My 72 gallon BF tank journey

[leftyfish]

I wanted to start a thread for my 72 gallon bow front tank that I am picking up tomorrow!

I started in February with a biocube 29 gallon (that I'm going to sell... If anyone is interested), and well, have run out of space for fish and coral, lol! The cube crashed after I bought it, a week after. So I instantly became consumed with how to appropriately/successfully run a saltwater tank.

After setting up the sump part with a refugium, skimmer and filtration, keeping up with the water changes, etc, I have had a smoothly running tank.

I blame a local coral dealor, tidalgardens, for having to upgrade to this 72 gallon tank. He list his amazing coral on eBay starting at $10. So of course I have to have them, and maybe pick up extras while I'm there. I only hope for my husband's sake, the 72 gallon will be enough for me, lol!

The journey begins...

Friday I went to see the tank. It is in decent shape, the sump is an oceanic, the top has a crack, but I will probably want a bigger sump soon, so no problem.

I see a mated pair of clowns swimming about and ask, they are the only fish, right? The man says, "no, there is a goby to". He point to where it hides and to before my eyes is a FAT mandarin dragonet! As soon as our eyes meet, I said "sold."

I decide it will be much less stressful if I take the fish and live rock then and just get the tank, sump, etc on Friday. The man puts some shrimp in the tank to catch the clowns and the mandarin is gobbling up the shrimp! I'm so excited. So I got three 18 gallon bins half full of live rock and water and a bucket with the fish and some corals. The rock is now in the garage with a powerhead in there. The fish are in a ten gallon with more of the live rock, snails, etc from the tank. A little cramped, but everyone is happy. The mandarin is amazing to watch.

So tomorrow is tank day and setup. I'm planning on a deep sand bed and resting the rock on 1 1/4" PVC at 4.5 to 5 inches to rest the rock on and keep it in place so my current shrimp/goby pair can live under it without much issue.

Let the journey continue...

 

[Purevil21]

Congrats on the purchase, can't wait to see some pictures. Bowfronts are such pretty setups.

 

[Greenmaster]

May I accompany you on your journey?

 

[Purevil21]

Lot of build threads here lately, we need a whole lotta

 

[Greenmaster]

Yup, you watching mine? It's finally at the stocking phase.

 

[Purevil21]

Oh yeah, I saw the youtube videos. Great stuff, I love the multiple yellow tangs. Beautiful to watch with the schooling zebras in the background.

 

[leftyfish]

I bought a popcorn machine last year for my birthday, I think it is really a test of self control

I'm just hoping to avoid a cycle, using the rock and filter media that has been running in the tank and rock from my tank. I am making up mostly new water (50%) and all new sand. It has a running refugium in the sump.

 

[Purevil21]

What kind of tank do you have running already?

 

[Purevil21]

Never mind, I just re read the top, it was a 29 gallon. I don't think you will have enough rock to avoid a cycle. If I was you, I would set up the new tank and let it cycle completely before moving over livestock and existing live rock. Maybe put one piece in the new tank to seed the other rock if you purchase base to save $$$. Post some pics!

 

[leftyfish]

The existing 72 has about 100 lbs of live rock, then I have about 30 more. I'm not putting all of it though, seems like overkill?

 

[SteveFishman]

Put some lr in the sump

 

[leftyfish]

Ooh... If there isn't any yet I will do that. A few hours to go before the big pick up.

 

[leftyfish]

Picked up tank, stand and sump. Got it in, level. Preppared my PVC foundation, poured in some sand to stabilize the PVC pipe better, (most are glued down). Pvc was cut to 5" to allow for 4.5" sand bed and water to flow under the rock. Leveled tank on stand.

Filled sand bed with 125 lbs argonite sand, will seed it with sand from the 29 gallon. Put a garbage bag in and filled 3/4 with water. 1/2 I made up and 1/2 from tank.

Have to use main site to upload pics, so none right now.

Heater and power heads running, placed a sturdy base of rock in there and then threw all the rest in the sand for now.

Making up more water overnight that should fill the tank the rest of the way and allow me to finish rock scaping tomorrow. 100lbs is a ridiculous amount of rock. I wil have to definitely put some in sump and sell the rest, lol.

I'll have to take a picture of the sump, once things are stable, it is going to need major help, it has bioballs that I will have to start slowly removing in a month or so once I'm sure the tank is stable from the move/purchase. And a few different sponges that I'm not so thrilled about. Can a sponge be good? I learned with the biocube to take them out, is it the same for the sump?

 

[leftyfish]

 

[leftyfish]

The tank with the PVC that the rock is resting on.

 

[leftyfish]

Eye candy... Carpet nem in my 29gallon

 

[sean112280]

Need more pics....How is the setup going?

 

[leftyfish]

Tank is re- setup and I added the fish it came with back in today. The nitrates are testing 10, I'm not liking that as in my existing tank they are ZERO, or at least undetected by my kit.

Previous owner could not remember when he did a water change, so I only kept about 10% of that water. I added more chaeto and my nano glow led light to the sump. All 100 lbs of rock is in tank and sump. There is a purigen pouch in there and four pouches of I don't know what in there.

I didn't touch the bio balls but I did take out a sponge that was in there. There is a sponge over the return pump which I am debating removing as well.

I have an unopened jar of chemipure elite, I wonder if I should add that?

Oh and drum roll please....I ordered an AquaIllumination SOL LED system...so excited!

More pics later.

 

[carey]

Sweet! Following along too! Sounds like youre moving along quickly!

 

[leftyfish]

Quickly but cautiously, lol! I have almost read through your tank threads, getting close to the end of them, then more pops up, lol!