75g - Maximum DIY Shenanigans
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I just keep corals away from any of his entrances, otherwise they'll get buried. I also made the mistake of not rinsing my sand, so with the tilefish constantly burrowing here and there I now have fine particles floating in the tank permanently, and I can't get rid of them. So definitely rinse your sand well.
The Link's goby is great. It's a very light sand sifter and mostly sifts in place. I've never seen it bury anything or create huge sand dunes like a diamond goby. I love it!
ElZesto
Active Member
What up! Small interim updates here, nothing major finished but a bit of progress on everything.
#1. Got reefpi actually working. The challenge was finding the proper image because you need an old version of raspian that’s bullseye bootloader which is now only available via the raspian archive. I have a write up in my notes if anyone is interested.
#2. Reefpi now controls the lights! So we have 5 independent channel controls on the light now with full scheduling or manual control from your phone or soon a touchscreen in the stand. It’s being fed through an ATMega328p pro mini that’s basically pretending to be the pca breakout board that’s written into reefpi. We did this so we could make multiple for cheaper, and we can then program in failsafes in case reefpi fails. Again, I can give a more detailed write up if someone is interested. Wiring shots (I need to take more pics lol):
#3. Got my overflow box and the plumbing almost done, just need to bond the gate valve in.
A weird mount I made that probably won’t get used because it’s a just a few mm off from where it should be, and puts weird tension on the drains. Debating 3d scanning the plumbing and then designing a mount off that. Way over kill, but, sounds kind of nifty.
#4. The most important to actually get the tank setup in its spot: skinning the stand. So, I think I’m a bit of fool. This project has got way out of hand, and is costing me a lot more than the original spreadsheet said
oh well. So the basic design I brainstormed is this:
I’m going for an idk like… “pirate chest-ish old sea” design? Got all the wood cut in the last few days and mocked up. Actually pretty happy with how that’s turning out. A little frustrated at the top horizontal piece being 1.5” wider than the bottom on, but due to the stand design it’s necessary so oh well. I gave it a 4/5th thumbs up lol.
I have all the pieces back in the garage, and should get everything stained in the next few days and then assembly!
#5. Auto frozen feeder! This is just the initial proof of concept for one part at this point, and I’ve got a while to go to make this actually functional and few pretty significant hardware hurdles to figure out. So basically what we have here is a peltier cooler, controlled by an esp32, with a thermocouple on the cup. It’s setup on a local web server for now, so I can set the temp I want the cup to get to (or the beer in this case) and it will regulate itself to maintain that set point. I’m happy to report the mountains were blue
Anyways, that’s a lot of half complete stuff but soon we should have the tank setup in its spot, which I really can’t wait to do. From there I feel like I’ll get to actually progress making the habitat for my planned lil fellas, where as I feel like so far this project has been a crazy amount of side quests lol.
#1. Got reefpi actually working. The challenge was finding the proper image because you need an old version of raspian that’s bullseye bootloader which is now only available via the raspian archive. I have a write up in my notes if anyone is interested.
#2. Reefpi now controls the lights! So we have 5 independent channel controls on the light now with full scheduling or manual control from your phone or soon a touchscreen in the stand. It’s being fed through an ATMega328p pro mini that’s basically pretending to be the pca breakout board that’s written into reefpi. We did this so we could make multiple for cheaper, and we can then program in failsafes in case reefpi fails. Again, I can give a more detailed write up if someone is interested. Wiring shots (I need to take more pics lol):
#3. Got my overflow box and the plumbing almost done, just need to bond the gate valve in.
A weird mount I made that probably won’t get used because it’s a just a few mm off from where it should be, and puts weird tension on the drains. Debating 3d scanning the plumbing and then designing a mount off that. Way over kill, but, sounds kind of nifty.
#4. The most important to actually get the tank setup in its spot: skinning the stand. So, I think I’m a bit of fool. This project has got way out of hand, and is costing me a lot more than the original spreadsheet said
oh well. So the basic design I brainstormed is this:I’m going for an idk like… “pirate chest-ish old sea” design? Got all the wood cut in the last few days and mocked up. Actually pretty happy with how that’s turning out. A little frustrated at the top horizontal piece being 1.5” wider than the bottom on, but due to the stand design it’s necessary so oh well. I gave it a 4/5th thumbs up lol.
I have all the pieces back in the garage, and should get everything stained in the next few days and then assembly!
