Tanuki's 75 Gallon Acrylic Build (Super Noob)
Printed From: Utah Reefs
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URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=49481
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Topic: Tanuki's 75 Gallon Acrylic Build (Super Noob)
Posted By: Tanuki
Subject: Tanuki's 75 Gallon Acrylic Build (Super Noob)
Date Posted: June 10 2011 at 10:37am
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Unfortunately this is my first tank, so you will all be called on for help with many of my stupid questions. So a couple of nights ago my wife found me a 75 Gallon (I was told 85, but did the math and it is 75) Acrylic Aquarium on KSL. It came with a lot of things, but was a freshwater tank. Here is what the tank came with: 2-ZOO-Med Power Sweep 228 PS40 Fluval 304 Canister Filter Tank Thermometer Lights At first I was thinking I would just do an awesome African Cichlid tank, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to start a Saltwater tank. Before making the decision I looked into what the capabilities of the equipment the tank came with were vs what I would need. Here is what I found: The Canister Filter (Though not Ideal) will work while I am cycling/ setting up the tank. From what I understand, it would even work for a fish only tank, though I would like to go reef eventually. The canister runs at 260 gal/hr, 1000 L/hr. So I think it will work fine for now. Each of the ZOO Meds runs 280 gal/hr, and I have found quite a few instances of them being used in Marine tanks for wave making. From what I saw, I had enough to at least get the tank started, though there are a number of things I still needed: Sand- 70-80lbs Rock Protein Skimmer Sump (10 or 20 Gallon) Overflow Box Heater(s) Salt More Lighting I did go to Reef Runners and talk to John about the system and what my plans were. He confirmed my suspicion that my tank would be able to set up based on what equipment I currently had, and helped me to identify the needs of the tank (basically on par with the above list). I purchased a couple of things from John to get started: 80lbs of non living sand 15 lbs of live rock Salt Cleaner Magnet John is a really good guy and probably one of the most helpful saltwater stores I have been to. I really recommend him/ Reef Runners. He even offered to lend me water containers to take water for filling my tank (unfortunately I have no way to move that kind of volume in any of my vehicles). I went home, and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed the sand, but it still came out pretty cloudy. I don't think it is considered milky though, so I think I am good. I got the sand and rock in the tank and hooked everything up. I even painted the stand earlier, so I think the set up looks pretty good for now, though I will not put anything in the water till I get some water testing equipment and do more research. I may start construction on the sump as early as tonight, though I need to learn a little more about drilling the glass etc. Here is the tank as it sits:  If I am completely off on anything, please tell me now so i don't spend money on things I don't need to, or kill anything that doesn't deserve to die due to my lack of knowledge. I want to do this right, though I understand doing it right, and making a perfect tank are two totally different things. More to come. |
Replies:
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 10 2011 at 6:25pm
Went to the store to get a heater, and tools to begin building my sump. They happened to have a used sump and sold it to me for $30 which I thought was a steal. I also got a pump and some other things. I put the raw shrimp in the tank as well.  
