New 75 Gallon Tank

I found a great deal on a 75g tank and stand. It's pre-drilled with an overflow and includes a sump and auto-top off system that he built. It's currently used as a freshwater tank and I intend to turn it back into a reef so I can move everything from my 46g bowfront into larger accommodations. I was supposed to go pick it up yesterday but my transportation fell through and there is no way it can fit in my van because the stand is one piece and just over five feet tall. I paid for it in full so it's mine now. It's really cool and I'm anxious to have it here so I can start cleaning it up. I believe I've got a friend coming out to help me today but until then, here are pics of it made by its previous owner.








I'm going to need to find/build a better lighting system if I intend to keep corals in there and the guy I bought it from is an electrical engineer and already told me he'd help me find a good retrofit kit. I'll post more pics when I actually have it here at home.

Well, I've got it now but it's going to take a while to get it all cleaned up and refilled with saltwater. Here's a pic.. disregard the fact that I haven't thoroughly cleaned it yet.

That thing is super sweet! Thats was a good find

Thanks! I'm going to have to pick up some long-handled cleaning tools and tongs strong enough to grip and place rock and coral. I've cleaned it up as best I can but my arms just aren't long enough to do the job and arranging rockwork is going to be difficult.

I cleaned up most of the sump last night. It still needs a good rinsing but I think it's going to be great once I'm finished with it. Here's a pic of the sump disassembled and before I started cleaning.



I'm going to remove all the Bioballs in there and replace them with live rock rubble and chaeto (a marine macro algae). With the chaeto, that means I'll have to get a light source put over the sump as well but I don't think it will be a problem. I just need to look at various under-cabinet fixtures.

I'm currently looking for a suitable sand base for the display tank. I'm not going to do what I did last time around and buy all live sand because in hindsight that was a bit of wasteful spending. I'll find a nice base sand and then seed it with live rock or sand so I get some creepy crawlies living in it. Anybody want to drive to the beach for me and bring back about 100 lbs. of sugar-grain white sand?

Cleaned up a bit, plumbed and wired. I'm so anxious to get things moving with this tank.

Wow awesome find! Congrats sandy!

Thanks!

I just put in an order for 80 lbs. of Bahama sand and 40 lbs. of base rock. I'll post more pics once I've received it.

I think I ordered too much sand. I received two very heavy boxes of sand yesterday and used just over a box and a half to get the depth of sand I wanted. Today, I received two more heavy boxes of sand! I need to weigh one of these boxes and find out if I got twice the amount shipped to me or if I just really overdid it when I placed my order. Right now, they're both sitting in the back of my van because I really just don't feel like lugging them in right now.





Things are shaping up nicely but we hit a snag. Somewhere beneath the overflow there is a leak. It's a small leak, but a leak nonetheless and I've had to stop all the pumps and circulation from tank to sump until we can find the problem and deal with it. I had to drain water from the overflow and from the sump and I'm currently drying out the boards in the cabinet with a heat lamp.

Very nice find. I'm glad you found the stuff to clean and rearrange with.

I coated fittings with silicone last night and had to do it by hand because the caulk gun was too big to fit in the places I needed to reach. I did not realize that silicone adheres to your fingers in layers and was not quite prepared for such strong odors as it was curing. Bleh..

It's been well over the 12 hours recommended for curing on the tube so I'm about to hook my plumbing back up and hope that I don't have anymore issues.

Yeah I got rather stoned when I used the aquarium silicone for my gecko tank. I had to reach down in almost a full arms lengths o my face was right near the tank and it was strong lol.

The Anti-Poon wrote:

Yeah I got rather stoned when I used the aquarium silicone for my gecko tank. I had to reach down in almost a full arms lengths o my face was right near the tank and it was strong lol.

Yep! I had to reach to the bottom of my overflow and it's just about full arm's length down. I was just about gagging by the time I had finished. lol Noxious stuff!

it is crazy how it smells that bad but is non toxic to fish :-\

I suppose after it's officially cured, it's safe?

yup yup, if it is aquariuym silicone it is 100% non toxic to fish.

I missed a section with the silicone.. I partially refilled the overflow to see if I sealed everything and it started dripping from that one minuscule little spot. I just smeared a big glob of the stuff over that section and now the wait starts over again.

Just updating...

I'm happy to report that I seem to have patched the leak in my plumbing. I have become more acquainted with silicone and a caulk gun over the past weekend than I ever wanted to.



I pulled out my old test kit and tested whatever I still had chems for. My ammonia was reading between 1.0 and 1.25ppm but I'm completely out of nitrite tests so I really can't tell exactly where I am in terms of cycling this tank. I'm overdue buying a new test kit anyway so that's on my to-buy list.

Next up will be waiting for the tank to fully cycle and saving up some cash for the lighting I want. I'm pretty sure I want the 6-Bulb AquaticLife T5HO system. The tank will look sooooo much better under reef lighting. I'm really looking forward to getting that fixture as soon as I have some spare cash.

I took beastly sizes of star polyp colonies to Aquatic Marine and got $150 worth of store credit. We used that to pick up several new pieces of coral. I am lousy with a camera but check them out!



Sunset Montipora (and what look like a little patch of blue clove polyps). This is my very first SPS (small polyp stony) coral. Hopefully not the last!




Neon Orange Zoanthids (I'm sure there's a common name for these, but I"m not sure exactly what they are.. they're similar to "Orange Cream" zoas but these seem more orange. It's like someone rubbed Cheeto dust on each head. They really "pop" in the tank. I love them!




Acanthastrea - not sure what the common name for this particular one is, either but I like it. It's our first acan The pictures above were taken with and without flash. Please disregard the lime green rock it's sitting on. My tribal blenny and kole tang are taking care of it and it should start purpling up in time.



My daughter wanted these green clove polyps. Once home I realized it actually has a few other things on the rock with it - looks like some tiny zoanthids and a live segment of gorgonian (?) - and I'm looking forward to seeing all of this grow.

im eager to see the whole thing and all the life of your new tank once its fully setup and grown a bit.

Wow, how did I miss this thread? More pictures, please! How do you fit that tank in your house? It's gorgeous though. Can't wait for everything to take over!

Thanks, guys.

Unfortunately, my tribal blenny has a taste for SPS corals so I can't keep any of them. My pink stylophora frag got nipped all over by the tribal blenny and there's really nothing I can do to save it at this point except hope for the best. My sunset montipora was knocked down by either the clowns or the tang (they like to redecorate when something new is placed in the tank) and I didn't realize it until it had been face down on the sandbed for over a day and I think it has died along with the tiny blue clove polyps that were on its rock. It really sucks.

Everything else is still doing very well. I've got lots of new zoanthids and palythoas (thanks to the frag swap last month) and I'm looking forward to seeing them grow out and make the tank more colorful. I'll try to get new pics up but I'm really lousy with tank pics. They never look right.

Lol I know how that is! It is so hard to capture the atmosphere of a tank filled with water! Either things are blurry or the lighting isn't right--depth is impossible to properly convey. What you need is a video of it so we can see the movement.

I'll try to get some decent footage of the tank up soon.