SmallFry's 75 Gallon (Reef Eventually) Build

[SmallFry]

This has been in the works for a long time, piggybacking on the log for my 27 gallon FOWLR. Now it's all plumbed and I've got some water in it albeit fresh to finish curing my diy rocks. I figure it's about time to give it its own journal, so here goes...

For the early parts of this build, see the late parts of my other journal.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=49642

A long time ago I experimented with making some diy rocks for the new tank. I did it mostly because I wanted to have lots of shelf type rocks. I've been trying to cure it for a good while now, on and off as I was in two minds as to whether to use it. About a couple of months ago I decided to use it and started curing it in earnest. Progress has been slow, partly I think because the biggest Rubbermaid I had was not able to hold much water as well as the rock. To try and speed things up, I'm giving it some more volume of water, like the whole tank full of it.. And as a bonus I get an extended water test to iron out any kinks too.

Anyway - pictures!!

The whole thing..


The plumbing...


The sump...

It's pretty basic, no baffles, though I may add some later if I get problems with microbubbles from the skimmer (Euro Reef RS100) and I hope to get some sort of a refugium set up eventually. Another idea I had is to use some of the spare space in the external overflow for a couple of mangroves, but that's a way off yet.



And finally a close up of the aquascape...


I was surprised that they only come to 55lbs now, they weighed a ton when I started curing - there must've been a lot of salt in there. On the plus side they must be really porous!

Now if only the pH will come down! I have a back up plan if it doesn't, I'm going to get some of those Eco Reefer rocks - Skimmer King got some for his new build and they look really nice..