Stblindtiger’s 75 Gallon Reef Tank

[Stblindtiger]

Hello everyone!

I am currently starting to cycle my 75 Gallon saltwater reef tank. My 10 year old, 29 gallon freshwater tank started to leak right before the Holidays, and I had been thinking about switching to a saltwater tank for a while now anyway, so I used that as an excuse to go to the salt side. I donated my remaining 3 freshwater fish to a local fish store, and I bought a 75 gallon tank on Facebook marketplace.

I sanded and painted the Wood grain trim a matte black, as well as the stand. I sprayed all the glass with vinegar a bunch of times and scraped it all down with a razor blade. I bought an RO filter, then used some cleaned 5 gallon kegs I had left over from home brewing beer to start making some pure saltwater. I rinsed the sand that came with the tank with RO salt water, then added 40 lbs of coral base rock and a few shells that came with the tank and some cleaned (sprayed with vinegar and scrubbed, then left in the sun to dry) ceramic skulls and a treasure chest from my freshwater tank. I also added 3 small pieces of imaginarium red lava rock I bought from Petco (Also sprayed and soaked with vinegar, then rinsed before adding to the tank).

I then filled the tank with 1.026 salinity RO water, and have a Rena Filstar xp 2 Canister filter, as well as a Penguin 350 double bio wheel filter going. I also ordered a protein skimmer but I haven’t added that to the tank yet. I added 2 100 watt heaters to get the water temp up to 78°, and just added a purple live rock tonight to kick start the Nitrogen cycle.

As I wait for the tank to cycle, do you see anything wrong with what I’ve done so far? If I did do something wrong will it even matter since I haven’t added any fish/coral to the tank yet? How long should I wait before I starting adding things to the tank (I.e. clown fish and sea anemone)?

I haven’t chosen exactly what fish I am going to add to the tank yet, but I have been thing of starting out with a clown fish and sea anemone along with some corals after that. I’d like to eventually build up to adding a snowflake eel, puffer fish, tang, and wrasse along with a bunch of different corals.

The last picture of the tank isn’t totally clear yet from the sand and rocks being moved around, but it is up to temperature and at 1.026 salinity.

Equipment List:
Aquarium: Used 75 Gallon
Cabinet: Custom made Wood Stand that came with Aquarium
Lighting: Woino 36 Watt 216 RGB LED with Timer
Filter1: Used Marineland Penguin 350b Double Biowheel
Filter2: Used Rena Filstar xp 2 Canister filter
Heater: 2 Hitop 100-Watt Adjustable Heaters
Skimmer: IOAOI Hang on Protein Skimmer for tank up to 80 Gallons
Wavemaker: 2 Hygger 2100 GPH Magnetic Powerheads
40 lbs of Nature's Ocean Coral Base Rock
1 Medium Piece of CaribSea Original Life Rock
4 Small Pieces of Imagitarium Red Lava Rock
Salt: Red Sea Fish Pharm Coral Pro Marine Salt
RO Filter: Max Water 6 Stage 100 GPD RODI System

Livestock List:
AlgaeBarn's Poseidon's Feast (Live Copepods)
Daily dose of AlgaeBarn's Ocean Magik (Live Phytoplankton)
2 Maroon Gold Stripe Clownfish (future addition)
CUC: 2 Cerith snails, 3 Nassarius snails, 2 Margarite snails, and 3 Nerite snails (Future Addition)
Bubble Tip Sea Anemone (future addition)
Royal Gramma (future addition)
Yellow Tang (future addition)
Tailspot Blenny (future addition)
Blue green Mandarin (future addition)
Paired Wheeler Goby and Pistol Shrimp (future addition)
Six line Wrasse (Future Addition)
Zoas (future addition)
Hammer coral (future addition)
Torch Coral (Future addition)
Acropora Coral (Future Addition)
Linckia Blue Starfish (Future Addition)
Maxima Blue Clam (Future Addition)

 

[pshootr]

The tank looks great and that is a great size tank. But please do not put scuba divers in treasure chest in your saltwater tank LOL

 

[pshootr]

I'm sorry for the inappropriate humor there. It just seems inappropriate because usually you see that in a 1980s freshwater tank.

 

[pshootr]

You have a really nice size tank for your first reef tank. 75 gallon tank was always my first choice but I'm not going to be able to do that unfortunately. It's a great size!

 

[pshootr]

All of that aside I think you have done well. I don't see any problems.

 

[pshootr]

Welcome to the community by the way!

 

[pshootr]

There are many threads on this forum to get you started. You can learn how to cycle your tank by using the search word cycle.

 

[pshootr]

We have a great community that will be happy to help you.

 

[pshootr]

Another great asset would be to visit all of your local fish stores and see which one seems to do the best. And then ask them some questions. And if anything is unclear report back to us. But for a new hobbyist the best thing is to find a local store that you trust and you believe in. Ask them for advice and I'm sure they will be happy to help you get started. Best regards.

 

[pshootr]

However, I would suggest that you report what your fish store recommends, and then we can get an idea of how reliable they are.

 

[pshootr]

But there is tons of information on this forum if you're willing to look for it.

 

[pshootr]

I don't mean to be so vague. But there are going to be many opinions on how to get the tank started. Many options you can take. I'm sure some other people will chime in. Long story short it is going to take some time before you're ready to add livestock.

 

[ElementReefer]

That’s a great size for a reef tank, easy to work in and enough water volume to be forgiving.

