One of our LFS had a deal on a 75g tank that I tried to pass up and couldn't. ($350 for the 75g tank, stand, hood, 20g sump with baffles, plumbing & Sicce 2500 return pump!) So after much pleading with my better half, I'm now the proud new owner.
Time to upgrade from the old 25g tank: (Build thread here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/broncs-25g-reef-build.242309/ )
To a 75g tank!
There is a bit of cleanup work to do to before it is ready to be installed. I went ahead and filled it with freshwater to test for leaks in the tank and plumbing and I'm glad I did. (Especially in the garage instead of the upstairs!) One of the ball valves was missing a rubber gasket - but thankfully I found it underneath and that same pipe had a bad glue job on one of PVC pipes and it came apart dumping about 2-3 gallons of water.
All of the pics are PRE-CLEANUP.
Today I replaced most everything that was metal (door hinges, piano hinge on the hood, hooks, etc) as they were all pretty rusted. I also cleaned most of the sump up and my son cleaned the tank. We also used a touchup pen to fix all of the scrapes and nicks on the wood, then cleaned it and applied a good coat of eco-friendly, non-toxic wood preservative. We still need to drain everything, remove the sump, do a final cleaning, then I plan to repaint the sump area with white FlexSeal and mount a couple of shelves for electronics.
I'm getting a 4-bulb T5 setup used really cheap to mount in the hood for now (I'll probably buy the same ATI bulbs that I currently use). Later on I'll probably add some LED strips. I've also got to purchase a new skimmer - I'll most likely grab a SC-301 for the time being as I've heard good things about them.
My plan is to relocate my current system a few feet away, then get the new system in place with some new live sand and about 30lbs of additional live rock and let that cycle then move my current livestock, rock and equipment over in the next couple of weeks.
Time to upgrade from the old 25g tank: (Build thread here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/broncs-25g-reef-build.242309/ )
To a 75g tank!
There is a bit of cleanup work to do to before it is ready to be installed. I went ahead and filled it with freshwater to test for leaks in the tank and plumbing and I'm glad I did. (Especially in the garage instead of the upstairs!) One of the ball valves was missing a rubber gasket - but thankfully I found it underneath and that same pipe had a bad glue job on one of PVC pipes and it came apart dumping about 2-3 gallons of water.
All of the pics are PRE-CLEANUP.
Today I replaced most everything that was metal (door hinges, piano hinge on the hood, hooks, etc) as they were all pretty rusted. I also cleaned most of the sump up and my son cleaned the tank. We also used a touchup pen to fix all of the scrapes and nicks on the wood, then cleaned it and applied a good coat of eco-friendly, non-toxic wood preservative. We still need to drain everything, remove the sump, do a final cleaning, then I plan to repaint the sump area with white FlexSeal and mount a couple of shelves for electronics.
I'm getting a 4-bulb T5 setup used really cheap to mount in the hood for now (I'll probably buy the same ATI bulbs that I currently use). Later on I'll probably add some LED strips. I've also got to purchase a new skimmer - I'll most likely grab a SC-301 for the time being as I've heard good things about them.
My plan is to relocate my current system a few feet away, then get the new system in place with some new live sand and about 30lbs of additional live rock and let that cycle then move my current livestock, rock and equipment over in the next couple of weeks.
Last edited: