jphong's 75G + 40G Breeder + 15G Refugium

[jphong]

Originally Posted by ALang

That's great. How are you doing with the 75gal tanks?? We need to see pics!

Haven't started the 75 SW yet. Got all the main components like sand, powerheads, ATO unit, reactors and pumps. Need to save some cash for live rock and it should be ready to go. Just need to decide on some T5 lighting and figure out how Im going to plumb it together with my 40 breeder.

Your 75 gal is up in the new fish room/computer room as a freshwater setup. Just getting it together now to start a aquascaped high tech planted tank.

Heres a peek:

[noirsphynx]

I had no idea that a 75 was in the works, can't wait to see it up and running.

[jphong]

Yeah Tiff wanted to start one of her own so it will be hers to fill up with livestock. Im going to try and plumb mine to hers like a sump but mine will remain a DT under hers and will also be used as a frag growout tank.

[jphong]

Hi just wanted to share some pics of some new corals I picked up from Blue World today (red lobo and green torch coral)

[jphong]

Hi guys just wanted to share some pictures of the new 75G I set up a while ago. Things are going well and I finished plumbing the two tanks together and also plumbed in a refugium with a DSB where I plan to have only macro algae and also act as a pod farm for eventually housing some Mandarins.

The 40G below has a Mag 9 inside pumping up to the 75G above and the 15G refuge to the right and both drain back into the 40G. The 75G has an eshoppes HOB overflow and the 15G is drilled. My first plumb job but I think it went fairly decently but I didnt realize the cost of doing plumbing for such a small job. Really underestimated it when I started.

I went back to T5's with a used Tek Light I bought from someone here. I didnt realize that good quality bulbs could make such a difference in color until I got this one. It has KZ fiji purple and ATI bulbs in it and the purple really stands out from the el cheapo eBay fixture I have running and I think its mostly due to the KZ fiji bulb.

Now Im just going to grow out some of the corals and let things cruise.

Enjoy the pics

The new plumbed system:






The 75G on top:




The 40G below:




The Refuge to the left:

[Delphinus]

Neat little system. That has to be one of the nicest "sumps" I've ever seen, haha! How do you keep bubbles at bay down there? How do you do top up?

[jphong]

Thanks, I didn't want to go with a sump because I don't have a stand that will hide it and that’s why I thought of using the small tank as a nitrate/phosphate exporter with the DSB and macroalgae.

So far I haven't opened the valve to connect the refuge to the system yet because I wanted the sand to have time to cycle first. Thats the good thing about what I did to the system, each tank can be closed off from the loop.

The bubbles from the 75g above is noticeable but the outlet is at the back of the 40G so the bubbles dont spread to the front so its not too bad. Not sure how the bubbles will be from the refuge but I bet it wont be too bad since Im planning on keeping the flow low there. Im thinking of trying to add some filter foam at the outlets to keep bubbles down. I put the outlet on the opposite end of the 40G to the pump so that there is some circulation of water being pumped through the system.

Top up is done with an ATO installed in the 40G below as that is the tank that experiences the water level drop when the pump is running. I have to top off the 5G bucket that I have at least once a week for evaporation which seems like quite a lot (not sure how this compares to other systems out there).

I don’t really trust the HOB overflow yet so I only run it for a few hours when Im home to balance out the water parameters between all tanks and also to get the ATO to top off the system. The overflow is right above the outlet in the wall so Im afraid if the overflow “overflows” Ill be in big trouble. I may move it to the other side in the future just in case.

Also to the left of the 40G I am planning on adding a drilled 10G tank as a frag tank. There is just enough room I just have to build a small stand to lift the bulkhead outputs above the 40G rim. I am either going to run one of the outlets from the other tanks into this to create flow or use a small pump. I think that will be the final add on to the system without going any bigger! I have a bunch of live rock rubble and shells ready to go for the frag tank.

[noirsphynx]

John, that is AWESOME! I love the refuge. I need to do something like that on my system.

[Flash]

John, you are my favorite!!! lol! nice tanks!

[jphong]

Thanks guys and gals!