Williams 75g Reef Tank Build

[PicoReefGuy]

Fiberglass driveway markers work well as dowels to support your rocks and won’t breakdown long term. just make sure to wear a mask or respirator and goggles when your cutting it to size so you don’t breathe the dust in.

 

[Miles Williams]

Got a TON of stuff done on the reef tank build this weekend!

Mixing station all glued, cured and now filling up with RODI water, made the plumbing on tanks so i can fill both simultaneously.
Got a 50ft hose with 1 inch quick disconnects thatll hook up to mixing station and other end of house has ball valve with spigot i can carry into
house when i need to fill tank etc.

Finally got the tank moved into the house, plumbing completed all glued up & cured as well.
Mounted controller cabinet to side of tank stand (forgot to take pictures, will post tomorrow)
and will work on organizing and getting apex and other controllers mounted tonight

Sand and rock going into the tank today also!

 

[Miles Williams]

Rock and sand all in the tank!

Will be getting all power heads added and then organize apex and controllers/wires etc in the controller cabinet tonight.

I have one question about filling with water though.

SO, Ive got 50 g of RODI ready to go, since i have 2 - 25g tanks,

Should i mix those 25 gallongs with salt, and then add to tank, then make another 50 the next day and do the same till im full?

OR

Should i fill the tank with the 50g of straight RODI, make more and fill tank then add salt to the tank and run it?

Any help much appreciated,
thanks!

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Wow, the mixing station looks great and the whole plumbing. Also I like the rock setup. I would fill the tank with mixed water not mixing the water on the fish tank.

 

[Miles Williams]

Wow, the mixing station looks great and the whole plumbing. Also I like the rock setup. I would fill the tank with mixed water not mixing the water on the fish tank.

Thats what i was thinking would be best, So Ill mix the 50 g tonight with salt and then add to tank, run RODI over night and do the same tomorrow until full.

Gotta get the Apex installed and all dailed in tonight, im dreading it......

 

[saintsreturn]

Pretty much love everything about this! Great job on the design, layout and thought you put in.

I was going to comment while i was reading through that you should spend the coin on the Roto's and skip the brutes, but i see you did that

I went brute to start and was happy enough for about..... a month. I have never once regretted the money i spent on the Roto's. The only thing i dont like about my choice is i bought a hopper to feed salt into the mixing container. Never set it up, passed return time and now cant seem to find someone to buy it lol. So its just sitting in the garage for a future project.

The feedback: Love the paint choices and the work you put into the stand! looks great against your house color Love the plumbing choices. I did blue and white and think it looks great against white stands. My 75 had a blue back and i loved the look, but my new 110 is black backed and makes the corals "pop" when the lights are on.

Great job

 

[Miles Williams]

Pretty much love everything about this! Great job on the design, layout and thought you put in.

I was going to comment while i was reading through that you should spend the coin on the Roto's and skip the brutes, but i see you did that

I went brute to start and was happy enough for about..... a month. I have never once regretted the money i spent on the Roto's. The only thing i dont like about my choice is i bought a hopper to feed salt into the mixing container. Never set it up, passed return time and now cant seem to find someone to buy it lol. So its just sitting in the garage for a future project.

The feedback: Love the paint choices and the work you put into the stand! looks great against your house color Love the plumbing choices. I did blue and white and think it looks great against white stands. My 75 had a blue back and i loved the look, but my new 110 is black backed and makes the corals "pop" when the lights are on.

Great job

Thanks Brother!!!!

Yeah I def didnt want to go the Brut route, also I got a great deal on these, same price as the bruts and only 20 to ship both.

Cant wait to get the lights on this and have it up and running!

 

[Coastie Reefer]

Thanks Brother!!!!

Yeah I def didnt want to go the Brut route, also I got a great deal on these, same price as the bruts and only 20 to ship both.

Cant wait to get the lights on this and have it up and running!

You need to share that that storage tank source!

 

[Miles Williams]

You need to share that that storage tank source!

Let me see if I can find it, was guy off ebay, i had to contact him to get shipping cost down.
Ill post shortly.

 

[NickC]

Looking good!

 

[Miles Williams]

Last piece for tank I was waiting on finally came in!!!!
Customer QTO and 4 part dosing containers (for triton method) all in one.
Sooo sleek, very cool!

