My First 75g Reef Tank

[GaryL]

awesome work!

[reefmontalvo]

Nice work. Have you started drilling? Not as bad as you may think, just take your time and if you wanna see it doen go to youtube plenty of videos of tips and tricks.

[Vader]

Nice work. Have you started drilling? Not as bad as you may think, just take your time and if you wanna see it doen go to youtube plenty of videos of tips and tricks.

 

Thanks. I haven't drilled yet, I'm still working on plumbing idea's/concepts. I want to make sure I get this part right.

 

Just ordered a PanWorld100PX-X from Premium Aquatics and hopefully It will be here by the weekend so I can start wiring and run the plumbing.

Edited September 22, 2008 by Vader

[Vader]

Well.....I finally drilled the tank. After work today, I stopped by BRK and picked up a couple of drill bits. And when I got home, there was still plenty of light, so with the help of my son, brought the tank down to the garage and started drilling. The first one was a little nerve racking, but you guys were right, It's not that hard at all. I cut all 5 holes in about 40 minutes. Of course with every project I do, I always forget something, and that was the blue backing for the tank, so now I have to wait until tomorrow to start plumbing the thing. Maybe If I go to bed now, tomorrow will come faster....hmm.....

 

Anyway, here are some pics of the holes.

 

 

 

 

[reefmontalvo]

Told ya. LOL I spoke to Johnny about tank drilling before I did mine. And there are plenty of mini videos on Youtube. I even drilled another members tank. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Edited October 11, 2008 by reefmontalvo

[CHUBAKAH]

Glad it worked out for ya. I could hear my sister now if you had broke that thing.

[Vader]

Well, progress has been a little slow this last month but I've made some good progress over the weekend. I'm down to just a few fittings and the close loop and sump loop will be complete. The electrical is finished. There are 4 GFI's wired independent of each other, so if one trips, the rest of the system will still operate and all electrical plus will have a drip leg. I've tested the circuits and happy with the results. With any luck, (If the wifey doesn't make any plans for me this weekend) there should be water flowing by Saturday night.

 

 

 

 

 

[gastone]

Why did you decide to tee off and run the CL outlets to the front of the tank and up the front corner? Could you have just taken it to the straight along the back wall, up the back corner and teed there so that the outlets for the front just run along the top of the tank and don't run up the front corners?

 

Garrett.

[Vader]

That was my first attempt with plumping the CL, but when I ran the piping at the top, there were just too many elbows and I was concerned with a drop in flow, plus there was too much pipe at the top and it would have created shadows from the lighting.

[jason the filter freak]

That was my first attempt with plumping the CL, but when I ran the piping at the top, there were just too many elbows and I was concerned with a drop in flow, plus there was too much pipe at the top and it would have created shadows from the lighting.

 

 

 

I've done a few closed loops and would like to make some suggestions before you glue everything in place... if you have already I still have some really good suggestions. It will take for ever to write out on here, PM me with your number and I can call and tell you what I'm talking about if you'd like the input. I see some great progress being made here.

[Vader]

I've done a few closed loops and would like to make some suggestions before you glue everything in place... if you have already I still have some really good suggestions. It will take for ever to write out on here, PM me with your number and I can call and tell you what I'm talking about if you'd like the input. I see some great progress being made here.

 

Sent PM

[Sugar Magnolia]

Coming along nicely!

[Smoothtriqueter]

Looks promising. can't wait to see this thing up and running!

[Vader]

Well I have finally finished the plumbing and starting to fill the tank. I will be checking for leaks and system performance.

[MisterTang]

Wow, very complex plumbing setup...

[Vader]

I'm cycling sump loop as it fills and no leaks at any of the connections....first bulkhead fitting under water and no leaks......

[Vader]

Tank has been fully operating for about 2 hours with no leaks. I have shut off each pump one at a time and both at the same time with no overflows at the sump. There are just a few minor changes I want to make, but over all, I'm very happy on the performance.....and the fact that there are no water leaks.

 

I ended up lowering the close loop outlets in front of the tank as I got tired of looking at them after several days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the sump running normally

 

 

Here is the level of water when the pumps are not running

Edited November 16, 2008 by Vader

[fishcam]

Man, I really like your idea for overflow and the rear horizontal pipe for water circulation. I've been thinking about something similar for my tank.

