Jim's 75g Build Thread

So I think it's about time to begin my build thread. I was given a standard non-drilled 75 by a friend of a friend who was tossing it out to upgrade. It was given to me a couple months ago and has been sitting in my brother's garage ever since, untouched.
This is going to be a very long, expensive, time consuming process...and I can't wait to start!

TANK: I'm getting the tank drilled in both upper rear corners to drain down to the sump, with one drain line T'ed off to feed the fuge. I'm still trying to figure out what to do for an overflow to keep critters out of the bulkheads. I want to do omething DIY, as opposed to something ready-made, such as glass-holes. Hopefully you guys have some suggestions. I just ordered the plastic frames, top and bottom, that I will be replacing since they have a few cracks. I will also be painting the back of the tank black.

STAND & CANOPY: I will be custom building a stand and canopy, nice and tall so I can fit whatever I want underneath, and I don't like the idea of leaning down to look into the tank. My brother has loads of tools so I will be building it at his house with his help. He builds bridges for a living so I'm sure we can figure this out. The stand and canopy will also be painted black.

FUGE: I will be using my drilled 20g reef tank as my fuge. It will house about a 3"-4" sandbed, about 20lbs liverock, 20 mangoves, and a massive ball of cheato, all of which I have in my 20g fuge/sump now. The fuge will overflow into the sump.

SUMP: I think I will be using a 10g tank for the sump as long as there will be enough room for the skimmer and return pump. I just ordered a Bubble Magus NAC6, and I already have a Quiet One 2200 for the return, although I may upgrade to something larger, not sure yet.

LIGHTS: I am currently using a 24" Odyssea fixture (yes, I am a fan of Odyssea lights) 250W HQI w/ 2x 65W PC's and LED moonlights. I just ordered another off eBay a couple days ago. I will mount these two 24" fixtures into the canopy. This should be sufficient lighting to keep just about whatever I want, I think.

FLOW: I have a Koralia 2 that I will move to the 75 along with probably two more #3's or #4's. I will be using loc-lines Y'ed off from the return to each rear corner. Should be decent flow, especially if I upgrade the return pump.

I think thats about it. I want to keep it nice and simple. Nothing crazy as far as equipment goes, but hopefully plenty effective. I hope you guys will follow me through my process throwing suggestions my way. I have never built a stand or canopy and have never had a tank this big (I know, some of you guys think a 75 is small lol). The only experience I have with aquariums is my little 20g I set up a couple years ago, and it is nothing amazing . So please feel free to let me know how it sounds so far and what I'm missing.
Wish me luck!
And yes, there will be plenty of pictures along the way...

 

Lets see some pics!

 

sounds pretty good man, got any pictures of the 20?

 

Sounds like you have really thought things through. You will love that NAC6!

 

Cant wait for the plans to take action! Nothing is more exciting than setting up a new tank.

 

Pics will come soon. I gotta get the wife to put the pics up, I'm not too computer savy. But yea, I can get some pics of the 20 up too.

 

Lol yea I think I have it pretty much figured out, it seems like all I think about anymore .

And yea, I've heard nothing but good things about the NAC6. Can't wait to get it. For the price it can't be beat.

 

Me either!!!! I think (hope) by this weekend I might be able to start on the stand.

 

Never posted pics on here so hopefully my wife did this right. If not, we'll try it again.
My 20g w/ 20g fuge/sump. You can see the sponge fading away. It's been like this for about a month, only getting worse.

I'll be using this tank for the fuge since it's already drilled.







You can see one of my chromis made his way down here. I'm never fast enough to catch him.

 

Nice, I've got the same thing going. I only needed one overflow because I have a big bulkhead. I'm finding out that flex-hose is awesome stuff and keeps the noise down. I'm using a Mag9.5 return and I've only got to cut it down a little bit with about a 4' return. I saved some money on the Lock Line and went with straight PVC but I may replace it down the line for something more aesthetically pleasing. You'l have fun with it and you can reallt save some money if you're alright with DIY. I made my overflow box and saved about $75 because glass-holes is too expensive for something I can do.