Sam's 75 gallon first reef tank

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

Looks great , I can't wait to see this build as well . I am starting a 75g build my self this looks great [emoji1303]

Thanks! I like the 75 gallon dimensions. Only complaint I have is I want more depth for the scape. But that could just be me trying to use all 100lbs of my rock which might be a bit unnecessary.

 

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

I had a buddy come over and help with the rock scape, and getting water into the tank. Finished filling it last night around 6:00pm but ran into issues setting up the apex. I was unable to log into it. I decided that could wait till this morning. Hoping to get the apex up and running and start heating the water so I can add the salt today.

 

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

The tank is officially up and running. Got the temperature up, the salt mixed into it, and the probes setup and calibrated. Still need to finish some cable management this week. Trying to clean the house to prep for the baby, and get the tank up and running before the baby is allot of work.

I read a couple posts about the salinity readings on apex being off after the first initial calibration, but recalibrating after a few days and the problem seemed to go away. According to my refractometer I'm at 33ppt and according to apex I'm at 35.4ppt. I will be running the tank at 35ppt but I'm letting the water evaporate to lower the level in return chamber a hair.

I had bought aquaforest bio spira to help the cycle but upon my buddies recommendation I bought microbacter 7. I have the salifert ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate test kits for testing while the tank is cycling. And plan on buying the other salifert test kits in the next few weeks.

Now it's time to sit and wait. I'll be figuring out out linking the kessils to the apex, and setting up the leak detection module, and wxm module over the next few weeks.

 

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

So the tank is running nicely and working on the cycle. I have been dosing microbacter 7 and dosing ammonia. I'm not sure if my salifert test kit is bad or if the cycle is just going quick. But I dosed what should have been 2ppm worth of ammonia and half an hour later when I tested it only registered 0.5 ppm. Tested that night and it was at the <0.15 color. I'm gonna test again tomorrow morning and test for nitrite and nitrate to see if either one went up. I forgot what the first readings for those were but it was no nitrite and super low nitrate.

I've got the apex all setup and configured. Setup my Tunze auto top off, wxm, and kessils. I had one of the mp10s fall in the middle of the night and didn't realize there was a piece of gravel between the magnet and plastic piece, so when I put it back on the magnet bent the plastic piece and now it doesn't spin straight. I ordered a new wet side for the mp10.

Also started cleaning up the wiring on part of the equipment. Read a couple posts about salinity probe being susceptible to interference from power cords so I rerouted that away from any power cords, and plugged it into my PM2 module. Salinity does seem more stable now. Next will be rerouting the wiring in the sump area to make it look a little cleaner.

My temperature is set to 78.5 degrees but we've been having a heat wave the past few days and the tank has hit 80. The house AC was set at 78 but we turned it down to 76 because we hadn't quite figured out where we wanted it since it was installed a few weeks ago. I'm hoping that helps.

 

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

So finally got around to finishing up the wiring under the tank. There are definitely things I would have done differently had I known what I was doing. Guess I'll just have to save the ideas for the next tank.

The cycle is on its way. Ammonia is dropping quicker. It's down to the <0.15ppm mark from 0.5ppm last night. I plan on dosing back up to 1ppm tonight.

This weekend I'm hoping to finish the side door and mount it, and build the sump doors and get them painted and mounted.

I'm trying to figure out what fish I will be wanting and when to add the CUC. I plan on adding clounfish as my first fish. The wife wants the black snowflake and I think I want a fancy snowflake. Also debating getting a bonded pair of black snowflake's.

Here's the list of other fish I'm debating on.

- kole eye Tang
- goby of some sort
- dwarf angelfish
- purple firefish
- wrasse of some sort
- anthias
- cardinal fish
- blenny

I don't plan on getting all of those just some combination depending on how they will mix together.

Here's a couple pics of the tank and new wiring.

 

[Clayton Jessup]

The tank looks great brother . How are you liking the 4 x A160's over your tank ?

Please look up my build of another 75g
"Embarking the Journey " Reef Build by Clayton .. let me know what you think ?

Love the frank though

 

[Clayton Jessup]

Love the tank though I mean

 

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

The tank looks great brother . How are you liking the 4 x A160's over your tank ?

Please look up my build of another 75g
"Embarking the Journey " Reef Build by Clayton .. let me know what you think ?

Love the frank though

Thanks man. So far I'm a fan of the kessils. Haven't actually set them on a schedule as I don't have fish or coral in there so they stay off. looks like the coverage will be decent. I'm planning on getting some kind of lux or par meter when I get corals so I can get them dialed in. I run the tuna sun version on my planted freshwater 40 breeder and they are amazing, which is why I went this route.

I will definitely have to check out your build log.

 

[Whipples]

UPDATES!

 

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

Since @Whipples asked so nicely and it's been a while I figured I'd post an update. Haven't had much time for tank stuff since the newborn showed up but I had planned the build knowing I wouldn't be able to do much.

