Dwolson's 75Gal tank

its a lot more white in person, but you guys will find that out next month!

Looking good.

Keep an eye on things as far as the cycle goes. If in doubt, you can always add a little bacteria in a bottle to help things out. It dosen't hurt anyways.

As for the setup, I think the guy who owned it, or I remember seeing it, was a club member from way back and was running a store out of his garage. He sold the store off some years ago.

He had talked about owning a store or buisiness related to fish. I plan on taking it easy for the next few weeks fish wise. I probably won't be adding any until I get back from vacation. Then I will know for sure that the bactieria is good to go.

Was it Aaron? The only other guy I know who had a store was Gal, but he moved out of state.

Tank is looking good.

Gal is the one I remembered having a stand like that. Aaron didn't have a tank like that. Plus I beleive his was a 125 or bigger. I know he didn't have a stand like that one.

Gal moved out of state about 2 years ago. I bought his 180 off him, that was the only tank he had that had a stand. I just sold that tank to a guy in San Fernando.

I thought Gal had the stand like this one with the ledge around it. Maybe he sold it off and bought the 180 that you bought from him?

That was all some time ago and I'm old so my memory is not all that great.

Updated pictures

stopped by Fantastic Frags and picked up a Favia...

Nice!

Oh how I hate my tank today... its 1218AM, and half of my tank is scattered around my dining room. I went to install my sump, broke off the inlet of my Iwaki, and had to refit/route all of my piping(with the exception of after my T in the return)

Luckily I have a mag 7 sitting in the garage, but of course that is a submerged pump, and I have an external pump set up....
so plug a whole, that I just drilled.

Now the new pump takes a longer return hose, out to the garage to find a longer hose.

I wasn't feeling "right" so I stopped to eat, and post up here. Right now I just want the dumb tank running, so I can go to bed. Did I mention I woke up at 430? Yup really ready.... time to get back to work and finish!

Sorry to hear that man. I know you have had a rough week. Hopefully Monday starts a better one for you.

Dang, I bet by the time you were done it was almost a 24 hour day for you, I bet you weren't even thinking right. Did you get it all fixed?

Yes and No, I got the return put in, but the plug i had(told you about it on the phone) wasn't threaded, so I pulled the threaded off of my siphon dran and used it. Then I took an adapter and made a make shift plug for my siphon line. it worked, but am going to replace it today. I went to bed at 130AM last night. None of my wiring was up in the stand, I just plugged it in outside of the stand and headed to bed. I also didn't put in my carbon reactor, going to today. My house is a huge mess!
I took a picture, I will post it below. The sump is working awesome! The bubble trap is working really well. My Skimmer can put out a lot of bubbles, and it was last night, and it took them all out. Yesterday I hit 21 hours, so not quite a 24 hour day.

I frosted the sides and back of the tank before I put it in. I tried it first on the back and really liked the look(over scratches) after installing it, I almost wished i did it to the front, but I think I will like the front clear better.

Last night I also found a better position for the carbon reactor so I don't have to worry about accidentally dripping water on my power strip(like last time!)

Here are the pics of the sump built, frosted back of the sump, the sump installed, and the mess.

yeah don't "frost" the front, you'll regret it when you need to see inside of it.

Where did you get the sump? Used I would guess and from the looks of things it's scratched but you weren't thinking clear last night... why did you do that to the back? I agree with SLP that you shouldn't do any more scuffing, you'll want to look at your equipment and it'll be hard when you can't see inside. I could see if the sump wasn't under the tank, but it's not.

How big is that sump? What did you pay for it?

Its about a 30 gal sump, SLP and I made it out of a scrap tank. I'm not planning on scuffing it, it was a thought that I had ran through my mind last night.

SLP and I split the gas to go and pick it up, it was a 180G tank that we got for free

So, I reused the old bulkhead(I drilled it before I broke my pump), that leaked so I bought a new bulk head, which the lock nut broke upon installing it, went back got a new nut, went home, felt like I was stripping it out, put the old bulk head on, but with a new gasket, no leaks, play around with the new bulk head... pushed a little harder, now its good to go. Must have just ben the first few threads.

Wired and labeled everything up.
these are the "final" pictures.

New skimmer is up as well as the old one!





I put the coralife 125 on that rock that is curing, man is it pulling out some nasty crap!
Also, I found these PVC cutters at the hardware store. The lady cut my pipe with them like it was nothing, so I had to pick up a pair at 11$, and it does 1 inch!

also got a birds nest and green star polyps. yes I know gsp.... the idea is to have rock on the left, a big pile of it(when its done curing) slowly going to less towards the right, then a bit of sand, and lastly a big patch of gsp(to look like grass)

hey is there a limit of what you can have in one post? dwolson2
I notice that you have lots of back to back posts within a minute or 2 in the same thread. Why is that?

