Tank Build! Clay's 75 Gallon Build!

Hello everybody! I figured that since this tank has been set up for almost 5 months, it's time to start up a build thread. Here's a little info.

Aquarium: Marineland Reef Ready 75 gallon with stand
Sump: Trigger System's Crystal 36
Filtration: Eshopps Axiom Skimmer, refugium on reverse schedule, small carbon reactor
Lighting: 2 Ecotech Radion XR30 Gen 4 (not pro... lol!)
Water movement: 1 Ecotech MP40, 1 Ecotech MP10, AquaMaxx Magnus VSG-6000 for return
Supplementation: BRS Two Part, 15 ml Acro Power per week, Reef Roids every 3 days
Livestock: 2 ocellaris clownfish (1 standard, 1 b&w), 1 yellow tang, 1 midas blenny, and 1 leopard wrasse. Corals include multiple montipora (digitata, hispida, grafted cap, nodosa, setosa), chalice, cyphastrea, multiple zoanthids, stylophora from the wonderful J. Becker. There's about 50 pounds of liverock in the display and another 20 in the sump.

I do a 20 gallon water change once a month. Test alkalinity every other day with a Hannah checker. Everything else is just kind of routine! Now for the best part, pictures!

I used the grid method to work on the aquascape. The goal is to try and make it aesthetically pleasing and to have it stay interesting as corals grow in.

Now, the final product is definitely a little different. The rocks are held together with acrylic rods, putty, and superglue.

The day the tank was filled!

And POW! Filled up!

This is after I added the Radions and my first couple corals.

Purple Digi that I got from Dave at Spring Fest. The acro in the back is no longer... See below.

So, my first big speed bump.. I got acro eating flat worms. So I pulled all the acros and placed them into quarantine.

Long story short, I lost the battle and every acropora I had. Which is a serious bummer, but lesson learned.
HOWEVER! I also quarantined the blenny, clownfish, and leopard wrasse successfully and put them in the display. So below is pretty much everything in there today!

Thanks for looking! I'll try and keep regular updates as the tank progresses.

 

Thank you!! I put the first clown and yellow tang in about a week in. Don't think it was fully cycled, but I definitely didn't have any ammonia or nitrite. Granted, I had a solid 20 pounds of rock that had been in Dave Roth's sump for almost 6 months. That same rock was in my drop-off tank for about 6 months after that, so I think it had a decent microfauna population. I've still added a couple rounds of Dr. Tim's bacteria and Instant Ocean Bio-Spira for some diversity.

Oh, no worries about the Fender! Lol I definitely rearranged and ended up putting it across the room, so it's safe!

 

Thanks you guys! I used a combination of previous experience with photography and a little inspiration from a BRS YouTube video to scape it. With previous tanks, I was never satisfied with the scape. The only issue with this tank is that I wish it was bigger!! But, that's going to have to wait a few years... ha!

 

Just a quick couple updates from the past week. I didn't realize I haven't attached a recent FTS, so here is one!

I also got a few new corals...

Beach Bum Montipora. I can't verify yet whether this is the Jason Fox BB, but it looks sweet and I definitely did NOT pay the JF price for it! Got a pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.

Bubblegum Digi. Really nice red/orange polyps and a slick looking blueish purple base.

Some random cyphastrea they threw in for free. Not completely sure what it is, but it looks similar to meteor shower. Regardless, it's still nice looking!

So, I'm trying this new thing to keep my sand bed nice and white. Since my tank isn't a year old, I'm going to try stirring it up daily. Saw something on Reef2Reef about this, so I figured I'd try. People regularly talk about sand beds being nutrient sinks, which I partially agree with. However, I don't believe in running a sterile tank. My thoughts on this are to stir up detritus to not only remove it, but also to feed the microfauna, refugium, and corals themselves. I've had a little issue with either cyano or dinoflagellates. My hope is to provide food to the fuge and have it out compete the dinos/cyano, rather than to use medications. So far it actually kind of looks like it's working! Time will tell, however. And yes, that's my cat in the window, lol. She likes to hang out with me while I'm working on the tank!