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Posted By: Connie
Date Posted: June 10 2011 at 7:29pm
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Congrats and welcome to the obsession. My only concern is your magnet, bio balls, and lighting. Did you get one for acrylic? I had a 210 acrylic tank and my only frustration was trying to clean the tank. Be very careful of scratches. Lose the bio balls they are nitrate magnets, find out what you want to keep and get the appropriate light for that. Keep in mind that in the long run, you will want stonies ( acros) save the headaches now and buy the right lighting from the start... And most important ask away... that's how you learn Reef geeks love to give advice..  ------------- I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to use them. 180 gallon money pit that I love..... |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 11 2011 at 1:27am
| ^Thanks. I did make sure to get the acrylic magnet. I was planning to ditch the bio balls. I want to put sand in there as well as the heater and a few things. I would like to do all the plumbing and get the sump moving tomorrow if possible. I found a few overflow boxes locally so I want to pick one up and get this thing moving. |
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: June 11 2011 at 2:17am
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Man you should have been on here last week when I got rid of everything you would need for that tank:( Looking good so far, as Connie said you will need to upgrade your lighting. I would also get as much live rock as possible that you will want in there it helps the cycle and see if someone has a scoop of live sand to seed your sand:) I would volunteer but as of last week I only have a small tank:( ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: Connie
Date Posted: June 11 2011 at 9:39am
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I have lots of live sand. I would be happy to get you stated with seeding your tank. I am in West Jordan... ------------- I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to use them. 180 gallon money pit that I love..... |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 11 2011 at 3:15pm
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^That would be really helpful Connie, and maybe I can check out your tank too! Ok today I ran my first water test. The tank has been running for 3 days now. Here is what I pulled:
PH-7.8 Ammonia- .25 Nitrite- 0.0 Nitrate- 10 Salinity- 1.024 Temp- 79 Am I on the right track here? |
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: June 11 2011 at 3:29pm
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Looking good. Your ammonia needs to be 0 before anything is added:) However the color on the pic looks at 0 to me not .25 but they are so hard to tell apart! ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 11 2011 at 4:01pm
| ^yeah my wife says it's 0 but those two are so close it's tough. I figured it's better safe than sorry. |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 12 2011 at 1:49pm
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Here are a couple of pictures I took with my waterproof camera
today. I should say, these are the first underwater pics I have ever
taken with it either:
Seems pretty clear, just nothing interesting to really see yet. |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 13 2011 at 11:26pm
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Ok tonight was well, umm, eventful. I started buy getting 6lbs of live rock to put into the sump, and another lb of live rock for the tank.
I
got everything loaded up and hooked up, then Realized I had no idea how
to get the overflow box/ sump to operate together/ correctly :( I
just really had a hard time finding that perfect balance between where
the water enters the overflow box and how fast it leaves the sump. I am
thinking that the Sump is too small even though I have been told by a
couple of people it is a good size. After a few
floods (luckily nothing made it out of the bottom of the stand, though
it was close), I was able to get the pump (Rio 1400) to pump out the
water at the same rate that the overflow was bringing the water into the
sump. My issue is that the tank water level is maybe an inch from the
top now rather than a few centimeters. I guess this is ok because if I
put more water in than the sump will overflow/ throw off the balance,
and I need the sump to stay at the current level so it doesn't flood if
the power goes out. So I think that it is about where it needs to be for now. Here is where it is at running in balance:
I also tested the water tonight: PH- 8.0 Nitrate-20 Nitrite- 0 Ammonia- .5 I guess I wouldn't say it has really spiked yet, it seems to be going fairly smoothly, though the nitrate is going up slightly. I also picked up a really big Skimmer, so big, it is too big. If anyone has a good sized skimmer for a 75 gallon tank and wants to trade for a skimmer more suited for the 180+ tanks, please let me know. If not, I will probably end up making a much larger sump and using it anyway. |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 14 2011 at 11:14pm
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I was having a hard time hooking up my skimmer (Probably too big, but
I am going to run it anyway). The skimmer wouldn't fit in my tiny
little sump, so I got creative on how to add on to my already running
sump. I measured out the openings and dimensions of my tank stand and
determined that nothing bigger would fit in there. So I bought a 41
quart tupperware storage container from walmart. I went with this
because I knew it could bend and fit into the stand (barely). I was
able to bend it just enough to slide it in through the front door, and
in between the side supports. With a little work I got it under the
sump. Once it was under the sump, I got my drill out, tipped the sump
back to keep the acrylic from getting into the water, and drilled holes
on the end of the sump to let the water fill up the tuperware addition.
I then placed the skimmer and power head in the new section and plugged
it all in. I also drilled holes in the return lines just below the
water line to stop the water from siphoning when the pump stopped. I
think I finally have this thing set up the correct way. Next I will look into improved lighting and a UV Sterilizer.
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Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 16 2011 at 11:48pm
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Well, I bit the bullet and bought the 65lbs of Live rock I was missing. I ended up going to Rock n Reef. They had an excellent selection on a new order. I went to 6 stores this week looking for rock, and none of them came close to the selection I found here. I got: 41lbs of Florida Live Rock 4 lbs of Fiji Branch Live Rock 20 lbs of the PRIMO Fiji Live Rock (I Think these were the names of the rocks I got, but I need to double check so I can update my journal) Pictures? Glad you asked... This is the Primo stuff:
And the set up...