I think he just hits submit then thinks of something else to say lol

no. he thinks there is a race and being number 1 is a priority for him. have you seen the south park episode with bono? doesn't want to be crap...(#2)

shortbus wrote:hey is there a limit of what you can have in one post? dwolson2
I notice that you have lots of back to back posts within a minute or 2 in the same thread. Why is that?

what clownfish said.
after I post something, I tend to remember something else I was going to say and post again. I guess I could edit the old post but I generally don't... lazy.....

skimmer looks good! glad it is working out for you!

Thanks! Its working well!
I ran down to so cal tropical fish, decided to buy the ApexJr. They gave me 10% off, and I was able to pick it up before i go. I already set it up! I am running my Metal Halides, Return pump, Heater, and Actinics.
The skimmer that I bought from Paul isn't affected by the change in water level. I really, really like that skimmer.
Still have to set the Apex Jr to the net though so I can see it on my phone.

Hey if you drove all the way to SoCalTropical, let me know next time. I love going into that store, I just hate the drive!

Awesome tank, add fish.
-Love Mom

DW, is that your old lady?

That's my mom. Lol, I asked her what she wanted to post.

Lol nice

Updated pics from my tank. I now have fish! going to have to change my signature.

awesome, the chaeto you gave me is full of huge pods! Do you want me to bring your frag to the meeting?

Sounds good to me! Glad to hear you like it!

I have a question for you, I know stability of temperature is the best, but if my tank raises every day with the lights on, would it be best to get it back down to 78 quickly or have it take its time? What I just set up was to only have my fans on with the actinics. The actinics are on before with and after the metal halides. Eventually I will get a chiller, but what do you think for now?
Here is a link to my tank temperature :
http://www.reeftronics.net/dwolson2/apex-status

Have it take its time you dont want fast changes even if its 81 degrees if its constant ur ok

ok, thats what I was thinking, also i just posted up on RC, going to try to trade my guitar for a chiller.
Anything wrong/bad with drop in chillers?

Y do u need a chiller? Just run some fans over your sump. It cheaper than a chiller and it uses less energy

I already am running fans. I have 4 over my tank and 2 under my sump(case fans) I could get a bigger fan to put under my tank, but my wife is always messing with our house thermostat, and its hard to keep the tank cool when she is cold. I think a chiller would be a better thing in the end. Also, I am not too worried about electricity.

Running a chiller and controller will be efficient. I noticed the difference on my bill. Btw, it won't turn on especially now.

Why wouldn't it turn on? I am going to set it to turn on at 78.3 degrees. Then off at 77.8. My heater comes on at 77.7. And off at 78.2. With the heater at that setting, my tank goes to almost 81 degrees. So wouldn't it be on, just shortly?

what I meant by turning ON is that the controller will turn on the chiller at the specified temp. Without the controller, the chiller will be powered ON but will not chill the water until the tank temp hits the temp range setting. With the controller, the chiller is powered OFF and nothings happens until you hit the programmed temp.

BTW, I am running 8x39watts T5 in camarillo. I'm sure you would need it since you are running MH.

It really depends how much fluctuation you want in your tank but are willing to pay for the differential. My tank fluctuates between 77.5 and 81.3 but the last month it rarely gets over 80 degrees.

Yeah those MH are definitely going to need something to dissipate the heat. looks like you have someone on the hook for a chiller. and he's not too far away.

had someone on the hook, got to a mile away from his house(burbank) and he decided he didn't want to trade cause it wasn't an even trade(150 for my guitar setup vs 200, asking price of his chiller)

So nike, is the chiller itself only going to come on at a predetermined temp, or without the controller its always on? I was going to use my apexjr as the controller, have it cycle it on and off.

when you have the chiller plugged in to the outlet (no controller) the chiller will have the digital Thermostat running (ON with only power running the thermostat) and when the water needs to be cooled it will go to max power.

when you have the chiller plugged into a controller, nothing is ON until the controller switches the chiller ON (thermostat first) and hopefully it will cool the water soon (depends on the settings) which will go to max power.

I thought there was a guy here selling a JBJ 1/3HP chiller...more power than my setup, I only have a 1/4HP chiller.

Both a 1/4 & 1/3 are kind of overkill for me, but I was looking to trade.

Thanks for explaining how they work!

Np, I don't know I could have my setup without it now. I just changed my router thinking that redoing my IP address and port assignment would get screwed up but no problems after I made a couple of manual settings that changed.

my pink lemonade shortly after i got it:

Oh so i get to stand in line while you take pictures!