The tank has been running really good. I did get some fish and CUC. I'm not perfect with the designer clownfish names but I believe I got a Wyoming white clownfish named Olaf and a black and white clownfish named Stitch by the wife. Also got a Royal Gramma we named François because he's better than everybody, just ask him, and a firefish we named Spike because we ran out of originality.

For the CUC I have a cleaner shrimp, 2x astrea snails, 1x trochus snail, 5x cerith snails, and 1x nassarius snail. I had bought 3 nassarius snails but one didn't seem to make it long after being placed in and the second one I found upside down after I don't know how long behind a rock. I definitely need to get a few more snails.

I had some issues with getting chaeto to grow initially, discovered it was my own fault for not washing my filter socks enough. Got a nice ball of chaeto from @Whipples and it is doing fantastic.

The vertex somatic skimmer took a few weeks to get dialed and broken in, but is pulling a nice dark skimmate. My biggest complaint about it is the noise. I put allot of effort into making sure everything was silent and overlooked the skimmer. It isn't terrible during the day with TV and noises in the house but once it quiets down I can hear it anywhere on the bottom floor.

I'll upload pictures is a bit, I'm failing to find the album I save them in on my phone so I will have to actually get out of bed and go downstairs and use the laptop.

 

[Rob77]

So I finally started building my first reef tank. I have been doing planted freshwater tanks for about a year and half. My friend that got me into the planted tanks made the jump to reef tank last year and of course I followed. Figured o post a build thread so hopefully people will point out anything I'm doing wrong and if I do something right maybe it can help others.

The tank is a 75 gallon aqueon tank the wife bought me for Christmas. I got it drilled for the synergy reef shadow overflow.

Equipment:

- Trigger systems saphire 34 sump

- Vertex somatic skimmer

- Vertex 1.5 ml media reactor

- Ecotech M1 return pump

- Ecotech MP10QD X 2

- Kessil A160WE X 4 with gooseneck mount

- Apex 2016 controller with a second EB832

- Avanced acrylic ATO reservoir

- Tunze osmolator ATO

- 100 pounds of reef-cleaners rock


I think that's most of it.


My plan will be to start with LPS but eventually move towards an SPS dominated tank once I have an understanding of what I'm doing.

So far I have the stand frame built and the plumbing dry fitted. Plumbing is done with red schedule 40 PVC and schedule 80 valves and unions.

The pictures are of the plumbing dry fitted, but I think I got it the way I want. I ran into an issue with the shadow overflow blocking one of the kessil mounts so I noticed the cover so that the mount fits in overflow.

This is an awesome build! ...... I really wish I would have used red pipe for plumbing , very nice my friend

 

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

This is an awesome build! ...... I really wish I would have used red pipe for plumbing , very nice my friend

Thanks! I wish I had used the schedule 80 grey fittings for the 45 & 90 elbows.

 

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

So figured out how to find my photos. This is my 12 week old son already enjoying watching the fish

This is spike.

This is Olaf.

This shot had everybody is it.

 

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

So this update is quite sad. I got what i believe is ich in my tank and it took out all but two of my fish. I have the black and white clownfish and the firefish left. I will admit that it was my own fault for playing with fire, I did not do a quarantine tank like i know i should have.

I tried using the PolypLab Medic in the DT since i don't have any corals yet, but 2 days after starting the dose is when i started losing fish. I feel the fish might have been too weak to be able to handle the medication. All the fish were eating really well, i could just see the spots on a couple of them and the royal gramma started flashing on rocks and substrate. I have since stopped using the medic and am feeding multiple times a day to try and keep the last two guys alive while the QT tank cycles. I am still researching QT practices and what medications to have on hand.

I plan on taking my tank fallow for the 76 days that is recommended and i might actually be upgrading from the 75 gallon to a 100+ gallon tank during that time.

This is the 29 gallon i setup for QT. It has a HOB filter, sponge filter, and an MJ-1200 powerhead. The pump on the left was just used for mixing salt and will be removed since it is way to powerfull.

 

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

So the previous post isnt showing the picture properly. Hopefully it shows here.

This is the 29 gallon i setup for QT. It has a HOB filter, sponge filter, and an MJ-1200 powerhead. The pump on the left was just used for mixing salt and will be removed since it is way to powerfull.

 

[sh4rkbyt3]

Sad to hear about your losses MAG but they come with the territory sometimes, unwantingly. Great setup though and your tank will bounce back fine at some point. At least you did have some survivors though! I've seen many total wipeouts on different forums so the mistake is not the first by any means but you're definitely on the right track.
Good luck and can't wait to see how things progress here !

 

[Richards_reef]

The 76 days starts when all fish are out of the system.

 

[MasterAlgaeGrower]

The 76 days starts when all fish are out of the system.

Yup, hoping to start that soon.

 

[Paratore]

Any updates? Really nice tank! How do the MP10s preform on the 75? I’m currently planning a 75 build and was going to use mp10s also.