My First Tank Build, 75g.

[.Marshall]

Well after a couple months of researching and a month of collecting equipment and supplies, and on top of all that buying my first home, I have finally got most of what I need to start my first build

I am very excited about this and I hope to post many many pictures of my progress! Hope you enjoy the show!

Got the wood together and started the stand today. Pictures of 2x4 frame and front face frame.

Over the past week i've been adding very light coats of black spray paint to the back of the aquarium, Finished it up tonight.

Before:

After:

The stand is making progress, all the wood is on, sanded, and painted (for the most part) I will start staining the stand and doors an 'Ebony stain' tonight. I went for the 'almost black, but up close you can tell its brown' look.

Siliconed the baffles into my 30g long sump a couple days ago, was able to get a picture of it last night. The wonderful workers didn't cut the 3 baffle correctly and was a little longer than 12" so it had to go in a little slanted.. no big deal but it looks like he**

, but oh well its only a sump.

Been working on my new house non-stop for the past week painting and cleaning and I finally got some time to work on the "most important" thing on my mind right now, my reef build! The stand is nearing completion, just need to finish staining the doors and mount them and it should be good to go. I decided to order a glass hole kit from gl*******s.com to drill an emergency drain and a hole for my return line, once that is finished it should be ready for water

How do you like the Blue?!

And I'm contemplating mounting some moulding for the base of the stand.. I wasn't going to at first but seeing it now makes it look a little top heavy (design wise). What does everyone think? Would be another piece of 1x3 like the top with possibly another 1x1 on the bottom of the 1x3.

 

[skinz78]

Looking good, keep the updates coming!

 

[DJE]

Nice Job on the stand! Looking forward to the rest of the build.

 

[aherre07]

Looks like you got a solid start there. Nice stand and color choice. What equipment is in the plans to run this nice setup?

 

[BarbH]

Looks like you are off to a good start, look forward to following along to see how things progress.

Sent from my SCH-R720 using Tapatalk 2

 

[.Marshall]

Equipment is as follows..

-Reef Octopus 6 NWB-150 Skimmer
-Mag 7
-Tek T5 6x54 light
-Jager 200 watt heater
-Tunze 6095 Powerhead
-Tunze 7096 Multicontroller
-Apex Lite Controller
-BRS Stage 5 Standard RO/DI
-Top-off system (Reservoir, aqua lifter)
-40lbs BRS Dry Reef Saver Rock
-25lbs BRS Dry Pukani Rock
-10lbs BRS Dry Fiji Rock

 

[REEFKEEPER10]

That is funny I have a 75g with a 30g long for a sump but I used 1/8 inch plexiglas and lots of silicone to keep it in place. You have much better equipment though. Great job on the stand and tank. Every nice!!!! :clap2:

 

[revhtree]

Cool! Can't wait to see it come together!

 

[Saulsa]

Great craftmanship for a first build! What all equipment have you gone with?

 

[Aquaph8]

looking good, nice job on the stand

 

[VB68]

Off to to great start, will be following the build.

 

[.Marshall]

Well did a little more work on the stand last night and today, as well as drilling another hole for an emergency drain and a hole for my return. Have to thank Glass-holes.com for the bit, bulkheads, and pvc pieces!


I am so close to finishing the stand I can almost see it plump full of aquarium equipment, its killing me! Tomorrow I will be putting the doors on and its finished!!! :rock: I added the bottom moulding, looks great and I'm glad I did it

Drilling of the Emergency drain and return line!

Emergency drain and main overflow bulkhead in place.

Return bulkhead in place.

Everything is sitting in the corner of my basement WAITING to be set up and put together..

..So I figured why not put the skimmer together and get the sump layout set up. Here is how it will look.. except in reverse; skimmer on left, jager heater, mag 7 return on right side

Hopefully by Monday evening the aquascape will be in the DT and ready for water!!


**One question though, should I run my skimmer during the initial cycle? and how much would a CUC benefit the tank during its cycle.. Thanks guys!

 

[BarbH]

Looking good, I ran my skimmer through my cycle. As for your cuc I believe that you will want to wait until after the cycle, there will not be much for them to feed on to start off with and also I believe that the ammonina and nitrites are not good for them.

 

[REEFKEEPER10]

Looking good !!!!!

 

[REEFKEEPER10]

Yeah you need to keep the lights out until after the cycle then turn it on. Wait until you start to see a little algae growth before adding a CUC.

 

[.Marshall]

Yeah you need to keep the lights out until after the cycle then turn it on. Wait until you start to see a little algae growth before adding a CUC.

Will do thanks!

 

[REEFKEEPER10]

Welcome

 

[.Marshall]

Well the day has come, finally made some water worthy progress, and I couldn't be happier! :jester: Last night I brought my stand over to my new house and started getting things in place, this is where the stand will rest for now.

I also drilled the brute bucket and affixed the float valve, started making water, and figured I should take a picture.. I felt very accomplished getting to this point :agree: I added a picture of my RO/DI setup just for reference.

Setup my TEK T5 Lighting as well and plugged them in, SOO BRIGHT! lit up the entire room! I hope once there is water in the tank the Light pollution in the room wont be so extreme! But it looks awesome..

Thats it for today, expect more tomorrow. I teflon taped all the bulkhead threads, cemented some pvc, and got everything ready for tonights plumbing activites. Should have a good start on that by the time I call er' quits tonight, I do have so much more I SHOULD be doing on my new house like painting the living room and kitchen but this is so much more important to me lol.

 

[revsgirl]

Alright! Comin' right along, and lookin' good! 1smile1

 

[BarbH]

Coming along nicely Definitly can be hard to do the other things that need to be done when there is something as much fun as setting up your tank to be done