Jimbo's 75 gallon mixed reef build

[Jim Harrison]

I like that nifty little title so I reckon I better start an actual build thread.

I bought several tanks, a 10g, 20g, 20g IM Nuvo, a 29g and a 75g with stand.

The 20g Nuvo will be my QT, the 10g the ATO for that tank.

The 75g is becoming my reef tank. It was used and came with a shoddy stand. I am currently working on the stand to reinforce it with some 2x4s on the underside and some 2x2s for structural support and bracing. It's been hot in my garage so I'm moving slowly.



I've got an RODI system of sorts (have yet to decide if I'm going to be happy with the containers I have), including an Eco793 water pump a 200w heater and a power head for mixing.



That 20g will be my ATO for the reef tank.

That pump and hose make it all the way into the house and to the tank. Makes me happy! I won't be carrying buckets.

Not a lot of progress, yet, and with temperatures hitting over 100 this week I'm not so interested in moving forward until it cools down.

I will update as I progress!

 

[hybridazn]

Thanks for sharing! We all look forward to your build!

 

[Jim Harrison]

It's still WAY too hot here in the Willamette Valley to hang out in the garage. No progress this week.

 

[Jim Harrison]

Picked up a few pieces for the tank today, but still too hot to spend any time in the garage... It's 103 in there! Found that overflow box for $40 at my LFS!

I also have an ADJ PC-100a switched power strip. I don't know why everyone doesn't use them.

I'm basically using this to document my progress for myself. So I will post plenty of updates.

My stock list so far:

Orange spot goby
Foxface
Six line wrasse
Mandarin dragonet
Lawnmower blenny
Springer damsel?
Pavona coral
Torch ??
Frog spawn

This is, of course, pretty unstable at the moment. I keep changing my mind.

 

[Jim Harrison]

Got a little more done today. Still hot, so progress is slow going.

Tank is ready to paint. Waiting on my violet pvc pipe from BRS to show up. Gonna have to order gate valves from them as well... Home Deopt only has brass gate valves. Aside from a skimmer, valves and some egg crate, I have all the pieces essential.

The sump. dangit, still need to get some glass to make baffles.

Stand is almost done, just need some supports and a paint job. The 2x4s up top are floating right now, but the top box fits nice and snug. Gotta put the front piece and doors on.

 

[Big G]

It's still WAY too hot here in the Willamette Valley to hang out in the garage. No progress this week.

Hovering about 110 here in Southern Oregon this week. Whew!

 

[Jim Harrison]

Hovering about 110 here in Southern Oregon this week. Whew!

Hello fellow Oregonian!

I'm just about done with this heat wave.

If it weren't for this insane heat I would have this build close to complete and just be waiting on parts.

Might be down your part of Oregon to get away from the influx of eclipse people next weekend.

 

[Big G]

"Might be down your part of Oregon to get away from the influx of eclipse people next weekend."
Hide your children and lock your doors . . . LOL
I got all my valves from BRS too. Great quality.
I gave up trying to convert my old black tank stand. It was too short for saltwater equipment and the divider between the doors made it all but impossible to put in a sump. So I built a new stand. Pretty much the same footprint as yours.

 

[Jim Harrison]

I might as well have built a stand from scratch. Knocked out the dividers, framed it up proper, made a piece for the center so the doors will fit right. I spent $18 on materials to improve it. The tank and stand cost me $165 with holes drilled.

If I had built a stand from scratch I would have had to buy new router bits so it would look pretty, new hinges, etc. Probably added another $75-100. Kind of wish I'd done that, but I've a few extra bucks for a skimmer and lights.

Going with a T5 setup my LFS has on sale on a discontinued model. 4 48" bulbs. Great lights for half the cost of a nice LED setup. Even has moon light LEDs in it.

I picked up an ECO663 for the return pump. Pretty sure that will be enough.

