Mr Hermits 75 Build.

MrHermit85

MrHermit85

Active Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
Hello all!!! As I am new to the saltwater arena and a little apprehensive about my first tank setup I thought I would start a build thread in the hopes that you guys and gals can help me along the way.

My tank and equipment is as follows:
- 75 gallon tank with 700gph GH overflow
- 20 gallon sump
- vertex in100
- vertex RO/DI
- 2X SICCE 1200GPH powerheads
- Eheim Compact 2000 plus return
- 300watt titanium heater
- 2X phosban 150's powered by a maxijet 1200 (dialed back)one for GFO and one for carbon
- 2X 28 3w led fixtures with programmable soft start
- 60 w fluorescent refugium light
- Hydor wave controller (the cheapo $70 one)
- moonlights
- 50# dry rock
- 60# of sand (not going for a DSB...)

Am I missing anything vital? I plan on filling the tank and starting the cycle when I come back from Vacation next week. Will have a bunch of saltwater mixing in barrels so its ready for when I get back.

IMG_2326_zpsae9fd114.jpg

IMG_2313_zps13c18f3d.jpg

I made this guy to house my powerbars and power supply for the lights...
IMG_2328_zps4022075a.jpg

IMG_2327_zps69333be5.jpg


This build will probably be stretched out over the next month or so when I have time. So will updater whenever there is any progress and I would greatly appreciate any tips or advice!!!
 
Poseidon

Poseidon

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 15, 2012
Location
SW Ontario
vdubz link said:
nice rocks!!
Click to expand...

+1
i love the aquascape but IMO it looks dangerously unbalanced.... you wanna make sure a fish or a current cant knock that over as that would be a  terrible thing to happen :(    ( unless of course you've epoxied it already )


Another little IMO thing, with the 2 x phosban 150 reactors, forget about the carbon and run bio pellets in one... very effective way to reduce nitrates and i wouldnt do a tank without them.... but again, feel free to do some research on them, and im sure some other people will chime in as well....

great build thread though , i will be following along!! :)
 
MrHermit85

MrHermit85

Active Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
sunnykita link said:
looks great ! enjoy the start up, it's exciting to get it up and running
Click to expand...

I am really excited about the startup, it has been in the planning for 18 months now  :eek:. It has been fun researching and learning everything!!!

vdubz link said:
nice rocks!!
Click to expand...

Poseidon link said:
[quote author=vdubz link=topic=5486.msg52359#msg52359 date=1370160830]
nice rocks!!
Click to expand...

+1
i love the aquascape but IMO it looks dangerously unbalanced.... you wanna make sure a fish or a current cant knock that over as that would be a  terrible thing to happen :(    ( unless of course you've epoxied it already )


Another little IMO thing, with the 2 x phosban 150 reactors, forget about the carbon and run bio pellets in one... very effective way to reduce nitrates and i wouldnt do a tank without them.... but again, feel free to do some research on them, and im sure some other people will chime in as well....

great build thread though , i will be following along!! :)

[/quote]

Thanks, I am happy with the way they came out and I got a great deal from a couple local guys! I like the fact that there can be a rock slide at any moment, it adds to the whole natural feel of it. You know anything can hapen at any moment. Both the inhabitants and my wife wont know what could happen from day to day. Will there be a flood, or will there be a small rockslide... ;D lol

Just kidding I spent quite a bit of time drilling and ziptying the rocks together so that I could have them precuriously balanced like that. They are really stable. I gave them a good few bumps around before I put the sand in and they barely wobbled. I will explain how I did it in my next post.

I have thought about biopelets but I have not done any research on them. I will look into them before I fill my tank to see whethr they are the way to go.
 
MrHermit85

MrHermit85

Active Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
Re: Mr Hermits 75 Build. Aquascape.

The aquascape was a bit of a pain to do. It looked easy on the forums and how to videos that I found but boy, it was a pain. I originally was going to go with three pillars held up by PVC by using diamond drillbits to drill holes through the centres of each rock so as to slide the rocks over the PVC post to balance them. I had the bit and everything but after trying to drill one rock I gave up as the bit just jumped around and once it dug in it took 20 minutes to get no where lol.

My first step considering that I bought the rocks used and they were covered in quite a bit of organics was to clean them. I started with a vinegar bath which was partially successfull but as the rocks were so heavily encrusted with Coraline which had dried up, soaking them for 7 days barely loosened the algae.

I then opted for the extreme, I went with the Muriatic acid bath. This was an awesome experience as it took four hours and two 20 gallon bins to get the rock as white and clean as you can see in the previous posts. I put 50% of the rocks in each bin, filled with water till they were just covered and then split the 4L jug of acid between the two bins. It was said that you are supposed to use 1 part acid to one part water but as I could only get my hands on one 4l jug I opted just to go for it and hope it still works.

