First reef tank build, 75 gallons

Wow, This build is coming along great! Nice Work to you and your husband. I will be following this build. K+

 

Great job. My suggestion would also to paint the back panel of the glass either dark blue or black so you don't get those hideous bubbles that are caused by a background.

But it absolutely looks FANTASTIC!!!!!

You have the same sump design as the sump installed today

 

Yeah, we are going to get a background on it soon. We also have to put a mesh cover on it as we decided not to go with a canopy. I saw an older thread on here about designing a DIY mesh cover, so we will make that soon. I ordered some dry rock from reefcleaners.org and some sand from reefrocks.net, so I'm looking forward to getting that in the tank.

The plan is to put in the dry rock while the tank is empty, then fill it with water and let the salt mix in for about a day with pumps running. After that we will put in the sand, turn off the pumps, and let the sand settle for about a day (or however long it takes to settle. Then I will go to the local fish store and purchase about 10lbs. of live rock, add that to the tank, and let the tank cycle. We may or may not add a dead shrimp to help the cycle along, but so far this is the plan.

Here is a video I made of our water flow design. We wanted to test our system using freshwater to make sure all the plumbing worked as intended and help us recognize any potential for error before we begin cycling.

 

+1 to painting the back. I did it on my 125 and it looks great. You can use Krylon fusion spray paint. It is very easy and looks great after. Love your build so far. Can't wait to see it filled up! 8)

 

the build looks great so far! i have the 120w reefbreeders bridelux led over my tank. Just 1 right in center abour 12in above center brace and it works great! I have it at about 30% blue 15% white.

Corals:
Candy Cane
Pocillopora
Torch
Toadstool
green star polyps
Encrusting montipora

All these corals are doing great under the light at low power with just 1 fixture over the 75! So 2 will be more then enough!

 

Finally getting to the good stuff!!
I put in my dry rock and water, and I got the salinity right. The dry rock came from reef cleaners and I'm really happy with it. I let it run for a couple days to make sure the salt was mixed in really well. We went to the fish store yesterday and got some live rock to get the cycle started and seed the dry rock. After I got the rockscape design put together we put in the sand. The sand is settled for the most part (sand from reef rocks). I'm on day 2 of the cycle now, so YAY!!

Here is what it looks like


Still need to buy lights....

 

Looks excellent so far.

Can't wait to see the fish in there.

 

Here's an update on our tank. I bought some AI Sol lights, and my husband made a DIY rail for them to hang on. I have pre-ordered the AI New Controller and wireless adapter, so we are waiting for that to come in. I went with the AI lights because I like how well they can be controlled, and I like that they have a thunderstorm setting



The tank has been cycling for almost 3 weeks, and my ammonia and nitrate are zero. I still have to test nitrite...I'm not real on top of the testing constantly, I just figured it will do it's thing if I give it some time. We put a shrimp in there for about 5 days and it shrunk to less than half its original size, then we took it out. Our house started smelling like decomposed shrimp...

Our live rock is finally starting to come alive! It's exciting! We have several little fan worms and things growing out of the rock. It looks like the rock is happy with it's new home. We have a small amount of brown algae on some of the live rock, but I just noticed a lot of brown algae (diatoms) in the sand in the refugium.



We have a our refugium light on more than the main lights, so maybe that's why? (Got a new fuge light after husband dropped last one in the tank).... We are waiting to get the new controller before putting the main lights on all the time. They are extremely bright at 100% power and I'm not sure if having it that high will do anything to my live rock.

Anyway, that's the news on our tank

 

Nice job, the lights look great!

 

Looks great! Question...you have one of your drain lines pipped directly to your skimmer or is it just running to your drain/skimmer compartment?