B’s 65 Gallon Build Thread! Come on in!

[Be102]

Hey guys, long time no talk, a lot has changed since I first joined R2R and I'm happy to announce I will finally be adding a sump to my tank! I have a 65 gallon with a custom made stand all done by me! I've never done anything like this before and it was quite the learning experience, ( https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/first-time-for-everything.281899/ ) was My stand build thread and I was going to continue there.. but this can be dedicated to my tank now solely. I recently switched my stand over from the original one the tank was on to the new one I just built. It was a long process but it went pretty smoothly and now I am ready to start to add stuff to my tank.

Current equipment

65 gallon tank
Custom built stand
Lifereef Overflow
Marine Depot 36 inch Elite Sump
Varios 6 Return pump
I am still in the process for choosing a skimmer yet I am leaning towards the Lifereef Vs23.

Livestock -
2 Ocellaris clown fish
1 Watchman goby (white no longer yellow)
Pistol shrimp
miscellaneous hermit crabs / some snails
Few different corals... not really sure names

As of now I am in the process of designing a manifold & my whole return plumbing setup. I intended on having 4 gate valves on my manifold and one ball valve at the end or something similar in order to do some easy water changes. I'd like to thank @dbl for all his time and patience in regarding helping me come up with a nice design, and couldn't have gotten as far as I have without him. I came up with a really rough & ugly sketch and @dbl took time out of his day to draw a nice detailed sketch to help me understand a lot. Now I am asking everyone for some more help in regards to upgrades and or changes they would do based on the experience they have building and or anything related.


I'll attach a bunch of pictures of everything.. from what my sump looks like, to what the plan is, to even the corals I currently have in my tank.


Bonus picture of my snail riding my thermometer around the tank :p

 

[dbl]

Well since I was tagged, I guess I better comment...lol. Happy to help and I'm glad you posted this for others to comment. One thing @Be102 didn't mention is he's thinking of using schedule 80 fittings. I advised him it schedule 80 is overkill for an aquarium but if he was going to go with S80 fittings, to just use S80 pipe as well. I've never used the two different types in the same application, except for valves. Curious what others think.

 

[Be102]

Bump

 

[Be102]

Anyone with advice?

 

[samnaz]

Advice on what? Using schedule 80 fittings with schedule 40 pipe? I'm putting a build together now and was wondering the same thing. I posted a thread about it a few days ago. If I remember correctly everyone said it is fine to use sch 40 and sch 80 together. Plus, I've seen so many tanks using both different types without issue.

 

[Be102]

Advice on what? Using schedule 80 fittings with schedule 40 pipe? I'm putting a build together now and was wondering the same thing. I posted a thread about it a few days ago. If I remember correctly everyone said it is fine to use sch 40 and sch 80 together. Plus, I've seen so many tanks using both different types without issue.

Advice regarding designing my manifold / plumbing. From what I understand it’s fine to use sch 40 and 80 connections. So you should
Be good on that aspect.

 

[Engloid]

What are all the gate valves on a manifold for? I try to avoid gate valves due to the cost of them.

 

[Be102]

Needed to bump this... here’s my tank now! Not much going on but that’s ok still trying to figure everything out again before adding fish.
Speaking of fish I really have no clue what I want so far besides a mandarin, some cool creatures and maybe another eel!

The current plan for me now is to start making every aspect of maintenance and care as hassle free as possible! I set up my ato today and it seems to be working well so far. I still need to order some new equipment.

I want to buy ghl maxi for awc as well as their khd and ion director. Which will be the beginning of me falling down the dosing and real coral care.

I messed with my light the other day and realized that the 4th channel was not responsive. Emailed james@orpek at 12:30 am and he literally responded at 12:34 asking about the light and telling me what I can do / what he needed to know.


from there he put me in connection with some other people to help me trouble shoot. Unfortunately my led board / a few diodes burnt out... rather than just replacing the few things Orphek went out of their way and did a lot for me.
They’re sending me Some new goodies!! So my light isn’t under warranty anymore but I love my light so much and it’s so worth it I didn’t bat an eye when it came to ordering a board for the light.
To help me out!! Orphek decided to send me the board, a whole new set of diodes, 4 new fans, a coral phone camera kit and some other stuff I can’t really think of. Honestly I can’t say anything but great things about them!!

