Greg's 75g

Greg P · Nov 13, 2019

Bahhh, I won't bother posting pics of all the losses.
Over 400 heads of Sunny D palys, 2-300 heads of watermelon zoas, and another 1000 or so heads of a long list of zoas and palys, plus a very long list of SPS.
The only things that survived the carnage were;
RBTAs, GSP, 1 Duncan head and this red acan.

Funnily enough the acan turned green while in a very high nutrient environment while I neglected the holding tank. When returned to the DT it reverted back to red in less than 1 week.

Greg P · Nov 13, 2019

BeardedMcG said:
It’s really cool to see these progress photos.

Thanks for hangin' out bud

Greg P · Nov 13, 2019

The re-build began.
We have a custom tank builder here in Canada who makes nice tanks, but I didn't want to spend $1000+ for a replacement with a glass weir overflow, although I would have liked to.
I decided to sell the warranty replacement and buy a stock 75g and install my own overflow box. I wanted a Stealth overflow but the cost was too high for me here in Canada.
I found a similar style available from a canadian supplier so went for it. It was from Elite Aquatics. He no longer runs a site I can link for you but he is busy selling custom acrylic stuff.

I installed his first iteration box, but did not like the running height in the DT.
I contacted him and after some back-and-forth email he sent/billed me for a custom front box to fit my needs.
His new box style came with a removable weir which covers the top of the front box.
He argued with me for awhile about the water height but eventually gave in.

First box install ...

Greg P · Nov 13, 2019

I don't have pics of the new front box, but here are pics of the new weir inserts

Greg P · Nov 14, 2019

I went through all the issues most had with installing the Synergy shadow boxes.
Because I only run about 600gph through my sump I could work with the design.
I bought a 3-hole box but only run a Herbie.
After many weeks of trying to tune my overflow, I found the best results with having the main in the back box being completely open.
Even though I went from 1" to 1-1/2" in my new build, I still have to deal with over 6' drainage to my sump, and the drop is only a few inches.
I found my system to be most effective with the main wide open - no standpipe - and my emerg being close to the top.
I installed a high alarm float switch.

When I tried to run the system with any kind of main drain standpipe, it could never keep up with the amount of water when the return was first turned on.
It would always immediately overflow the emerg and hit the High float and shut the return pump off. This would cause a cycle that lasted what seemed forever. And I'm not sure it's good for the pump or controller, never mind the fish.

With the main drain running without any standpipe and 1-1/2" drains it finds a full siphon within 20-30 seconds and never hits my high float in the back box

Greg P · Nov 14, 2019

Thanks for following along Dierks !! At least a couple peeps are looking.

Plumbing stuff

Greg P · Nov 14, 2019

Decided I'd had enough of carrying buckets. Aren't some of us getting a bit old to carry buckets ??
My RO is in a bathroom at the back of the house.
I bought some drums and installed this.
I use a 65' 1/2" hose and a pump to transfer water from the main RO drum to a drum in my office/sump room. I use the same hose and pump to dump WC water down the toilet.

Greg P · Nov 14, 2019

Part of the tank upgrade involved improving the electrical panel.
The original location was subject to moisture/splashing etc and was evident when I tried to keep stuff clean.
I was also having problems with controller faults. I read enough threads about the DC lines being interfered with by AC signals being close by.
So, I planned a new panel and after many weeks came up with this.

Old panel

You see it's tucked in the corner and hard to get to.
Plus it's too low and can be splashed etc.

The new panel was planned over months.
I cut a larger hole in the wall from the Livingroom and made a larger electrical panel.
I found some panduit and went to work separating AC from DC.
Installing the panduit and separating AC from DC made a huge difference with controller faults.
Having solved my controller faults, I also enjoyed having each circuit on it's own GFCI.

Greg P · Nov 14, 2019

I supply each controller powerbar with it's own outlet from a duplex outlet that comes from a surge suppression outlet.
The controller power outlets are then fed to the duplex outlets via 14ga pigtails.
All of my hardware is connected to a duplex outlet with it's own socket and each of these is connected to the controller/covered by a GFCI supply socket.

So each circuit of my hardware is covered by it's own GFCI

Yes, I have 13 GFCI outlets covering all of my hardware.
Could 1 in the same body of water cause a number of others to trip at the same time?
We'll find out someday ...

Greg P · Nov 14, 2019

I ran a 20amp circuit to my sump room. This was split with 2 x 15amp surge suppression outlets.
I ran these 4 outlets to a pair of duplex outlets.
These 2 duplex outlets become 4 sources of power for 4 of my controller powerbars.
The panel I built has all the GFCI outlets I need and each outlet has a pigtail which connects back to the designated outlet on the controller powerbar.
I connect my hardware to the GFCI outlets. Make sense?

