Greg's 75g Rebuild
 

After my first build I found aspects of it to be lacking/not to my liking and always wished I could start over;
-remove some starter corals I didn't like
-rework the rock 'scape
-sump layout didn't work for me
-electrical was too exposed
-stock Aqueon overflow didn't work for me
-drain plumbing of 1" was undersized to run all the way to the sump. With so many elbows and nearly 6" of run, plus the fact that it only dropped a few inches from the tank bottom to the top of the sump, I had to dial back an Eheim 1262. Otherwise it would always run through the emerg and I wasn't comfortable with that.

Last fall I was seriously thinking about redoing the 'scape. I bought some LR before X-mas and started curing it. After some water testing it looked like I would be in for the long haul, and I started getting other brave ideas ...

In February I commited myself to replacing the sump.
I bought a used 90g from my good buddy David (thanks for the hand packing it home :wink:). I stripped it down, had the glass height cut down by 5-1/4" (if memory serves), then re-assembled it.
Now it's a 4' 60g. I added baffles etc and tested it. All is good to go. And the LR is coming along very nicely, so I looked at the plumbing under the DT. I planned on replacing the 1" drain plumbing with 1-1/2" so I could run the return pump full out.
While I was under the DT checking clearances for the new plumbing, I found a leak, and it turned out to be the DT - a pinhole in a bottom corner about 1/8" above the trim.

Murphy just made all my dreams come true, or be careful what you wish for, or whatever ...

Tank was emptied and stuff transferred to a temp holding tank.
Over the first couple days, and then the next couple months, I lost 99% of the corals - some nearly 4 years with me - but thankfully the fish survived.

Anyway, after the tank leaked back in March, I decided to redo 'everything' I didn't like.
I bought a stock 75g from J&L, and drilled it for an Elite Aquatics overflow, which I bought from Reef Supplies. Thanks to member IanWR for the heads up on the box :mrgreen:
I bought the 3-DRAIN ELITE OVERFLOW SYSTEM. Although I only want to run a Herbie, I figured the 3-drain unit would be a good purchase for future upgrades or resale value.

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Drains

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I fabbed a cover to keep the emerg from splashing everywhere

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New sump

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I'm now running a single 7" sock, and built a heater hanger. The hanger also has holes for my dosing hoses.

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I isolated the return plumbing this time to remove any pump vibrations

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And I split the returns as 1 outlet per side was blowing sand away from the glass, no matter where I pointed them. Now all is good

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Reactors were re-positioned. They still hang over the sump enough to leak into it, although the pic doesn't give the perspective.

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Sump cooling fans got an upgrade; When I run out of 80mm fans in my pile, I will build a new bracket for whatever cheapest/most popular ones are on the market - 120mm, 140mm, whatever :biggrin:

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Siliconed the contacts this time as the last set corroded

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New mounting bracket

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New location, and besides removable, it's also able to slide out of the way

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Dosers got a partial upgraded location

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As mentioned, this is where the tubes will drip into the sump, just before the last baffle to the return section. They may be hard to make out on smaller screens, but there are 3 holes for 1/4" airline tubing. Squint !!

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The electrical panel received a total makeover;
I moved it to the other wall, giving the plumbing some more space through the wall.
I built a complete new panel, with all the duplex outlets now flush, and used nearly 20' of panduit.
Now all my Reefkeeper Bus cables are completely isolated from any 12v/120v lines.
After 4 weeks of running ... no bus errors :rockon:

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And a cover

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Back on July 11th, after adding salt and sand, I added a raw Jumbo prawn in a bag to the DT. After a few days of not getting any NH3 I added 5 more. Then, by the next day, I had readings.
The next day I had to remove the prawns from the DT as we couldn't take the smell anymore :lol: The smell went away within an hour of my canopy fan running. The stench of the rotting shrimp was being blown all over the living room by said fan. Unfortunately for me in my office, I had to clean the skimmer cup a couple times to get rid of the last of the putridness. That's a new word I just made up ...

My mini cycle, due to a small amount of NH3, only lasted a total of 17 days.
Yesterday I added a bunch of hermies to feed on the diatoms. I gave them some pellets last night, and some nori today - I'm weak. Must feed the critters.
Anyway, as long as I keep the cycle active, and don't see any issues over the next 4-5 days, I'll start adding our fish from the holding tank.
Poor bastards have been in a 36g for 4 months :sad:

Hope they appreciate their new home without the STUPID aqueon overflow box in the tank :twised:

Low light pics to start with

I'm liking the low lying/minimal 'scape. Plenty of room for colonies to grow big, fish to spaz out, me to clean things, whatever ...
It's what I wanted last year after my corals grew so big I couldn't even clean the glass or sand.

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Notice how the overflow box is quite unobtrusive, and I saved over $1000 by not buying a custom built tank
Oh yeah, thanks to my wife for helping, no, designing the 'scape, and putting up with 4 months of crap all over the house while the system was re-built :hug:

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Welcome back buds, glad you're still with us! Looks like you did a lot of hard work there. If you want some clippings of high end stuff just let me know.

