75 Gallon budget build (well that's what we've been telling ourselves)

[Everything Aquatics]

Very nice tank

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Very nice tank

Thank You, I appreciate that!

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

ok got all the livestock in it from the 29 Gallon... made the move Wednesday Night... everything looks good so far, I have 2 that are a little stressed, but I think it might just be from a slight temperature difference. My favorite part of the tank so far is the absence of cords in the tank, it looks like a true rectangular slice of the ocean!

I love the way everything looks with the T5/ LED Combo!!!

Let me know what you think!!

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Added a couple frags this weekend. 2 Zoas, a branching GSP (?), and an Acan (lets see how long this one will last, I have killed quite a few in the past...)
Zoas have their own dedicated rock, I really don't want to have them on the arches quite yet, I want to make sure that we place the other corals on our list first and then move forward with some possible zoas.

And Please don't laugh at my gluing skills, this is the first time I have ever had to glue frags to the scape!

Let me know what you think!

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Just an update, even though it doesn't seem to spark any interest, its good to keep it updated for documentation!
Last night we did a clean glass, blow rocks off, 25 gallon water change, vacuumed just about all the sand (trying to keep it as clean as we can from the get go, I don't want it to have build up, that's one of the reasons we have only about 1" in there) changed filter socks, change filter floss, clean skimmer cup, modify the skimmer cup for ease of draining it, topped off the ATO and fed the fish. I also moved the MP40 closer to the front glass and it seems to be giving me a better gyre effect with the MP10 on the back wall, we will see how the tank likes it. if there are any suggestions on pump placement, we are open to them! Everything seems to be doing well except for one of my euphillya (sp?)… fish are happy, except for the one chromis that got stuck in the RFG on the return, he didn't make it and was sent home via toilet flush....

 

[154162]

Great build! You got some nice deals there

 

[prinzlerr]

I'd never really thought about it before reading through this build thread, but I think I'm gonna do interior lighting inside the stand on my next build as well. Everything is looking good!

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Great build! You got some nice deals there

Thank you bud! appreciate it!

I'd never really thought about it before reading through this build thread, but I think I'm gonna do interior lighting inside the stand on my next build as well. Everything is looking good!

Lighting inside the stand is a big help at anytime of the day! it makes working in there or doing maintenance easy to see!

I appreciate the comments!

 

[Gernader]

Nice build so far! I also got a 75g that I setup 3 months ago and I would appreciate your feedback on my build thread

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Its been a minute since the last update, and there was some ups and downs since then. I lost a total of 3 chromis all to the RFG on the return, I don't know why they get sucked into the backside of it... I also found my Powder Blue underneath the MP40, he was barely hanging on, but when I tried bringing him back he check out.... sad day, we really liked him, and our Yellow Coris was inside the MP40 cage a couple weeks later. so I just ordered some new covers for the MPs so we hoefully don't have to deal with this anymore...

but we got a few more frags and livestock in the tank and it is looking pretty good in our eyes.... Let us know what you think!

we wanted to try our hand at the Stick Game, my son really liked these two, Super man Digi on the left and i dont know what the one on the right is called, so we will just call it "The Green One" Digi.

Got the 2 Zoas off the frag rack and on the garden, also picked up 2 heads of Utter Chaos and a little rock of Blue hornets (kinda in the back of rock). So in the garden we have BamBams, Rastas, Blue Hornets, Utter Chaos, Hallucinations, and i'm not sure what the one in the front right is called, if you know please let me know!

My wife fell in love with this Plate coral, and to be honest I like it too. Behind it on the rock there are two torches, no I didn't buy two different frags, I just went a little too far on the muscles side when i was taking them off the plug, so now i have 2! haha but i actually think it looks better this way..

We also got our Paly garden going, so far we have some Jason Fox Captian Jerks (that have really Taken off!) and the others I'm not too sure what those are called, again if you know let ME know!!

And my wife got her wish of another Anemone for our clown.
The Duncans are looking real healthy BTW.

As far as livestock we got 4 more Chromis, a Powder Brown Tang, and Tomini Tang. the tank is looking like its full of life!

I hope you all enjoy!

Let us know what your thoughts are!

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Well I'm pretty frustrated right now....

