75 gallon SPS slow build thread

[aellis9369]

Sharing my 75 gallon build where my long term end goal is SPS

Equipment so far:
Tank:
75 gallon tank that I drilled out
Eshopps L overflow (overkill but I wanted the triple pipes)
Two Nero 5's for now (both set to 100% random)
Maybe 50lbs of live rock (brought 75lb and didn't use it all)
80 lbs of special grade reef sand with smashed rock added
Sump:
20 gallon long
Marine pure block (because I debated barebottom for a long time)
Hygger 1060 gph return pump (will switch to two sicce 300GPH pumps in future)
Hygger heater (will switch to two in near future for redundancy)
Ink bird thermostat (set to 80⁰ incase heater is stuck on)
Reef breeders ATO (may try modifying this to a float switch also incase it ever gets stuck on)

Planned equipment in order (still researching may change):
"Clean" Cheato and eco pods
Some generic grow light
Two hydra 32s (2-3 months from now)
Reef octopus 100
Two tunzes hooked up to battery
Hydros or Neptune (leaning hydros but will get whichever I can find used most likely) for monitoring only
Two AI blades for light coverage

Planned fish (in order):
clownfish (for fun)
Nassarius crabs and hermit crabs (will go through 76 day QT on side)
One spot foxface (for algae) (lights will turn on at this point)
watchman goby and pistol shrimp (for fun) (will be odd split due to different QT times)
Yellow coris wrasse (pest control even though I want to dip and QT coral)
Blue Reef chromis (they're cute)
Diamond Goby (for sand bed)
-insert a few months-
Carpenters flasher wrasse (again...cute)
Longnose butterfly (cute plus some algae and aptasia control)

current status:
I just dosed my third round of ammonium chloride, so I would call my tank "cycled."
My clowns were put in QT two days ago, so they should hopefully be in the display 4 weeks from now

Planned method (still researching)
long term I hope socks, skimmer and fuge will be enough for nutrient control. Whenever I reach the point, I am leaning two part on a doser

 

[aellis9369]

tank pictures:

QT setup (two weeks of copper plus week of prazi, water change every three days)

 

[Gumbies R Us]

tank pictures:

QT setup (two weeks of copper plus week of prazi, water change every three days)

Love the aquascape!

 

[aellis9369]

Love the aquascape!

Thanks. I was trying my hand at a negative space aquascape, but it fell apart on the walk across the house lol

 

[aellis9369]

So I wanted the world thoughts on how to proceed: I have done 3 33% water changes (30 gallons in a 90ish gallon system); however, I cannot get my nitrites down to not-off-the-chart levels (didn't test nitrate because I know it's been there since week 2 of the cycle).
What I was thinking is drain all the water. Refill the first 30 gallons (brute can size) with fresh water, which should be enough to cover the rocks and keep most of the BB alive. Then over the next two days, fill the rest of the tank and let all the BB in the sump (my marine pure block) die.
Edit: the "issue" is I wanted to add ecopods this week, so they can have a week to establish before clowns go in

 

[aellis9369]

Update: clowns are in the DT. After wondering why they were hiding in the corner for 2 days straight (but still eating and no stress signs) I realized my flow was almost 110x!!! (Two Nero 5s set to random 1:100%, two sicce Nanos connected to a UPS and a 1000gph return pump), so I set the return pump down to 60%, set my neros down to 1:60% random and pointed my sicces up more. My clowns still hang in the corner, but now they aren't flung across the tank when they leave it.

I setup a eheim auto feeder for 4x a day, the least amount of pellets possible; I was going to do it eventually, so might as well do it now

I added chaeto to the sump to get nutrient control started. Set to a 22:00-10:00 timer (will most likely change when I add DT lights)

After talking to my LFS about my fish plan, we decided I would do the cherub angelfish next, so I got her this weekend and it's starting QT today.

Parameters so far:
20ppm nitrate
0.25 ammonia
0.0 nitrite
8.0 ph (note this is at 5AM in the middle of my fuge schedule)
76⁰ F

Daily maintenance as of now (10-15 minutes at 5:00)
3 Pitcher scoops of a water change ~1.5٪
Dunk filter socks in old DT water
Check heaters and auto feeder batteries
test ammonia ph and nitrate

 

[aellis9369]

Well this was a short lived tank, it's leaking along every seam on the bottom pane. I'm going to cross my fingers that it makes it through work, then I guess I'm hunting down a new tank. My only concern is that if the root cause is my stand supporting it only on the rim, then I'll screw another tank

 

[tsharpe291]

I wouldn't think it's your stand. those tanks are always just supported around the perimeter.

 

[aellis9369]

Pulled the tank and you can see where it was leaking from salt creep and peeled paint. Oh well, in taking the reseal route instead of buying new. I'll either save $150 or have to spend it twice

Fish back in 10 gallon QT tanks (angel still has a week of prazi left anyway)

 

[tsharpe291]

that's a bummer having to go through that. last thing you want to see is a leak.