Nice restart! I've done two successful retrofits on undrilled and running tanks with those Elite overflow boxes. They are awesome! I think they look 100 times better than typical built-in internal overflows.

Oh you know I want ...

I love the new real estate it gives me. Not as quiet as the megaflow, but maybe that will get better as it gets some biofilm

Where is the noise coming from?

It's the water falling from the weir teeth down to the through bulkhead level. I'm working with the manufacturer to sort it out. Currently running the back box height 1" from overflowing and still hear trickling/falling water. I'm not willing to run the back box height any higher as it won't give the emerg standpipe enough height to handle full flow.

It's not super loud, just annoying when the house is quiet. Keeps making me think something is leaking

Nice restart buddy, my box is super quiet maybe the stand pipes need to be raised or need more flow from return pump!

I tried max return flow to start with. That's when it was the noisiest.

Couldn't you just add a gate or ball valve?
You have 2 drain lines I would add a valve on one of them!kinda like the Herbie overflow
From what I've read the higher the water falls in your overflow box the noisier it gets.

I have a gate valve on the main drain, just under the tank
Problem I'm finding is, with the design of this overflow setup, the back box sits lower than the front, so the water falling through the weir teeth 'falls' down to the level of the 1-1/2" through-the-glass bulkheads. Unless you run the back box nearly full, you get water falling.

Gate valve see pic #4 on page 1
First few pics also show the difference in height between the front and back boxes

Looks good Greg, really like the cleanup process and attention to detail, very neat.

How many gph are you running to the display?
The emergency overflow pipe should be able to handle quite a bit, so i suggest bringing the water up as much as possible to the teeth, like 1/4" or even less.

On my old 120 running a Eheim 1262 full blast i had to have the main drain pipe closed about 95% with the gate valve on a 1" drain, so I don't see how a second emergency pipe can not take all the flow if something were to happen...

You have too much spare time on your hands my friend.....when you coming over to do my wiring? :mrgreen:

Wasn't spare time per se, I was laid off for 2 months.
LMK what wiring you want to do, if you're serious :biggrin:

Thanks Chris
As for the overflow - the emerg is a straight standpipe so it won't go into full siphon, and I'm not comfortable having a 1" pipe closer than 1" from the top. I'd rather hear a little trickle through the teeth than trickling on the floor :wink:

Acquired a bunch of new frags last night
Stay tuned for pics

Long overdue update

Bought some more fishies

A Coral Beauty and 6 Lyretail Anthias'
Still trying to get the anthias' to eat pellets, but the angel is good to go.
Hoping it will teach the anthias' about pellets, but not holding my breath
I've just recently started soaking pellets in frozen food ... any tips would be appreciated

Really, please help me get these anthias' eating anything other than frozen :smile:

Tank is doing well, still balancing PO4 with NO3. Nothing major

Transferred the remaining fish from the original tank that were stuffed into a 36g holding tank for 4 months ... poor guys
They all made it
Had to sell 1 though ...
Started off with a male Lubbok's a couple years ago, and added a female 1-1/2 years ago. They got along fubulously for the last year and a bit until the tank failed.
Once they were trapped in the 36g the little female decided to become a 'hell on wheels' male and drove my original male to the point of starvation with him hiding.
Thanks to Chris for taking the wrasse from hell, and good luck to you sir :surprise:

Thanks to Catalin for hooking me up with a few corals I lost while they were in a crappy backup tank

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Yup, my camera skills suck
I will get better pics up soon as I think my camera can do it :wink:

A BIG thanks to Warren and the Illuminati crew for getting me into the next stage of corals
These are some of the most awesome corals I've ever seen, and hope to have them look as good in my tank as they do online.
Pays to have friends, and I can't thank you guys enough :biggrin:

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I always got mine eating pellets by starting on frozen cyclopeeze(sp?) and when offering that id offer pellets for the other fish. I was using Omega One micro marine pellets. (At the time my clowns mouths were too small for the 1mm pellets so i kept the micro on hand and fed that daily.) Both the cyclop and pellets would blow around the tank and the fish would just start grbbing whatever went past, after a few days they stopped spitting out the pellets.
Never bothered offering frozen to the group of red fairy anthias i recently purchased. They went right onto 1mm pellets. Pigs....
The lyretail group i had learned to eat pellets really quick. Less then a week i want to say...

Tanks looking good Greg! Well corals... need fts! And some wavey coral like euphyllia ;)

Grow fuzzy sticks, grow!

Thanks Gina. I've been crushing 1mm pellets. Tonight I'm trying a soak in some fish oil and garlic. Then I mixed them into the frozen stuff I make.
Just waiting a few more minutes for it to soak really well.
Fingers crossed.

Looks good, get some siporax or marine pure to compensate for the lack of live rock...just a thought.

Thanks for the good thought big guy. If I ever get any Nitrates I'll consider it.
Currently Salifert tells me 0
Let's not forget that I don't have anywhere near the # of fishies you do

Crappy update ...

Bought some Lyretail Anthias and a Coral Beauty.
Put them through 4 weeks of observational QT and missed Brook :sad:
Put them in the DT and started losing the lyretails. Then the main fish started getting sick. Then we lost our fave fish Bennie the starry blennie.

