Introduction and progress of the 75 gallon in wall.

[Redwinger]

Hello, A friend told me to check this site out and very rarely do I venture from our club site. Very well done site I might add!

A little background on myself in the hobby. Got involved in reefkeeping in 2004 and have been hooked since. Been through 5 different tank and now I have just finished my sixth build. I will try to catch everyone up to speed.

Started with a 44 pentagon that was a waste of time and money.

About 3 months later I upgraded to a 75 that started as a mixed reef tank

And slowly evolved into a full blown sps that was in place for about two years.

Then came the 120 build. A complete custom acrylic peninsula tank that ended being up only for about 6 months before I decided to go on reefing hiatus for a few years.

That tank stayed up for only six months before I just got burnt out with the hobby. I was running our local club and the amount of time involved with that and our new site left little time for tank and even less for family. So I tore it down and built a small nano to try and compromise. But it just wasn't the same and I was tank less for about 4 years.




Then my wife about 4 months ago gave me a idea..........

 

[Redwinger]

The wife and I were sitting in our living room one night and she knew I wanted to get back in. She looked over at our fireplace that we never use and asked. "Could you put a tank where the fireplace is?" DING DING DING! The wheels started spinning as to how I could pull this one off. Was is it even feasible? What was the biggest tank I could fit in there? Does she realize what she just did? :xd:. So this is where I started

At my best estimates I could only guess as to what size tank would fit in there and I would have no definite answers until I pulled the old fireplace out and could see for my self.

I knew four feet was the max and was hoping a 24" deep tank would fit but to no avail. I only had about 20" to play with as I wanted a flush look to the front when it was all said and done. I settled in on a 75 gallon tank. I did have to open it up a bit and reinforce the with a couple extra headers as this was a outside supporting wall.

Next off was to build the stand. Made out of 2x6 studs and no center brace as space was going to be tight to begin with as I needed all equipment to be concealed in the stand.

 

[Redwinger]

The the tank was put in place

Ordered some custom doors for the top and bottom of the tank to match the decor of the house and began skinning the outside.

40 breeder sump with acrylic baffles installed and tank is plumbed and holding water.

 

[Redwinger]

stained

Cycled dry rock in the tank for a month. Dosed prodibio and vodka and was able to cycle in under 30 days with minimal ammonia and nitrite.

Doors installed and the rest of the exterior was finished

 

[mjaustin22]

Nice Journey!! The new build looks great

 

[Redwinger]

Always being a proponent of very a ULNS I went BB as I had on previous tanks and installed the substrate 1/4" white acrylic and a tek light. Not ready to jump on the LED band wagon and wanted to try something different than the halides I used to run.

 

[gfox]

Great build!What are your plans for coral?Redwinger in Mm?What gives?

 

[Redwinger]

Thanks! Fuzzy sticks of course is there any thing better? I did spend some time in Midland for school hence the name :bigsmile:

Couple frags I added a few weeks ago.

 

[Redwinger]

Some shots from today. I have had a problem with my sunset monti and purple monster stn-ing. I am attributing this to the nutrients being way to low in the system. Last sunday the hanna low range checker was coming back 0 and the GFO had stripped the tank clean. I have since upped the feedings and feeding the coral once a day and dosing aminos one a day as well.

 

[ReeferDre]

Sweet setup. I love the fact it was your wife's idea. Not many would green light a project like that. I showed my wife a build someone had done and replaced their dishwasher. Her response was something along the lines of " what lunatic would give up their dishwasher for some fish". Good luck.

 

[CoralObsessions]

Nice build thread.. Looks great.

 

[orlando809]

I love it,thanks for sharing this nice setup

 

[bige]

Really nice! Keep the pics coming.

 

[ctxmonitor]

haha, that seem quick with the flow of the story. how long did it take you from start to finish?

 

[Redwinger]

haha, that seem quick with the flow of the story. how long did it take you from start to finish?

Started demo back in September. Then didn't do much as I was switching jobs and took a break for almost two months for working on it. Then in December I got back to town on it and had it cycling before the new year. First corals were in the tank after about 3 1/2 weeks.