SpyC's Reef

[SpyC]

I left the hobby in late 2014 and have wanted to get back in for a few years. in 2022, my fiance and I decided to start a tank. In order to not destroy the bank account, we got a mix of new and used equipment which has led to a nice hodgepodge. I figure it is time to start a build thread. We have had an assortment of odd coral deaths and poly bailout of acans and duncans. Inthough it was flow related, but nothing is in direct or rough flow. I am unsure what the cause is and tests always come out within a good range and consistent. Maybe new tank woes.

This is my old 75 on an accound I have lost the email address to ages ago lol.

Build Thread - Xmetal's 75G AGA

I started this build about 1 year ago. Nothing to fancy in the tank or equipment wise. I was on a college student's budget during most of the build. This limited the equipment and coral I could buy. Here are some photos from the move of the 50G to the 75G. Some rock from the 50: Coral...

www.reef2reef.com

Tank:
IM 50 gallon EXT

Controller:
Apex A3 for heater, ph, and general management of the tank
Apex ATK

Filtration
Fijicube 24 SUMP
UltraReef 180 (I was still under the impression over skimming was the thing to do. It's ok though, we plan on upgrading to a 150g next year)
Extra rubble and large biomedia
25 watt uv sterilizer (bacteria blooms got me fir a few months)

Waterflow:
Mp10
Octopulse 2
Jebao return pump (I forget the rating)

Lighting:
Ecotech xr15 pro gen 6 running SunnyX' schedule

Livestock:
Biota yellow tang
Biota royal gramma
Gladiator clown
Black ice clown
Tailspot blenny

Inverts:
Chicago sunburst nem
Cleaner shrimp
Halloween urchin (has been great for dealing with the uglies)
Green long tentacle indo torch
Gold hammer
Speckled frogspawn
Bicolor frogspawn
T*tty twister blastos
Orange ric
Putple yuma
Duncans

sorry about the horrible photos
Hopefully future posts won't have be as bad.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank looks great!

 

[SpyC]

I have not updated this thread in a long time. The tank was doing well, but we had to move. Despite buckets, spare tank to keep everything in, and begining to setup the tank immediately the 7 hour move and week it took to get the tank up was too much for all of our fish and we lost them all.

Two months went by and we picked up more fish and they were doing well. The Chicago sunburst started looking better too. We picked up a captive bred royal gramma and teo corals on Sat to find the bottom right of the side panel was separating from the front panel. After a quick confirmation of our fears, even though we knew what everyone was going to say and we agreed, we started a transfer to the 40g long that we used as a holding tank after the move.

I believe the front left of the stand started to give out which caused improper support of the tank. We are currently debating upgrading to a CADE 1200 peninsula and have contacted IM. We are hoping the 17 month old tank and stand will be covered by a warranty. We are really tired of the random setbacks, but continue to move forward.

 

[SpyC]

Welp, 48 hours after the emergency move and our semi storm clownfish is MIA. There is too much rock in the tank for us to tell if he is hiding, missing, stuck, of dead. This entire fiasco has been an absolute pain.

 

[TX_REEF]

what a pain! sorry to hear about your losses. Hopefully IM makes it right regarding the failing stand/tank given the fairly young age. @Innovative Marine?

 

[SpyC]

what a pain! sorry to hear about your losses. Hopefully IM makes it right regarding the failing stand/tank given the fairly young age. @Innovative Marine?

Yea, also hoping they treat us well. We sent the video to them this evening and used a flashlight to help show the failing side better. The entire seam was light gret all the way to the top of the glass. It was definitely going to fail soon.

 

[SpyC]

New tank is arriving tomorrow. I expect the lid from Top Lids to ship this week and hope the new stand frem Tenecor ships this week. If things work out, I should have water in the new tank by the 14th.

 

[SpyC]

Got the new stand from @Tenecor Aquariums together last night. The online instructions were not great, but after about 30 minutes we got the hang of putting it together and only had to undo work 10 times to add sowmthing we had forgotten about. We went with the optional leveling feet and they made a huge difference in leveling the tank. It took minutes and is perfect. The stand is easily 3x the weight if the IM and seems extremely sturdy. We have to keep the door off until the temp tank is moved or else we won't be able to open or close it. It has soft close hinges which is a nice surprise.

We had to redo some of the plumbing with the sump sitting a bit higher than the IM stand, but that is an easy fix. We hope to have the plumbing all in place by tonight so we can start filling the tank. If all things go well, the return pump will be running tomorrow night.

The lid from @Top_Lids arrived 2 weeks ago and we have it sitting on the tank. It looks great and is way better than our failed diy option.

We thought we would have more space for the electric and controllers in the stand, but we don't. We ordered a cabinet to use for the new 16g ato reservoir and all of the equipment.

 

[SpyC]

After what feels like months, we finally have the replacement tank setup and everyone moved into it. So far everybody is looking good. I took the opportunity to resolve a few issued with space in the stand and redid the uv plumbing and the recirculating co2 setup.

The newest version of these tanks have a vinyl wrap around the back carners which we are not fans of. It blocks off some of the view into the sides of the tank. We also were unable to check the quality of these seems.

Due to lack of space in the stand, we are using an ikea cabinet to house the electronics and new larger sump. I still need to cable manage, but it is much better than the old setup.