Put all the remaining fish in the 36g bow and ran a round of Furan-2.
Then started Chloroquine Phosphate @ 80mg/g.
Lost both fairy wrasses.
Fish not eating.
A week later dropped the CP down to 40mg/g.
Fish eating again.
Lost the largest lyretail - again Brook - 1 left.

So, from 14 fish, we're down to 5.

Going to run the CP for a full 6 weeks, then flush it out and run them through whatever is needed next while the DT sits fallow 'till New Years (12 weeks).

I'll try to get the enthusiasm to post some coral pics some time soon ...

Built a feeder tube for the shrimps in the DT so I don't have to pollute it too much as I was getting some algae issues.

Sorry to hear Greg...you know me and my thoughts on quarantine....it kills more fish than by stressing them out and if you don't have a tank full of expensive wrasses and angels....

Sorry that happened Greg, quite disheartening that you took all the necessary precautions, yet still something managed to slip by, very unfortunate.

Hopefully the remaining livestock will pull through.

Just read your posts. That really sucks Greg to lose so many fish, especially when you are doing the right thing and quarantining. And I am wining about a bit of phosphates!!! Hope that you get your tank back on track.

Sorry to hear that, could it be ammonia spike?

Thanks for the support everyone

Nope - Brooklynella

Sorry about the fish. I had a heater blow all my fish somehow survived but all my sps went bye bye.

Sorry to hear about the bad luck , but glad to see your back in the game . Don't know how I missed your build till now .

Bummer about the fish Greg. I always do prophylactic treatment in the QT. Hopefully you can beat it.

Thanks Mindy
I've never done a prophylactic B4 in the QT. I've monitored, Hypo if needed. Meds if needed or course, but never meds 'just cause'.
Things will change in the New Year in this respect.

Have 4 fish left from 14, and 1 has stopped eating ... tank is fallow. Feeding shrimps/hermits/snails.

Monitoring NO3 and PO4. Adding what's needed to keep levels acceptable.
Keeping bacteria alive is my goal.
No water changes, just cleaning skimmer, sock and monitoring.
All salt budget has been allocated to the QT. Might perform a WC on the DT soon, but another problem is not sharing hoses/pumps. Don't want to use the same pump for RO water as draining the Old DT water.
Not going to haul buckets after all the time and money I spent installing hoses. Will see how much gumption I have sometime soon.

Been adding Seachem Nitrogen with good results. 2ml/day to start but now going for 5ml/day.
PO4 has been 0.003 for weeks
NO3 has been 0.00 for weeks

Had a complaint I haven't added any pics lately, so here they are.
Quality sucks ...

Growth Pics !!
Acan no comparison pic
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Deepwater Blue
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Purple Stylo
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Cali Tort

Picked up a couple frags from Reef Pilot
Thanks bud

Center piece is from Warren, outer bits are from Walter
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I'm finished for the night
More pic posting will have to wait

What's that last Acro? I assume all three pieces are the same?

You can do hypo on all incoming fish... I have had a hard time getting CP, so I've been doing a 2 week copper treatment and 1 week PraziPro treatment on all incoming fish. I don't like using copper, but it's better than wiping out the tank with MV or some other form of Goniherpesyphilaids.

The last one is comprised of a single frag surrounded by 3 mini colonies.
It's all Cali Tort. I expect sometime in the near future it will all take on a uniform color.

More growth pics
Not very exciting ... I need fish!

Having no fish in the tank is stunting growth.
I think this is most evident in the shot of the Green Efflo ... total color loss.
Been adding Seachem Nitrogen to elevate NO3, and feeding the hermits shrimps and snails.

NO3 was zero for the longest time with a mild/heavy bioload of fishies.

Now with no load in the DT algae is becoming an issue.
Not so much that it's ugly, but enough to make me want to deal with it right away.

Started by adding Seachem Nitrogen @ 2ml/day. No change in a week.
Started 5ml/day yesterday.

Algae is going away ... snails are prolly hungry.

Tonight I finally read a bit of NO3 ... maybe 1.0 ... hard to tell as I had to look through the side of the Salifert thingy.
Going to keep adding the Nitrogen @ 5ml/day.

I'm thinking I'll leave my GFO alone (rise from 0.03 to 0.06) while the bacteria catch up with the nitrogen addition.
Yup, I'll give it another week or so and see what happens before I change anything else.
We'll see how the growth pics look in a couple months.

Catalin's Turaki
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Frags from Warren;
Crazy Deepwater Acro ?
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Green Efflo
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Ponape
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Red Hair Lemonade
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Setosa
Was broken a couple times while removing fish so the growth bits are now new frags
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Missed one ....

Pink Mille
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Bad 'scape pic

Promise to post better ones when I have more time

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what happen to your tank Greg? why is it so empty now?

Empty as in no corals? Tank leaked back in March. Lost pretty much everything.
Empty as in no fish? Brooklynella outbreak wiped out most of them. The survivors are in a Hospital tank.

wow, as careful as you are but we can't prevent what will happen. Good things you come back for it. I feel like keeping reef is a second full time job for me. Too much work.