labnjab's 75 Gallon Reef Build

**labnjab** · 11-30-2009, 11:25 AM

Were quickly collecting the pieces for our tank merger so I thought I'd start a journal. We plan on merging our 2 29 gallon reefs into one 75 gallon rr tank. Our goal is to simulate a reef transition zone with live rock piled up on the right half under a 250 watt phoenix 14000K hqi then it will slope to a large sand area with a few chunks of rock on the left under t-5's. Sps and a clam on the right and lps and softies on the left. It will have the 85 lbs of live rock we currently have along with 20-30 lbs of dry rock

Tank
Used All Glass aquarium 75 gallon Reef Ready tank. We upgraded the standpipe from a crappy homemade stockman to a better durso style, which I need to make one small adjustment to.

Before

After- The only changes I have to make are adding a street 90 degree to give me more room

The stand is going to be custom made by me so we can fit our lage skimmer underneath. I picked up most of the lumber yesterday and got it cut to size. I'm going to assemble it tonight

Heat- 2 200 wat visa therm stealth heaters hooked up to a temperature controller

Flow- 3 Koralia 2's, 1 koralia 1 and my mag drive 9.5 return pump, this can change depending on how much we like the flow

Skimmer- Coralife 125. We bought it used for $85

Sump- 20 long which is currently running on one of the 29 gallons. Along with the skimmer it will have a refugium with live rock and chaeto, phosphate reactor, and auto-top off

Stock- all the fish in the 2 tanks (see signature) including our bubble tip anemone plus we'll probably add 1 or 2 more fish.

At this point the only thing holding us up is building the stand and buying sand. Were going with a all new sandbed seeded with our old to elimnate any problems with switching over our old sandbed. I have to save up a few more weeks because the sand is going to be about $200 for 200lbs of dry aragonite. Hopefully we'll have everything switched over before christmas

**Northernguy** · 11-30-2009, 01:31 PM

Sounds like a nice plan!

I am looking forward to seeing it complete!

**Rue** · 11-30-2009, 02:09 PM

Good start!

**Miltonic** · 11-30-2009, 02:11 PM

looking good! I bet you're excited bigger reefs are 10x better

**labnjab** · 11-30-2009, 04:52 PM

Thank you everyone. I started building the stand on my lunch break. I made the mistake of not pre-drilling some holes on the 1st piece and split it, so its off to home depot for another board. I have the bottom and 2 legs complete. I'll finish the frame tonight and will get some plywood later in the week to box it in. Here's a quick camera phone pic of what I've done so far

The only concern I have are where the bulkhead fittings come through the bottom of the tank. Its gonna be a tight fit but I'm hoping i'll be ok

**MCHRKiller** · 12-01-2009, 04:55 AM

Looks awesome so far

**labnjab** · 12-02-2009, 11:22 AM

Thank you

The tank is cleaned up and the stand is almost complete, all that's left now is to take a belt sander to the top to make it even. I ordered 160 lbs of aragonite from marcorocks.com Monday night for $109 shipped (cyber Monday deal) and if its here by Saturday then I'm making the switch Sunday. 160 lbs is going to give me a 3 inch sand bed which is actually all I need. Hopefully nothing else comes up because I am completely out of money

Untill the sand comes I'll be mixing up saltwater. I'm using what I can save out of the other tanks but I don't know for sure exactly how much extra I'll need. Between the tank and sump its going to be a 90 gallon system

**labnjab** · 12-08-2009, 09:17 PM

Tonights the night i picked up 160# of dry aragonite from marcorocks for $109 shipped. I rinsed ot last night so tonight were gonna make the merge. Look for pics tomorrow afternoon

**labnjab** · 12-09-2009, 11:20 AM

Last night didn't go as planned

We got 1 tank switched over but didn't get the sump or other tank moved. I had a bulkhead that was bad so I decided not to break down the other tank. I managed to find another bulkhead, but instead of the inside being a slip fitting it is threaded so I need to get some plumbing parts this afternoon and finish switching over the tank tonight

So far whats in the 75 gallon is all of the aragonite, 35 lbs live rock, 35 gallons of water, all my sps, yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp, firefish goby, bangai cardinal, and part of the cuc. I've got a heater and 2 koralia powerheads in for flow and I marked the glass so I can have a referance for top off. So far all parameters i've checked are in check, 0 ammonia and nitrate, ph is 8.2, and alk is 11. I'll check calcium and magnessium once I get the other tank transfered over which will hopefully be tonight.

We did have two small scares last night. 1st the firefish took the easy way out of the 29 gallon. He decided to ride the siphone hose down to the storage bucket instead of joining the rest of the fish in the fish bucket. Luckily he was small enough that it didn't do any damage to himself and was swimming and looked fine. He was going to be the hardest to catch so it made my job eaisier. 2nd was from our tiger pistol. He deceided to crack his claw as we put him in the other tank and it sounded just like the tank cracked. Its much louder when he's out of the tank then in it.

Hopefully things will go a little better tonight. Its snowing and will be all day so its a good day to finish the tank. I'd have some pics now but photobucket is down