Starting the Addiction! 75gal Garage Build

[shady3210]

So I am looking at protein skimmers and like the sound of a Bubble Magnus NAC 6. Anyone have any experience with them? They seem to get great reviews and it is rated at about double my tank size(read that is a good rule of thumb to go by).

Bubble-magus NAC6 Protein Skimmer Aquarium Skimmers

Anyone have any other suggestions trying t keep it under 150.

 

[Sniperhank]

I have read good things about bubble magus.

Going back to a missed question though, you can use several things to catch stuff from your intake on your sump. You can sue filter socks, filter floss, almost anything really as long as you keep up on keeping them clean. I had to remove mine as it had a ton of build up and for whatever reason can't get it to come clean. I'll be replacing it with filter floss that I used to use to hold carbon in my old freshwater tanks.

 

[shady3210]

I have read good things about bubble magus.

Going back to a missed question though, you can use several things to catch stuff from your intake on your sump. You can sue filter socks, filter floss, almost anything really as long as you keep up on keeping them clean. I had to remove mine as it had a ton of build up and for whatever reason can't get it to come clean. I'll be replacing it with filter floss that I used to use to hold carbon in my old freshwater tanks.

Thank I put some filter floss between the baffles and that helped some but some of what I was seeing looked to be sand. I am readjusting my PHs and letting everything settle. The PHs kept carving out sand dunes so I should have known. I moved them down and pointed them more towards the surface.

Update on "nemo" he ate well yesterday and is flying around his empty 20 gal long! My 3 year old is completely amazed by him

 

[shady3210]

Came home from work and checked my water in the 75. Ammonia has dropped to 0 while nitrite has dropped to .25. I went ahead and dosed some more ammonia but the cycle seems to be coming to a close! Once I get some stable readings I am going to add a small cuc to the tank see how they do then move "nemo" over.

Speaking of nemo he is no longer being shy and runs to the front of the tank when I get near. I have seen no signs yet of any illness or issues with him but didn't really expect any the LFS I got him from have given me healthy FW fish for years.

 

[pcdebb]

Sounds great! I just filled up my 75 and will get my live rock this weekend. Should be cleared up by then.

 

[shady3210]

Sounds great! I just filled up my 75 and will get my live rock this weekend. Should be cleared up by then.

Congrats now the fun part of staring at an empty tank!


Ordered the Bubble Magus NAC6 yesterday should be here on Tuesday. Last piece of equipment I needed!

My cycle seems to be about done as I can't seem to keep ammonia in it(with dosing) very long. Nitrite is still high though so waiting for that to drop.

 

[shady3210]

Skimmer came in yesterday and I got it hooked up. Had to look online for some help assembling since the Chinese translation to engrish wasn't great! It is now running and being broken in!

 

[shady3210]

Well it's about showtime! Checked my water yesterday and ammo is at 0(been there), nitrite is around .25 and has been steadily dropping all week. Looks like I should be able to do a water change this weekend and move my clown over! The clown has had no issue in the QT and has eaten very well since day 1.

I don't have anything to compare it to but wow does this bubble magus skimmer make some bubbles! Was really easy to setup(once you get past the engrish lol) too even for someone who has never used a skimmer before. It has pulled out some gunk but still seems to be breaking in.

The baffle on my repurposed sump is breaking and my 300w heater no longer fits in it with the skimmer so looks like my 20 gal qt is going to become a 20 gallon sump next week.

 

[Jlsardina]

I would dose ammo one more time just to make sure it goes to 0 in 24 hours

 

[shady3210]

I would dose ammo one more time just to make sure it goes to 0 in 24 hours

Good idea I went ahead and dosed for it will see what it looks like in the morning. In the mean time I'm mixing some water for a 50% water change tomorrow my nitrates are pretty high.

 

[bskerrichard27]

I been following along on this also as I'm in my process of building my 75 with 20g long Sump great job

 

[shady3210]

Well the ammonia dose was gone in about 12 hours so my Clarkii was moved over yesterday(after a 50% water change) and seems to be quite happy in there. He is eating great and very active. I also went down to my LFS and picked up a small CUC of 3 hermits, 1 turbo snail, 1 Nassarius snail, and a fighting conch. I drip acclimated them for about 2 hours then dropped them in where they went right to work... or buried itself in the case of the conch! All still seem to be doing well as of today.


Now does anyone have experience with "fancy" brittle stars? My wife literally pouted when I said we couldn't have one until I did more research lol. They seem to get to be a decent size but could I fit one in my 75? Are they difficult to keep?

Also what should be the next fish in? Thinking about a engineer goby or a foxface.

Oh and a couple pics:

 

[Rgillund]

Be careful with the brittle star fish. They are known fish hunters and predatory. The green ones are really sketchy, some I have heard to as green death haha. They do hunt and eat fish. If you keep it well fed though it may be OK but not sure if you want to risk a pricey fish on a likely 10 starfish. Serpent stars are a safer bet and there are some pretty neat looking ones out there. Looking pretty good. Did you make your 20 sump yet? Maybe consider putting in 3 baffles rather than the usual two. This will help keep the water level in in skimmer compartment stable so that will keep your skimmer from skimmer too much or too little, and it will help with the bubbles because there will be an extra baffle to go around.

 

[shady3210]

Be careful with the brittle star fish. They are known fish hunters and predatory. The green ones are really sketchy, some I have heard to as green death haha. They do hunt and eat fish. If you keep it well fed though it may be OK but not sure if you want to risk a pricey fish on a likely 10 starfish. Serpent stars are a safer bet and there are some pretty neat looking ones out there. Looking pretty good. Did you make your 20 sump yet? Maybe consider putting in 3 baffles rather than the usual two. This will help keep the water level in in skimmer compartment stable so that will keep your skimmer from skimmer too much or too little, and it will help with the bubbles because there will be an extra baffle to go around.

Thanks the one at the LFS was a yellow. I had heard about the evil green ones lol. Sump is this week/weekends project. I was using it as a qt but have an empty 10 to use now. I was going to use the skimmer/inlet|bubble trap with 3 baffles|refugium|baffle|return pump design.


Anyone have an opinion on the next fish I should go for?

 

[kdpuffer]

I would give it a week or two before adding more fish but when the time comes my vote is for fox face, they are sweet just watch the dorsal spines as they are venomous.

 

[shady3210]

I would give it a week or two before adding more fish but when the time comes my vote is for fox face, they are sweet just watch the dorsal spines as they are venomous.

It would be at least 3 weeks. One thing I will practice religiously is to QT new additions.

 

[Rgillund]

I would look into some wrasses. There are a lot of gorgeous ones out there. Nice trio of flasher wrasses. Like a male and two females will get you all the flashing from the make courting the females. or a nice pair of some exotic fairy wrasses if you have the budget. Wrasses are great fish. Lots of color and movement and personality. Plus they are known to east many if the pests in reefs. Wrasse is some of my favs

 

[shady3210]

So here is what I have planed for the 20 long sump(amazing paint skills incoming!):

The baffles out of the skimmer are 8 1/2" high and the return is 7 1/2" high. As you can see I am trying to accommodate a 300w heater so I will be adding a second baffle to section off the return a bit more. This should give me just enough room but the heater will probably still be at an angle. I have an ATO ready to go so making the return section a bit smaller shouldn't be an issue.

How does this look? Anything you would change? How are the baffle heights?

 

[shady3210]

Up still looking for opinions on the sump.


So it looks like that thing on the rock that I thought was a coral skeleton has made a recovery because I noticed small polyps on it tonight!

 

[Qube]

Looks good! Have you thought about ditching the 300w heater and going with 2 200 watt heaters? I run two smaller ones just in case one goes, I have a backup that can maintain temp in case one goes out.