Upgraded - My New (to me) 72 Gallon bowfront reef

[Whatigot]

I have so far the tank, stand and 20 gallon sump and overflow.
Lighting and skimming are up in the air right now but probably going with t5's or cf's.
This is the biggest tank I've had and only my 3rd sw/reef.
I will take some pics once initial set up is done, but for now I'm going to play around with the setup using freshwater to make sure thare are no re-do's later on.
I experienced something of a wipe out in my 36 gallon bow where aside from a couple of zebra hermits and my pistol shrimp along with 2 fanworms, nothing survived so I am going to be starting from scratch once the new system is cycled (I'm anticipating 4 months using half old substrate and half old sw).

I never want to have to deal with something like that again as I had grown rather attached to my royal gramma and the ecosystem I had built her.

I'm going to document my progress here, more for myself than anyone, so please give me your constructive criticisms and advice freely.

Man oh man have I neglected this journal.
I'll kick this up a notch soon, but in the mean time, here is a couple pics of the tanks status thus far.
http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/PIC-0005.jpg
http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/PIC-0004.jpg (http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/PIC-0003.jpg)

[Whatigot]

Alright.
I pretty much have the 2 chamber 20 gallon tall sump and all the plumbing figured out and got some forward momentum going.
I wound up buying more tube in more sizes than I ever should have needed but now that the quiet flo overflow is going and the sump is empty except for the submersible 400gph pump and a drip plate it's got a pretty low noise profile.
I drilled a hole in the side of my stand under the overflow so that I could pass the hose directly to the sump bulkhead as Id mounted the overflow on the side to lessen the rear clearance needed, it's more efficient and silent now and looks cleaner imo.
I put in the sand from my old tank; about 30lbs and all the water I had saved and kept warm and circulated and proceeded to fill the tank 5 gallon bucket by 5 gallon bucket, this is of course after a lot of messing around with the tank full of fresh tapwater and many subsequent leaks/misdirected hoses.
Gonna grab a heater and some more aragonite today and let the temp level out and dust settle before talking some pics of progress so far.

more to come....


couple more pics...

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/PIC-0008.jpg[/IMG]"]http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/PIC-0007.jpg (http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/PIC-0007.jpg)

[Whatigot]

Okay, in addition to the 30 lbs of established sand from my old tank, I have added 15 lbs of crushed coral on top of that and a further 20 lbs of aragamax select on top of that.
I also have added a Koralia 1 for added flow to start and 1 250 and 1 50 watt submersible heaters in the sump.
I've set up my red sea prizm pro as a temporary skimmer as well.
Currently the temp seems to hover between 78 and 79 and I am going to add 20lbs more of live substrate and some LR as soon as the dust settles.

Pics wil be up once LR is in and I get the dust cleaned out of the sump.

[Whatigot]

Just took a few pics, heres a few of where I'm at...
Dig the DIY lighting mountage and kalkwasser drip, I think they turned out well.
Next step is getting 40 more pounds of LR and then I'm off to the races.

[Boomboy]

well no one seems to write on your journal, so i will, i like the way you have your rock set up with it all on one side leaves lots of sand, for my 90g i will try and do the same thing but have a little on the other side, (having a center overflow) i think your tank will look great, keep it going and keep us updated.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

You should take a closer pic of the tank itself. That's what I'd like to get better look at.

[danny zubot]

Where did you find tha flexable hose for the drain? I was lookin at some hot tub hose kind of like that, but it didn't fit the bulk head.

[Whatigot]

added 50lbs more cuban live rock that had just gotten into the store the day before.
I was totally impressed with the relatively small amount of die off and shapes of the rocks and the amount of macroalgea on the rocks.
Had never heaqrd of cuban live rock before, but I'm sure it's similiar to Floriday LR.

Now in total I'm sitting on about 50lbs of uncured, ocean fresh rock and 30lbs of cured tonga and fiji rock and a further 10lbs of cured rubble in my sump.

I just have to charge my camera and I'll take some more pics to update this thread.....

thanks all for the input, I will definitely take some full tank pics and maybe even aquascpe it a couple more times.....

