75G SPS tank diary

maxalmon

Active Member
Originally Posted by WangoTango
you're a dead man. why do you think you're getting a bigger tank? to be burried in...
-Justin
:hilarious LOL.... Thats my point, you can't take it with you, so spend it all NOW!
 

maxalmon

Active Member
Cpr Aquafuge2 arrived today!!!!
Had one small setback, stupid me went on vacation for a week and left the lights on
I was testing them and forgot to unplug

Nothing in the tank except LR, but the tank was covered in green hair algae
when we arrived back home. Turned the lights off for a few days and left the tank totally dark, then took all the LR out and placed it in a 40g Qtank and scrubed all the hair algae off. Left all the LR in the Qtank and just moved it back to the main tank. Put in the cleanup crew this morning, 15 turbos, 15 giant nassirius (sp) 25 blueleg hermits and i'll add more as time goes by. I'll install the fuge tonight, pretty cool little device, compete with 24w 7100k lamp, protein skimmer (not sure how effective and I'll just run it along with the needlewheel) Hope to start moving corals over to the main tank with the next few days. Photo shown is from the cpr website.
 

maxalmon

Active Member
Some minor changes, the seio powerheads are so big and obnoxious that I remounted them horizontal to hide them. I was also having some issues with sand storms, this new horizontal mounting solved several problems. I still have some serious flow, but the sandbed is staying in place
CPR Aqufuge is installed, going to skip using the skimmer as I don't like the design, looks like the skimmer could easily overflow over the side of the tank or drain onto the floor. I think I'm going to start adding corals on Mon, will add some cheap, brown sps that I have to see how they do, then add the good stuff..
 
J

johnyquest

Guest
Everything looks great! one piece of advise about the chiller. I work on chillers for a living, and they need air flow. If you run it you are going to need a way for air to get to the front grill and a place for the hot air to go. With the front doors closed that chiller will die very soon from over heating. Any remote location for the chiller? If it dies, get a hold of me and i'll fix it for you. Good luck!
 

maxalmon

Active Member
Right now I'm not running the chiller. I'm desiging an airflow system that will pull air from the bottom sides of the tank. There is a 1" gap on each side of the stand between the wall. This air will blow into the bottom of the stand and then there will be 2 more fans mounted inside the back part of the stand that will blow air UP and then two more fans inside the canopy that will then blow the air away from the canopy. The heat and airflow issues were going to be a pain from the very start.
.
Here's the plan, pull air in from the sides, blow it over the chiller, then pull this air out of the stand and up the back wall and also using the canopy fans to pull this air and heat from the lights and blow it farther up the back wall away from tank.
.
it's a good theory, but sometimes my well intended designs tend to backfire and cost me in the long run, :thinking:
 

maxalmon

Active Member
Got the aquafuge plumbed and ready for some cheato!!! This is a huge clump from my monster colony of cheato thats in my DT fuge. Used the credit card just for a size visual, the glass tray is one of those 9x12" baking pans....Inspected it for any unwanted hitchikers (actually found a huge teddybear crab in my main tank chaeto clump, he's still there) Thousands of pods, small stars, snails etc. Actually put all the chaeto in the main tank and swished it around to release all the good critters, next I'll install the fuge light and run it counter to the DT.


 

maxalmon

Active Member
Oh yeah....I didn't even measure the distance from the wall to the tank before ordering the HOB fuge, had about a 1/32 clearance...That was luck...
 

maxalmon

Active Member
Let there be light!....Pretty easy setup, but I'm going to have problems with ambiant light from the fuge lighting the tank at night, but it may be a blessing as I don't have any moonlights...Anyone know if a 7100k light will be as effective as moonlight?
 