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Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 17 2011 at 10:46pm
Ok my cycle is moving a bit more now with the live rock and some Bio-Spira. PH-8.2/8.4 Nitrite-.25 Nitrate- 20 Ammonia- .25 I am interested to see how much of a spike I really get though. |
Posted By: Seth
Date Posted: June 18 2011 at 7:24pm
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what type of lighting were you thinking? ------------- 75gal sps dominated reef. Bigger and better coming soon |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 7:54am
So this guy just showed up. Good or Bad? Any idea what type of anenome he is exactly? |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 10:22am
| Ok after researching, it is Aiptasia. Peppermint shrimp are moving in today. |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 10:56am
I think I will order one of those t5 systems with the LED moonlights that Bill was telling me about. Just like the one on your display tank, but a 48 inch set up. |
Seth wrote:Posted By: Seth
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 11:17am
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Are you talking about the MH/t5 set up over the xenia tank? if so that is a good choice. He can get those in for AMAZING prices!
------------- 75gal sps dominated reef. Bigger and better coming soon |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 12:07pm
| ^yep that one. He already quoted me on one for my tank, I am just waiting to get paid. :) |
Posted By: Seth
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 1:44pm
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Were you able to pre-order it? what did he quote you for the 48"?
------------- 75gal sps dominated reef. Bigger and better coming soon |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 2:09pm
| ^I didn't pre order just because I didn't have money. I will call him soon. |
Posted By: Seth
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 2:14pm
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oh forgot about the money part lol. I would love to see this tank when its "done"
------------- 75gal sps dominated reef. Bigger and better coming soon |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 2:35pm
| ^yeah all of that rock kinda blew my bank apart. |
Posted By: Seth
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 2:41pm
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this hobby is well known for blowing budgets and bank accounts :)
------------- 75gal sps dominated reef. Bigger and better coming soon |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 3:33pm
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oh well. That's why I have bought mostly everything off ksl. |
Posted By: Deluxe247
Date Posted: June 20 2011 at 7:08pm
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With that kind of light you should be able to grow just about any coral you want to. The other big factor will be water flow. I'd say with what you have now you could easily throw in some softies like mushrooms, zoanthids, leathers. those corals are also generally pretty hardy and do well in new tanks. Adding a few hardy corals will help keep your fish healthy too since they add to the biological filtration. Your tank is looking nice so far. I would just make sure your rocks are far enough away from the front panel so you can get the magnet past them. Also, it's a really good idea to leave as much of your sand bed exposed to water flow, so you might think about trying to prop the rocks up in such a way as to make it a really open structure. That will help tremendously in the long run with taking full advantage of your sand bed and avoiding too much detritus build-up. Good luck with everything. ------------- 90G Mixed Reef |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 21 2011 at 9:23am
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^Thanks for the great tips! I actually re-scaped it this past weekend because I needed to move the tank/ rebuild the sump. I now have a small refugium in the sump as well. I will hopefully be getting lighting soon and be through the cycle as well. My skimmer is working wonderfully now with the new sump. It allows the water to be much deeper. I can't wait for the day when I get a 200g tank and can make the current tank into a refugium :) I did have to start killing off Aiptasia yesterday. Those Primo rocks have already produced at least three, and it seems like they keep popping up. I threw some Peppermint shrimp in as well. |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 21 2011 at 10:33pm
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Today's Tank Data: PH- 8.0 Ammonia- 0 Nitrite- 0 Nitrate- 20 Salinity- 1.022 So my Ammonia and Nitrite both went up then back to 0. It looks like Nitrate is on its way down as well. Good? |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 21 2011 at 11:27pm
Ok, after the flood I decided to break it all down and get the water out of the floor. I think the way it is now, it will stay for a long time. I'm not 100% sure on my sea scaping, but i didn't want it to just look like a geometric figure sitting in the middle of the tank. I wanted it to look a bit more natural, so you will have to let me know what you think. Also can anyone tell me what this thing is living on the front of the rock in this video? I am thinking maybe this is the same thing that squirted me with water when I pulled the rock out for the move? I was able to get a video of his little geyser show. He just did this about 5 times in a row: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kutd5PzV6U |
Posted By: Seth