 

Update! Nothing really too fancy, but I am trying a couple acros again. Hopefully any AEFWs have since died off, as it's been over 8 weeks since there's been any acropora in this tank.

CB Pink Tip

WWC Snowdrop

Harlequin shrimp chowing down on a chocolate chip starfish. Does anybody have any asterina stars they need out of their tank? I'll loan out this little dude. It's such a cool shrimp!

To wrap it up, here's a couple full tank shots. I am really digging how this tank is evolving. Definitely my favorite tank I've set up yet. Pretty soon I'm going to add another radion for better light coverage. Other than that, I think I'm satisfied with everything. Now it's time to let everything grow in!

 

Got me some new goodies! First off, I contacted Fiji Cube in Minneapolis to have them build me a glass tank to use as a display refugium. Turns out that they were already in the process of rolling out a line of exactly what I wanted, so I bought one! I cannot recommend them highly enough. Will was incredible to work with and their customer service is top notch. They also packed it phenomenally. See below!

It's going to be a month or so before I get this plumbed in and up and running. That's okay, I'm really in no hurry. I also ordered a couple new corals, which showed up looking pretty decent. First is a group shot. There's a mystic sunset montipora, a strawberry shortcake acro, and a red planet acro. All of these are corals I've wanted for a VERY long time, so I'm excited to get them in my tank!

 

Thanks Spongy!! So far it appears that going fallow with acropora did the trick. I've since added 4 new acro frags, all of which are doing incredibly well so far! I definitely am doing an SPS dominant tank. I've purchased a fantastic purple stylo and a setosa from Jeanette. At Spring Fest, I picked up a purple digi from Dave. I'll hit you up for some corals!! I'm always on the lookout for zoanthids.

So far, stirring my sandbed regularly doesn't seem to be a detriment. Lots and lots of polyp extension! My micromussa lords and cyphastrea seem to get the most enjoyment out of it.

I will keep y'all posted, thanks for replying, Terri!

 

Another update.... I have dinoflagellates!!! NOOOO!!!!! So now I get to play around with different treatments to see how I can at least keep them manageable. I did a fairly in-depth water test yesterday and found out that my Nitrate was sitting at a solid 0 and Phosphate was 0.03 on the Hanna Checker (not ULR checker). Regardless, from what I've read, dinos and cyano thrive in low nutrient environments. So, I'm going to up my feedings and dose phytoplankton fairly regularly. If it comes down to it, I may potentially dose Seachem Nitrogen and Phosphorus while monitoring levels very carefully.

Luckily for me, I am taking biology right now! So I got to take a sample in and examine under a microscope. Take a look!

Even though it sucks to have this problem, it's pretty cool to see things under a microscope. I'm not sure what strain of dinoflagellates these are though.

 

Well, as of today, I've decided I am going to go mostly bare bottom. I say mostly because I have a leopard wrasse and want somewhere she can sleep. My fight with dinos is getting old. So instead of trying multiple magic elixirs, I'm going to remove about 90% of my sand bed and crank up the flow! On that note, does anybody know where I can get star board?

 

Welp, just for funs, here is an updated FTS! It's been a while since I've posted anything on this thread. Since it's late, I'll snap some closer pics and post tomorrow!

 

Dude that's awesome! After taking out a lot of the sand and kind of balancing everything out, they're pretty much gone. I still see REALLY small stringy things here and there that look like small colonies, but unless you're looking for them you can't even see them. That's really cool your diatom filter worked! If they ever come back, I might give you a little cash to borrow that bad boy!

 

Lots to see, lots of development. I'm not completely satisfied with everything quite yet. A few more corals, a swap of a couple rocks, yanking the sand, changing the background a little.... lots to come!