New 70 Gallon Custom Starphire Reef...

[Letsdiscus]

Thanks Nick. I have gone ahead with Bean animal plumbing already. Now await to get the the balance completed and get the sand in for cycling


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[Letsdiscus]

Finally... ..The Tank gets the taste of the sea....

added the Caribsea Live sand with a few spare rocks i had in a Tote being cycled..have left the water level half way as i have yet to complete the overflow plumbing and plan to move my sump under the new tank.
currently circulating the water with a Sicce Voyager 4 power head
Skimming is being taken care temporarily by a Tunze comline DOC Skimmer 9004 which is placed inside the DT
Also getting surface skimming done via a Eheim Skim 350 surface skimmer- ( This little beast has more potential then its size)

 

[Letsdiscus]

Day 1 pic when sand was added. Not the best looking tank for sure...

 

[Letsdiscus]

Day 3.. most of it already cleared up...

 

[Dima]

glad to hear you are progressing, how deep is your sand ?

 

[Letsdiscus]

glad to hear you are progressing, how deep is your sand ?

I have used 1 and half bags so far. Each bag is 40lbs.. so around 1.5" deep.

 

[Dima]

so you are going shallow sand. I am thinking to go deep sand setup around 5-6 inch of sand, getting different opinions on that as I dont want to siphon or clean it at all in the future just a good cleaning crew

 

[Letsdiscus]

so you are going shallow sand. I am thinking to go deep sand setup around 5-6 inch of sand, getting different opinions on that as I dont want to siphon or clean it at all in the future just a good cleaning crew

Yep. I prefer shallow may go upto 2"max as j have yet to spread the sand evenly ..


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[Letsdiscus]

one week of cycling complete. Still working on balance plumbing as time permits. main drains all plumbed. remaining return lines..
Since i have my live stock running off my old sump and a Brute container, i have to start the cycling using another spare tank.
Plan is to use the spare tank as a temporary sump and cycle the new tank with my existing tank water.
Once the tank is cycled, i plan to move my live rocks with all the corals which are attached to it to the new tank and eventually replace the temporary sump with the my original sump.

 

[Letsdiscus]

pics..
Tank is still half full as i just finished main drain plumbing. plan to complete return plumbing by this weekend to start the overflow to sump. cant wait...

 

[Letsdiscus]

And finally we have the full system running with overflow.....

-Got some time to complete the Return plumbing and some tweaks...
- Tank filled up with more water and temporary sump in place with Reef Octopus Water Blaster 10000. Flow is crazy but will wait till i have the manifold setup complete to divert part of it back in sump..

pics ...

 

[Letsdiscus]

a few more pics of temporary sump with below the stand plumbing...

Sump is currently running a Tunze DOC 9004 skimmer(temporary).
Main drain is with a Gate Valve
Two 1 " Return on either side of the tank with 1" Eductor for added flow

 

[Dima]

Why did you pick this kind of pipe and not the hard once?

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[Letsdiscus]

Why did you pick this kind of pipe and not the hard once?

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Its a mix of hard and flexi Pvc. Usually for return pump u need to have a small run of flex pvc to reduce vibrations in my opinion and the continue the balance run with hard pvc.

I had a lot of both salvaged from my old 90 gallon build so tried using both.

Also flexi pvc allows you to overcome some minor errors in cutting the length to size especially for corners and bends.
This is just my experience with previous builds. I had a flex pvc run from the main DP tank on main level all the way to the fish room in basement.


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[Janice]

Wish I was talented like you and could build my own stand and put the tank together.

 

[Letsdiscus]

Wish I was talented like you and could build my own stand and put the tank together.

Glee. Thanks Janice for the compliment. i took some help for the stand initially but managed the rest myself..

 

[Letsdiscus]

sha

Wish I was talented like you and could build my own stand and put the tank together.

Pls share some pics of your setup.. maybe i can try helping..

 

[Letsdiscus]

Week 2 of cycling.. no changes as yet...

 

[Letsdiscus]

Bucket list of fishes for new setup...Not sure if I do land up buying them all.. Not sure if i can fit them all in a 70 gallon

- Fuzzy Dwarf lionfish
- Brown Powder Tang
- Pyramid angel fish
- Blue Throat Trigger (Male)

Existing Fishes to be moved to new home soon-
- Paired Ocellaris Clownfish
- Flame Angel
- Bi-color Blenny
- Corris Wrasse
- Blue sided Wrasse
- Scorpas Tang
- Purple Pseudochromis
- Anthia (single)

 

[Letsdiscus]

1 month complete and so is cycling of the tank. First live stock added to create the bio load...

A tip i learnt from existing setup upgrades... keep few mesh bag with bio balls in your existing sump. This helps to seed new /quarantine setups thus enabling beneficial bacteria to seed the new setups..


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