 

[Be102]

Took some cool coral photos... got a new orphek lens system when I upgraded my lights!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Hey @Be102

Tanks looking good. I just came across this, but I would assume you have plumbing behind you. 40 and 80 can be used interchangeably.

I would put the mandarin on a wait list down the road. Do your research on them. They are fish which will need owners that understand their needs and a tank that is ready to provide for it. You may be, just not sure so figured I’d mention. Great pix on coral and way to go Orphek

 

[Be102]

Hey @Be102

Tanks looking good. I just came across this, but I would assume you have plumbing behind you. 40 and 80 can be used interchangeably.

I would put the mandarin on a wait list down the road. Do your research on them. They are fish which will need owners that understand their needs and a tank that is ready to provide for it. You may be, just not sure so figured I’d mention. Great pix on coral and way to go Orphek

Thanks for a reply!!!

So with the mandarin I completely agree. I just feel at this point my tank has now been established quite some time, and with that I’ve probably had my sump for 2 years now. Last year around this time I took my two remaining fish ( two clowns) and tried to ttm them for ich while leaving the display fallow for 76 days. I kid you not on say day 77 my clownfish pair died. Lol after doing all that work and waiting I was quite discouraged and decided to not do much with my tank as I didn’t have any idea where to start.

Flash forward to now and my tank is doing really well ( I think!) I actually really stink with maintenance but don’t have much of a bio load / just have some corals and crabs / snails. I have tons and tons of pods! Mostly seem the same type to me but what do I know? I actually don’t even do water changes ( I’m the worst I know) I just top off but all my levels are relatively similar. I do however wish I did do more water changes as I could imagine the growth I’d get from my corals but honestly not one thing that is in my tank is upset it seems. My toadstool has made probably 5 new little toadstools!

My next move is to take rocks out of my tank and use the e- Marco cement I bought with some new rocks I also got off of amazon. I just bought a box of mostly base rocks but figured I could break them if I choose and create whatever I want.
Only downside with the cement is that I ordered it off brs and shipping popped the glue pouch inside. They of course sent me a new one free of charge but it also happened to that one. I told them don’t send me another one but asked if I could just get a glue pouch but they couldn’t do that and sent me to emarco still waiting for a reply!

for filtration I feel I am doing quite well as I have a lot of live rock and also have my sump filled with rock and a huge marine pure block. Everything seems happy

I run polyfil here and there as well in my cups!

lol! The frag in the left on the rack I moved trying to save it... looks as if the other coral grew on it already! Lol

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Hi,

Sound Like you have a good handle on things. Sorry about the clowns. Sometimes it can be frustrating. I used to love clowns, kept tomato clowns for the longest time. Had one 5 to 6 years old. He died of brook or velvet. Since then I have not owned a clown.

With an established sump it should have an established pod community that can sustain the mandarin. I would use that time to work on getting him onto frozen just in case he rips thru the pods. Algae barns also sells different pods in a pinch.

As for maintenance don’t be hard on yourself. No water change tanks are done, but done with a plan and not just by stopping maintenance. Just keep an eye on the essentials. I think I see what you are doing with the rock, is it trying to build up the scape? I’ve never used that product. If you are adding it into the tank I would say add it in a piece by piece. There is a possibility of a ammonia spike while the rock is building up its bed, but more I would think it would throw off the balance off all the other numbers like alk and ph since the rock will be sucking it up.

Just a few thoughts. After line 3 though my thoughts do wander. That’s why I have back up to proof read my stuff @Peace River

 

[Be102]

Hi,

Sound Like you have a good handle on things. Sorry about the clowns. Sometimes it can be frustrating. I used to love clowns, kept tomato clowns for the longest time. Had one 5 to 6 years old. He died of brook or velvet. Since then I have not owned a clown.

With an established sump it should have an established pod community that can sustain the mandarin. I would use that time to work on getting him onto frozen just in case he rips thru the pods. Algae barns also sells different pods in a pinch.

