Cody.P's 75g Ultimate Build!

[Cody.P]

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out my thread! I will try to post often and include lots of pictures/details. If you have any questions, just ask.

My name is Cody and I'm a 23 year old recent Oregon State Grad. I've been reefing for about three years now. I took down my 55g display about two years ago and have been living though my frag takes ever since. But the time has come to finally build a real DT!!!
I'm beyond excited to say the least

I moved into a house with three of my closest friends and they wanted a fish tank. Being the stand up guy I am, how could I deny them!?! So I picked up a 75 gallon from Greg and thus the build was born. The plan is to create a beautiful mixed reef with minimal maintenance (everyone has this goal haha).

My goal with this thread is to document the equipment used so others may steal my ideas, and to see how my tank progresses

I would also love any advice you guys/gals may have.

I have spent the last few weeks planning out equipment and livestock. As of now, I only have the tank and some 2x4s! But I just placed an order for a bunch of stuff today. Three boxes totaling 100lb will be here on Thursday! I still need to place at least one two more orders to get all my stuff. For this build, I want everything to work good and to have zero issues so some of it will be brand new

I never buy myself new equipment so I'm treating myself a little.

Here is what I've got planned for this build.



Equipment:

Lighting: Going with a T5/LED Hybrid. Either the AquaticLife hybrid fixture with two AI HD Primes or something similar. BRS put a video out about this setup and it would meet my needs/desire for the tank perfectly I think.

Flow: Two MP-10QD (already have them, just need to order new drivers since mine aren't working properly) OR one Gyre 230 if the MP-10s don't give me enough flow

Skimmer: Simplicity 240 DC Protein Skimmer

Return Pump: Simplicity DC 1000 Pump

Overflow: Synergy Reef Shadow Overflow

Rock: 70lb Tonga Branch (going for the floating overhang inspired by Evoz's structure on Youtube)

Filtration: Pond Matrix and MarinePure block, along with carbon

ATO: I'm still deciding but I'm leaning toward the new Apex ATK ATO or Tunze Osmolator 3155

Sump: Trigger Emerald 34

Heater: 200w Eheim Jager

Stand: Custom made by yours truly

Livestock: I will trim down the list a little when it actually comes time to stock.

Fish: (Going for the Skittles look with lots of movement)

Clownfish pair

Blue Spot Jawfish

Orchid Dottyback

McCoskeri Flasher Male

Brunneus Fairy Wrasse Male

Lineatus Wrasse Male

Ornate Leopard Wrasse Female

small Purple Tang

Flameback angel

Midas blenny

This fish list isn't final, just my thoughts thus far. I'm definitely open to other fish and ideas

Inverts:

2-4 Cleaner shrimp

2 Blood shrimp

Starfish eventually

Urchin?



Corals: Lots of Zoas and LPS with a few SPS. I'll list them all out as I add them to the tank.





Here is how the tank sits right now.

Wait....that wall doesn’t have a power outlet.....

Up next: fix the no power issue!

 

[sneub]

Can't wait, 75 is a great tank.

 

[Cody.P]

Can't wait, 75 is a great tank.

I couldn’t agree more. The footprint is awesome. Plenty of space for fish to swim, and even better, tons of room to aquascape!!

 

[sneub]

I have a 75 waiting for me to start my build. I am In the process of moving so it will be a bit before I get started. Until then, I will join you with your build.

 

[Cody.P]

As I mentioned in my first post, the wall I want to put the tank on has no power outlet. So, I needed to make one. Here are the crazy steps I took to install this outlet. Keep in mind I have very limited experience with electrical work.

Step one: Suit up
Our attic if full of insulation padding and shredded insulation. Anyone who has crawled around in this stuff before knows it is from the devil himself. So, to avoid hours of itching I borrowed a protective suit from work, and face mask for breathing and put on my boots. I also wore rubber gloves and duck taped the connections so there was zero chance insulation would get in my suit.

Step Two: Climb into the super creepy, dark attic
This step is pretty straight forward lol. I needed to find the wall where I wanted to add electricity. This is much harder than one would think. As you can see in a later photo its like a sea of insulation which makes it almost impossible to tell where walls begin and start. Let alone finding the exact wall/part I need.

Step Three: Drill a hole in the top of the wall
As you can see I finally found the correct wall. Next, I used a 1.5" drill bit and created a hole to push the new electrical cable through....Wait......this whole only goes down 4 feet and my wall is 8 feet......(pause for quick call to my dad)......Learned that there is a fire break half way up the wall to prevent fires from racing up inside the walls. So I have a new problem, how to I drill a hole through the 2x4 fire break using this 1.5" hole........?
I don't have a picture of my "super fancy" tool but I made a DIY drill bit extension. I welded a 1.25" drill bit to the end of a 5' piece of rebar I had laying around. Stick that DIY extension down the hole and pray it works otherwise I'm out of luck for this build. Well the first weld broke so now there is a drill bit in my wall but the second try worked perfect!
Last, I just needed to thread the electrical cable though the two holes and out the bottom.

Step four: Find Power
I lucked out and was able to see a junction box about 8 feet away from the hole I drilled. I climbed over to it and proceeded to step five.

Step five: Actually acquire power
Yet another thing I had never done before but hey, I watched lots of Youtube videos! If you ever do this, make sure to turn off the house power lol. After a few calls to my dad to make sure I didn't burn down the house the connection was ready. Connect black to black, ground to ground, and white to white.