Date Posted: June 22 2011 at 2:33pm
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my guess is that is a sponge it comes out of the black part right? I would spread that left group of rocks out a bit. looks like there are not very many big gaps that tangs can go into to hide. how does the sump look now? ------------- 75gal sps dominated reef. Bigger and better coming soon |
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: June 22 2011 at 3:47pm
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I like the scape. I never like it symetrical. ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 22 2011 at 4:23pm
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Thanks. I might add some rocks to the right side. Also the L shape behind those rocks is big enough for the magnet cleaner to fit, so I would imagine a tang could just hid behind the whole stack. I looked at the hole and it appears there is some crustacean in a hole above that sponge looking thing. I saw it adjusting a rock to use as a door up there. |
Posted By: WhiteReef
Date Posted: June 22 2011 at 5:40pm
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It could be a pistol or mantis shrimp pushing out all of that junk. With live rock like that it could be either one. Do you hear a popping noise in the tank? If so it could be either one, but it would be a good idea to trap it to make sure it is not a mantis shrimp. If it is a mantis shrimp they can kill snails, crabs, and even fish. Also if it is a mantis there is probably someone on the board that wants it if you don't. As far as your aquascape, it looks okay. I would have tried to have more open sand, but it still looks good. Also that primo rock looks really nice. ------------- ---------------- Richard Former 47G Column Reef, Magna 20" x 18" x 31"H |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 22 2011 at 5:58pm
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I want to move the primo stuff around on the right still. Also I need pictures to show the depth of the scaping I think. More to come. Also, if that is a mantis it is tiny, we are talking about a hole the size of the 0 on your keyboard, and maybe a tiny bit bigger. |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 26 2011 at 2:23pm
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Ok well after some slight tweaking based on the opinions of members on the forum as well as my wife, here is how the tank will stay set up at least until I buy more rock. Front:  Top (to give you an idea on depth):  |
Posted By: Seth
Date Posted: June 26 2011 at 6:43pm
looks like a lot of swimming space 
------------- 75gal sps dominated reef. Bigger and better coming soon |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 27 2011 at 9:28am
| Yeah, I think the front view is a bit deceptive/ makes it look like there is a lot less open sand etc. From above you can really see the battle field! |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 29 2011 at 10:12am
Ok a couple of new tenants.  (Both fish combined are maybe 1.5 inches long) |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: July 09 2011 at 9:40pm
Apparently coral>anemone :(
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Posted By: sanddune600
Date Posted: July 09 2011 at 10:07pm
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what are you trying to keep your salinity at seems on the low side I prefer 1.026 ------------- Andy Jorgensen My number is four three 5 7 six four 8 0 three four |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: July 09 2011 at 10:17pm
| 1.024 currently |
Posted By: sanddune600
Date Posted: July 09 2011 at 10:31pm
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thats a good place to be better then 1022 you had posted earlier I wouldnt let it get below 1.022 ------------- Andy Jorgensen My number is four three 5 7 six four 8 0 three four |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: July 10 2011 at 1:20pm
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Posted By: davser
Date Posted: July 10 2011 at 1:53pm
Thats funny that guy looks serious ------------- It's not about what you know but about who you know |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: July 11 2011 at 9:47am
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^Yeah that is a pretty playful little clown. Unfortunately the other Clown finally died from starvation. I continued with live brine etc, but he just wouldn't eat enough to change the situation. Anyone have any good ideas on how to get my anemone to anchor? He seems to keep getting sucked into the powerheads stuck to the housing. I turned them all off over night, but he still wont anchor anywhere. I am more worried about keeping flow in the tank than I am about the anemone, so I can't just leave everything off. Ideas? |
Posted By: Deluxe247
Date Posted: July 11 2011 at 9:12pm
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What kind of anemone is it? What condition is it in? What lights do you have? These are all factors. In my experience, bubble tips can be really finicky about finding the perfect spot. LTAs are a little more reasonable. Both like lots of light. BTAs - some like lots of direct flow, some like less. Many BTAs like light that's heavy on the blue part of the spectrum. LTAs like medium flow at best, and generally prefer a good deep sand bed to bury their column. Anyway, I don't know if that's much help. Bottom line is: anemones are cool but can be brats to deal with. I have a RBTA that was dying and I juiced it with Aiptasia X and it disappeared into the rock, only to reappear 6 months later on the other side. good times. ------------- 90G Mixed Reef |