My always upgrading 165g build

general0 · Aug 15, 2013

I have had this setup in the building stages for over a year and still have not been able to complete it due to I'm constantly upgrading one thing or another before I can finish this project! I upgraded to this from a stable and happy 75g and there are days I have wished I had just kept my 75 going!

The equipment currently is as listed:

165g 72x20x27 Oceanic tank drilled for 2 - 1 1/2" bulkheads and custom overflows
Custom stand built by me!
40g sump with two sections skimmer and return
mag 9 return pump but soon to be replaced by a Speedwave DC Pump 1320 GPH
Bubble Magus NAC 77 skimmer
BRS dual reactor with GFO and Carbon
Reef Mania CR300 Calcium Reactor with a CarbonDoser Electronic Co2 Regulator and 20 pound CO2 bottle
Mag 3 for the reactors
2 300w finnex controllable heaters controlled by Aquacontroller
Neptunes Aquacontroller III with Break out box, Aquasurf, and 2 DC8's
2 Jebao WP40's with Modified controller cables controller by Aquasurf
2 Koralia 1150's
2 Reef Breeders IT2040's and 1 IT2060
DIY brackets made for ATO floats and probes out of acrylic and Koralia pump magnets
American DJ 8 switch power strip for non controller items

Fish:
2 Yellow Tangs
Purple Tang
Blue Hippo Tang
Red Sea Sailfin Tang
7 Blue/Green Chromis
2 Pajama Cardinals
Mystery Wrasse
Yellow Corris Wrasse
Chalk Basslet
Blue Spot Goby
Starry Blennie
Dragon Face Pipefish

Corals:
I will post some pictures of the collection!

The tank has experienced some issues lately with ALK and I lost a few of my prized frags and one large blue milli colony. I recently switched from 250w MH to LED's and things are looking ok, I'm really on the fence with them and might eventually go back to MH but will give the LED's time to see how they work out. I just liked the look of the tank better under the radiums and Lumenbright pendants.

This 75g was the beginning of what is now:

This is the tank when I picked it up, I drilled and installed the overflows myself. the glass on this tank is 5/8 thick and was nerve wrecking to drill!

I wasn't happy with the stand it came with so I built a new one 40" high to accommodate a taller skimmer I used when it was first setup (Euro Reef RS250) This is before paint:

Test fitting the tank and sump:

This is after paint, the right side had a 31x31x12 frag tank stand built next to it but has since been removed due to it was just to big for the area the tank is in. I have a new 24x24x40 stand being built to match the main display stand which will be for a new 20x20x12 1/2" rimless acrylic tank I will use for a display refugium and new home for a Mantis Shrimp! It will all be connected to the samp sump and return for simplicity.

This is when I had both of those setup. It was way too much work having two sumps and that frag tank was just a eye sore in our lower livingroom. The wife wanted it gone!

And a picture of what the frag tank had in it waiting to be moved over to the main display:

general0 · Aug 15, 2013

My first attempt at rockscaping the mew tank was not very good. You can also see my old light setup. The center brace of the tank was a glass brace about 20" wide so I though using a 400w MH light would be a good idea. The problem with that setup was that is heated that glass so hot you couldn't touch it! I also had temp issues in the display and ended up buying a Tradewinds 1/3hp chiller for the tank. This combined with the frag tanks two 150w and 4 T5 was using an insane amount of electricity!

I combined the frag tank sump and the 40 breeder together and used a Reeflow Dart for circulation in both tanks and that also was a bit too much so in the end the frag tank went down and I moved into phase 2 of the build design.

Here are a couple of shots of some of the corals during the take down of the frag tank and move into the main display:

Realizing I needed to do something about the complicated system, I tried to make things easier for myself and took down the frag tank and began switching over to leds. I wanted to get the best bang for my money and found Reef Breeders had a pretty good reputation so I went for a couple of their lights to test them out:

I was happy with the coloration and I gave it a few months while I sorted out the rest of the tanks build to see how they would work out.

general0 · Aug 15, 2013

Fast forward to today and here is how my system looks now! I'm still trying to find the time to finish my stands doors and redo all my electrical pieces. I'm nearly ready to install the display refugium tank and once that is completed I will take some updated photos, These are around the time of my ALK overdose (Calcium reactor is not being used right now)

general0 · Aug 15, 2013

Some of the corals in my collection, they have grown out a bit from these photos!

general0 · Aug 15, 2013

More have been added and they have grown out since this picture!

general0 · Aug 15, 2013

Sorry for the photo dump. I had been wanting to post this build for a while and just never found the time to do it till today! I will get some updated pictures to show the growth and coloration for a comparison of what was then and now!

general0 · Oct 2, 2013

I finally got a chance to take some pictures of the work I have been doing to my setup. I was able to finally get the old sump out and put the new one in and I'm in the middle of putting everything in it's place for a dry fit and building an area for the electrical components.

trying to figure out what to do with the controllers and everything else electrical to keep the area clean and easily accessible so decided to make a box on the left of the sump between the stand legs that will be accessible through a door on the outside of the tank to keep all the wires concealed.

The plumbing and rewiring will be done today and I'll finally get the calcium reactor on line (still need to move the CO2 bottle in the stand), finish my DIY ATO, start the biopellet reactor with 1/4 the recommended pellets, and program the controller!

Before:

After:

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