Benjamin's 75g Garage Build (FOWLR to Reef)

[mrbee2828]

For the record, Deep Blue replied and said that their glass is thicker than most leading brands (like my older Marineland) and I can tell you that just with my finger you can feel it's thicker. They stated that removing the center brace will not compromise the structure. HOWEVER, it obviously voids any warranty they have, they aren't responsible for anything that happens after the fact and to limit vibration while cutting.

Again... with 5 or 6 baffles and thicker glass, I feel all right about cutting it up this weekend.

[mrbee2828]

Just a little Saturday update. I finished the sump today so it'll be running early this week once everything is good and cured. This included cutting the center brace and sanding it. You can't tell it was ever there now. I only ended up using 4 baffles this time. I didn't see the need for the 3rd at the return side as no bubbles ever made it that far before.

I also went over an inch in the skimmer area. I used a taller baffle on the left side of the refugium than the right so I'd have a little turbulence of some sort I hope. This is going to raise the water level in my skimmer area so I'll need to go up an inch on my stand for it.

I started moving my fish over from the DT to my holding tank. This includes releasing the RBTA and my clowns from their small prison for the last 3 weeks. They swam around and went right back the the anemone so it worked... for now anyway.

Lastly I got a beast of an overflow box made by a local guy here. He does insane work. I'm grabbing some baffles at a buddies house tonight and I'm drilling 2 more holes tomorrow. I'm going to do an off center drain with corner returns.

[kdpuffer]

Glad to hear everything is working out, between following your build and chatting with one of the guys I work with I have caught the bug and have plans to setup a reef.

[mrbee2828]

No real updates this week. The sump has been up and running for a few days now. Let's hope we don't have another disaster. I'm headed to Cali for the week so I hope my kids can keep up with feeding. The ATO is hooked up so we should be stable.

I got some 1/4" clear mesh from BRS and a 1.75" glass hole cutter from Gl*******s this week. When I get back I'm going to get the new tank finished and rock the swap the following weekend. Then it's full speed ahead....

I plan on stocking up a lot in April and getting 2 part going at the beginning of May.

[mrbee2828]

Sunday I drilled 2 more holes for the overflow, mounted the box and painted the back black. I'm probably going to tear down the tank tomorrow and wrap up the swap Wednesday / Thursday.

[mrbee2828]

So Friday night the insanity started at 10pm. I don't know why so late but I knew it was going to take all weekend. I finished breaking down the tank at 2am.

[mrbee2828]

Saturday was mostly plumbing. I used the old 3/4" overflow lines as the returns for the new setup. I put the SCWD inline and plumbed it up with elbows and that was done. The return s are new. They are 1" lines and I used a 1 1/4" adaptor so I could reuse the expensive gate valve I bought for the full syphon return. The other got a quick ball valve for shutting down. I don't think I'm going to use a sock on this one. It's a trickle of flow so I'll have a little of both worlds.. some stuff for the fudge but most everything going through the sock. The overflow is really quiet... so much better now.

[mrbee2828]

Sunday was a lot of yard work and then aquascaping. I don't think this is final but I'm really loving this already. I want to do a bit more up/around the overflow box to hide it a bit. The right side has a nice ledge and is going to look crazy with some shelf like corals coming out from it. I can't wait. I'm starting on my screen tops this week and I'll be starting to restock next weekend.

[TLTGF]

Nice work! Everything looks great!

[mrbee2828]

I just checked on everything this morning. 1 of my clowns got sucked into the overflow and was stuck in the gate valve. It took me 30mins to figure this out. I opened the gate all the way and boom, he was in the sock. I'm pretty bummed. The 2 had seemed to pair up over the last few months and had hosted the RBTA well. I hope another will work out with the veteran.

[kdpuffer]

Looks great good job, your thread is one I blame for getting me to convert to salt lol.

[mrbee2828]

Originally Posted by kdpuffer

Looks great good job, your thread is one I blame for getting me to convert to salt lol.

I'm so sorry

[kdpuffer]

I'm not lol, tank is cycling and it drives me nuts having to wait to add things but patience is a virtue right?

[iadubber]

I like the new scape!

[mrbee2828]

A few photos today including a purple montipora frag I got from a friend that has lost it's color:

[mrbee2828]

A little update here. I started the screen covers today. I couldn't get black frames at Lowe's or HD. They only had white and brown so I'm going to spray these later. I also picked up some free frags of blue anthelia and some pink pulsing xenia at our local reef club meeting yesterday. I'm not sure if the pink is going to make it or not. Nothing big outside that... water is good, new sump seems to be good and the new plumbing is great.

[mrbee2828]

Still spraying the window trim black. I guess the humidity with all the rain is keeping the paint tacky longer so it's slow and low. I picked up 3 small clown fish today from Atlantic Sea Farms on sale. I'm planning on splitting my RBTA which is freaking massive right now and get these 2 clowns to host it like I did before. If I can I'm going to sell them all together. Hit me up if you're interested and I will let you know how it goes. The other will replace the one I lost in the transition.

[mrbee2828]

So I put 2 of the clowns in m refugium for the time being. The are real small but friendly. The 3rd I put in the DT and while he was the largest of the bunch he's much smaller than the other 8+ month old I have. I'm sure it will be the female if it's not already from the last pairing.

"She" is very territorial and attacks my hand when in the tank. It flipped out last night when I added the new guy. Darting and appearing to nip and then violently shaking as if showing of in some cichlid-like mating ritual. It wouldn't let the new guy near the anemone either. This afternoon they seem to be hanging out some and I've seen the little guy in the anemone twice. I think things are going to work out between the 2 of them but we'll see how it goes the rest of the week.

Also, after several days of light coats and plenty of dry time, the screen frames are done. I'll finish them up this weekend. The question is what to do with my light legs. I didn't want to build the screens to go around the legs because I'm planning on upgrading later this year and didn't want redo them later. I'm thinking about building a little frame for the T5 to hang it from.

[NyteGTI]

any shot of putting a notch in the legs so they fit over the screens frame? or just hang the fixture from a shelf I believe you have overhead? How are your temps doing? is it getting warm in there yet?

[mrbee2828]

I hear you but I don't want to modify the leges at all. The fixture, while a cheaper one, is still almost brand new and if I upgrade soon I can still get most of what I paid for it. So I think I'm going to go the hang route for now. There isn't anything for a cord type setup so I'm going screw some wood to the shelf above for now. Temps - it's getting warmer for sure. This past week has been on the chilly side in the 60°s so it's been ok. However a few weeks ago it was almost 90° and with a small fan on the tank it reached 82°. I'm buying a chiller this week through a friend but I'm waiting on some details.