OneWayne's 75g Build

Here goes another build right on the heels of finishing my 24 nano, heres the thread for that one if your interested in a very custom nano tank,

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/onewaynes-24-a-147711.html

With every new build im always curious on the hows and whys of upgrading, the rationalization and justification that goes thru our heads to convince not only ourselves but also to convince those that may or may not live with us during this process, or leave during. For me it consumes many an hour of my life, if its not hands on, its brain on, and the thinking of how this will effect that and why I shouldnt bother doing this, so I can afford that, and so on and so on. One thing ive always found is that most good builds come along with a great story, so maybe this one isnt great but its mine and its a good way to start.

My nano is awesome, thats my opinion, it was a complete experiment from the ground up and an excellent intro back into the hobby, best of all it worked, flow rates calculated, overflow worked as designed, its quiet and nothing has died, what more could i want? Well more space would be an honest need, and me being honest about that with my wife got me a one way ticket to the preverbal dog house for a day, what was i thinking? So I shelved that and decided to stick it out, she did say i could upgrade next year.
Fast foward a few weeks and a good friend mentions that the place he used to work has a tank that they want to get rid of, WHAT? Made the deal for the tank very easily since it was free and then came the miscommunication which went something like, "Ill be by to get the fish", what they heard was "Ill be by to get the fish tank", shortly after I get a phone call asking when im coming by since the tank is drained and everything is in buckets, holy crap, I dont have a truck, I haven't asked the wife, this is insane. Well always have a friend with a truck, its like a friend with a boat, which thank god he was off work and a solid guy. 100 pounds of rock, tank, stand, canopy, puffer,snowflake,maroon clown, and a damsel plus some odds and ends loaded up and headed home, what a day that was.
Heres what i ended up with:

75g clearlife tank
Stand and canopy
Blowhole 1450 return pump
ASM G1x protien skimmer
Coralife dual t5 24"
Coralife dual t5 36"
Rio 3100 pump
API Marine Deluxe Test Kit/ Never used, haha big surprise.
100 pounds live rock/ soon to be dead and cleaned rock for base
20g long glass sump.
Hydrometer
200W Fluval Heater
6 Five gallon buckets
One puffer
One Snowflake Eel
One Maroon Clown
One Bicolor Damsel
a plastic coral
unknown large powerhead
net
air pump
gravel vac
and a sore back.

Not a bad score but there is so much to do, first thing was to get a home for the eel, puffer and damsel, no prob, done. Scrub algae off rock and let it dry out, done. Remove sand from tank, check.

Going thru the equipment,

Skimmer - ASM G1x, tried and true skimmer that would work for now even if its a bit on the small side, this one is unmodded which is fine and the mods are cheap only problem is they had a marineland powerhead attached instead of the Sedra 3500, this pump is about 80 bucks plus the cost of the mods, waiting to see what other skimmer might come along before going thru the expense of getting this one working.
Does anybody need an unmodded asm g1x with no pump?
Sump - is a 20L and a bit to small for me to feel comfortable with, if you happen to live near Venice Beach and need a 20L its free to a good home.
Lights - junk
Pump - Reeflo blowhole 1450, brand new and never used, I would have moved the tank just to get this pump for free, this will be the return pump for the new build.
Stand - Needs major modification, the doors are very narrow and leave zero access to equipment, also needs to be painted.
Canopy - Not going to use it. To me canopies of this type look very dated, 1980 called and wants its tank back.
Tank - 75g Clear for Life acrylic, tank has a lot of scratches so refinishing it inside and out will be at the top of the todo list. I will be cutting out the corner overflow and sealing the bulkhead, routing a 1/2" channel along the back and installing a coast to coast external overflow with beananimal drain.

Lots to do.

 

Heres a pic of the tank as it stood before breakdown, the skimmer was off and looked like it hadn't been on in a very long time, the amount of salt creep was insane in the sump area mostly due to a leaking bulkhead in overflow, leak i now see was due to a split o-ring due to over tightening. Salinity was 1.034 when i first saw the tank and their way of topping it off was when the return would run dry they added some excellent los angeles county tap water, those poor fish. The best part was the filter sock which when removed didnt leak a drop since it was so clogged with crap.

 

Starting from the ground up seemed to be the best way so the stand is first.
I had to fix the access problem so the narrow doors had to go, widened the openings and using a narrower center brace accomplished this. The floor panel was 3/4" mda which had swelled to over one inch from leaks, replaced. Added divider to house controller and ato reservoir, added 4" extension on upper back for plumbing support. Sand, primer and paint.
I wasnt trying to completely polish a turd but for a few hour project I think its ok, and my wife will now allow it in the house.

 

I love craigslist and sometimes things just work out. I needed a new sump and a 29g was going to fit the bill perfectly, only problem is I did not want to buy one new so each day I check CL and today this popped up, brand new 29 lee mar for 20 bucks, sweet. Waiting to add baffles until new skimmer is acquired, this will be set up with skimmer on left , fuge on right and center drilled for bulkhead to return pump.

Just noticed that I've now become an astrea snail on 3rd reef, hope i dont fall over and die.

 

damn you must be on speed cause you are moving extremely fast so far so cool im going to keep up with this one i want to see the poor fish get a new home btw where did the fish go that were in it

 

haha no speed, clean and sober is much easier. The puffer,eel and damsel were donated to a friends work tank, they are very happy in their new 220g home , as for the maroon, he was just to cool to let go and will be the first homeowner in the new tank, for now hes the king of the nano and seems to like having a stable environment, weird.

 

Wow, I have to say that is a completely different and nice looking stand you whipped that into! Dagg......you do move fast! Very nice job!

 

Happy 4th of July, especially to my English friends, God Save the Queen.;D

Today was ditch the canopy day in favor of a smaller sleeker rim, just enough to hide the waterline and support some egg crate. May or may not keep the eggcrate, i only used it because it was laying around and im tired of storing it. Total cost was about 8 bucks in lumber. The paint, primer, and caulking I already had. Also started removing the corner overflow but ran out of time and couldn't finish, so that will lead into sanding the tank down and then ill be much closer to water.

 

you are the energizer bunny lol

 

Rust never sleeps!
I actually have very limited time around my work schedule so I make the most of it.