rebuilding my tank for the new year! (pic intense)

[weaselslucks]

Ok so my 75 gallon tank needs a little reworking so I figured that the new year would be a perfect time. I'll update and be as detailed as i can will lots of pictures to come. This is my firs build thread so bear with me and my spelling. Any helpful hints would be great. Not on with the thread!

[weaselslucks]

I found my 75 gallon at a tag sale for $40 and i couldn't resist. Not beaing able to wait and not being good with powertools i proceeded to run out and buy a solid wood stand from petco for $240 and the next day the glass top to go with it. Unfornunetly eventhough the top said it was for a 75 gallon the two pannels were about a half inch to long.Luckly it was not tempered glass so a local glass cutter could trim it up for me. $10 worth of egg crate and I had a new tank to replace my 29 for $290. I had some childs playsand lying around so i broke down the 29. I'll post a bunch of pics when i get out of work since i did not relize that i have no full tank shots

[Bono]

Picture tease!

[poppin_fresh]

booooo!

[weaselslucks]

ok ok i'll post half tank shots of what it looks like now!geezz




this is the left and right of the tank. Due to the HOB i have micro bubbles everywhere

current equipment is

4 bulb Aquatinic XT t'5 light
HOB(tetratec)
4 random powerheads that i had laying around

I had just spent $400 on the light for the 29 when I found the 75 gallon so the light is going to have to stay for a while
The hang on the back filter has a built in heater and wave action

Upgrade
I'm going to be putting in a 20 sump and hopefully a 10 gallon refugeium
a RS10 euro reef skimmer
2 Hydor Koralia #4's
an eheim 1260 return pump
and an overflow

livestock right now is


yellow polyps




some zoas(i'll add more later when i get pics)

[weaselslucks]

shrooms



a small neon orange plate coral




a blasto



a small orange/red monti cap



the kenya tree is twice as big now

[weaselslucks]

oops wrong pic

two false clowns



a cleaner shrimp



and still in QT my powder blue tang



(don't yell at me for having a tang)

[weaselslucks]

and this is the plan for my sump

[poppin_fresh]

Yeah! Pics!

Nice start you got there. Good luck with the PBT, they can be tough, but they are so beautiful when they do well.

[weaselslucks]

thanks he not only eats like a horse he is eating hair algae

[poppin_fresh]

I wouldn't put the LR rubble in the path of the return water. I would also not plumb the overflow to the 'fuge. I have been there, done that and it will leave too much detritus piling up in there. Give the rawest water to the skimmer and then "t" off the return pump to the 'fuge so you can control the flow.

Also, there is no need to ball valve the drain, control the flow on the return side. If you were to close that valve the water would overflow the tank and end up on the floor.

[weaselslucks]

wouldn't the skimmer take all of the "stuff" that the fuge?
I heard that the rubble will cut down on noise and keep up good bacteria. is this not hat case?
with the ball valve what if i had to work on the plumbing bellow?
thanks for the help

[poppin_fresh]

A skimmer WILL NOT remove all the nutrients, unfortunately, or it would be the only thing we use. A skimmer will remove proteins, but not nitrate or phosphate, the stuff the macro algae a fuge' will consume. Put the rubble in the fuge where it cant trap crud and allow it to rot, thus producing bad algae outbreaks.

If you need to work below, just unplug the return pump. This will stop the flow to the sump so you can work. If you were to close the valve, but not stop the pump, it would pump all the water up to the display. Because it cant make it back down, because the valve is closed, it will spill over the sides of the tank.

[weaselslucks]

ahh you know it is so much easier when people explain things in detail to me
your a big help thanks

[Reeftanks6]

looks great so far keep on going

[weaselslucks]

i started the aquacsape lastnight.I'll post pics as soon as I can get away from work

[Reeftanks6]

lol how long have u had your powder blue for? i have some other ?'s for you has the PBT ever show any ich signs? where did u get him from?

[weaselslucks]

Reeftanks. I have had him for 3 weeks now no sigs of ich or slime eats like a freakin horse and not shy. I got him at a LFS

[Reeftanks6]

oo looks like you found a great fish let me know how he does ill keep on looking at your thread i might be getting one for my 90 that i am setting up

[weaselslucks]

So I sat down last night and started on my aquascape using some zip ties and egg crate.

I cut pieces to size and randomly zip tide the piece of egg crate together forming a backbone for the rockwork and foam.



Then useing larger ties i attached pieces of LR randomly onto the egg crate



I am making ledges and cliffs with the rock and I will anchor everything with foam so i am not too worried about the slight wobble in the structure right now

[weaselslucks]

I will also be useing bottles and their caps to attach coral frags onto.This should solve my problems with my snails and crabs knocking over the small corals. I have noticed that the more you can put a coral in a spot and leave it alone the better it will do


First i start with any plastic bottle(yes my cat must watch every thing i'm doing)


I took the tops off and will push them into the foam making a easy place to screw in coral frags


The problem that I ran into is that half of my rock is live and can not be attached to the structure with foam. to get around this issue i am going to try to carve spaces for the live rock out of the foam and zip tie these pieces right before I place the structure into the tank. Not only will it fill out the structure but I think it will spread the coraline and bacteria more quickly throught the rock work

[Zestay]

i like your idea with the plastic bottles as frag plugs. easy to arrange untill they all encrust over everything than who cares!

nice. cheap. effective. and easy

[Reeftanks6]

nice idea

[weaselslucks]

i got it form one of the threads. The great foam is so sticky and it relaxes so i canonly do one side of the rock work at a time

[Rustylugnuts]

Nice start weasel I cant wait to see how it goes.