You just need to pour the acid in slowly and make sure you wear eye protection and breathing gear as there was some splashing and a serious amount of fumes. Then you simply wait for the bubbling to stop... I opted to use bicarbonate soda before removing the rock to make sure that the acid was neutralized but some dont do this as I think that the broken down rock acts as a neutralizer too... (at least that what I understood from my research...)

IMG_2215_zps92684564.jpg


After the bubbling subsided to be on the safe side I still used thick rubber gloves to pull the rockwork out. Which turned out to be unnecessary as I stuck my hand in too deep and the glove filled up with water lol. After a bit of a shock there was just a bit of itchiness. :p Then I gave the rock a good spray down with the hosepipe where everything from gross organic sludge to now brown Coraline algae just lifted right off!!!
 
MrHermit85

MrHermit85

Active Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
Re: Mr Hermits 75 Build.Aquascape

Now was the time to decide how I wanted my aquascape. I did not want to go with a massive rock wall as I have never found them to be very apealing and I thought I could add some more rock at a later date. I wanted a few arches with a nice centre piece.

I simply drilled the larger rocks with a 1/4 inch masonry bit around their bases and then ziptied small square pieces of eggcrate to them to act as supports. I tried to keep the eggcrate as small as possible as some people have had problems with detritus buildup. I decided that I would rather have extremely stable rock and not a broken tank and flooded fully finnished basement down the road.  ;D

I then drilled a few holes in a few places along the tops of the rocks and attached the smaller rocks after fiddling with the positioning for the most secure fit. After everything looked the way I wanted I used some aquarium silicone to glue small pieces of rock over the zipties to cover them up.

Here you can see the little holes that I drilled.
IMG_2226_zpsf6ea596f.jpg


Rock ziptied

IMG_2225_zpsb800ced5.jpg


A sturdy support
IMG_2224_zpsfc2df4c2.jpg


IMG_2227_zps697fb8ae.jpg


Before final scape
IMG_2315_zpsbfa827d5.jpg


end result with sand added.

IMG_2323_zpsa190c774.jpg
 
MrHermit85

MrHermit85

Active Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
Started mixing and making water... 2 days and only 40 gallons lol!!! So stupid question but do I just put water on the refractometer slide and make sure I get 35? What's the point of the calibration fluid?
 
Poseidon

Poseidon

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 15, 2012
Location
SW Ontario
MrHermit85 link said:
Started mixing and making water... 2 days and only 40 gallons lol!!! So stupid question but do I just put water on the refractometer slide and make sure I get 35? What's the point of the calibration fluid?
Click to expand...

1.0023-1.0025...

1.0035 ( which i assume u meant, will kill the nice little fishies :(  )

but to answer your qu, the calibration fluid is for calibrating the recfractormeter, you put that on the slide and adjust the little screw accordingly,
when its calibrated, then you put the salt water on the slide and read exactly what it is :)
 
MrHermit85

MrHermit85

Active Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
Poseidon link said:
[quote author=MrHermit85 link=topic=5486.msg53095#msg53095 date=1370572247]
Started mixing and making water... 2 days and only 40 gallons lol!!! So stupid question but do I just put water on the refractometer slide and make sure I get 35? What's the point of the calibration fluid?
Click to expand...

1.0023-1.0025...

1.0035 ( which i assume u meant, will kill the nice little fishies :(  )

but to answer your qu, the calibration fluid is for calibrating the recfractormeter, you put that on the slide and adjust the little screw accordingly,
when its calibrated, then you put the salt water on the slide and read exactly what it is :)
[/quote]

Ok so I really messed up lol. My calibration fluid said calibrate to 35ppt and me not paying attention thought it said 35% o so I calibrated to 35% o and made my water up according to that!!! I looked at it all this morning and realised my foolish mistake and measured my water and it was at 26% o!!! I seriously need to stop smoking my gym socks before doing this stuff. I couldnt figure out why I used so much salt to make 20 gallons of saltwater ahahahahaha :? :eek:

Luckily I had a bunch of extra rubbermaids as they were only $10 each so I bought 4 for fun so just transferred some water and added RO/DI until I got the correct reading of
1.0023-1.0025... as apposed to 1.0030 LOL.

Man I am so happy I made this mistake now and not later on when I had livestock. I am such a dum#@$ sometimes!!!

Thanks Poseidon!!!
 
Poseidon

Poseidon

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 15, 2012
Location
SW Ontario
haha no problem at all, everyone gets something wrong the first time around, just happy you didnt start adding fish and wondering why their dying lol
 
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