 

What sort of pumps do you have providing flow to all that plumbing?

 

Looks real great!

[Vader]

Man, I really like your idea for overflow and the rear horizontal pipe for water circulation. I've been thinking about something similar for my tank.

 

What sort of pumps do you have providing flow to all that plumbing?

 

Looks real great!

 

Thank You.

The sump has a Mag 7 and the close loop is using a PanWorld100PX-X

[jason the filter freak]

Tanks looking good man, you already made one of the modifications I was going to suggest taking those front pipes down a notch. I don't think I have the right phone number for you I tried calling thurs and friday and it just kept ringing.

 

Couple things you may want to try...

 

Those returns you have in the front are in a awesome spot but consider chopping the pvc feeding them (right after the Tee feeding the back) back so they aren't so close to the front glass. This will allow you to a. have more room to clean around them and more importantly b. allow you to hide those outputs with a couple of small pieces of LR once you get them pointed where you want them.

 

Also since you went with the blue back ground on your tank if you haven't already glued the pipes in place... (I don't imagine you did due to the fact that since they're under water you don't need to) pull them out and coat each piece with some PVC primer (the purple stuff), let it dry then paint the pipes with some Krylon Fusion spray paint (reef safe and avail at most craft stores but not HD or Lowes). to match your back ground color This will allow the pipes to blend into the back ground more readily. The purpose of the primer is that if the paint gets scratched off it will just look like Coraline because of the shade of purple your PVC will be. The primer thing is a neat trick but not essential, the painting will be big improvement.

 

You may also want to up the height of the intake for your drain to your sump, 2" left to the top in your sump when the pumps are shut down isn't much of a buffer between a happy home and disaster... speaking from personal exp.

 

Lastly being that you used such large diameter pipe you may find that you aren't going to get the velocity flow you're looking for from your outputs... depends you also may very well get exactly what you're looking for. If you aren't getting the velocity you want a simple solution is to take a few modules of loc line out from each of your loc line out puts and invest in some eductors (or make your own, i have)... great little gadgets!

 

 

You have an awesome idea with the spray bar there across the back its an idea i used a few times in the past. Depending on your rock work though you may want to consider instead of having it mid way up the back of your tank have it open near the bottom a couple of inches above your sand bed. One of the biggest problems in reef tanks is detritus settling on the sand be especially in the back under rock structure. If you moved the spray bar down I may reccomend you go with drilled holes rather than slots to direct the flow in a laminar pattern across your sand bed. Perhaps a few holes pointing up as well like in your original design to keep detritus thats falling suspended. This will work remarkably well if you place your rock structure up on CPVC and egg crate like we did with mexicanjavafish's 75. It will work if you don't suspend the rock work too just not as efficiently.

 

Also you may want to consider adding a filter sock holder to your drain lines in your sump. Christina gets a TON of detritus in her sump because her display does such a good job keeping the stuff suspended it all ends up in her sump. Filter sock is the very next thing going on her tank. If you need a holder let me know and I'll hook you up.

 

All in all your tank looks sick you're doing an awesome job. Take the above as just tips and tricks and nothing more. I like what you've got going on there. Let me know if you want a hand with anything or extra plumbing I have a ton of 1" pvc parts around.

[capsfan]

I agree with everything Jason says. Your tank truely looks sick!

[CHUBAKAH]

Looking good Bro. If you get the rest finished up, I'll stop by with some corals to get you started next weekend on my way down to the good Doc's place.

 

Holla

[Vader]

Thanks for the reply Jason There are many things I would like to relpy to, but it would take a day for me to type it all out.....my two fingers can only type so fast I like the paint idea and may move on that - the plumbing in the tank may get changed out to get greater flow.......if I do, I'll have to do it when the wifey isn't around

[Smoothtriqueter]

Coming along nicely, I really like the overflow idea, might have to steal it. Can't wait to see how it all turns out

[reefmontalvo]

Looks great, I noticed your water stops a bit high glad you took notice before things got out of hand. have you thought about placing a check valve on the inlet of the pump or on the return to the sump to just stop flow in the case of a power outage or anything else?