maxalmon

Active Member
Moving day! Water quality is as good as it gets. I actually cycled the tank twice just to make sure, have no idea why I felt that I had to do the 2 cycle thing, just sounded good.
The hair algae problem is over, pretty much solved with the HOB fuge loaded with chaeto and a good cleanup crew. Lights have been running from 7 to 7 for the last week and all the hair is gone. I do have some very interesting plant growth on some LR that I got from a buddy, small clumps of plants with 5 leaves, about the size of a quarter.
Moved some basic sps over today,. These are frags that have been in my DT for sometime, figure I'll see how they do. I turned the lights of on the left hand side of the tank and placed all the corals there, over a period of a few days I'll move them around. Some of the frags are already extending their polyps after just an hour in the new tank.
I just ordered a box of 13 colored Fiji acro's from an importer, I have no idea what colors, maybe yellow, purples, greens. I've been assured that size for all pieces is larger than 5", should arrive Next Tues



 

maxalmon

Active Member
The new 210 starfire tank and stand won't be available till mid April, so going ahead and setting the 75g up and will use it to QT the new corals. After the 210 is cycled and matured, I'll them move everything over, we decided to leave the 75g where it's at and turn it into a FOWLR tank.
Some of the frags went brown on me, but are starting to colorup. I figure I have a few weeks till the larger tank arrives and I might as well aquascape the check progress of the frags, even with the few weeks i've had some of the frags I have seen some pretty good growth, great polyp extension and colors are starting to come back.




 

brandan

Member
I wish I had enough light for a few SPS corals, at first I didnt really mind, but now that I see them in everyones tanks, I want some. .
 

maxalmon

Active Member
Originally Posted by Brandan
I wish I had enough light for a few SPS corals, at first I didnt really mind, but now that I see them in everyones tanks, I want some. .
Same thing happened to me, I used to think they were nice looking, but not really impressive. Now I dream about acros and monti's...LOL..
 

reefkprz

Active Member
I'm gonna choke. I'm naseous and repulsed,,,,,, it amazing what jealousy does isnt it?

Looks great man.
 

maxalmon

Active Member
This just keeps getting better..
I was just informed that I can have a dedicated fish room, actually inside the thouse, not tucked away in the corner of the garage

.
Seems that my other half has simply realized that this is an addiction there is no cure for and by enabling me, I can be controlled and maniplulated thru equipment purchases and confinement to a 14x14 room. (prefer no padding)
.
Rules:
ALL equipment must stay in this room, a spare bedroom with it's own bath
MUST be neat and organized at all times, have to install closet organizer to keep excess equipment hidden and organized
I can have 2 frag tanks and ONLY 2 frag tanks, but they must be new with nice looking stands and each can be no larger than 6" long
...And I was only wanting a 55g frag tank, good thing I kept my mouth shut....LOL
All the lighting fixtures have to match

I have to install a RO system in the bathroom, NO MORE DRIPS thru the whole house during water changes
I have to rip out carpet and put down matching tile.
I'm crushed
 

maxalmon

Active Member
It just keeps changing.....The 210g tank is on it's way!!
The 75g will be converted to FOWLR
210g will be bare bottom and I'm going to upgrade the skimmers and do a Berlin type method. I found a MH pendant type fixture that has dual bulbs, so I can run the 6500k and 15k's in a single pendant, so final lighting will be 6x250w or 3 x15k's and 3x6500k's. Only 3 sets of MH's will be running at any given time. 15k's fire up during the early am and them off 6500's run from noon till 3pm and then 15k's come on from 3 till 7pm, complicated but a theory I have about the lighting.
 

maxalmon

Active Member
Ok, the 75g is back to being a sps tank....I just added a few corals today and decided that I like the way the tank is progressing. I just got an electric, metalic green millepora, dedided that to frag it would be insane....

 

briand7878

Member
Originally Posted by maxalmon
Just discoverd one design flaw thats easy to fix, need to drill or cut slots so that water level on the foam block side is lower than the foam block
Where exactly did you cut the slots, i never did see them? i like this design, looks cheap and easy. where is the filtration on the sump at, never saw that either. if anyone knows feel free to answer..
 
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