[Whatigot]

okay, update with some pics.
tried introducing a royal gramma and a clown goby but they were both eaten by the 6 or 7 pistol shrimp that I have found living in the tank.
I really like watching this pistol shrimp community and may just leave as is and add coral.
in any case, this is all about the pics, let me know what you think.
cheers.

http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/?action=view&current=Picture029.jpg

[Joe Reefer]

pistol shrimp or mantis?

[Whatigot]

Pistol Shrimp.
so far no mantis
I have at least 2 crabs as well that I've seen, one a gorilla and the other a mithrax of some variety.
I don't know who to blame for the death of my first fishies, maybe all of them...lol

[Joe Reefer]

Considering that pistol shrimp share/live in borrows with gobies I highly doubt they killed you fish.

[Whatigot]

only with shrimp gobies though, I have never heard of a clown goby hosting with a shrimp.
It's also not all pistol shrimp that form symbiotic relationships with gobies, some do not at all.
There are so many different kinds of pistols, even many that are unidentified, much like crabs.

The pet stores just generally only have the cave sharing kind as they sell well, if thats where you're getting your info...

[Whatigot]

bump, added some pics for all you to appreciate.
enjoy!

[Pier Pressure]

That is gorgeous. Nice work. I notice you have two royal grammas (some of my favorites). Are those two a mated pair?

[Whatigot]

I actually have 3 of them and the two smaller ones do seem to stick together.
I build this reef with the Gramma Loreto in mind because I love their disposition and I was nervous at first in putting 3 in a relatively small tank, but so far the two do seem to be courting and the other (who is twice the size of the biggest of the other two) checks in on the others occasionally and none of them are showing any aggression to each other.

so far so good, heres a couple more pics....
http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/aquapics016.jpg
http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/IMG_0183.jpg

[Whatigot]

and a couple more....
http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/IMG_0185.jpg
http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/PIC-0006.jpg

[Whatigot]

and hey, why not a couple more....

http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/IMG_0192.jpg
http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/IMG_0190.jpg

[Whatigot]

and one more cuz i like this one....
http://http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm277/ohkenny42oh/IMG_0200.jpg

[Zoaelite]

and you should brush your teeth before you talk so your breath doesn't smell like bull****.
but thanks for that.
your usual insight and obvious level of knowledge are always appreciated, right up there with your maturity and your wit.

Whoa guys, agreed that the picture comment was very out of line but lets try to not act like 6 year olds here and start treating each other properly. Whatigot, I love the last photo you posted what type of gramma is that though? You posted it as a Gramma Loreto but thats a "Royal Gramma" which only has two colors to it. The one in your photo has stripes?
Levi

[LeeR]

Your tank looks great man. Whats the fish in that last picture?

[Whatigot]

sorry, the pic of the royal grammas are near the beginning of this post.
I hate to act like a kid, but some people just keep pushing
in any case, the mods have dealt with the situation and I for one would like to leave it at that.
that last picture was of one of my chalk bass hanging out near where the smaller grammas call home, though I can see in reading why you would think I was referring to the pic of the chalk bass, the chalk bass by the way are awesome. I have a school of 5 of them and they are such a nice peaceful reef species who hide sometimes and sometimes swim out in the open for hours alone or in a school....
Cheers.


Machete...
Thanks man, if you look close you might even see some of your kenya trees and zoos in there....

[TheRealBigAL]

TANK IS LOOKIN AWSOME BRO. To bad your not as good at taking pics as you are reef keeping. THIS TANK LOOKS WAY BETTER IN PERSON. THE PICS DONT DO IT JUSTICE.

[Whatigot]

hahaha...
definitely need to get the pic taking abilities to match the amount of time and money sunk into this tank already....
I'll try and take a couple more this weekend, maybe use my tripod and what not...

Al, if I get it down, we'll take some of your new 70 gallon system as well..../

[Leah]

Nice Zoo, Nice Tank! LOL Reminds me of my house, will hopefully get some pic's too!
________
buy vapor genie (http://vaporizers.net/vapor-genie)

[Whatigot]

yeah...
so many animals...lol
couple cats, 5 or 6 tanks, a dog, one tennant....
sigh.