I tested positive for COVID Yesterday and I have locked myself in the bedroom to isolate from my family. I miss being around them and I miss being able to look at the tank with my kids. This morning my wife facetime calls me and shows me a small bucket of overflow from the skimmer, i'm guessing around 2 gallons worth. my son started draining the cup and had to go to class and it just kept draining. so I had her turn off the skimmer and dump the bucket. water was pretty clear.
I kinda freaked out and to make matters worse, I cant go out there to check it! so on little mans next break he checked salinity on the tank and its 1.0255 when normally its at 1.026... I was expecting a huge swing (coming from the 29 gal) so im glad it didn't hit the tank to hard.
what is confusing me is what made the skimmer freak out? coral look great, and the Nem is still in place (I was thinking it got into a powerhead seeing that he has been in the tank for 3-4 days) nothing in the sump looks out of place.... on his lunch break we are going to combat this again and see if we can figure out whats wrong with it.
Makes me proud that my 13 year old is stepping up and taking control of the situation, and is a learning lesson for him to know what to do and what the causes may be.
I'll report back any findings.

Thanks!

Barnabie

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Tank looks great, love the skimmer. What did you use for baffles?
Sorry to hear you got covid-19, but glad you're son is able to step up and help, not an easy task to take on.

 

[Socal-Reefer-60]

Sweet build. Appreciated the attention to detail w the woodwork!

 

[dgodwin]

I just read through the whole thread. That is some great work you have there. I'm sorry to hear about the COVID positive. My wife was sent home from work yesterday and we're waiting for the results of the test. I can't imagine how hard it must be. My son is 10 and is just learning how to do more maintenance on the tank. You must be so proud of yours! I look forward to future updates

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Tank looks great, love the skimmer. What did you use for baffles?
Sorry to hear you got covid-19, but glad you're son is able to step up and help, not an easy task to take on.

Thank you! For the Baffles we used Corian, its a type of countertop material, it gives it a different look and is easier to maintain than glass. The skimmer is kicking some butt though! its great....

if there are more detailed pictures you might want to see, let me know!

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Sweet build. Appreciated the attention to detail w the woodwork!

Thank You, I had never really played with woodworking before, but I found out that you really have to take your time, its not forgiving like steel (I'm a welder by profession) haha it was really fun though spending time with the boys doing it all!

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

I just read through the whole thread. That is some great work you have there. I'm sorry to hear about the COVID positive. My wife was sent home from work yesterday and we're waiting for the results of the test. I can't imagine how hard it must be. My son is 10 and is just learning how to do more maintenance on the tank. You must be so proud of yours! I look forward to future updates

Thank You! this covid stuff stinks! I think the worst part is not seeing the family! but I am proud of my son for stepping up and taking over the tank!

 

[Sebastiancrab]

another little update.... now that we are forced to be home with the corona virus, we have been making strides on the tank and it looks like we may have water in it by the weekend!
we got the inside of the stand painted and Lit.

we also buttoned up all the plumbing, its glued and ready to get wet. As you can see we wanted to hide as much as possible, and the 2x6s really helped with this.

and if you notice we also got the ventilation in place on the back wall of the stand. 2 fans at 110cfm each should do the trick and they're flush mounted to keep it clean and not take up any extra room than needed. air flow is pushing the hot air out of the stand. they will be on a temperature switch with an override if needed. that should help keep the in stand temps in check.

My son just has to stain the outer skins of the stand and clear epoxy seal them, and I am building him a electronics box that will be on the left side of the stand to house his controllers and eventually an APEX (eventually..) it will be hinged and lit as well. hopefully we will have some more updates by the end of the week!

Can you tell me where you purchased the fans? Also, what paint did you use on the sump? That is a cool idea I had not thought of.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Thank you! For the Baffles we used Corian, its a type of countertop material, it gives it a different look and is easier to maintain than glass. The skimmer is kicking some butt though! its great....

if there are more detailed pictures you might want to see, let me know!

Well you got my interest, I'd love to see it up close.

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Can you tell me where you purchased the fans? Also, what paint did you use on the sump?

The fans I bought on Amazon, they were a package deal.... here is a link for the fan, this one is a single, but it came out to the same price..



For the Paint I used oil based black and oil based Blue, the sump area was painted with latex white and sealed on top of it...