I think it’s helpful to remember that you’re building an ecosystem, not just a fish tank. First grow the bacteria, preferably using an ammonia source and a cheap testing kit like API Saltwater Master Test Kit. You can leave the light off.

When it’s cycled it will start growing brown diatom algae as soon as you add a light source, at which point add copepods, for example:

Poseidon's Feast & OceanMagik

ALL-NEW DURABLE PACKAGING! INCLUDES: Poseidon's Feast Two Species Blend For Seeding or Boosting Your Tank Seed Your Aquarium | Increase Pod Populations | Feed Finicky Fish OceanMagik Live Phytoplankton Blend, Four Nutritious Strains Feed Copepods | Increase Coral Growth | Reduce Nuisance Algae

www.algaebarn.com

Let them establish for a bit, then get your first fish and cleanup crew.

 

[Stblindtiger]

I’ve been a bit concerned about my aqua scape… I keep rearranging and moving things around. Does anyone just stack their rocks together and leave them as is? I have all these caves and swim throughs, but I’m concerned that later on down the road, as I get fish and they get bigger they might start moving the rocks around. I would hate to have a reef all set up, and then it collapses onto itself.

I bought some 1/8 inch acrylic rods, and have been thinking about just drilling holes into the rock and piecing the rocks together with the rods to give them some stability, but still able to take them apart if need be.

What does everyone else do? As the tank matures, won’t everything just lock together with everything growing on it? Does anyone else just stack the rocks and leave them?

 

[ElementReefer]

I stacked. Never had a problem, but it’s a low rockscape.

You could use a bit of coral epoxy and a tiny drop of super glue at each junction, that would hold it well and let you pull them apart if you ever needed to. That’s what I’d do if I did it over again.

 

[ElementReefer]

Also the physics of being underwater is much different than on land. Took me a surprising amount of time to get used to this with my first tank haha.

Saltwater is very bouyant. Things don’t really fall over or hit each other the same way they do in air. Everything is slower motion, and moving objects have far less relative momentum. A fish isn’t going to knock over your rocks. YOU might knock them over though haha.

 

[Stblindtiger]

Also the physics of being underwater is much different than on land. Took me a surprising amount of time to get used to this with my first tank haha.

Saltwater is very bouyant. Things don’t really fall over or hit each other the same way they do in air. Everything is slower motion, and moving objects have far less relative momentum. A fish isn’t going to knock over your rocks. YOU might knock them over though haha.

So true! Haha!

 

[Stblindtiger]

I added copepods last week, and started turning on the light during the day since I’ve been dosing the tank with phytoplankton daily for the copepods. Today I noticed the beginning of my first algae growth.

Any chance this is green coraline algae, or do you think it is something else?

My Nitrates are also about half way between 50 and 100, so I’m planning on doing a water change. Might even clean out my filters and add some new charcoal.

Is this something I should worry about? Should I turn off the lights again? The green algae is predominantly on the back facing portion of the baserock.

Thanks again for the advice!

 

[ElementReefer]

This is an unavoidable part of the tank maturing. The fancy term I’ve heard thrown around lately is Benthic Procession. Different waves of life competing for the rock real estate. Coraline is one of the later waves.

 

[Stblindtiger]

I just added a 15 gallon sump to the tank (20 gallon total capacity). The tank isn’t drilled, so I added an overflow (CS50 siphon up to 300 GPH). The overflow is plumbed with 3/4” PVC that drains into the first section of the sump with the PVC ending 1 inch below the water line. I cemented the PVC into the bottom of the overflow, and added a Union below the overflow in case I need to take it apart. I also didn’t seal the lower 45° angle piece and piece that goes into the sump because I added a plexiglass top to the sump to try and minimize evaporation, but I cemented everything else in place. I also bought an aqua lifter pump (Koller 3 GPH) to attach to the overflow box to prevent losing a siphon in case of a power outage. I also added a shut off valve to this pipe prior to it draining into the sump, and assessable under the tank. I added a hang-on-the-side sock holder and sock to strain the incoming water into the sump.

The sump has three chambers, with baffles leading to each chamber. The first chamber has the drain from the overflow (plumbing discussed above), mesh filter sock, as well as a protein skimmer. The second chamber holds some Clean Chaeto, as well as two heaters, and some live rock. The third chamber has a return pump (Hygger 24 V Saltwater pump with controller) and the low water sensor and top off tube for the Auto Top Off.

The return line from the pump is plumbed with 3/4 ID flexible hose. I added a shutoff valve, and plan to add an inline check valve but I’m waiting for the check valve to arrive on Friday. Check valve arrive didn’t matter to me, that I so

The pumps will be plugged into a battery backup so that in case of a power failure the pumps will still run and I shouldn’t lose the siphon.

Anyone see anything wrong with this setup? Anything I should be worried about? I currently do not have any aqua sock filters. The only filters I have are the skimmer, the live rock and filter media in the second chamber, eventually some Chaeto in the second chamber too, and then some black foam filter pads stuck in the baffles between the second chamber and the third chamber that holds the return pump. Do I need anything else? In all I have about 75 lbs of live rock in the tank and sump, and two 5 gallon Home Depot buckets of sand in the display tank(no sand in sump).

Pictures attached….. please excuse the water quality. I took out the small pieces of lava rock, and added 20 additional lbs of live rock split up between the DT and the new sump.