 

[Miles Williams]

Few updates, good and bad:
Since i knew the ato and dosing container would be a week later than scheduled i went ahead and setup tank with water, rocks etc thinking
ill be able to fit it in the stand no problem. Well when i tried to yesterday there is no way to get it in the stand without
taking the tank off the stand which im not going to. SO, looks like it'll just be external, its very sleek looking so wont be a huge deal.
and actually will give me some room in the stand to tinker and add things if necessary.

I went ahead and got the cabinet mounted for controller boxes, its not the prettiest but itll do for now.

Then got to starting setting up the apex, which after watching the 15 minute video it looked easy.
IT IS NOT THAT EASY, total pain in the butt. Got neptune cor 15 pump hooked up, got ph prob caqlibrated but the salinityu probe will
not calibrate. Not sure why (see attached image).

Aslo since new to reefing have a hard time getting my levels correct with over flow and return, overflow is making very loud sucking noise,
only way to stop it is to almost completely close the gate valve.

Oh, and there is tiny leak on the bulkhead of the overflow, but that should be easy fix.
anyways, lol, making progress and learning some things the hardway. all part of it, just like anything worth doing.

Any advice on the apex salinity probe not calibrating?

 

[jp_75]

everything looks really good! can’t wait to see more!

 

[Miles Williams]

Figured out the salinty probe not calibrating, all fixed.

 

[Miles Williams]

Well after much stress dealing with apex install and few plumbing leaks, the tank is up and running, got salt added last night, will start cycling tomorrow. Added touch too much salt that ill fix tonight, currently at 39 ppt or 1.029. Easy fix.

Also will get the Hydra 52 HDs mounted tonight, but wont run during cycle.

 

[Miles Williams]

Had to run home to take the dog to the Vet, Decided when i dropped the dog off I figured id fix the salinity and setup the LIGHTS!!!!!
SO EXCITED!

 

[Miles Williams]

REEF BUILD UPDATE!!!!!!:

The Cycle has started!
Dennis at FJW here is houston suggested using Fritz 900 turbo along with clown to get it going.
Temp, Salinity, PH all dailed in and fish is happy so far.

The build is 99% complete, beside hooking up the jebao for dosing but wont need to do so for a while.

OTHER GREAT NEWS!
FJW had their 10 year anniversary and were doing a bunch of raffles. I had 87 tickets from the apex I bought few weeks back.
But the tickets into raffle for a pair of Black Ice long Fin Clown Fish AND WON!!!!!

Stores down here those go from 250.00 to 399.00 EACH. Cant belive I won!
So they are going to hold for me for few weeks or so till ready to go in the tank.

Ill pick up another mocha clown to make it even 4 clowns in the tank.
Prior to picking up the new one I will attempt to catch the one in the tank and put him in the sump for a day or two
and then add all 4 back in together at same time.

Also Im not running the lights during the cycle just have them on for the pictures.
OH also uploaded the david saxby light schedule to the AI Hydra 52s.
What a weekend, so much progress made!
Cheers Everyone!

 

[Miles Williams]

Tank still cycling, Ammonia, Phospohates and Nitrates all still zero,
ph temp and salinty all in check.
So excite for cycle to be done and adding couple of Zoas.
Will start very slow and be patient.

Also got a nice cheap tablet off amazon and got the apex hooked up to it and mounted to side on tank stand.
Looks great!

 

[Miles Williams]

Reef tank Update!
Went to pickup the Black Ice long fin clowns I won, one of the tangs in the LFS killed one of them,
So they had to order new pair and they will be here tomorrow for me to pickup.

I did add few LPS and Zoas to the tank, No Zoa pics since i cant figure out how to take good tank pics yets.
Did manage to get a few pics of the Ricordea, Favia and Chalice I picked up.

All tank levels and parameters all in line. Once Alk falls below 8 I will start dosing triton per their recommendation of 2ml/100l a day.

I feel like this journey has just begun. So excited!

 

[Miles Williams]

Reef tank update, Everything is going wonderfully!
Got Diatom outbreak last week, added small CUC and its 90% gone.
Then had bacteria bloom for 3-4 and it just cleared up over night, Started running carbon and GFO which I think helped.

All parameters on point, dkh dropped below 9 to 7 so I started dosing triton 6ml of each part per day. (as per their 2ml/100L suggestions).

Will send off ICP test in month or so and keep monitoring parameters daily.
Also got some nice new corals from local FB auctions. My Favorite is this War Scoly, looks amazing!
Finally feeling like a real reef tank!
Excuse my camera skills, still working on them! LOL