Greg P · Nov 14, 2019

I'm not used to having the ability to edit my posts so forgive me for adding duplicate info

fishface NJ · Nov 14, 2019

Loved the read. Good luck with the new setup and keep posting!

Ross Petersen · Apr 17, 2020

You still reefing away Greg? I enjoyed reading through this thread. I'm on my second go in the hobby but still largely new at things. Setting up a 100 gallon... in a classroom... fun times. I'd love to connect locally when this COVID thing tames down. Cheers, Ross

Greg P · Apr 18, 2020

Yup, still at it. Thanks for reading you 2.
Ross sure we can connect in the future ... not sure when yet though

Ross Petersen · Apr 19, 2020

Greg P said:
Yup, still at it. Thanks for reading you 2.
Ross sure we can connect in the future ... not sure when yet though

Super - I look forward to it.

brett_schn · Apr 30, 2020

Good read and beautiful tank. I think I might have missed it but did you post your bulb combo? It looks outstanding!

Greg P · Jun 17, 2020

Long overdue update.

It's been a bit of a battle to figure out why my SPS were not happy, but I think I have it nailed down now.
First was the Red Bugs. They were retarding my corals, then balancing nutrients with NO3 and PO4 dosing. So;

Beat Red Bugs this year Feb/20 and no problems after. No signs of AEFW and no losses of any critters. I figure the bugs came in to my tank via snails or bottled copepods as I had added nothing else to my water for over 3 years.
Pre Red Bugs - look hard, they are there !!!

I started dosing NO3 and PO4 some time before last Thanksgiving/2019, but didn't get into it too heavily as it kept inducing diatom outbreaks, or at least what I thought were diatoms.
Anyway, I started regularly dosing NO3 and PO4 around March or so of this year, and lowered my kH from an average of 8-8.5 down to 7.5-7.7.
Since then I've finally started seeing some proper colors in my SPS, and no ill effects to the tank. The dosing also did not bring on the Cyano I dealt with later. I feel that was due to the nutrients being too low.
I've been twice-weekly testing/dosing NO3/PO4 keeping it just around 2-ish/0.06, but not exactly - just monitoring and dosing.

I ran some Chemiclean at the end of May/20. 2nd time in 8 years over 3 builds. I just gave up cleaning it out and dosed it. Tank looks better now and the slimy bacteria on my LR is going away. I was also hoping the erythromycin content would help with some slimy/tumerous-looking bacteria on my LR. It did and the goop is almost all gone.
My pods, brittle stars and snails are really digging the cleaner tank. Pods have rebounded great since the milbemycin treatment, and I haven't needed to dose anything to entice the pods to bounce back, aside from the usual frozen additives I use when the fish get their dinner; mysis/ocean plankton/chopped clams/krill/calanus/cyclopeeze/rotifers etc. Nothing phyto involved. Just good food and good lighting.

After the Chemiclean dose, I'm seeing some truer numbers with the big 3, potassium, and NO3/PO4.
I've been testing the latter 2 twice weekly and am seeing a final dosing strategy.
I'll start testing those once/week along with my other 4 tests and see how things go.
I'd like to get myself back to a point where I'm testing the big '4' (with K) weekly, and testing NO3 and PO4 bi-or monthly.
Currently I'm seeing daily/weekly usage of N and P and trying to find a solid weekly usage. After a couple of months of regular readings I may consider adding dosers. I have a couple BRS-style ones I can add to my controller. We'll see.

Starting to get some coralline on my weir teeth so I hope to see some on the LR someday, although I'm not looking forward to cleaning it from the overflow box later on.

It's been almost a year since I did this restart.
So ....

2019 September pic about 2 months post re-start with the then unknown red bugs.

Most recent pic. Forgive the lack of SPS pruning as I'm still deciding on how I want to let them grow. Plus I didn't get the angle right on the pic, so the growth doesn't look correct. Anyway, it is what it is.

I'm judging the growth based on what I've seen just in the last few months, which has been fairly significant compared to over the year. I'll need to get some better pics up soon to compare.
And I'll need to start posting some SPS closeups as the polyp extension post-red bug treatment is massive. Even my deepwater blue is completely 'fuzzy', and it's never been this active in the many years I've owned it. It was one of the first SPS pieces I bought back in June/2012. Yes, I've had this coral for 8 years !! but not this colony.
I lost it when a tank failed back in 2016, but I was lucky enough to buy a piece back from a local reefer friend after that re-start.
I can see it's polyps flutter as the MP10s create waves !!

Thanks for looking !!