As for maintenance don’t be hard on yourself. No water change tanks are done, but done with a plan and not just by stopping maintenance. Just keep an eye on the essentials. I think I see what you are doing with the rock, is it trying to build up the scape? I’ve never used that product. If you are adding it into the tank I would say add it in a piece by piece. There is a possibility of a ammonia spike while the rock is building up its bed, but more I would think it would throw off the balance off all the other numbers like alk and ph since the rock will be sucking it up.

Just a few thoughts. After line 3 though my thoughts do wander. That’s why I have back up to proof read my stuff @Peace River

Yes I think I would like to build up my rock work a little bit. I also have decided that after I figure my rock structure out that is when i will plan on buying some new fish! I think i will go the route of purchasing only pre-quarentined fish as well to help keep my tank disease free. Not too many people seem to have 65 gallon tanks therefore I struggle with really trying to plan something for my rock scape. Im thinking maybe even leaving a space in the middle who knows...

For the rock I might even glue it, and stick it in some old saltwater when I do a water change and in my eyes that will help leeching/ absorbing whatever.

I have some plans for future equipment as well as other plans but I plan on doing it all slow and steady this time!

 

[Be102]

I have a question for all you ato folks!! Should I move the input of my ato tubing to the side with my skimmer?? I’m just thinking that the way it is currently set it seems to run very often / I feel it is unable to completely raise the level as it seems to be the same as the skimmer section. I could always raise the wall between the skimmer and return too! You can’t see my hose but it’s currently in the return section as well as the sensors. I know the return is the only one that fluctuates I just don’t know how that is then influenced as the skimmer section is pretty connected / same level.

I’m not worried I’mgetting too muchwater as the levels aren’t rising just thinking it would be smarter for output of ato to be in the skimmer section Whilst still keeping sensor in return section. My ato just came on whilst typing this although only for 10 seconds or so

 

[Be102]

Bump ...


still overthinking my ato!

 

[dbl]

In my opinion, it really doesn't matter which section you place the ATO output. The sensor definitely needs to stay in the return section as you described. Evaporation will occur at the same rate and it is picked up by the sensor in the return, regardless of which section you have the fresh water output. Enlarging the return section may help with the cycle time of the ATO pump running, but I'm not sure I would personally worry about it. Just my $.02.

 

[Be102]

In my opinion, it really doesn't matter which section you place the ATO output. The sensor definitely needs to stay in the return section as you described. Evaporation will occur at the same rate and it is picked up by the sensor in the return, regardless of which section you have the fresh water output. Enlarging the return section may help with the cycle time of the ATO pump running, but I'm not sure I would personally worry about it. Just my $.02.

I am not as concerned about the lifespan of the ato as much as the amount of water I feel I am adding. I think I need to just get comfortable and let my ato do it’s thing. I just feel it turns on so often although not for much time when it does. I just watch my ato reservoir go down and I am amazed at how much is evaporating. In my eyes it’s just adding more water to the tank but in reality it’s not getting closer to any edges / water level isn’t rising so I shouldn’t worry as much!

 

[dbl]

Every system is different when it comes to evaporation as there are a lot of factors that come in to play. As an example, I go through nearly three gallons/day on a 120g tank. As you said, as long as the water levels are maintained at a consistent (and your desired) level, let the beauty of an ATO do its thing. :)

 

[Be102]

Hi all,

so I tested my tank water a few month back and never really did anything with it. Obviously this is very old results but still was wondering if anything stuck out... thanks!

 

[Be102]

Bump... with another question!! I want to do two things to my tank and don’t know the route for either. The first is I want to use something like egg crate ( can’t cause the size doesn’t work with the spacing ) to block my overflow box from my big snails from entering it. I’ve had It happen twice so far! Where a large snail will get in and wedge against the overflow intake valve and then tank level rises. And of course with my luck I have float valves for overflowering in my sump and in the actual overflow box as if it would get clogged on its way to the sump but not at the actual inside tank/ overflow box side / in tank. So I got flooded! Now it’s just me hoping it doesn’t happen again ....

Anyways the next problem I have isn’t really a problem but I am curious if I can grow chaeto in my sump. I can put it in my fuge except I need to one add a light but also if I did that I need to switch the type of lid I have as it’s colored. Any ideas??