75 gallons of poor impulse control

[starypotter]

Taking bits and pieces from my build thread on my local reefing site.
I originally thought a 10 gallon would be a nice way to have a little fish tank. I quickly decided maybe a 20 long would be better. I then learned that a 20 long had the same footprint as a 29 so I got that. I had that but the DIY overflow and whatnot was just a pain in my behind, and it had no canopy to help block the lights from giving me a headache whenever I was in the room. So with some help from the locals I found a LFS was downsizing and I got a 75 gallon reef ready tank.

It was in some pretty rough shape, covered in salt and algae. I cleaned it all up and resealed it.

Then I started building my stand.

 

[cracker]

I like your title! I'm guilty of the same !

 

[trido]

You Better stop now and find a used 180 or 210 so you can be done with the upgrades.

 

[starypotter]

Some progress on the stand.

I ordered some rocks and a CUC from ReefCleaners.



I made a sump out of a 40 breeder, complete with the worst silicone job I've ever seen.

Spray painted the tank, the rim and the back were looking rather funky and faded.
I painted the inside of the door for the sump high gloss white, I figured it couldn't hurt to get some light in there reflecting for the macro!

Stained and clear coated the tank to help water proof it a little bit.

 

[starypotter]

I like your title! I'm guilty of the same !

This whole endeavor is 150% lack of impulse control so what would be better!?

You Better stop now and find a used 180 or 210 so you can be done with the upgrades.

I tried to get a 125 but my mom said she wouldn't allow something that big in our living room otherwise I would have!

 

[cracker]

Starry, Nice stand ! You will be happy with the 75. Get size for starts .

 

[starypotter]

And this weekend I got everything all set up.
Friday I disassembled the old tank and put everything in tanks and buckets, Saturday brought the tank up and started filling it, finished today. That's a whole lot of water.
The last of the little tank.

Making a huge mess.

Our new floor, no more painted plywood for us!

And a fresh coat of paint before we can never access that corner again.

New tank in place! We put it on silicone paper as well for an extra water barrier and thankfully was all level without needing any adjustments.

I think I've settled on this aquascape give or take cleaning up a bit, some of the things have critters or things attached that I stuck in there to let them leave on their own.


Finally all together.

And most importantly the view from the couch.

 

[starypotter]

Starry, Nice stand ! You will be happy with the 75. Get size for starts .

I hope so, I think I'll be able to get a decent amount of the fish that I really like. And it's 10 times more quiet than my smaller tank.

 

[trido]

I had a 70G FW for many years before upgrading into the 100+ league. Thats a great tank and the stand is real nice too. Did you build it? If you can, in the future, I'd recommend adding a T-5 retrofit kit front and back for a better color balance. Dont get me wrong, you can grow coral like crazy with your black boxes, but you will be more successful and be happier with your coral colors with them. FWIW, I have black boxes.

 

[starypotter]

I had a 70G FW for many years before upgrading into the 100+ league. Thats a great tank and the stand is real nice too. Did you build it? If you can, in the future, I'd recommend adding a T-5 retrofit kit front and back for a better color balance. Dont get me wrong, you can grow coral like crazy with your black boxes, but you will be more successful and be happier with your coral colors with them. FWIW, I have black boxes.

Yeah I did the stand, I'm a very long way off from even considering adding/changing any lights since I already spent a ton on the build as a whole. I'm happy with the ones I have and will just stock accordingly so I don't have the need to get anything more powerful. I just got one of those little phone lenses for taking pictures, it just got misplaced in the mess for this batch of pictures.

 

[Maddlesrain]

Looks good so far! I really like how you did the stand. 75 gallons are awesome tanks. I had one when I did freshwater and it was my favorite of the 4-5 tanks I had at the time. Personally, I’m a small tank lover so I think you’ll be completely satisfied with the 75! Haha

 

[starypotter]

Looks good so far! I really like how you did the stand. 75 gallons are awesome tanks. I had one when I did freshwater and it was my favorite of the 4-5 tanks I had at the time. Personally, I’m a small tank lover so I think you’ll be completely satisfied with the 75! Haha

Thanks! The stand is quite nice if I do say so myself There's nothing in there but some CUC and corals so not a whole lot to watch but boy is it silent I love it haha I love the nanos but my eyes for stocking are just a bit too big.

