Aquarians 75 mixed reef build

View attachment 24848
75 gallon tankTemporary lights from previous builds
Approximately 50 lbs of live rock.
2-3 inch sand bed
Two RW4 wave makers
DCP 5000 return pump
Temporary 20 gallon sumpLivestock fish
Tiny yellow watchman goby
Yellow eyed tang

Livestock coral
Blastomussa merletti

That's looking fantastic! What are your plans with this tank?

Becky said:

That's looking fantastic! What are your plans with this tank?

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I’m not entirely sure yet, I like the idea of a soft coral, leather dominated. But nothing looks like a mixed reef. Mowing me I will let the frags and corals deside for me.

I also have plans for a custom hood stand and sump. Now if I just had some time;)

Aquarian said:

Now if I just had some time;)

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C'est la vie!

Becky said:

C'est la vie!

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Very true, seems there’s never enough time.

I have the benefit of working with pvc trim and sheet goods on a regular basis so I will be building my sump with pvc and useing a tiger sump as a model, I like their layouts. The stand will be cabinets flanking each side of the tank and hood providing storage for food test kits and all the tools of the hobby on one side and electronics and dosing station on the other. The tank support have a large pull out cabinet on casters which will allow for complete access to the sump, fudge and skimmer, this entire area will be built with pvc and be water tight with a line connected to a drain as a catastrophic failure insurance policy. I should be able to bang that out in a year or two.

Fish stocking list. What’s your thoughts?
1 Kole eye tang (have)
3 Blue / Green Chromis ( I would like the grouped movement, but I’m not sold on this fish)
1 Midas Blenny (love these guys)
1 starry or Bicolor Blenny ( awesome fish full of personality)
1 yellow Watchman Gobie (have)
1 sleeper gobie ( probably not a good idea with the watchman in there)
2 Flasher wrass (I love me some wrass)
2 true Percula Clowns (who doesn’t want a pair of clowns?)

Sounds good (and you're probably right that it's not a good idea to have a second goby). I guess the Tang might outgrow a 75g tank though...

Becky said:

Sounds good (and you're probably right that it's not a good idea to have a second goby). I guess the Tang might outgrow a 75g tank though...

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He might, but the yellow eye doesn’t get as large as the others, it’s max size is 7” and doesn’t need as much room as the majority of tangs. ( at least according to the research I did) but should he get to large I do have friends with biger tanks that can take him.

Started the sump build today. PVC box is glued and drying and the baffles are all cut and ready to glue in place.

Finished glewing in the the baffles, the filter socks should be here tomorrow so I’ll drill the holes tomorrow night and leak / flow test tomorrow night.

Leak test was a success! Now I’m running it with a maxi jet 1200 for a few days in the basement

Almost 2 weeks with the prototype running in the basement no leaks an everything works nicely, only hiccup is while I was testing I’ve been reading up on sumps and refugeiums and I decided to go with a Triton sump layout. This will give me a larger refugeium an area for my slimmer and heaters a small area for mechanical filtration and the return pump. Here’s some photos of what I have so far.

Bulkhead locations are routed out and started glueing it together.

Very neat work :thumbsup:

Becky said:

Very neat work :thumbsup:

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Thank you

And we are water testing again!
This is the simplified version.
Total capacity 16”x14”x34” = 33 gallons.
Chamber 1 Refugeium 16”x14”x13-1/2” = 13.1 gallons
Chamber 2 Skimmer / heaters 8”x12”x14” = 5.82 gallons
Chamber 3 Mechanical filtering / return 8-1/2”x12”x14” = 5.82
Full running capacity is 24.75 gallons of added water volume, with 8.25 gallons of overflow area. This gives me 2-3 times more than I need for a loss of power or pump failure.