beginning 75 build

Christmas came early today!! My step dad, who got me into the hobby with a 20 gallon tank has given me his 75 gallon tank with stand for FREE!!!! He needed to make some room for his 120 and to be able to put up the Christmas tree, so all I had to do was haul it off.

It is a 75 gallon 48x18x20 Oceanic drilled tank. It is older than I am but has been babied and taken care of like no other. It has no leaks and is already plumbed with pvc in the corner overflow. the overflow was custom made as well as the stand. We built the stand a few years back and never got it up and running cause he got a 120 that is still sitting empty (sad but we are working to get that one going now that there is more room.)

I need to still figure out what kind of sump/fuge I am going to set up, or just buy a prefab one. Lighting, pumps, reactors, etc. I have many questions and will be looking for many opinions from everyone to help me get this one going. My plans and wishes are to have it up and running by at least late january.

I want to do a mixed reef with still plenty of room to get some better fish. I would love to have some tangs(regals, I love em) triggerfish, I honestly have no clue what all I want to keep yet, Im just stoked at this point and a lil over excited so give me some time to settle down.

Getting a bit more serious I have many questions and options that I can go with in setting this up so I would love to be able to bounce some ideas off of you. My LFS has a used MH/T5 combo for sale, I believe its a 48" 492 watt setup for 300 bucks. A brand new one costs over 700 bucks so i thought it was a steal but I was worried that it might be too much wattage for my tank. What do you think??

Other questions/ideas

What amount of wattage should I shoot for with my lights?

How much sand and rock should I use?

I was thinking about making my own rock to just cut on costs plus giving me the ability to construct everything the way i want to do it. I have read many articles on it but would like to get some good advice on this kind of setup.

What kind of water movement could i create, I was thinking of maybe a Koralia wavemaker system or something like that.

I am also debating whether or not to bring the tank into my bedroom or to do an in-wall setup in the basement over the pool table. If I went with the basement I would have access to make the back storage room into a fish only room that is about a 20'x 25' room. The only downside is that the basement needs alot of work done to get it even close to setting up cause of the floods we recently had here in georgia. Putting it in my room, my only concern is weight. My room sits over the garage and I dont know if putting it there would be such a great idea with the amount of weight that would be put on the flooring.

So please let me know what you all think. Of course I would love to do an inwall setup but it would take much longer to go that route and I will also be moving once i graduate in about a year and a half or two years. I am so excited about my build and I will be sure to post many pics and do an extensive build thread with lots of pics because I know we all love pics.

 

Personally I like to have my tanks in areas I spend a lot of time in. If you're planning on leaving in 1-2years it doesnt sound like it makes much sense to build out the basement for an in-wall. I think if you chose to use a more simplistic stand you could then spend more of your time on the tank itself than spending your time on constructing an in-wall. That said, I would build a nice stand somewhere you can enjoy the tank view from and easily disassemble later on when you graduate and move on from your current dwelling.

 

That realy cool good luck post pics as u go along

 

That lighting should be fine, as long as the bulbls are in good shape.

For flow, I would recomend more than one Koralia. You could easily get away with a couple of #3's and a wave maker.

As far as Tangs go, I think a Regal wouldn't be a good idea. That get crazy big. I would look into the yellow eyed tangs, Tomini tangs, Scopas tangs and Kole tangs would be fine. They are really cool fish and descent cleaners too.

 

i have a seventy five gallon with 2 250 watt mogul base hamilton ballast/ call up hamilton they sell direct sometimes. and i have 2 96 watt p c, my sps grow fast to the point where you can see the growth point from purchase to putting in my tank as the structure is accelerated.
i have four maxi jets 1200 w wave timer, an aqua c 120, 2 phos reactors and a 15 gal refugium.
my nitrates are always below 10 and sometimes 0 ish. and thats saying something considering how many tangs i have.
i also have a chiller and fans.
if I could change a few things it would be upgrade the wave circulation and grab aqua c 180 or 240 but i really like my 120 and i love out of sump skimming

 

thanks for your input. I think i am going to go with setting it up in my room. I already have a stand for it so all i would need is to get everything else. I am really excited and cant wait to get this one going. My time is very limited this week cause I have finals so all of my time is focused on that. I should be able to get alot of work done this winter break.

I do love tangs are was worried about a regal, but there are so many lovely fish out there so i am not too bummed. I really appreciate your help with everything. Thank you