Moving on up...

[vangvace]

...to the deluxe 75 in the sky.

So we're looking heavily at upgrading our nano to a 75, but I need some help with the planning since a makeshift 55 is the largest I've done.

For rock I'm looking at 50 pounds of Key Largo Marco's Rock with the rock from my nano to seed.

Fish: I was thinking a couple dwarf angels and/or maybe a powder brown tang. I really haven't given it much thought so nothing is firm in that department yet. My perc and damsel will be transferred over though.

Corals: I was thinking about having two rock islands. Since I have a 36" fixture going over a 48" tank, I was thinking mushrooms on the ends with a variety of other softies and LPS through out.

Inverts will be nothing special. Perhaps a Derasa for in the center. I was thinking of having a couple stalks of shaving brush algae in the display.

Lighting: I have a 36" T5 fixture that I plan on using and a dual 250W MH ballast if need be. A 29 gallon tank that I might be able to use for a sump. The tank however is not RR and has at least a tempered bottom. Hopefully, I will be getting an AquaC Remora soon too. It might be underwhelming for this set-up, but it'll do for a bit.

Flow:I'm debating about a closed loop, a sump, and/or a Vortech MPX0 and some powerheads. I have no clue about large pumps though. If I go with an overflow, I'm debating between the 1500 or 700 gph kit from glass-holes. With having a 29G sump and wanting most of my flow to come from a closed loop/powerheads, I'm leaning towards the 700 for now and an extra hole saw for 1" ID bulkheads. How does it work if you split a pumps output between four different holes? Does the intake have to be larger to compensate?

Finally I have to enclose the frame on my stand still...

Edit: there is no deja vu, I moved the thread here and deleted the old one.

 

[blange3]

Whoa! I thought I saw this thread somewhere before!

There is something vaguely familiar about the tank description as well!

I think 75 is a great size to move up to from a nano. I think this is also the perfect first tank size. It's big enough to hold a variety of corals and allow for some cool aquascaping. It will actually require less maintenance than the average nano as it is more tolerant of changes in evaporation rates and ambient temperatures as there is a larger body of water.

What kind of T5 fixture do you have? An IceCap T5 retro would be relatively easy to modify to 48" bulbs. If you keep your bioload low, the AquaC will be fine. When I moved the corals in the tank above to my 180, I moved my softies to the 75. I'm planning on replacing the Octopus NW150 on this tank with the AquaC.

Be careful with the multiple dwarf angels. Depending on the type that doesn't always work.

 

[vangvace]

It's a four bulb current nova fixture. It's major detractor is that it has a parabolic reflector instead of individual ones. >.< I have four extra bulbs too so I could do a staggered 8 bulb retrofit (and build a canopy to fit it in) down the road.

 

[blange3]

Looking at your overflow plans I would suggest a smaller pump and the 700 gallon overflow. You want turnover in the sump in the 300-600 gallon range.

Get the rest of you flow from the vortech or other powerheads. This way you have two independent flow systems which allows one to fail without losing all of the flow.

 

[vangvace]

It's funny that you keep posting what I'm thinking.

For flow I am leaning towards the 700 overflow with a Quiet One 4400 pump for the return. I also am thinking about having the return split to each corner with locline. Additional flow would come from a pair of Koralia 2/3/4s.

 

[JRWOHLER]

I am with Bill on the overflow the greater the overflow the more noise you end up with. Go with powerheads.

Building a hood with a staggered bulb arrangement would be a great idea. I think the downside of the parabolic mirror vs individual one is the that the par peaks are slightly lower ...but on the upside the dispersion is greater so you will get a bit more coverage.

I think the powder brown tang might be a bit big, I will give my usual advice and say go with a Kole, Convict or Tomini.
http://www.fantasyreef.com/database.php?p=viewitems&dbid=7&cat=38
They have a nice database, along with www.saltwaterfish.com and liveaquaria.com are three good ref for fish.

Shaving bush...I tried them..they turned into food for my fighting conch FYI.

My derasa clam is doing great under T5 FYI that is a good choice IMO. Got ours last year at the Frag Swap ... MACNA should be good timing for you.

There are lots of great smaller fish for you too.
And of course you have Bill's tank for reference on completed stage, and mine for first stage.

PS you want some kenya tree?

 

[vangvace]

I have more than enough Kenya Tree already. (It looked small and harmless attached to the frogspawn at the time) lol

Edit:

This thread just scared me about drilling... I don't know if the back of the tank is tempered or not. It has a tempered glass sticker on the bottom of the tank. Thoughts? ? ?

 

[concept3]

i believe only the bottoms are tempered on the 75's. a good general rule of thumb for sump circulation is about 10X per hour, just enough so that you get dissolved organics skimmed out by your skimmer from the top of the tank & overflow

 

[vangvace]

So it is full of water. I have 40 pounds of sand, 30ish pounds of marco rock for now and a pair of koralia 4s for circulation. I have a buddy with 3s if they prove to be too much.

Lighting is currently a 36" T5 4 bulb fixture without individual reflectors, but I'm thinking a canopy with icecap retro and led spotlights might be on order later.

Oh and I'm going sumpless still.

 

[john90009]

Schhweeeetttt another 75 gallon reef in the club- kinda annoyed that reefs in between dont have a spot on rc its only for nanos and 180 larger i complained to a mod and said thats discrimination lol- wanted me to post in general discussion lol.

 

[vangvace]

Not really a problem for me, I don't post on rc often.

(We need better emots here)

 

[JRWOHLER]

Not really a problem for me, I don't post on rc often.

(We need better emots here)

Good to see you are up and running(or walking at least).
You could do the PaulB algae scrubber without the sump.

I agree we need more emots.

 

[vangvace]

Alright, now I need a canopy and a way to explain to my wife about the new lights.

 

[vangvace]

So it's been up for a spell now... I moved my skimmer over. Now to peice together an overflow box, sump, ATO, and pretty up the stand/canopy.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Looks great, what equipment you have going on so far?

 

[vangvace]

A pair of K4s, a remora skimmer with the MJ1200 and surface skimming box, and a 4 bulb T5 icecap retrofit. I'm going to go to icecap and get some more bulbs. I'm running them in this order:
actinic
twilight
reefcrest
twilight

 

[JRWOHLER]

Could add a pair of those LED lights?

 

[vangvace]

I was thinking about getting a pair of PAR38 bulbs for spot highlighting.