75gal FOWLR Build

[Magma]

Have a brand new 75gal tank, stand, filter ready to go!

So I put it into place in the living room and started to fill it today. But it worked fine untill I got 3/4 of the water into the tank and it sprung a leak..bottom front middle of the tank...[moderator edit] a 5ft stream of water out a whole no bigger than a pin. I raced to clean it up but still ended up with a fair amount of water on the floor wife is not happy.

So back to the drawing boards. I need to re-seal the tank before anything happens.

So instead I played around with the stand, I set the canister filter into place and ran the hoses for it through the stand. Also painted the back of the tank black.

I will be wiring a few plugs into the stand itself and use some liquid tight connectors on the boxes and run some 12/3 cabtire out of one box and into a plug end for easy connection. Probably use 1 GFCI plug wired on the line side and run 3 or 4 duplex plugs on the load side of the GFCI plug, from there I could also wire in some timer switches to be mounted on the outside of the stand for easy programming of lights etc.


here is the tank before I painted the back black and setup in the house

 

[cmor1701d]

If it's a brandnew tank why didn't you take it back for another one instead of painting the back?

 

[Magma]

brand new to me sorry, it was used got it all for 100$ and I painted it black before I put the water in it because I ask the guy is it water tight he said it sure is and he used it for 6 months no problems

 

[Magma]

So today I brought power into the stand. I installed a GFCI Plug and then wired in 3 extra 15amp receptacles just so I can have some easy cable management when i go to start getting the tank setup.

Heres what I picked up:

12/3 Cabtire (bout 5ft)
3 Decora Plugs
4 Gang Box
Flat plug connector

Step #1 Mount Box

Step #2 Install Plugs Correctly

Step # 3 Plug in

And Finished!

Also for anyone who says "omg no thats bad use a power bar instead its safer" etc (yes I have heard this before when building my stands) This is what the inside of a power bar looks like

its 3 brass strips which run the length of the bar with a switch on the end, this costs about 6$ at walmart but I installed 4 plugs into my setup for less than that (thank you wholesalers!)

Later on I will be installing a few switches on one side of of the stand so i can easily turn things on and off easily instead of unplugging things, like lights pumps etc. Timer switches will be added for lights as well.

 

[Magma]

So after talking to the wife about the tank we decided to get maybe 10-15lbs of live rock for this tank and then get the rest from Eco-Reefer.com. They have a "starter" pack for a 65gal aquarium that would work well for us and will save us a lot of money on live rock and sand. Pack has 50lbs of rock and 50lbs of sand for about 240$ (shipping included) which is a great price. Eco-Reefer - The finest reef rock available in Canada! We will be ordering this around Xmas since we are in no rush to get it anyways.

Also talked about a sump setup and come to the conclusion that we might run sort of a double sump because of how the stand is, on one side of the stand we have the main part of it with skimmer etc then run a baffle through a whole into a second tank on the other side of the stand with the return pump. So Instead of trying to cram everything into like half of the stand due to the middle brace we will just break up the sump and add more space. Still looking around locally on who has the best deal for parts etc.

 

[melosu58]

Looks like your off to a good start. Here is some good sump info. Links to Parts 2 and 3 are at the bottom of part 1.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sumps, Part I by Greg Taylor - Reefkeeping.com

 

[Magma]

in all honesty I think a friend of mine will be building my sump for me because its right over my head on these things, I get the purpose and function but its still greek to me, just tell me where the power goes and im your man.

 

[kee]

Lookin good!!

kee

 

[Magma]

After looking into it and the budget again and talking over dinner we might end up going for a easy way out...

Eshopps: Reef Sumps pick up the rs-75 sump and the matching overflow and skimmer from this company that will free up a lot of space under the tank so we can store things and keep clean on the inside.

Now just a matter of pricing out:
Sump--RS-75
Skimmer--PSK-75
Overflow--PF-300

still need to get the pump ourself but this is a start and some places here locally will give us a deal if we order it all through them.

 

[Magma]

Tank build paused

got laid off today

 

[Fastfossil]

Bad news but for when you do carry on I watching
Good luck

 

[reefdiver]

Srry to hear that. I knw it sucks when ppl say this but just be positive something good will come!!!!!

 

[ChizerBunoi]

Now I know why your tank is on hold. That sucks and I'm sorry to hear about it.

The other end of the electrical hook up goes straight to your electrical box?

 

[Magma]

Now I know why your tank is on hold. That sucks and I'm sorry to hear about it.

The other end of the electrical hook up goes straight to your electrical box?

I have 2 ways to setup my electrical right now either run it right back to my House Panel or Put a plug end on the cabtire and plug it into the wall.

So for right now its got a 15amp Plug end on the cabtire and goes to a wall outlet. Once I get the setup going I will be running the cabtire back to my panel and going to a 20A Single Pull Breaker. Only reason I have the plug end on right now is because I dont have the skimmer, pumps etc on there so I dont know how much draw I will be actually using. But pumps are motors so they will have a current spike on start up which is why I plan on using a 20A breaker dedicated for the tank itself.


Good news is though I put in 10Gal of water to the tank and the silicone is holding so far, I plan to go with 10gal a day for a stress test on the tank and then leave the tank for a week with 75gal in it to see if any seals break, then drain it while I wait for income/parts

 

[ChizerBunoi]

So you cut the wire off the surge bar and connected it directly to the 15amp receptacles that piggy back each other? Your devices plug directly into your 15amp receptacles?

 

[Magma]

So you cut the wire off the surge bar and connected it directly to the 15amp receptacles that piggy back each other? Your devices plug directly into your 15amp receptacles?

nope i went out and bought a 15amp plug from home depot to put on the other end of the cabtire thats the yellow thing in the first few picture its a plug end.

 

[d.dog_fletcher]

looks like its going to be a nice set up

 

[Magma]

water has been going into it about 10gal a day and well so far so good its been holding steady

 

[Magma]

ok I need help with the sump/refug for this tank the stand is being a pain in my backside...

Heres some pictures of the stand to get an idea of what I mean.

The stand has a divider in the middle with very limited room for anything so I was looking at using maybe the EShoppe sump (model and size RS-75(18" x 10" x 16"))

But then maybe we could do a dual sump? I just dont know...

 

[Magma]

Heres some more details I was thinking of using the Eshopps sump, skimmer, overflow but I would like to have a place to grow cheato and have more LR/sand there...

So here is a picture of the space I have...
14 deep MAX
26.5 high MAX
20 wide MAX

but I figure to fit it all in I would need to lose at least an inch of all that maybe 2 so workable space is more like

12 deep
24 high (maybe less so I can include the plumbing easyer)
18 wide (to allow for door clearance)


Eshopp Sump Size
18" x 10" x 16"

Skimmer
Diameter 3"
height 19"
Foot print 9" x 4"

Overflow
6" x 3.25" x 10"