#5. Auto frozen feeder! This is just the initial proof of concept for one part at this point, and I’ve got a while to go to make this actually functional and few pretty significant hardware hurdles to figure out. So basically what we have here is a peltier cooler, controlled by an esp32, with a thermocouple on the cup. It’s setup on a local web server for now, so I can set the temp I want the cup to get to (or the beer in this case) and it will regulate itself to maintain that set point. I’m happy to report the mountains were blue
Anyways, that’s a lot of half complete stuff but soon we should have the tank setup in its spot, which I really can’t wait to do. From there I feel like I’ll get to actually progress making the habitat for my planned lil fellas, where as I feel like so far this project has been a crazy amount of side quests lol.
ElZesto
Active Member
Behold! Basic functions test is a complete success and it looks great!
Super stoked, this feels like such a big milestone and super rewarding for what was beginning to feel like a completely ridiculous amount of time I’ve put in lol. Still sooooo much work to go though hahaha
Super stoked, this feels like such a big milestone and super rewarding for what was beginning to feel like a completely ridiculous amount of time I’ve put in lol. Still sooooo much work to go though hahaha
AquaNanoNZ
Active Member
Looks awesome, great work!
ElZesto
Active Member
Huge milestone here! Got the thing in the house and wet! Long butt day lol.
As it sits now, waiting for the water to clear. Tossed some turbo start in too because I had the bottle on hand.
Looks like there unfortunately has been some pretty significant die off of I don’t know, but regardless better to have all this very old live rock than cured dry stuff. Not much I can do about it now lol.
More sand is on the way too, delivery should be tomorrow so I should have it actually full in the next few days. But still, so hyped to have it up!!
As it sits now, waiting for the water to clear. Tossed some turbo start in too because I had the bottle on hand.
Looks like there unfortunately has been some pretty significant die off of I don’t know, but regardless better to have all this very old live rock than cured dry stuff. Not much I can do about it now lol.
More sand is on the way too, delivery should be tomorrow so I should have it actually full in the next few days. But still, so hyped to have it up!!
AquaNanoNZ
Active Member
Your stand looks awesome! Nice work 
ElZesto
Active Member
Got the first coral in yesterday and first lil fellas today! Everyone’s settling in quick and happy so far.
Fish are:
A clown
A flasher wrasse - I think a blue stripe or something I cant remember
A pair of pearly jawfish - they’ve been at the LFS for about 2 weeks and the owner said they’ve been inseparable, so she only wanted to sell them together for a lower price. Cool dudes who I got in a cave quickly, but then they migrated to a cave in a corner against the wall you can’t see. Oh well
Fish are:
A clown
A flasher wrasse - I think a blue stripe or something I cant remember
A pair of pearly jawfish - they’ve been at the LFS for about 2 weeks and the owner said they’ve been inseparable, so she only wanted to sell them together for a lower price. Cool dudes who I got in a cave quickly, but then they migrated to a cave in a corner against the wall you can’t see. Oh well
ElZesto
Active Member
Fish time now!
So over the last two weeks I’ve added the first fishes. We’ve got:
A single clown (will get a mate but I want a naked)
A blue flasher wrasse (I think, to be honest don’t remember the exact species name, but she’s a great fish)
A pair of pearly jawfish. Only wanted one but the lady at the LFS said when they came in they stayed together, and have moved around their display tank but always stayed together, so she gave me a deal so long as they went together.
Tank shot featuring diatoms:
Clown:
Jawfish (the bold one):
Wrasse ft foxface:
Those were all added a week and half ago, and yesterday I got the one spot fox. Wanted to wait, but, algae has started growing, he’s the right size, and the LFS had him for a month and said he’s been healthy and well behaved so I went for it. He went dark and camo during drip acclimation as I expected, but when I introduced him to the tank he swam into cave for maybe 2 minutes, then came out, did a lap or two around the tank and within like 5 minutes had got his beautiful yellow color back. I was very surprised how fast he colored up considering I've read they can be quite skittish for sometime in a new tank, but this is my first foxface so I don’t know.
Anyways I’d like some input on his behavior. He’s a very active swimmer, will graze algae, and eat frozen food. He hasn’t touched nori so far, doesn’t even seem like he realizes it’s food despite the wrasse taking bites with no issues. I have some organic roasted sushi nori, no salt or flavoring on it, just plain ol nori. For the last 20 minutes or so tho he’s just in the corner of the tank, swimming up and down repeatedly. I’m worried he might be stressed, but maybe it’ll just take a few days for him to chill. Just want some input from other who have had these fish, this look normal? Any tips on getting him to pick at nori?
Vid of the behaviour:
Thanks!
So over the last two weeks I’ve added the first fishes. We’ve got:
A single clown (will get a mate but I want a naked)
A blue flasher wrasse (I think, to be honest don’t remember the exact species name, but she’s a great fish)
A pair of pearly jawfish. Only wanted one but the lady at the LFS said when they came in they stayed together, and have moved around their display tank but always stayed together, so she gave me a deal so long as they went together.