Step Six: Cut outlet hole
Measure up from the carpet to match it with existing outlets around the house and then cut! Pull the power cord through, insert blue box, attach all the wires, and then put it all together.

LET THERE BE LIGHT (or just power)

Now I am ready to begin building the stand. Hopefully my roommate and I will be able to get that done tomorrow!

 

[Cody.P]

Today I started on the light. I wanted a T5/LED combo. Plan is to run the LEDs for most of the day with the T5s on for only a few hours to provide color/growth. I love the shimmer/pop with LEDs but you can’t beat the growth and color of T5s.
Plan was to buy an aquatic Life Hybrid fixture but I hate spending money. So I decided to DIY it. I grabbed my old 8bulb off brand T5 and started playing doctor. Keep in mind I know the basics of electricity and that’s it!

Underneath the reflectors was nothing lol. These fixtures are pretty simple, I was surprised!
Started cutting things up and reattaching then to a 1/2” piece of plywood.

Attached some wires here, a couple there and boom we have light!!! Not gonna lie, I was super surprised when the light turned on [emoji23]

Attach the other set of reflectors, some more wires and this is the final product. Plan was to place radions down the middle but there isn’t enough space... gonna go with Hydra 26Hds instead [emoji4] she may not be pretty but it will work and I saved a few hundred bucks!
Oh and it’s either going in a floating canopy or a full canopy so it will be hidden [emoji4]

 

[Cody.P]

Also got my shipment from BRS! 75ish pounds of Tonga Branch and other misc plumbing items. Hmmm this aquascape is gonna be difficult but I love the openness of Tonga Branch.

 

[Streetdoc77]

I loved the tonga branch in my old 75 gal . Drill some holes in it for frags attaching stuff to it was a bit tuff .

Also got my shipment from BRS! 75ish pounds of Tonga Branch and other misc plumbing items. Hmmm this aquascape is gonna be difficult but I love the openness of Tonga Branch.

 

[Cody.P]

I messed around for a little while last night. Love the look but it’s definitely hard to aquascape with lol. I appreciate the tip!!

 

[LPStandard]

Nice build! I'm excited to see progress. My new 75 is mid-cycle right now, and I absolutely love the size also. The footprint fits well in the room, but offers lots of space for fish and scape. Looking forward to updates!

 

[Cody.P]

Nice build! I'm excited to see progress. My new 75 is mid-cycle right now, and I absolutely love the size also. The footprint fits well in the room, but offers lots of space for fish and scape. Looking forward to updates!

Thank you! Taking forever to or this together but I’m excited for the end result.
Do you have a build thread I can check out?
Also what fish are you going to stock with? I’m looking for ideas

 

[LPStandard]

Thank you! Taking forever to or this together but I’m excited for the end result.
Do you have a build thread I can check out?
Also what fish are you going to stock with? I’m looking for ideas

I do!
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/75g-fresh-start.353947/

I have a pair of tomato clowns and their host RBTA, along with a yellow chromis that I have had FOREVER that will be going in first.
Besides that, no real plans. Whatever is safe/smart to have in a 75 and catches my eye. I'd like a goby/pistol shrimp pair for sure though.

 

[Cody.P]

Stock list is always the hardest! I’m still working on narrowing my fish down. Too many good ones!

 

[Cody.P]

Got around to drilling the tank today! The Reef Synergy is a slick overflow! Can’t wait to put it all together and get water running through it. Also some eye candy from the frag tanks! Lots of goodies waiting for this tank to be ready!

 

[Brynn]

Fantastic (and entertaining) build thread! Looking forward to following.

 

[Cody.P]

Small update.
Installing the final trim on the stand and getting ready to paint. I’ve also been working on the plumbing. Trying to think of all the future upgrades so needless to say, I’ve been “plumbing” for 3 days haha. Tomorrow I will glue it all together and snap a pic for you guys!

I decided to clean my Tonga branch using the bleach method shown on BRS. I placed all the rocks into a bin and mixed in enough bleach to make roughly a 10% solution. Let the rocks soak for 24 hours and then rinse. Set the rocks out for another 24 hours to dry. Then back into water with 250 ml of Prime to remove the chlorine (enough for 2500 gallons of water). In a couple days I will drain the water and repeat the last step again. Followed by one more bath and then a drying period to ensure all chlorine is gone.

 

[Cody.P]

Rock work is almost done! 3 days, 5 packs of IC-Gel and 2 tubes of Epoxy later. I’m in love. So much open space and hiding places.

If you couldn’t tell, I decided not to use the Tonga branch.

 

[Wrasse-cal]

The aquascape looks really open. Is it just epoxy and superglue holding everything together? Looks really nice. A lot of great real estate for corals to grow!

 

[Cody.P]

The aquascape looks really open. Is it just epoxy and superglue holding everything together? Looks really nice. A lot of great real estate for corals to grow!

It’s super open! I’ve always been a fan of a minimalistic scape so that’s what I was going for wanted lots of room for fish to swim and room on both the rocks and sand for corals!
It’s held together by 2 tubes of epoxy, 5 tubes of IC-cel, and 3 days of work haha

 

[CoralNerd]

What you had me excited about the Tonga branch build out lol. What happened? I'm actually getting 75lbs of branches delivered today. [emoji38]