My 65g tank...My first drilled tank... *Pics*

I bought the tank and stand (which he built) from a friend who was slowly piecing everything together but money got tight. The tank is a Perfecto with corner over flow, black silicon, and he had painted the back black...saves me from having to do it. The tank had never even had water in it.



And here it is on his home made stand:



For flow he chose a Mag 7 return pump and 2 Koralia 4s...I am thinking about changing to a wavemake setup, just trying to find the cheapest way to do it.

For sand I went with Caribea Aragomax. Here it is lit up for the first time with just sand:



For rocks I went with 50 lbs. of Key Largo fry from marcorock (I love this stuff!) and seeded it with 15 lbs of good live rock from, the lFS.

Here she is wet, freshly cycled, and aquascaped for the first time:



The fist Diatom It past in about 5 days.



I picked up a 2xT5 Fixutre with twin actinics for suppliment...this is the first picture with them on:




Within 2 weeks the coraline growth went crazy...it went from the picture above to this in about 14 day: (as you can see I added some frags...coral is like crack). I found the coraline growth rate incredible.



In the mean time, I finally selected my skimmer. I decided to go with the SWC 150 BMK. I needed something with some power and a smaller footprint this fit perfect...6.5" x 8". The build quality looks excellent and everything fits together perfectly.

Here is the collection cup. It only requires 1/2" to remove.



The assembled Skimmer:



In action for the first time...in my home made sump...it turned out of for my first effort:



Here are the most recent pics:


FTS...




A couple long polyp toadstool leathers I added...the second one just got in the tanks and has not opened all the way yet...






A little zoa garden I am starting on...




Four polyp frogspawn, opens to about the size of a grapefruit....

 

Today's project was plumbing. Originally I had all soft line and was having trouble with microbubbles. This afternoon I plumed everything with PVC...no more microbubbles.

 

looks good man..congrats cant wait to see it in a few months

 

The tank looks great. Nice choice on the skimmer. Good job with the PVC too. It's easy once you do it a few pieces.

I just got a 75g last week. I almost got a 65 instead...nice dimensions. I went for the extra 10g though.

 

also man just cut a small frag of green toadstool..when the weather gets better we can trade them

 

The Fuge light got here today. I could not exactly center due to the ball valve. Think this will work OK?

 

looks like it will provide enough light from that position to me Ellis Juan

nice looking set up you have created there

Steve

 

Looks awesome, gives me some ideas for my 55g build.

What size sump/fuge are you using?
Where did you purchase your fuge light?

 

It is a 15g. A 20g long would have been better it would not fit in my stand...although I think there are 65g stands that will accomidate a 20g long.

The light is a Finnex 13w...do a google shopping search. Someone has them for $29.

 

I have fish dropping like flies. All testable water parameters look great, but in the last week I have lost the coral beauty, both clowns, and a firefish....I have not idea what is going on. Also my leathers/toadstools are not opening fully. Not a fun day to be an aquarium hobbyist.