75 PetCo Tank, One Frag At A Time

[BeefyReefy_]

About time I started a tank thread. I’ve got three tanks running now, with a Red Sea 300 on the way (a little birthday surprise from me… to me). Current setup includes:

• 40g AquaTop AIO
• Custom 60g AIO (a Marketplace hammy-down with character)
• 75g Petco Special – the OG
• 20g QT – currently aging dry rock like it’s a bottle of Napa cab

But this thread’s all about the 75—my first love. The tank that dragged me into this hobby and somehow made weekly testing and water changes feel like a spiritual practice (or at least tolerable).

Current Livestock:​

• 2 Clowns
• Cleaner Goby
• Flame Hawk
• Arc Eye Hawk
• Springeri Damsel
• Sailfin Tang
• Tomini Tang
• Diamond Goby
• Halloween Hermit
• Red Hermit
• Mexican Turbo
• 3 Nassarius Snails
• Conch Snail

Yes, it’s a little busy—but everyone knows their place (for now), and I have more than enough rockwork for everyone.

Corals:​

• Random zoas
• Aussie torch
• Frogspawn (a.k.a. Frog’s Pawn, if you’re in on the joke)
• Blue xenia
• Kenya tree

Pretty beginner stuff for now. As you'll probably see in the photos, the torch and frogspawn are looking a little rough—they were recently added and likely offended by my low calcium levels. I dosed calcium today and moved them to a shaded spot to recover.

Equip:​

• Seachem Tidal 75 HOB — Matrix + sponge + floss
• Seachem Tidal 35 HOB — carbon + sponge (used as temporary refugium + seeding filter for Red Sea 300)
• Hygger remote-controllable heater
• 2 powerheads, perpendicular, bouncing off glass
• UV sterilizer — run as needed for bacterial blooms (I move rocks… a lot. I know it’s not ideal. But I could be doing drugs.)
• 2 Nicrew 100 Wt 2nd Gen

Maintenance Schedule​

(Swear I actually follow this—it’s the OCD.)

Sundays:

• Full parameter testing
• 10% water change
• Mix & store fresh saltwater
• Swap filter floss
• Dose as needed

Tuesdays:

• Spot feed corals (Reef Roids + Mysis)
• Retest dosing levels

Saturdays:

• Spot feed corals again (because they’re needy)

1st of the Month:

• Soak gear in citric acid
• Swap Seachem MatrixCarbon (after excessive rinsing and spiritual reflection)

Current Parameters:

DATE	TEMP	SALINITY	AMMONIA	NITRATE	PHOSPH	ALK (dKH)	MAG	CALCIUM
5/17	78	1.025	0	4.1	.01	9.7	1320	350

Tank Notes:​

• Currently dosing nitrate and phosphate daily—this tank eats nutrients like it’s bulking.
• Nutrient demand increased after adding frogspawn & torch (floaty queens).
• Just switched to Red Sea Pro salt for this tank only—hoping it helps stabilize parameters long-term.

Considering Neptune Systems auto dosing & auto testing setup. Haven’t committed yet. Still enjoying the delusion of control.

 

[TX_REEF]

nice! Awesome maintenance schedule.

congrats on the new tank purchase, not sure I would recommend a red sea tank given the slew of documented seam failures I've seen over the past few years, but you already pulled the trigger, so hopefully you experience no issues.

I also have to say, and I swear I'm not a member of the tang police...Sailfin tangs get over a foot long, I hope sooner than later you rehome it to an appropriately sized tank, and then don't buy another fish that doesn't belong in a tank your size :)

 

[BeefyReefy_]

nice! Awesome maintenance schedule.

congrats on the new tank purchase, not sure I would recommend a red sea tank given the slew of documented seam failures I've seen over the past few years, but you already pulled the trigger, so hopefully you experience no issues.

I also have to say, and I swear I'm not a member of the tang police...Sailfin tangs get over a foot long, I hope sooner than later you rehome it to an appropriately sized tank, and then don't buy another fish that doesn't belong in a tank your size :)

I knew the tang police was gonna come after me for this one lol. He will definitely be moved to my bigger tank. I rescued him from Petco not looking too well. QT’d him for a while, and he’s a fighter. Dudes extremely juvenile at 1.5-2” (give or take a few, hard to tell) so I have a bit of time till I get the big one setup

 

[parclife]

Happy birthday and great gift to yourself! Awesome current setup too!

 

[BeefyReefy_]

Happy birthday and great gift to yourself! Awesome current setup too!

Thank you! : )

 

[TX_REEF]

I knew the tang police was gonna come after me for this one lol. He will definitely be moved to my bigger tank. I rescued him from Petco not looking too well. QT’d him for a while, and he’s a fighter. Dudes extremely juvenile at 1.5-2” (give or take a few, hard to tell) so I have a bit of time till I get the big one setup

by bigger tank do you mean the red sea 300? Unless I'm mistaken, the 300 designation is liters, meaning that tank will actually be smaller than your 75g... food for thought...

 

[BeefyReefy_]

by bigger tank do you mean the red sea 300? Unless I'm mistaken, the 300 designation is liters, meaning that tank will actually be smaller than your 75g... food for

I was referring to the Red Sea Reefer S-1000—I shorthand called it the “300” because i’m in the US. but yeah, definitely not the 300-liter model. That would be way too small. The goal is to go bigger and consolidate some of my tanks.