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!