75 gallon mixed reef build

[Reef-junky]

My stand is made out of 2x4's and plywood. I went with oak and a dark stain for the wrap. I used an epoxy for the inside to make it water resistant.

 

[sfin52]

Nice looking stand

 

[sfin52]

where is the water or are we going for a easy maintenance reef.

 

[Reef-junky]

where is the water or are we going for a easy maintenance reef.

LOL

Under construction

 

[Reef-junky]

I made the whole front removable. It's on a hanger for a large picture frame.

 

[Reef-junky]

The rocks are made out of: egg crate, sand, crushed coral, and pukani. Pond foam was also used.

 

[Reef-junky]

Because of the scape that I did I end up making my overflow. I didn't have enough space to do a Bean Animal so I went with a Herbie style overflow. The main drain is 1" PVC and the emergency is 1 1/4". I plan to run a wet emergency drain. When everything is full I'll probably have around 100gals.

 

[sfin52]

Never used pond foam will it stand up to the salinity? It won’t leach anything into the tank?

That’s loads of work and it looks great.

 

[Reef-junky]

Never used pond foam will it stand up to the salinity? It won’t leach anything into the tank?

That’s loads of work and it looks great.

The salt won't break the foam down. However the lights we use can break normal foam down but pond foam is UV resistant. On top of that the sand and epoxy will help protect it. The biggest problem with this stuff is floating if it's not bonded to the glass well or weighted down. Another potential problem is with certain animals eating it. A lot of people have made these walls. I talked to a guy that made several of them and had no issues when I was making mine. I also asked a few people if they had any problems and almost all of them said no. Mine is actually more covered in sand then what most people do.

 

[Reef-junky]

I made the tall sump out of acrylic and the ATO tank. I have a Tunze system. Because the water reservoir is tall I had to come up with a way to pump the water up so I won't form a siphon. What I did was mounted a small pipe that sits on the ATO tank and is taller. The top off water will get pumped into the pipe then fall into the sump. The pipe doesn't allow the water to free fall so noise should be minimal. Probably going to add a cap to the pipe as well.

 

[Reef-junky]

I decided to run a 2 part system. I have two 1 gallon space saver containers. I moded the tops so they could be pumped out of. I have dosing pumps rated for 1.1mL/min. Made some small mounts for them as I didn't have enough space to get them on the cross beams.

 

[Reef-junky]

I decided to run an ATS. I had to make that and a mount for it. Picked up some Chinese grow lights. Can't remember what they are rated for I think 1w. If anyone wants to know I can figure it out again. I got lights that were recommended to me by Floyd R Turbo.

 

[Reef-junky]

My mixing station.

 

[Reef-junky]

Will probably use these to mount that top arm.

 

[sfin52]

Yours is so more detailed than mine. Wow.

 

[Reef-junky]

Picked up 3 Jager heaters and a controller for them. Three is a bit of over kill but the controller can run that many and I got one for free.

 

[sfin52]

Well if you got one for free you could put in the mixing tanks.

 

[Reef-junky]

Yours is so more detailed than mine. Wow.

That remote can shut the power off the pump and that extra nozzle is for walking the line. That way I can get some of the water from the line back into the tank when the mixing container goes empty.

 

[Reef-junky]

Well if you got one for free you could put in the mixing tanks.

I decided to use it as redundancy for heating the tank because the controller can run up to 3 heaters.

 

[Reef-junky]

In the tall sump I'm running two marinepure blocks.