Hey all, it has been a while since I was on here. I wanted to do an update and show off the big upgrade I finally did.
Short back story....
9 years ago, we owned a 14G BioCube setup for a nano reef. It was thriving and we were ready to make the jump up. So we bought a 75 Gallon tank. Before I started setting up the new tank, my son emptied a freshwater food container into the BioCube. He was 2 yrs old. He was just trying to help. My fault for having the tank so low. The massive PH swing killed everything in the tank within a couple hours. And so, my first run at Saltwater tanks ended. The 75 Gallon tank sat empty for close to a year before I turned it into a Vivarium for frogs and fish.
Fast forward 8 years....
After two years of running a 40G saltwater tank it was finally time to use the 75-gallon tank for what it was meant for! I made a couple major changes from the previous setup.
- Change from a single sump drain to three. Two for active draining. One for overflow. One of the active drains has a hole drilled in the top so it doesn't siphon.
- Added a box over the drains so that the level in the tank stays perfect and keeps all particles from remaining on the surface.
- The Sump is broken up into four chambers. Two in the middle and a larger chamber on either side of the middle chamber.
- Front middle chamber is the Drain chamber. It overflows to both the right and left chamber. I created my own large particle collector on the end of the drainpipe. Seems to work. I thought I would need to put in a medium but have had zero issues so far.
- Right chamber is currently just a pod chamber and filled with live rock.
- The plan is to get a refugium light that has low heat output and move a few of the rocks up top to make room for a refugium.
- Left chamber has a Skimmer.
- Back Middle chamber is the return pump which is fed from both the right and left chamber.
- If I built this again I would try to find a slightly shorter tank. It is workable, but you feel like a gymnast getting in there to move or clean things in the middle chambers.
- ATO…how I lived with manual top offs for so long is baffling.
- BRS Temperature control and Heating element.
- Placed the heating element in the Front Drain chamber where I can make sure it never goes dry.
- Placed the Heat sensor in the tank near the drain pipes.
- Temp set for 79 degrees +/- 1 degree.
- Added an additional powerhead, KORALIA Third Generation Powerhead (1950 GPH).
Fish:
- 2 Clowns
- Red Scooter Blenny
- Green Clown Globy
- Purple Dottyback
- Royal Gramma
- Banggai Cardinal
- Frammer
- Hammer
- 2 Different tones of Torches
- Green Flower pot Gonapora
- A Frog spawn that has been hanging in there for the better part of 2 years…and I haven’t given up on him!
- Superman Ricardia.
- Solid Green Mushrooms.
- Striped Mushrooms.
- Purple leathery mushroom.
- Six different types of Polyps.
- Green Star Polyps.
- Blue and Green Sympodium.
- Large Fan, and tons of Smaller Fans
- Rock Anemone
- Peppermint Shrimp