Kevaughn's 75 gal build

[sc8kv123]

Hey everyone,

It's finally time to get my first build thread started. I'm new to the hobby with just a little over a year of experience from my 15 gallon tank. If you guys have any tips or suggestions please share with me. I will try to keep this thread up to date and picture heavy.



I had originally received a standard 125 gallon tank with the old petco stand for the good price of free. After inspecting the seals of the tank I decided to go a different route for a display. I had an extra standard 75 gallon marineland tank laying around so it was finally put to use. Before doing anything I had to add some extra support to the cheap pressed wood stand and expand the cabinets to be able to house a sump. I took out all of the divider walls except for the one dividing the sump section and the controller/electrical section. The sump section was reinforced with a 2x4 skeleton.

-dividers removed

-2x4 skeleton in place

-I wanted to keep the original exterior look of the stand, so I had to trim/modify a lot of the original pieces to get them to function the way I wanted.

-got the top back on

Finally all back together, holding the original exterior look of the stand.

 

[ReeferReefer]

Looking good!

 

[sc8kv123]

Next up was the work on the sump. I had an old 10 gallon that had already been set up that I planned to use for my mechanical filtration. Now I needed a place for my protein skimmer (Deltec APF600), other equipment, and a refugium. I decided to use a 20 long to house everything and planned to join it with bulkheads to the left side of the ten gallon. I had about a million extra junky picture frames that had the glass still in them laying around in my attic. There were all kinds of sizes so I decided to recycle the glass from the frames and use it for my sump baffles.



-The far left is the skimmer section, the water from the skimmer will go under the refugium in the next section to the right. The far right will house my reactors.

Test fit of the two tank put together. I know I should have put a union/ball valve between the two tanks but I really did not have the length available to work with under the stand. Also this was all built to be permanent under the stand... which I later found out was a very bad idea.

Here's the ten gallon I had built for the 15 gallon before and decided to reuse for this build. I know, it looks pretty gnarly and jacked up but it was such a good sump. The far back left section was originally used as a ATO resevoir.

It was pretty challenging getting everything to fit and also get the two tanks connected up properly but I was just barely able to get it all together with no leaks. Luck.

Next up was getting everything plumbed together. All of my plumbing took place more or less in one day and I wasn't able to get any pictures as I was gluing and cutting. Here are some finished shots of everything though..

 

[sc8kv123]

-Here's a shot from the other side. Everything was coming together pretty smoothly at this point.

-Finally getting the filtration wet. It was nice to see everything going from paper and idea to sitting in my living room. The skimmer, reactor(s), refugium, and return are all being ran off the temporary Rio pump. I had that Deltec skimmer laying around for about 6 months and had never even tested it to see if it worked. Hallelujah, it started up first t.


Next up was to get the electrical side at least half way figured out. Learning from the mistakes of my last build helped a lot in this area. I don't have a cool controller yet so I just hooked up my basic equipment to the poor man's controller.. a glorified powerstrip basically. Having the individual switches are really a huge help.

-My heater controller and any other controller will mount to the front and all the wires will be organized (some day..) behind the hinged divider/door. The bottom section of this cabinet will hold a 5 or 6 gallon ATO resevoir.

-Not very neat just yet but someday..

-Oh, I also added this handy little drawer/table/powerstrip. I hate when i'm taking pictures of the tank and my phone dies, drives me crazy.

-This is how I decided to mount my power switcher. I had a bunch of extra wood laying around from dismantling the stand and built this little elevated section. My plan is to build a custom frag tank to fit here that will be plumbed in with the rest of the system. My little 3 gallon will do for now.

 

[sc8kv123]

^^That's the live rock cycling and getting ready to be added into the tank.

- Here's how the tank looked as of 5 weeks ago. I have made some changes to the system and scaped my rock work since the last picture was taken. My levels have started to balance and I am finally coming out of my cycle. I'll cover what I did with the lights as soon as I get the chance to get some pics and add it all to the thread. Thanks for checking out my progress so far, more to come soon.

 

[theimer808]

Looks awesome!

 

[sc8kv123]

Some updated pictures. There have been a lot of changes lately. Went skimmerless, new controller, paint job, livestock...to much too list right now. I'll be doing a proper update with more picture and info soon.

 

[sc8kv123]

And a FTS

 

[sc8kv123]

Top down

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Awesome job! Following!

 

[sc8kv123]

Painted my stand

 

[b_braz]

I just spent the last hour reading through this build. Can you go through your plumbing for me in some extra detail with a few photos of the to tank thing you got going in your stand. Just trying to figure out the path it's taken and how it's been working for you so far. I am following along. And the paint job looks good. How's that canopy doing for you?

 

[sc8kv123]

I've been doing a lot of work under the stand. I just ordered some new equipment to get hooked up and then i'll do an update for whats in the stand. Until then here are some more pictures.

 

[sc8kv123]

Down the side picture from this morning.

 

[sc8kv123]

This is a terrible phone pic but this is how the stand looks painted black.

 

[Garrett W.]

Looks absolutely stunning. Love the side tank and how the paint job came out

 

[sc8kv123]

Here's a progress picture.

 

[sc8kv123]

Finally got a new skimmer to replace my old Deltec, i've been skimmerless for a few months with no real negative affects. I noticed more algae growth and I had to clean my glass more often but nothing more than that. The new skimmer should make things easier and it makes me feel better having one on the system.

I had to modify my refugium to make space for the skimmer. I had bought a new refugium light a few weeks ago and chaeto growth has exploded ever since. This setup will be temporary until I cut the new baffles so I can lock in my water line in the skimmer section, sorry for the mess.

I added a yellow tang to the community and have added some new frags since my last update. Also, I saw this huge stomatella on the front glass last night before bed.

 

[sc8kv123]

The skimmer is working out pretty good so far, still a little wet for my taste but i'm still getting it tuned in. It pulled out a lot in 24 hours of skimming. I still need to connect the drain to my skimmate container in the basement. I'm also planning to run the air inlet to the exterior of the house to help combat low ph issues.

I also added the slim overflow to where the bulkhead connects the two tanks. I wanted to avoid draining the refugium/sump to silicone a baffle for the skimmer so I took this route to maintain the right water level instead. I just cut up some acrylic and superglued it in, no draining or wait time for silicone to dry and cure.

 

[sc8kv123]

This is one of my favorite fish I own, so much personality!