Hey everyone, my name is chase i'm from a small town in Idaho. I have been in the hobby for about a year now and you might have seen me lurking on R2R or posting some beginner questions that i have had over the last couple months. I have been working with a 20gal column tank that i am just not a fan of due to aesthetics and flow limitations. However the 20 gal has opened my eyes to the challenges and rewards this hobby has to offer and its something i find very rewarding. Having had enough of the column and much persuasion of the wife i decided to upgrade to the IM INT 75 gallon tank. I have been a little shy about posting a build thread as i am relevantly new to the hobby and don't want to look like i have no idea what i am doing... (even though that is probably more than true) but i decided to start this to help myself learn and hopefully others as well. So for the build i decided to take it really slow to allow myself to fully research every component that will be going into the system and decide what will work best for me, and allow my self to save up for these components. So i ordered the tank and the black APS stand and i am extremely satisfied with IM . The quality of both these items is unlike anything i have seen in a aquarium before being from Idaho Reef tanks are few and far between. I set the tank and stand up and started to toy around with plumbing ideas.
I Got a good idea of what i what it was going to look like and next i ordered my sump and return pump. I decided to go with the Trigger Triton 34" sump which is awesome and probably a little overkill for this tank. The sump fits in the stand just barely and and sits on the stand rails on the ends leaving about a 3/4" gap between the sump and bottom of the stand. Worried that when i put water in, the weight might crack the bottom of the sump as it is not supported i decided to fabricate a support out of 1/2" angle iron and placed kilmat, a car sound deadening material on top of it to eliminate any vibrations. i wish i would have taken a picture of it when it was done. Sorry. Also Decided to go with the Neptune Cor 20 return pump.
With the sump in place it was time to finish the plumbing.
Once i got the plumbing done i realized i made some mistakes. I should have used a gate valve. I will probably replace that here soon, second i don't know what i was thinking and butted my union up to the bulkhead coming off the tank... and glued it. Now if i ever have to remove it i will have to cut the bulkhead out. Other than that everything went pretty smooth for the plumbing.
Once that was all done i decided it was time to level everything out and do a leak test of the system which i did not get any pictures of. I let it run for about 48 hours and to my amazement there was only 1 small drip coming from the bottom of the bulkhead due to it being pretty loose. Next i decided to order my lighting as this was going to be the biggest investment of the tank and wanted to get it out of the way. I decided to go with Led/T5 combo as this is visually appealing to me and everyone seems to gave good results with that combo. I decided to order the 36" Aquatic life T5 fixture with 2 Blue plus 1 purple plus and 1 coral plus bulb. I was really torn on what LED light to order. I was originally going to with 2 XR30w G4's but decided to cancel that order and go with the kessil AP700 as it's coverage almost perfectly matches my tank and i get to save a bucks only having to order 1. I received the lights and decided to do the single wire mod on the T5 fixture. I work at fab shop so i found this mod very simple and a much better looking option to having 2 wires. I also ordered the aquatic life t5 mounting arms as my walls are all plaster and i don't know how much i trust plaster holding alot money 13" above a watery grave.
I think i am going to take the arms into my work and have them put a Z type bend in the arm to try and push the light forward about 1 1/2" to 2" as the last to rows of T5's are pointing straight into my overflow.
Anyways that's as far as I have made it. My next steps are going to be silicone in a PVC sheet in as i plan to go barebottom and build a controller/dosing/ato cabinet to go next to the tank. Thanks for taking the time to look and check back for future updates.
Once that was all done i decided it was time to level everything out and do a leak test of the system which i did not get any pictures of. I let it run for about 48 hours and to my amazement there was only 1 small drip coming from the bottom of the bulkhead due to it being pretty loose. Next i decided to order my lighting as this was going to be the biggest investment of the tank and wanted to get it out of the way. I decided to go with Led/T5 combo as this is visually appealing to me and everyone seems to gave good results with that combo. I decided to order the 36" Aquatic life T5 fixture with 2 Blue plus 1 purple plus and 1 coral plus bulb. I was really torn on what LED light to order. I was originally going to with 2 XR30w G4's but decided to cancel that order and go with the kessil AP700 as it's coverage almost perfectly matches my tank and i get to save a bucks only having to order 1. I received the lights and decided to do the single wire mod on the T5 fixture. I work at fab shop so i found this mod very simple and a much better looking option to having 2 wires. I also ordered the aquatic life t5 mounting arms as my walls are all plaster and i don't know how much i trust plaster holding alot money 13" above a watery grave.
Anyways that's as far as I have made it. My next steps are going to be silicone in a PVC sheet in as i plan to go barebottom and build a controller/dosing/ato cabinet to go next to the tank. Thanks for taking the time to look and check back for future updates.