posting FTS's as soon as I can. Sans veggie clip and magfloat. Coral frags coming soon to a reefer near you!!