New 75 Gallon Build

[eagle]

Hi everyone,
I'm new here and wanted to post my build pics. I have been in the hobby for quite a while but haven't had a tank up for the last 5 years. Long story short, I had to move across the country in 08 and had to sell off all my livestock/tank. I have had my equipment sitting in storage totes for 5 years. We finally decided to put it back to good use. My wife is new to the hobby and it has been a lot of fun teaching her as we go.

3/4 inch oak

Faced out

Staining and Painting

Doors

Shelves

Epoxy white on insides

My Wife Painting away

Inside Canopy

Bookshelves

Painting Back of Tank

My Father in Law, Bud. Great Carpenter!!!

Finally in with doors hung

Got the tank in

Got port holes and air holes drilled out

Building the Sump/refugium from some old acrylic sheets that were laying around.
We cut/sanded/welded and buffed it back out to clear.

Aquascaping the Rocks

Sump, sand and water in. Still working on rocks

Running a diatom filter to clear up the haze from new sand

Rocks finished, Tank and fuge plumbed in. Probe holders plumbed, Skimmer plumbed in, Electrical panel with toggle switches wired up.
Added a couple clowns and my daughter had to have a sand star.























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[eagle]

AquaC EV180 Skimmer. I built some acrylic stands so I could use my collector

DIY Probe holders

Toggle Switches wired in

Lights hung with some finger pricks and cuss words

Moonlights


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[eagle]

I had to overhaul my Kent RODI. It was rusting away and had a broken canister.

Plate and screws were rusted up

Primered and painted

Parts

Reconfigured and good as new. Upgraded to 100gpd

Next Project is rebuilding my Korallin that didn't fare well in the move

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[eagle]

My next step is getting more flow inside the tank. I'm looking at the mini polario's because they are 9V DC. I just recieved my cleanup crew and some coralline to seed the rocks. Got some macro on the way for the fuge. Need a fuge light lol. I have the first parts of my controller ordered as well. I'm starting off with the auto top off/dosing pumps. I'm gonna run it with a arduino uno and a liquid level sensor. I picked up some dc peristaltic pumps for dosing/ato. Nice and cheap for controllable dosers. I have a 8 outlet power bar I plan on running with a arduino mega and inputting 4-6 probe/sensors. Probably 1 X ORP, 2 X PH, EC,and Temp. Maybe salinity. I'll network the duino's together with xbee. Probably build a web app and put it online with a wireless shield. Should be fun. You can do so much with arduino's. Endless possibilities for automation. I'll keep posting here as I go. Thanks for checking out my build!!!

 

[swannyson7]

Looks great thus far! Nice clean build! 1smile1

 

[Zack]

Yep very nice setup, super clean bro!

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[creefer]

Nice work!! Very clean build so far.

 

[johnstonstms3]

Nice so far. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

 

[dcfluegel]

wow! nice build - looks like you are way ahead of the curve - looking forward to seeing this evolve

 

[AsphaltPays]

That cabinet looks awesome !! Beautiful setup Very clean


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[alex0725]

Really looks nice! Love the cabinet work!!

 

[spscrazy]

Welcome. I thought I was the only reefer in meridian! Good looking build

 

[ryhoward]

Looking great! The build is so much of the fun.

 

[eagle]

Thank you all so much!!! I'm liking this forum much better than others I've been a part of. It is great to be back in the hobby. I have had years to think about what I would do on my next setup, and what I wished I had done on previous setups. So I'm trying to incorporate all I can from past bumps in the road lol. It's great to see someone from Meridian here. I have no idea where the local stores are in MS. I plan for this tank to be mostly SPS. I've been looking for frags online but I still have a ways to go before adding any. Thanks for all your support.

 

[eagle]

I was away for a couple weeks at work in Ohio. I'm off for 5 days in between jobs so I traveled back home until Wednesday. The tank is cycling out nice. We have been running actinics only and keeping mag, calcium and alk levels up. I got some grunge from GARF and seeded the corraline. It works good but always seems to make a mess. I'm kinda regretting sprinkling it over the rocks as a lot of it winds up in the sand. I'm debating pulling a lot of the sand out anyway. Hoping to get the corraline spreading. I ordered a aquamaxx biopellet reactor and I'm looking at the Avast CS1 cone skimmer. I took my aqua-c out of the sump and I have a euroreef rs80 running for now. My temp kept staying elevated with all the pumps I had going lol. The aqua-c has a mag drive 9.5. Just too much pump/heat for this smaller setup. The only pumps I had on hand were from my last tank. I'm for sure downsizing them and I'll have em up for sale after my 30 day period here. Mag drive 1800, 950, and 700. I'm getting the blueline dc pumps so I can control the flow. I've been researching these newer "low" power cone skimmers and they're pretty neat. After looking at most all of them I really like the avast because of the diy kit for one and I like the re-circulation design. So much cheaper to DIY. I will feed it straight from the biopellet reactor and depending on the output height i may feed the effluent straight to the fuge. I hope the recirculation skimmer won't be so sensitive to water height. I got some chaeto for the fuge. I was a little disappointed in the amount for the price but I guess it will grow. Several of my controller parts have showed up but still waiting on the ones coming from china. The motor drivers, dosing pumps, and arduino are yet to show. When my 30 days is up I will have the aqua-c ev180, euroreef rs80, mag drive pumps, 3 icecap 250mh ballast, red sea aquazone deluxe 100mg ozonizer for sale. I have a local guy looking at the ozonizer so it may be gone by then. On wednesday I'll be back to work for a few weeks so maybe the tank will purple up some before I get back to see it.

 

[eagle]

sorry, those are waveline dc pumps not blueline lol.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Welcome and wow what a great job!!

ROLL TIDE!

 

[ReefPops]

Looking good!

 

[eagle]

Thanks, and yes Roll Tide! I was in Ohio for the game and watched it with a co worker (from Pittsburgh) who was wearing his ND hat. So, for a Bama fan it was a great game. He lost the hat and $30 on the night. It's a bummer now though because the season is over. We have some pretty awesome recruits coming in early this year and it should be interesting again next year. I really never thought this was our year. We lost so many players last year it was ridiculous. But hey, after living through the Dubose-Shula eras I'm not gonna complain one bit. Take it when ya can lol.

 

[eagle]

I have to post how much help I received from Avast Marine with their CS1 skimmer and modding it to run a waveline dc3000 pump. I talked to them several times and they helped me out a lot. There just isn't much info out about these pumps. Luckily they have been experimenting with the pumps on their skimmers and they are machining me a recirculating venturi so i can run the dc pump instead if the sicce. Really DIY minded people.
On another note me and my brother got the milone liquid level sensor hooked up to my arduino tonight. He's a genius no doubt. He's never seen a arduino and breezed through it like he does it all the time. Now all that's left to do with the dosing/ato side of things is getting the dosing pumps in and wiring it all up. I plan on hacking the waveline pumps and running them via the arduinos. Ill be doing the same to some polario mini's for wavemakers. So much more control with a arduino. Endless options. And the hardware is so dang cheap. I almost feel bad paying $5 for pcb motor controllers lol. My uno was $15 and it's the brain. The milone sensor is pretty sweet because it monitors the level all the time. You can monitor evaporation rates etc. Pretty neat sensor.