75 gallon SPS upgrade

Gyres or MP40's?


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MrWheelock

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Alright alright I'll do my build thread.

It only took almost 4 years to get this done, but like everything else in this hobby, nothing good happens fast. I'll split this into three segments, 1st build, rebuild, and upgrades.

So for the build like i mentioned in my meet & greet forum I started researching and watching YouTube for months before I decided to finally dive in.

Build:
I bought a marineland 75 gallon from a petstore that had a killer sale, and a friend upgraded to a bow front from her 30L so she donated the 30L for my sump build. I knew I wanted to do a bean animal drain and a coast to coast overflow. So I ordered some bits and drilled my brand new aquarium, my wife thought I was nuts. I went with 1" piping because it would support the flow I heard was the best (10x display volume).

I got my ugly diy coast to coast installed, i used two pieces of 1/4 acrylic and some acrylic glue (weld on 4 I think). Well never having any experience working with acrylic so it turned out pretty ugly and consumed lots of space in the display, but it was cheap and it worked. Looking back now I wasted more money messing with the acrylic than had I just bought an overflow.

Got my Pukani in from BRS, a Red Sea reef mature pro kit and did an intank cycle. Went through uglies like everyone does, and had my first fish at right around a month. Levels measured good so I slowly added a few more fish.

2x clowns
1x yellow eyed kole
5x blue green chomis
1x malanarus wrasse
1x yellow watchman (jumped out :x)

DIY 30L sump
Reef octopus 110int skimmer
2x ehiem jager 250 watt heater
Sicce syncra silent 900gph return pump
Reef keeper controller
2x current USA orbit marine 48" LED
1x kessil H80 fuge light
2x korillia 950s (cant remember exactly)

I wish I had photos for all of the build and the uglies ect, however i procrastinated my build, broke my phone and lost all my photos.

Rebuild:
9 months in I started noticing salt creep in the front right corner, thought it was just splash up from my powerheads being aimed too much towards the surface but there was no water marks on the glass. So long story short the bottom seal had a small leak and was getting salt creep in the frame.

I went out and purchased a new tank 75 gallon aqueon with a really nice professionally made wood/ply wood stand. However this was the perfect chance to drill the tank and get an Eshopps L overflow installed so I did.

Drilled the tank, added the overflow and started draining my 75 into a 40 brute.
I caught my fish as I lowered the water level and added them to the brute where i had carefully place the rock with the few softies I had growing on them. The few frags i had went into a few 5 gallon buckets and the swap began.
Took me all night to redo the plumbing on the new tank and replace my sicce with a dc from current usa, so the fish waited while the glue set. The next day I transfered the sand after I rinsed it, added the rock and fresh salt, let everything settle and tested my water. Water was good so in went the fishes!

Within a day they all showed signs of ich :( I had just spend the last bit of money I had swapping tanks so i didnt have money to put up a QT so I fell for the "reef safe" ich treatment. (Hindsight there is no such thing!).
Needless to say everyone perrished. Itnwas around this time thay injoined reef2reef and began learning about ICH so I let the tank sit fishless for 80 days before I started stocking it again.

2x black and white clowns
1x Kole tang
1x green mandarin (80 days fishless, my glass, sand and rock was peppered with pods)
1x starry blenny
1x 6 line


All added weeks apart of course and not in that order.

One clown bullied the other so i took him back and got a small maroon.

The maroon was bullied to death by the six line so the six line went back and I got a new maroon on trade.

A couple months later when the mandarin who was eating frozen and pods passed I got 3 lyretail anthias. 2 of which I still have one that passed after about 18 months in the tank.

While away apparently my starry blenny decided to go for a ride down the overflow, through the sump and to the return where my wife found him in his final resting place.

Sorry for the long post but here we are in the present...

Upgrade:
I plan on going mixed LPS and SPS, so while I'm still away I've been doing some shopping.