Need to figure out how many gate valves I want. In a perfect world where I have a ton of money I would go with 6 in case of some unforeseen technology, but I'm pretty sure 4 is what I will have. $100 for valves!

Need to order a union for a flex hose from the return to cut down on vibration. Is there a type of reef safe rubber mat I could put my return pump on?

Almost went with an external return pump. Too nervous about it being outside of the sump, though.

 

[Big G]

"Is there a type of reef safe rubber mat I could put my return pump on?"
I used a silicone kitchen heat mat. The wife had an extra. Cut it to fit. Works great. That and a short piece of the flexible soft silicone tubing from BRS. No noise/vibration from the return at all.

 

[Jim Harrison]

"Is there a type of reef safe rubber mat I could put my return pump on?"
I used a silicone kitchen heat mat. The wife had an extra. Cut it to fit. Works great. That and a short piece of the flexible soft silicone tubing from BRS. No noise/vibration from the return at all.

Perfect! I will be doing the same.

 

[Jim Harrison]

Ordered 2 Jebao PP8s today.

Got the first coat of paint onto the back of the tank.

Garage is still too hot to work in.

 

[Jim Harrison]

Picked this up today at my LFS for $300

 

[Jim Harrison]

Almost have all of the pieces! Just need a skimmer, a dosing setup and reefkeeper lite plus and I'm in business.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking good so far! Following!

 

[Jim Harrison]

Talking with my LFS today and I think I'm going to skip on the gate valves as I only have one return and one drain. Just going to put a ball valve off the return so I can do easy water changes.

Also going to hold off on the Reefkeeper and the dosing pump until I've actually put some corals in the tank, which will be about a month or so. Even though I'm going live rock I want to give the tank some time to level out before I do anything other than water changes.

Might add a fish or two within 2 weeks if levels are acceptable (live rock and RODI water). Then when the tank seems stable, I'll put in a dosing pump (Jebao) and then the Reefkeeper lite.

A couple questions about dosing pumps... Just go with the Jebao doser (4 pumps, programmable) or the BRS pumps hooked into Reefkeeper? I plan to run the lights, ATO and the heater via Reefkeeper, so there's plenty of room for dosing pumps and a few other things I may go with. Thoughts?

 

[Jim Harrison]

All plumbing and both PP8's showed up today.

Time to put it all together!

 

[Radman73]

"Is there a type of reef safe rubber mat I could put my return pump on?"
I used a silicone kitchen heat mat. The wife had an extra. Cut it to fit. Works great. That and a short piece of the flexible soft silicone tubing from BRS. No noise/vibration from the return at all.

Pretty much did the same. I ordered a pack of the silicone mat's on Amazon and also made use of the soft silicone tubing from BRS. Expensive stuff but it works quite well.

 

[Radman73]

Talking with my LFS today and I think I'm going to skip on the gate valves as I only have one return and one drain. Just going to put a ball valve off the return so I can do easy water changes.

Also going to hold off on the Reefkeeper and the dosing pump until I've actually put some corals in the tank, which will be about a month or so. Even though I'm going live rock I want to give the tank some time to level out before I do anything other than water changes.

Might add a fish or two within 2 weeks if levels are acceptable (live rock and RODI water). Then when the tank seems stable, I'll put in a dosing pump (Jebao) and then the Reefkeeper lite.

A couple questions about dosing pumps... Just go with the Jebao doser (4 pumps, programmable) or the BRS pumps hooked into Reefkeeper? I plan to run the lights, ATO and the heater via Reefkeeper, so there's plenty of room for dosing pumps and a few other things I may go with. Thoughts?

What are you planning for your water change schedule? You may not need to dose for a while until your corals begin to grow out.

 

[Jim Harrison]

What are you planning for your water change schedule? You may not need to dose for a while until your corals begin to grow out.

I think I'm going to start with 20% every week. Not sure, though. I might do 33%. It's only 10 gallons more.

Still haven't put it all together. This weekend I will get everything built and setup. Then rock and sand. Then skimmer,