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

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Nothing big to report but I finally got sick of my lights sitting on top of my tank. I had removed the legs to get my screen tops on. I grabbed some picture frame wire and crimps at Home Depot and hung the fixture about 4" from the top of the tank for better access. This should do until I upgrade to LEDs.

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I wish! Honestly, I haven't mentioned this yet but I have partnered with a local aquarist here in VB and we are now running an installation and consulting business. He's the pro on all things living and while I'm learning, I'm good with my hands. I'm working on marketing, branding and the "outside" of the tanks. I've been drilling and plumbing, delivering etc on the weeks.

We've been working together most of this year and things are going well. Our hope is to open a shop next year. We're not doing retail though, it'll be appointment only. We're going to focus on the educational part of the hobby, offer planning, installation, financing, consulting and even maintenance if they want. Right now it's a part time thing but our approach is being well recieved in the area.

We've installed 3 tanks this summer and I've drilled and prepped 3 overflows as well. We're working on our first furniture grade stand next month too. I'm excited but yeah... a little more work = a little more money = a lot more fun :)
 
That's great man. Wish you lived closer to me for when I get around to upgrading to a larger tank so I could get you to drill it! Anyway, you'll LOVE your radions. I love mine. Just watch how powerful they are. Mine are peeking at 85% atm and I'll prob be turning it down some this weekend.
 
I played with them on the computer for about 30mins late last night. I'm too busy today... actually getting a used tank to drill for someone else at noon lol. I did setup the natural mode for be around 50% for now because I have a crappy 4 bulb T5 on there now. There seems to be a million settings. When they come out with an iPhone app I'll be set haha. I hope they do. I assume you have to do all the settings with the USB cable thus far.
 
Just be careful. I fried 500 bucks worth of coral when I upgraded from my 4 bulb T5HO to the radions. Yes, you have to have one radion plugged in to make changes. The rest that are paired together will all get the changes wirelessly.
 
Yeah, I'll be sure to crank them down for now. The good thing is that I haven't bought any nice stuff yet... it's mostly frags and such.
 
That sounds like a sweet business opportunity. I am jealous lol. I haven't checked out your link yet but I will, given how your tanks look I'll be holding high expectations.
 
My weekend filled up so quick, that I hardly had time to get to the tank but I managed to carve out almost 2 hours to get the old lights out, sold, the lenses swapped and the lights in place. Right now the hangers are 100% temporary. I haven't crimped or trimmed the hanger wire yet. I'm not sure if I'm going to leave them suspended or if I'm going to hard mount them on a custom rail. The lights are pretty stretched out on the wire and they are only 7.5" above the tank. With the water being about 3/4" from the top I just barely made the minimum height. I think a rack bolted to the wood shelf would be better. Debatable or sure. I'm also planning on mounting the power supplies on the back wall on a wood panel... I just need time. As for programming, it's on the default natural setting until I get some time this week to play with it.

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Having the before and after shot is great man. I'll be honest, I didn't even think about any of that...I've had my radions over my 55 for what seems like forever now and didn't realize what kind of a huge difference it is.
 
Saturday I took a few hours to start my rework. I had a chiller below, a rock container to the left and junk up top. So I've relocated the chiller and rock as of yesterday. The chiller relocation wasn't too difficult but it was just time consuming and annoying more than anything. Surprisingly, the flow wasn't affected too much. I had to just slightly adjust my gate valve on the full syphon a tad but that was it. The downforce pull helps a lot I think. Note the frankenstein swing check valve. I found a spot that had a good price on it but the smallest was a 1". It was also slip and I want to reuse this with a future 1" return upgrade on a larger tank so I glued on 1" male thread adaptors and then screwed on 1" to 3/4" reducers. It was another $4 or so but I didn't want to glue on a 3/4" a lose it. It's a much needed upgrade because my returns really pull a lot of water back out in a power outage. Tube is probably temporary but it's working right now. I need a few more clamps as well. It's not super clean but it's the grage and all a big experiment anyway.

I also spent about a hour relocating the 40g rock tank from the bench to the lower shelf. I had to level the shelf and renforce it. It's rock solid and ready for the coming week's install. Someone buy this stuff so I can free up some space :)

My plan for next weekend is to construct a box and use a dryer vent to push the hot air out into the attic and range vent in the roof. After that's done, the garage should be a lot more tolerable. The chiller is somewhat counterproductive without a vent to another location. It just makes the garage sweltering combined with the humidity. I usually keep the garage open all day with it like it is. I won't need it in a few more weeks I hope. After that, I'll drill the sump and the other 40, plumb them together and relocate the drain to the other tank. +30ish gallons on the system and a holding/grow out tank.

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In 2 weeks the local reef club is having our first "tank crawl". The first stop is my house so I'm hustling to make some progress. This weekend I cleaned out the rock tank, painted the shelf and caulked around it. I also drilled the extra 40g and just cut the teeth for the new overflow box. I'm gluing that later today and then picking up some 3/8" acrylic for the new sump and some customer builds.

After I cut and tooth some thicker baffles I'll break down the sump and reconfigure it this week. I'm making the skimmer portion a bit larger to upgrade the skimmer next year and pushing in to the fuge area. I'll remove some of the live rock from that and move it to the grow out tank so I have more room for cheato. I'm also planning to go bigger on the pump in a few months due to the chiller being raised and the 40g being plumbed in. Pics to come.... oh and I ordered a bunch of new fish and some huge coral pieces for the crawl. They should be in tomorrow with our regular order.

First iPhone5 pano of the tank as is...

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