 

[aellis9369]

Leaking tank, didn't buy enough silicone for a reseal, car overheating and shattered a new 75... it's not my week.
Good news: cherub angel is done with QT, so he will be ready when a tanks ready. In the meantime I'm keeping the rock alive with a trashcan and ammonium chloride.
I forsee an annoyed wife, dirty driveway and a new new tank in my weekend

 

[tsharpe291]

Leaking tank, didn't buy enough silicone for a reseal, car overheating and shattered a new 75... it's not my week.
Good news: cherub angel is done with QT, so he will be ready when a tanks ready. In the meantime I'm keeping the rock alive with a trashcan and ammonium chloride.
I forsee an annoyed wife, dirty driveway and a new new tank in my weekend

only good thing about that is plenty of deals on tanks now, maybe next year Black Friday deals will start in September.

 

[aellis9369]

only good thing about that is plenty of deals on tanks now, maybe next year Black Friday deals will start in September.

That's true. If I'm lucky, I can get 20% off something that's on sale every other month anyway

 

[aellis9369]

Pop the champagne, I think I'm back in action after 4 attempts. As you see, I left the sand out, but I planned forward for that by cranking the rocks up to 85F in the trash can while the tank was down and aggressively feeding ammonia. That said, I plan to watch for ammonia spikes and have Prime on hand just incase (thanks freshwater hobby)
PS: believe it or not, it's the same amount of rock. I just shuffled the structure around (read as I forgot)

Edit: nope and nope. I have a leaky overflow and a poor eshopps rep got an earful

 

[aellis9369]

Leak fixed by constantly harassing Eshopps for replacement parts
Cables wrangled
Old freshwater light slapped on to start growing algae
High end ATO reservoir finally hidden from view
Foxface only has a week left of QT and is eating reliably from auto feeder
Very expensive ATO purchased for my QT tank
Finally back on track and now for the important question...Aptasia eating filefish or Blue Eye Kole next

 

[tsharpe291]

Leak fixed by constantly harassing Eshopps for replacement parts
Cables wrangled
Old freshwater light slapped on to start growing algae
High end ATO reservoir finally hidden from view
Foxface only has a week left of QT and is eating reliably from auto feeder
Very expensive ATO purchased for my QT tank
Finally back on track and now for the important question...Aptasia eating filefish or Blue Eye Kole next

best kind of ATO, must of set you back a lot.

 

[aellis9369]

Can't tell if it's cyano or coralline but who cares, somethings finally happening. Foxface has been in for a couple days and my new bristletooth is in QT too. All that's left is an aptasia eating file fish and maybe a 6 line now that I'm barebottom.
It looks empty but honestly I don't know what else I even want other than corals, so ‍

 

[aellis9369]

getting close to the two months with lights and still waiting out dynos. Everything else is stable, and my fish are fat, so wait it is

 

[Abyzter]

Sharing my 75 gallon build where my long term end goal is SPS

Equipment so far:
Tank:
75 gallon tank that I drilled out
Eshopps L overflow (overkill but I wanted the triple pipes)
Two Nero 5's for now (both set to 100% random)
Maybe 50lbs of live rock (brought 75lb and didn't use it all)
80 lbs of special grade reef sand with smashed rock added
Sump:
20 gallon long
Marine pure block (because I debated barebottom for a long time)
Hygger 1060 gph return pump (will switch to two sicce 300GPH pumps in future)
Hygger heater (will switch to two in near future for redundancy)
Ink bird thermostat (set to 80⁰ incase heater is stuck on)
Reef breeders ATO (may try modifying this to a float switch also incase it ever gets stuck on)

Planned equipment in order (still researching may change):
"Clean" Cheato and eco pods
Some generic grow light
Two hydra 32s (2-3 months from now)
Reef octopus 100
Two tunzes hooked up to battery
Hydros or Neptune (leaning hydros but will get whichever I can find used most likely) for monitoring only
Two AI blades for light coverage

Planned fish (in order):
clownfish (for fun)
Nassarius crabs and hermit crabs (will go through 76 day QT on side)
One spot foxface (for algae) (lights will turn on at this point)
watchman goby and pistol shrimp (for fun) (will be odd split due to different QT times)
Yellow coris wrasse (pest control even though I want to dip and QT coral)
Blue Reef chromis (they're cute)
Diamond Goby (for sand bed)
-insert a few months-
Carpenters flasher wrasse (again...cute)
Longnose butterfly (cute plus some algae and aptasia control)

current status:
I just dosed my third round of ammonium chloride, so I would call my tank "cycled."
My clowns were put in QT two days ago, so they should hopefully be in the display 4 weeks from now

Planned method (still researching)
long term I hope socks, skimmer and fuge will be enough for nutrient control. Whenever I reach the point, I am leaning two part on a doser

I'm excited to see how your tank turns out!

 

[aellis9369]

Good news: diatoms dieing off.
Bad news: brown stinky water
*sigh* I'll get the bucket

Pic after 30gallon WC