David's 75gallon reef build

[PastaMario]

Hey y'all
Ive recently gotten back in the hobby after taking a couple years off during college. I tried other hobbies like rc drift cars and nitro rc's, I tried glassblowing for a while lol too many airborne dangers. Then I got really into working on my cars again but none of it was as interesting and amazing as keeping salt water fish.

Tank: 75 gallon Aqueon petco sale 50% off

Synergy Reef Shadow Overflow Drilled DIY

Controller: Classic Neptune Apex monitoring Temp, PH, Amps, and ORP.

ATO: Tunze osmolater 3155

Test Equipment: Milwaukee refractometer, Hanna Phosphate checker, Hanna Alkalinity checker, Red sea pro Calcium, Red sea pro Magnesium.

Lights: 400w Radium with Luxcor ballast and Cozumel reflector

Heater: finnex 300w set to 78.5 degress
backup 150w set to 76

Powerheads: Tunze 6065 epic flow

Skimmer: Vertex Omega 130

Return Pump: EcoTech Vectra S1 with battery backup module

Refugium light: Kessil H380 Halo II LED

Salt Philosophy: Instant Ocean for Rock curing, Tank Cycling, and Quarantine Tanks.
Reef crystals for established reef tank
Red Sea Pro for Coral Quarantine
and occasionally Coralife Marine salt for the nice white bucket

Alk and Calcium: BRS Dosing pumps

Magnesium: Manually dose

Food: Reef Roids and Reef Chili for the corals. Spirulina Brine, Mysis shrimp, and spectrum pellets for the Fish


My interest in salt water aquaria began when I was 6 and visited the Monterrey bay aquarium for the first time with my grandparents. It was such a fun trip with my little brother who was 4 at the time and because my grandma was playing 20 questions about our adventure that day and about around question ten I guessed correct. I was so fascinated by all the exhibits, the massive tuna tank, and the seahorses, and the otters just to name a few, and we stayed all day.
After Monterrey I visited the Maui aquarium and sea world during the next couple of years and I knew I wanted an aquarium. It helped alot that my dad is a marine biologist and kept aquariums with his dorm buddies in Melbourne Florida in the 1970's. He told me stories of how they made glass tanks from scraps at the glass store and the made custom under gravel filters. They were seasoned scuba divers and brought home anything they could catch. usually just sergeant major damsels, and gobies.
Then in fifth grade I got a 3 gallon nano with 2 clownfish for christmas because I had been reading some old aquarium books that my dad had. Fast forward to 8th grade and I saved up enough for a 55 gallon. In high school I experimented with keeping soft corals and learned alot.

Then after college I moved to Santa Rosa and rebuilt my great grandparents workshop into my fish room.

Started up again with an old 29gallon I had. Struggled a while until I got an Apex. Then I got a real skimmer, Vertex omega 130.

It was all going really good until the Santa Rosa firestorm started and I had to evacuate in the middle on the night because the power went out and I could see the glow from the fire over the hills. The next 12 days there was no power and all the roads to my house were closed so I couldn't turn on my generator. I felt helpless every day looking at my Apex app and seeing nothing. I was just lucky that my house didnt burn down.

Everything died in the tank so im forced to start over. The week before the fire I had finished drilling the new 75 gallon so now im going to keep on building, this time I will have some backups in place.
I started with the top using a router for the front and side edges. Then stained it with a couple coats of minwax. The cabinet is made of oak and was my great grandparents old kitchen counter, so its pretty strong.

 

[Tigweldpro]

Rockin the blackbox LED with an apex!
Amazing dude, I'm following

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Good-looking build so far!

 

[PastaMario]

Finished the plumbing on the return side and made sure I had enough unions to take it apart for cleaning. Then I filled the tank with RO water to check for leaks. Luckily there were no leaks even with the Vectra running at full blast. The Synergy Reef Shadow overflow looks soo dang nice once the tank is full.
Also stared on the electronics board box using some scrap wood and 2x4's and painted them white. Picked up a rubbermaid shelf for $12 bucks and a kit for hiding wires behind the tank because I hated the look of the cord octopus hanging around and it was always impossible to find a certain cord in an emergency. I also attached hinges so I can change things in the future. Then routed the cables for my beloved Kessil H380. I think refugium health is very important, and this this grows chaeto better than any other small LED in its size. The only drawback is that it needs to mounted really high up so I wont be able to have both drawers under the stand just one. Now im just waiting for some new lights, finally upgrading from the china black box LEDs.