Tank shot featuring diatoms:
Clown:
Jawfish (the bold one):
Wrasse ft foxface:
Those were all added a week and half ago, and yesterday I got the one spot fox. Wanted to wait, but, algae has started growing, he’s the right size, and the LFS had him for a month and said he’s been healthy and well behaved so I went for it. He went dark and camo during drip acclimation as I expected, but when I introduced him to the tank he swam into cave for maybe 2 minutes, then came out, did a lap or two around the tank and within like 5 minutes had got his beautiful yellow color back. I was very surprised how fast he colored up considering I've read they can be quite skittish for sometime in a new tank, but this is my first foxface so I don’t know.
Anyways I’d like some input on his behavior. He’s a very active swimmer, will graze algae, and eat frozen food. He hasn’t touched nori so far, doesn’t even seem like he realizes it’s food despite the wrasse taking bites with no issues. I have some organic roasted sushi nori, no salt or flavoring on it, just plain ol nori. For the last 20 minutes or so tho he’s just in the corner of the tank, swimming up and down repeatedly. I’m worried he might be stressed, but maybe it’ll just take a few days for him to chill. Just want some input from other who have had these fish, this look normal? Any tips on getting him to pick at nori?
Vid of the behaviour:
Thanks!
ElZesto
Active Member
Ok idk foxface is probably fine. I just went up to him and he looked at me while swimming up and down like on the video. I extended my hand towards the tank which scared him and he swam to the opposite side, then I guess he remember he’s a chill dude who’s armed and now is chilling grazing again?? Idk, I guess I’ll just keep an eye out for him spiraling and give him a hand when needed? Probably overthinking the fish psychology is the only real “problem” here lol.
Vibes immediately after scaring him:
Vibes immediately after scaring him:
ElZesto
Active Member
All the softies are looking good and everyone’s happy. I’m now starting to track parameters to see how the tanks stability is before putting in some stonys.
1/25/26
385calc
6.6alk
0.22 phos
1275mag
17.2no3
1/29/26
15g WC - reef crystals
2/1/26
425calc
6.8alk
Didnt read phos in time oops
1350mag
11.3no3
If anyone/everyone reading this can chime in, what do you do to maintain parameters? How long have you been doing it? Had any corals die? Any trend on specific types? Anything notably thrive more than others?
I’ll also answer these Qs about my other tank that’s about a year old, but I’d like to hear from more people!
1/25/26
385calc
6.6alk
0.22 phos
1275mag
17.2no3
1/29/26
15g WC - reef crystals
2/1/26
425calc
6.8alk
Didnt read phos in time oops
1350mag
11.3no3
If anyone/everyone reading this can chime in, what do you do to maintain parameters? How long have you been doing it? Had any corals die? Any trend on specific types? Anything notably thrive more than others?
I’ll also answer these Qs about my other tank that’s about a year old, but I’d like to hear from more people!
NautiTang
Well-Known Member
O
Nice build dude!
I use AFR and have since I started my 75 not quite a year ago. There have been some adjustments in dose as time has gone one but generally pretty stable.
Nice build dude!
ElZesto
Active Member
Nice. Had any coral losses or struggle or have you been lucky enough to have success everytime?
I just do AFR in my 40g that’s going a year now. Some stuff is amazing, and some stuff doesn’t survive. Doesn’t seem to be any reason I can pin down why.
NautiTang
Well-Known Member
I’ve lost a couple acros, new arrivals not related to the dosing. And a few other things mainly due to coral aggression.
ElZesto
Active Member
Got some new additions today.
Cleaner Wrasse
2x Bangai Cardinals
Naked clown
And the first stonys, some from a friend and some from the shop.
A orange plate
Single head hologram hammer
Single head gold something hammer
Birds nest
A monticap of some kind
Various tank shots from today:
Cleaner Wrasse
2x Bangai Cardinals
Naked clown
And the first stonys, some from a friend and some from the shop.
A orange plate
Single head hologram hammer
Single head gold something hammer
Birds nest
A monticap of some kind
Various tank shots from today:
Red_Beard
I already did
I used to use brs 2 part. I use AFR now though and only bump individual elements as needed with 2 part.
Looking good!Got some new additions today.
Cleaner Wrasse
2x Bangai Cardinals
Naked clown
And the first stonys, some from a friend and some from the shop.
A orange plate
Single head hologram hammer
Single head gold something hammer
Birds nest
A monticap of some kind
Various tank shots from today:
