75 gallon reef build

Hello everyone I'm starting a build thread for a new 75 gallon setup. Figured I'll let people know and see if this helps everyone on the future. Mostly I'm learning from my mistakes I made in the last 3 years of keeping corals and tanks. I had a previous 75 gallon for 3 years and I had nothing but issues and no coral ever grow. This time I'm going to do it right. I'm starting fresh with brand new tank and stand and rocks and sand. So far I have my stand and tank on order and will be picking it up next Sunday. For now I just received my new dry rock from dr f&s and I went with reef flakes for my sand because I heard nothing but good things about it. I'll keep updating on how I'm going to aquascape and what equipment I'll be using

 

I bought 60 pounds of dry rock and 1 30 pound bag of sand to start it off

 

Cool, I'm going through the same thing! Had a 200+ tank 5 years ago, had failure and just quit. Looking at buying a Red Sea setup and starting slowly.
Are you doing a quarantine tank? I never had one in the past and am considering doing one this time. It seems like most of the peole in my area don't go that route, but most on the forums do.....

 

For corals no but for fish I might. I do have a pair of clowns and 2 pajama cardinals and a clam in my holding tank from my previous 75 gallon that I tore down. I have had velvet kill every fish in my tank in the past from not quarantining so I'm probably gonna do it this time.

 

Did you consider any of the packaged approaches to the DT like Red Sea? I'm thinking about going with a Reefer where you still add your own skimmer, heater , and pump....

 

No I didn't. They have them at the lfs but they are extremely expensive and over budget for me. They are really nice tanks though. I went with a marine land corner overflow tank and black majesty stand and that run me about 550$

 

Nice, I'll check those out! Good luck with your project.

 

Thanks good luck with your journey

 

Lights came in

 

I'm going to run a combo of
Blue plus
Coral
Blue
Coral
Blue
Coral

 

I could only get one for now for the other side I'll use a 800gph pump off amazon I picked up a few years ago

 

Is that the ATI dimmable? I have 6bulb T5 over my 75 gal now, but it is not dimmable and everything in my tank reacts badly when the lights come on. We (hubs and I) have been thinking of upgrading to LEDs but I am having success with the T5s and might just stay with them....would be interested in hearing what you think of that fixture over your setup.

 

Not a dimmable fixture. I had leds in the past and I hated them. I refuse to go that route. These ati lights are proven to grow every type of coral very well. What kind of corals do you have and how high is the light about the water

 

I can't find my tape measure so will have to give you a better answer to the "how high" question when my husband gets home and tells me where he hid it, but I think about 8" above the surface. We have screen tops also.

I have a mix of softies, a few zoas (not many), euphyllia, other lps, and SPS. Things are growing at varying rates but almost everything IS growing...just some better than others. It makes me reluctant to make the switch to LEDs. I would like a ramp up/down function though. Every time I'm home to see my lights switch on I have one acan in particular that shrivels a little and some of my fish hide. My husband likes the shimmer of LEDs though. Thinking of a combo...or the ATI dimmable and just adding a couple strips.

 

You can add some strips if you think that would help. Do you have 2 bulbs come on first then the other 4 later on

 

I started with one and ended up with two....although an MP40 + MP10 probably would have done the job, I am enjoying the flexibility of 2 MP40s. I run them on anti-synch. Hubs bought me the 2nd MP40 because we figure I'll upgrade to a 225gal someday LOL.

 

I could add strips, but I got this setup used as a "starter" it was meant to be temporary. It is kind of on its last legs...I have a really hard time getting bulbs in and out. We plan to upgrade soon anyway.

Yes, blues first, whites later.

 

SB reef lights has some nice led strips that you can mount on the side of the ATI fixtures.



Something similar to this.

 

Hey thanks for posting that! I was just looking at them on BRS and trying to visualize the mounting system.

But then how are they controlled?

 

Just AC power can use a timer or controller to turn on and off