 

[PastaMario]

Got lots of goodies from BRS during the black friday sale and Ive decided to go all metal Halide because its always cold in my garage and most of my problems have been from my heaters. picked up some Radium bulbs, a ReefBright dim-able ballast , and a standard Luxcor 400w ballast. Then I got the Cozumel reflector mounted to the ceiling all ready to power up with the reefbright 400w ballast but the power cord are different then the standard plug, so I will have to change that later.
Also got my quarantine tank set up for 2 Misbar Percula clowns that I bought from my LFS.

 

[PastaMario]

Started the rock work with 25 lbs of Pukani and 3 pieces of Tonga shelf from BRS. I glued some shelf pieces to get the look I wanted and left plenty of room for the coral to grow in.
Then I washed 20 lbs of fine aragonite sand and 10 lbs of coarse sand. Now filling with RO water to start the curing.

Right side view of the tank

Left side view. Reef Synergy Shadow overflow looking awesome.

 

[PastaMario]

Got the Luxcor ballast fired up with the Radium. All I can say is wow! Soo bright and the perfect amount of blue actinic. The corals are going to love it.

Ride side view of the Tunze 6065. Ive been using hydor koralias for the last 15 years, they last along time but this tunze is epic. Moves water in a small stream which creates a more powerful gyre around the tank.

and a close up of the Tonga shelves. Just need to smooth out some sand and the aquascape will be complete. I'm glad I painted the back of the tank black. It gives the tank more depth.

 

[PastaMario]

I went to Tap Plastics to look around the scrap bin and got some white acrylic and 1/4" clear poly carbonate for only $4 bucks. Just need a ball of chaeto algae now.

 

[PastaMario]

Last week I calibrated the PM2 Salinity/Conductivity Probe and get it hooked up to the Apex. It seems to be working good.

 

[vector824]

Setup is starting to come together! So sorry about your first loss, sometimes though it's for the better. Can't wait to see how your tank progresses, mine is the same size.

 

[PastaMario]

Thanks vector824 for the encouragement!
Gear: I did some more work on the wiring and finally mounted the ballast for the metal halide. Then I 3d printed a Dosing fixture and some clips to hold eggcrate in the sump. Also assembled screen tops from BRS, they turned out better than expected. Also got an Enaly 110 and got it plumbed to my skimmer. And I upgraded my ATO reservoir from a 5 gallon bucket to a Rubbermaid Slimjim that holds 23 gallons. Now I dont worry about it running out during the week when I am at work. Lastly I plumbed the skimmer runoff into a 4 gallon Bayer container with a handle.

Fish: I got a really nice Powder blue tang from Caesars tropical fish about 8 weeks ago and I had it on copper based meds for two weeks. Usually doing 50-75% water changes every other day. After running cooper for 2 weeks I switch back to regular 35ppt salt water. Also I got a small Blue hippo tang 2 weeks ago and after copper, it has no more spots or fuzzy dots from Ich. For now just adding low doses of Primapro.

Coral: Finally mounted the BRS peristaltic pumps and started dosing with the APEX. I'm testing Alkalinity every day with the Hanna Checker. Its staying at a nice 8.2 DKH. This is the code I wrote for the Alk Pump. The Calcium pump is the same except for a PH cut off, and it doses during the daytime.
Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/003:00/057:00 Then ON (3 mins on)
If Time 12:00 to 22:59 Then OFF (Nighttime)
If pH > 8.41 Then OFF

 

[vector824]

Man looks great! I really like that Powder Blue tang. I gotta convince the wife that a "dory fish" isn't the only tang option

 

[Will Milberger]

Awesome. Just started mine. Hope it looks half as nice.

 

[PastaMario]

Found some old macro photos from last year using 3D printed extension tubes for my canon t2i. Red acan lorde, Red dragon acropora, and purple montipora digitata. Hope you enjoy, more macro shots to come with real extension tubes next!