75g Build...finally!

Nice job! I am so tagging along on this one. The ballast weighs 30 lbs! Holy cow!

 

Just a quick update....I should be building the sump/fuge in the next couple of days. I just purchased a load of LR at my LFS and have it on hold. Sand should arrive any day now...it's all coming together...aaaahahaha (insert evil laugh)

 

Didn't go with the marco rock?

 

Actually I have 45lbs of total LR (good stuff too, seriously purple and only $5/lb!) and the rest will be marcorocks...waiting to see how the sand shipment turns out...looks like it will arrive Thursday. Rock probably on Monday.

Today I went to get all the plumbing materials and made a mistake...bought 1.25" stuff and need 1.5" stuff...

More to be revealed tomorrow...

 

Did you get the bahama sand from marco as well?

 

yessir!

 

A little bit of progress made...some pre-plumbing. I don't have my 30L in hand yet (which will be used for my sump) but configured some plumbing according to the tank dimensions and measurements from my skimmer.

Here's a question...my tank is drilled on the back side and the bulkhead has a 45 degree elbow attached and 1.5" PVC attaches there...basically my plumbing would be hanging vertically from this elbow, and a decent amount of pressure on that drilled hole I imagine. Should I find some type of bracing or something to help support the pluming? I would get something to secure it in the horizontal area after the "T" fitting if that makes sense...

Also, the union and the ball valve (for limiting flow to fuge section) have letters on them. You can see what I'm talking about it the pics...is this designating one side of the fitting for incoming flow and the other side for outgoing flow? May be a silly question, but I'm a plumbing novice...

 

Anyone? I'd like to make one last trip to the hardware store tomorrow...

Also, everything is here to begin putting it all together...tomorrow afternoon is the goal...yipee!

 

Well, I got it all together today. The plumbing is in place and I tied it up with a plastic PVC support tape. I hauled all the water from the LFS (thankfully it's only 1/4 mile away..hehe) in my little honda civic and up to my second story apartment...man was that tough! I WON'T be moving for a while...

I added 40lbs of sand from MarcoRocks, 20lbs of "Nature's Ocean" live sand, and 10lbs of CC...the only reason I added the CC was to add some personality to the substrate...the little shells etc. I'll also add 20 more lbs of pre-rinsed sand tomorrow...

I have all my cured LR sitting in 5g buckets, staying wet and alive.

Here are some pics with the lights on and water filled to the drain line...it seems my camera picks up rays of light being emitted from the VHO's or MH's.

I also built a half of a canopy, if that makes sense...it just covers the face and 1/2 down the sides of tank. There is no top and the back half of the tank is completely uncovered...I figured this would help from lighting my entire apartment, while also allowing plenty of air movement. We'll see what temps I end up with...I may have to ditch the 1/2 canopy...

The final set-up tomorrow morning hopefully...we'll see if the water settles...it's still really cloudy right now.

I don't have any flow going through it right now...Should I have any flow? or just let it sit still so the particles fall?

And do you think my rock will be fine in 5g buckets of water?

Thanks!

 

Ok, finally got it together....I'm still waiting on another 40lbs of base rock and my 30L to make my sump/fuge...but everything is transferred over from the 20G and running well. All the LR I used was established and cured, so there shouldn't be any cycle at all...if so very small. The pictures are with the VHO's only and WOW do they make some things pop! I'll get pics with the MH on later....back to cleaning up the mess now...