 

[starypotter]

So I went to LFS today and I got some new friends!
I got a Midas Blenny, and an Algea Blenny, and a yellow and green clown goby. Drip acclimated them to my water and have them all in a temporary holding tank. I also got a yellow and green clown goby. Their expert there, who I trust the advice of greatly, said I could probably get away with a couple more (!!!!!!!!) I love those things. They're so funny looking it's freaking fantastic!! I also got a conch which has been on my list. It is the best creature I have ever seen. There is nothing better than those eyes poking out of the shell and looking around. Reminds me of Tamatoa. (The crab from Moana, Crabs Mcjones icon). I also got some cleaner shrimp, two skunk and one blood. I'll only put two skunks in my DT, the other can stay in my coral frag QT tank. Blood will be going in DT once he molts. I also got a candy pistol shrimp SO TINY. No idea where he went, QT has a bunch of junk in there, rocks, an egg crate stand for corals, a container of sand for conch, so who knows where that little guy went but it's got to be only 3/4" but he had no problem eating some brine shrimp.
Both blennies have eaten, LFS was giving away brine shrimp today so I soaked them with plankton for a while and vitamins before I fed them to my fishies. The shrimp and midas gobbled them up! Algea blenny ate some algae strips I put in there and some algae off the rock, and conch. Only things I haven't seen eat yet are the clown gobies. One is super thin, didn't notice at the store. But I also went to ikea tonight got a bunch of containers to do a TTM with all of my fish by placing a bunch of the smaller containers in a larger one of heated water to reduce cleaning and the amount of water needed.
My existing fish, the two clownfish, the neon goby, and the cardinal, are starting their TTM but I took a step back tonight and reapplied just how many gallons of water that was going to take. I've got the current TTM crowd in a 5 gallon bucket, but they're all pretty chill. The midas and algae blennies I wouldn't trust together in the same bucket, so I'd have to do something bigger like a 10 gallon tank. And on top of it I don't like not being able to see the fish in the bucket. But then that's a lot of water and a lot of stuff to clean, filter/bubbler, heater, tank, hiding things. It's a bit much. But I remembered seeing online someone who had their QT as a bunch of commercial circular food storage containers all sitting in a bath of water and only the bath of water got heated and he ran a bubbler into each container.
I liked this idea, it means a bit less cleaning, not having to haul a tank outside every couple days, heater etc. So 8 at night I decided an ikea trip was in order. I found a bunch of 1 gallon storage containers for 1.49 each. And the lids were .50. Then I got two larger storage containers that'll hold the bath water for 8.99 each. Then I got some frozen Swedish meatballs to take home because the cafe was closed and you can't go to Ikea without getting Swedish meatballs. I need to get some more airline tubing tomorrow... and maybe some more clown gobies but I'm excited to start close examination of all the new friends. Oh and corals too! Not sure what they all are yet, I'll post more once they open up and I can look them up properly.

 

[starypotter]

Tanks all ready to transfer!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Tanks all ready to transfer!

Love that set up! Cool idea.

 

[starypotter]

Love that set up! Cool idea.

I can't take credit for the idea all on my own, I saw someone else do the idea online a while ago when I was browsing around. I love it so far. Won't have to clean the heaters which is great, I never feel like I can properly clean those things. And of course no lugging around tanks in and out to clean them. And it makes it so that I don' have to have multiple fish who might not love each other too much in a 10 gallon together. And the part that I love the most is that I can easily monitor who eats what. Some of my fish don't seem to eat much because others are more aggressive feeders. This way there's no stress and no competition and all I need to clean are PVC, the little containers, and swap out the end bits of the airline tubing with an airstone on it.
I also had get a new pump, petco's brand has a pump rated to 140 gallons, and it has 4 outputs and an adjustable dial to have more or less air being pumped. So all I needed was to split each line in 2 with some Ts and use the little air controller screws to make sure they both got decent amounts of bubbles.

 

[Redleg]

Looks like a great setup for TTM. With the added bonus of being able to wash those containers in the dishwasher.

 

[starypotter]

Looks like a great setup for TTM. With the added bonus of being able to wash those containers in the dishwasher.

Didn't even think of that! not sure how well this plastic would handle the heat though, there's a reason why they were 1.50 a piece.

 

[cracker]

Well all in all, this inpulse buy has turned out very well !

 

[starypotter]

Well all in all, this inpulse buy has turned out very well !

I'd like to think so! I'm excited to be able to start putting things in there soon! The tank itself looks so empty with NO movement in it. Hammer corals bounces a bit, GSP sways, and sometimes a snail is in a different place than the last time you looked. All of the shrimp have found their hiding spots so they're not even out and about. One day soon!