My 75gal build

[J & Jr]

Hi,

I’m John the J and my son Jack is the Jr in our screen name we decided it was time to introduce ourselves.

First we bought a tank that was suffering from neglect you could hardly tell there were fish in the tank for all the algae covering the rocks and glass. Water was a mess PH 7.8, nitrate 30 and salinity 1.019. It had a under gravel filter and three old PH’s just hanging by the cords. We tried to fix it up

(cleaned up and added skimmer)

and finally decided to start fresh. So off tank hunting we went after a long search we finally found a store we had been told of (Waves) and ordered a nice shiny new 75gal tank with a built in overflow. The first order of business was a stand, as I’m not fond of crawling on the floor at my age I wanted a stand tall enough to look at standing or at face level sitting in a chair. The only way to have that I found is to build it yourself. After some thought here is what we came up with.

 

 

Next we decided to try our hand at sump building (its harder than it looks to get perfect seams) and here is what we finally ended up with.

 

Not to bad for a first try though I will make some changes on the next one(laugh).

Next we needed to drill all five of the holes for the closed loop. Due to technical difficulties with our new camera (the wife wanted to take some pic’s and deleted all photos on the card) there are no pic’s of this step. I will say it was easier than I thought it would be just a little intimidating at first.

Then comes the plumbing not to hard Once you get all the leaks stopped I can't wait to get a OM for the closed loop though. Finaly in goes the new sand and water crank up the pumps and a final check for leaks.(dancing)

 

 

Decided to throw in a few rocks and fish and let run for a week or so.

 

 

Then the big move(clap) even without water I didn't realize how heavy a tank sand stand and pumps could be.(note to self next time build the setup in place stupid)

 

 

four hours later the new tank is in its final position all the rock is in and the fish are happy(clap)

 

 

and a final shot of the tank after settling down.

 

 

I will add to this as I finish the project ( new bigger skimmer, a nice surround for the stand…) for now a few shots of the present occupants.

 

The originals:

 

A frag from last years BBQ

 

and the newest one thanks to Dsoz it was beautiful but I only saw it the first two nights it has found a place to hide and not be seen:(

 

 

Well so long for now thanks for looking,

john & Jack

[Michael7979]

Howdy! Glad to see you posted some pictures, (all very good pictures too).

 

keep up the good work and keep us updated on the progress of the stand and the other updates!

[mister crabs]

nice looking tank....might i suggest some black paint for the back though? would help your critters "POP" more. or even use some cling type window tint like impur did.

[J & Jr]

I bought some of that window tint but found it almost impossible to put on after the plumbing (note to self background before plumbing) tried painting didn't like the brush strokes even after several coats. So I went with the high value, sophisticated, must be qualified to use white cardboard hope coralline or GSP will cover soon.

[dsoz]

It looks great! I know it looks even better in person. My wife even said that she liked it (high praise from a woman that remebers my algae monster!)

 

Keep us updated.

 

dsoz

[CCR]

Great shots!!!!! Keep em comming

[DChemist]

Very well done. Thanks for posting it up.

[SeanF]

You could always spray paint the cardboard black.

[J & Jr]

thanks all for the kind words. SeanF it just goes to show you the simple solutions are easy to overlook thanks.

[impur]

Great job on that sump! Was that your first try at building one?

 

What size return pump are you using, and what size is that bulkhead for the intake?

[reefhut]

J & JR

 

Great job on your tank! I think it's great that your boy is involved and is enjoying it. Where in Clackamas are you located? It looks like a display you set up at your business?

[J & Jr]

Great job on that sump! Was that your first try at building one?

 

What size return pump are you using, and what size is that bulkhead for the intake?

 

Yes that was my first try there are some things I would do different next time but all in all I’m happy with it .

the return pump is a sealine 6540/760gph, the CL pump is a sequence snapper.

the bulkeead fore the overflow is 1" the intake for the CL is 1 1/2" the hole I drilled for that seemed huge(scary) thanks for the complement.

[J & Jr]

Great job on your tank! I think it's great that your boy is involved and is enjoying it. Where in Clackamas are you located? It looks like a display you set up at your business?

 

I'm located on 82nd Dr. near the HWY 212 exit. I also have the 150gal FW my son is laying in front of there. It is in my office just trying to convince my wife if she likes this one we need a new bigger one at home(whistle)

[impur]

I almost drilled a hole for a 2" bulkhead on my 75gal for the input for a dart. I decided against it and went with 1". I wish i'd have done 2 1.25" or 1.5" holes.

 

[SeanF]

Simple I am good at. Just don't ask me to help you build one of those sumps.

[J & Jr]

one thing I haven't been able to get right so far is the flow in the tank. for some reason no mater how I direct the closed loop returns it seems the current wants to blow the sand out of the right front corner of the tank then all the snails & hermits tend to all pile up there. I guess I will have to change my rock scape to alter the flow or possibly this will stop when I add the OM to the loop.

[reefhut]

flow

 

Yeah your dart for the CL is huge for that size tank. I'm not sure there's much you can do about the sand blowing around. You could try to put some Y's on each of the CL return's to spread thing out. You could also get larger grain of sand thats more pebble size. Just a thought..(scratch)

[Ronjunior]

I'm located on 82nd Dr. near the HWY 212 exit. I also have the 150gal FW my son is laying in front of there. It is in my office just trying to convince my wife if she likes this one we need a new bigger one at home(whistle)

I'd love to stop by and drool; DSOZ said you lived in my Trillium Neighborhood, but sounds like you're by my parents metal/HVAC shop, Riehl Industries, next to the metal scrap yard on 82nd dr. I know there is another reefer in my neighborhood where Izzypop used to live too, but don't know the guy. He keeps his reef tank in his garage so we get to see it when taking the dog for a walk. Do you live in a place on 82nd DR., or maybe your tanks are just at your shop? If you live in our neighborhood, were the "holiday house" as we find out from others. We do the haunted house garage at Halloween and a toy and food drive for KGW Christmas complete with Santa, firepit, and hot treats and good eats.