Duckhams' 75G Reef Build - Eurobraced/BeanAnimal

[kobelka]

Hi there. Beauty setup. I just was wondering the back of your tank is black. Is that black acrylic or paint? I like the removable overflow shade. If it's acrylic is it inside the tank or outside?
Keep the pics coming.
Dave

[Duckhams]

Originally Posted by kobelka

Hi there. Beauty setup. I just was wondering the back of your tank is black. Is that black acrylic or paint? I like the removable overflow shade. If it's acrylic is it inside the tank or outside?
Keep the pics coming.
Dave

Thanks Dave! The back of the tank is covered in a cut sheet of black vinyl, that just peels off as needed. It's easier to apply than paint IMO. And the overflow grate is made from acrylic and inside the overflow box.

[Duckhams]

Things are coming together now. Im mounting the Radions on a low-profile 36" long T-Track (https://www.blackrocktools.com/samon...-ft-44162.html). This will allow me to move the Radion's from side to side as needed for coral placement, and to move them out of the way when I have my hands in the tank. A couple of M5x20 bolts slide nicely into the T-Track.

Also got most of the plumbing done and started on the wiring.

[Duckhams]

A few quick evening shots! The rocks are in, Vectra is on and sand is slowly being washed and added. Im still working on the wiring but it's up and running!
The Vectra is insanely quiet, im super pleased with it, but more on that later.

[Duckhams]

Vectra M1 Return Pump:
The Vectra is a really solid built pump. The controller is easy to use and makes adjusting the water flow very easy and allows for fine tuning your drains for absolute silence. Im running a beananimal drain with 1" pipe and I can run the Vectra M1 at full power and it handles it nicely. I close the ball valve on the first line slightly and run it at about 60% which gives me good flow through the sump and great surface agitation. The feed mode lowers the return flow to barely a trickle, and im not yet sure if this is going to create a lot of noise in the overflow box as the siphon will pull more than the pump is pushing, but we'll see. Im not overly worried about that feature as the pump has so many other benefits. The soft start and near silence being top among them.
EcoSmart Live allows you to set flow rates throughout the day, like you would with a Vortech, and set low flow feed modes, night time flow, high flow surge/nutrient transport times etc throughout the day. It's an incredible amount of control over a return pump and definitely adds a new dynamic to the systems return flow. Overall, I couldn't be happier with the it.

[Duckhams]

Im really pleased with the new rockscape, the high left peak has added a really cool dimension for the fish to swim around and is going to be great for coral placement on both sides. I've still got lots of frags to get rid of if anyone is interested, let me know! The 3 x XR15wPro Radions provide great, even coverage for the tank with the TIR lenses and the corals seem to have reacted very quickly to the added PAR and spectrum. The colour's change throughout the day to make the corals pop in the morning and evenings and then bring out the colours in the fish during the day while im working (3ft from the tank at my desk) with a brighter 'daylight' setting. EcoSmart Live has made controlling and customizing them a lot easier.

A few pics of my new favourite Rasta's too!

[Myka]

I like the rockscape! Why don't you slide a piece of black acrylic in the overflow so the pipes aren't so obvious?

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

[Bugger]

Did you use rods for the rocks

[Duckhams]

Originally Posted by Myka

I like the rockscape! Why don't you slide a piece of black acrylic in the overflow so the pipes aren't so obvious?

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

I do have an overflow insert that came with the tank, im just leaving it out for now so that I can play around with the flow settings on the Vectra M1 and I need to be able to see the water level in the overflow box. It will go in soon enough, don't worry!

Originally Posted by Bugger

Did you use rods for the rocks

No I didn't, it's only 2 pieces. The one on the left is almost 22" long! I got a couple of big pieces of Pukani and chiselled them with a hammer and screw driver to create the shapes, caves, ledges, etc.

[Myka]

[quote=Elliott@BigReefDepot.com;973486]I do have an overflow insert that came with the tank, im just leaving it out for now so that I can play around with the flow settings on the Vectra M1 and I need to be able to see the water level in the overflow box. It will go in soon enough, don't worry!/quote]

Oh good! I was like, "Woah, fail."

That sump setup is looking pretty slick too. I saw you have the colored PVC pipe - I might have to order some.