75g Oceanic w/20g sump

[saltwater_wannabe]

I have finally bit the bullet and upgraded my reef tank. I used to have a 46g sumpless bowfront that was my learning tank. I overfed, undermananged and generally learned what not to do in a reef tank. Thankfully, my personal experience and this website have helped me be a better reefkeeper. Here's what I upgraded to:

75g Oceanic show tank
20g 'long' sump with 1/4" acrylic baffles
Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper2 w/pH probe
48" Coralife Lunar aqualight (4x65w)
2 - Maxijet1200 powerheads
200w Won Bros Titanium heater
QuietOne4000 return pump (about 900gph @ 4')
ASM G2 protein skimmer

All this stuff is new (to me)as of June 2006, so I don't have any long term reviews on any particular item. If do you have any questions, please send me a PM and I'll respond the best way that I can.

I'll add pics as soon as I can get them out of our stupid camera.

[dodge41]

I believe we have the same tank. The 36 long 25 high and 18 front to back. Got mine in black, they look great dont they? Im still setting mine up but Im using a 29 gallon glass aquarium from petsmart, it just barley squeezes in there, have to slide it in sideways and wiggle. I have a velocity pump for the return and a recirculating skimmer from reef Mania. Oceans motions super squirt and 4 3-way revoutions. Id love to see some pics of your tank when you get a chance

[tiburon]

that's very close to the dimentions of my tank also.. but mine is 5" taller.. honestly, I can't touch the bottom, so 25" might be a better height. Anyways, yeah, post pics when you have them.

[saltwater_wannabe]

I just got done with the aquascaping, so when the dust settles a bit I'll snap a few and post them up.

Thanks for the replies!

[dodge41]

Great, Cant wait to see em!!!

[saltwater_wannabe]

Yay! Pics, pics and more pics! Here's what everything looked like the day before the move to the new tank.

The old:


Poor Zoos:


...and my poor Rock Flower Anemone:

[saltwater_wannabe]

And here's what everything looks like about 4 days after move:

New Tank:


The Zoos are happier!:


and so is my Anemone:


I'll post some pics of the build and setup in a few.

[saltwater_wannabe]

Here's how I started: I had an undrilled 75g Oceanic that I bought from a guy about a year ago who used to keep African Cichlids in the tank. I got the tank, stand, canopy and a twin tube VHO light fixture for $200; he was repeatedly apologizing for a hairline scratch that was on the bottom of the tank . I brought it home and dreamed of setting it up as a reef tank. Well, finances and my work schedule kept me from making anything out of it. We were in the process of buying a house when my wife begged me to start looking into setting up the 75g in the new house. I emailed Geoff repeatedly for advice when he invited me to his 'secret hideaway' to talk about and design my new tank.

We drilled it and built 2 acrylic overflows in a matter of hours and he sent me on my way home. Here's but a few pics of the following days leading up to the big transfer.

Paint day: Notice my plumbing bits and the box of my new skimmer


My makeshift workbench (the hot sun made working with the flex PVC a bit easier).


Here's my initial plumbing setup. 2 individual drains and a single return that teed into the tank. I had also built Durso-style standpipes out of 1"PVC, but I couldn't quiet them down so I have since improvised with an inverted Stockman overflow (I'll add pics of that later).



I have since take all that apart and gone to a simpler (yet noisier) 'Tee' setup; as expertly illustrated here :

^^I didn't take any pics before I moved it into the new tank room.

There's more to come, but here's a link to my gallery in the meantime:
http://www.thereeftank.com/photopost...2e7a7ca679493b