Aquatic Life T5 hybrid
W/ 4 A360s
BashSea SMS 36/ Geo
BashSea 5 gallon ATO/ Geo
Calcium reactor Geo or Korallin
MAXSPECT gyre XF280
Apex controller with ATO, DOS for AWC, leak detection ect. and just added security while I'm away next time

Rescape of the rock on the left. Going half sand half "bare" so I'll be putting a large flat piece on the bottom left as a false floor, and some tonga/ reef saver/ pukani bits on the there for more astetics and fish hiding places.

As soon as the wife sends me a new FTS I'll post that here. Thanks for reading, and happy reefing.

FB_IMG_1568144127300.jpg IMG_6516.JPG Screenshot_20190901-080137_WhatsApp.jpg 20171213_232041.jpg
 
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MrWheelock

MrWheelock

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Update:
Had the wife put some reef saver I had left over from my 30 jbj breakdown, some tonga like rocks from caribsea, and a brain coral skeleton that I found in my ditch in my brute with some fresh saltwater to get the cycle going.

The cat knows how this works no one messes with my bucket! ;Woot

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MrWheelock

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Made up my mind, I picked up a great deal on an apex with 4 kessil A360s and those will be mounted in the Aquatic life T5 light. Im going to have to make the canopy a little taller so I can fit the kessils in and still have them mounted at a decent height above the water.

Im on the fence between the bashsea sump and a geo setup. I love that the geo sump has a place for everything, however I dont see myself running GFO or anything in the media reactor. Maybe Ill just put some spirorax in the reactor and let water slowly move through for some added bacteria growth.

I like that the bashsea has a large refugium for a triton type method if i choose, or I can put the skimmer in the first section and a frag rack in the second section with the AP700 over the top of that.

I have decided that I want to run a calcium reactor opposed to dosing, in the long run i feel the reactor will be less pain compared to maintaining a second dos.
 
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MrWheelock

MrWheelock

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I have decided that im actually going to go with the synergy TS34 sump and 5 gal ATO container in storm cloud since i love starwars and it will brighten up my sump area a bit. Still looking at lighting the first section but the ap700 might be way too much, maybe ill got with an A 360 or ai prime since its a 14x14x12 area.

Screenshot_20190925-224449_Chrome.jpg
 

JuanGutz

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I have decided that im actually going to go with the synergy TS34 sump and 5 gal ATO container in storm cloud since i love starwars and it will brighten up my sump area a bit. Still looking at lighting the first section but the ap700 might be way too much, maybe ill got with an A 360 or ai prime since its a 14x14x12 area.

Screenshot_20190925-224449_Chrome.jpg

Great start, Looks amazing. For the fuge I’d for sure not use an ap700. I have the Kessil h160 and I love it. Your fuge is a lot bigger so the 360 may be needed. Everyone in my local club goes with one from amazon and they’ve proven it works great.

MarsHydro LED Grow Light 300W 600W 1200W Full Spectrum for Hydroponic Indoor Plants Growing Veg and Flower
 
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MrWheelock

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Great start, Looks amazing. For the fuge I’d for sure not use an ap700. I have the Kessil h160 and I love it. Your fuge is a lot bigger so the 360 may be needed. Everyone in my local club goes with one from amazon and they’ve proven it works great.

MarsHydro LED Grow Light 300W 600W 1200W Full Spectrum for Hydroponic Indoor Plants Growing Veg and Flower


Thanks for stopping by! :cool: As for the fuge compartment, i wont be growing macros in there, ill be putting a frag rack there
 
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MrWheelock

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Its all good i mentioned it briefly when i was decidng what sump to choose. I'm looking at running a clearwater algae scrubber or a cheato reactor, and just having the little area for a grow out spot because I hate having frag racks in the display.
 

JuanGutz

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Got this coral in a trade for my red monti coral from the previous tank and it’s by far my favorite coral right now. Honestly don’t know the name but so bright and vibrant. This is an unedited iPhone pic with t5’s
FA0DFF8F-711B-4A4B-9A82-0E496C79AF60.jpeg
 
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MrWheelock

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:eek: I’m so sorry. This was supposed to go in my build thread, thank you for the name though haha.
No problem, coral, fish and equipment spam its welcome here.
Speaking id build thread, i see you haven't linked your build thread to your profile yet, if you do id be happy to check it out!
 
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