My First Full-Size Reef (75G)

Looks good Karl!

I like your scape. There are lots of ledges, and caves so you'll have plenty of spots for corals and places for the fish to swim through. Nice!
 
Thanks for all the comments everyone.

I rearranged some of the rocks last night so they are more stable, put some epoxy on the iffy ones. Then since my live rock was fully cured I put two of my clownfish and a rock with xenia into the tank and programmed one of my LED fixtures. It was quite funny watching the two clowns slowly investigate their new home, never leaving each other's sides as they swam around. They definitely investigated the tank more when the moonlights were on instead of the main lights, even at low power.


Currently the tank is at 0 ppm ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Salinity is at a perfect 1.025 and temp is at a comfortable 79F.
 
icedearth15324 said:
Tomorrow at the earliest, I'm not gonna be home until late tonight. Hopefully I can get my canopy finished soon so I can actually mount my lights properly instead of sitting them on eggcrate haha,
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yea. the egg crate takes away a lot from them. I tried that for a while and when I switched out to screen top, WOW what a difference
 
frostyjay1 said:
yea. the egg crate takes away a lot from them. I tried that for a while and when I switched out to screen top, WOW what a difference
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And I moved over my occy clowns

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How are you going to hang the lights? I know someone who can make a metal frame for the to sit in, or you can do conduit

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2
 
frostyjay1 said:
How are you going to hang the lights? I know someone who can make a metal frame for the to sit in, or you can do conduit

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2
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I am in the process of building a custom canopy for them. It's a box of 8x1 pine wood and on top of that will be two doors on hinges with the lights attached. This way I can do work in the tank without having to remove anything, and it keeps the tank covered as well. I only have one picture of the canopy right now, so I'll post it.

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I put primer on it last night and I need to install a center brace still. Then I'll paint the exterior and coat the interior with polyurethane to keep any moisture from being absorbed into the wood.

Hopefully I'll be done with the canopy by sunday and if my dad finishes the mounts then I can set it all up completely.
 
Got my first unique inhabitants last sunday and today. I got a yellow tang, powder brown tang, yellow eyed kole tang, and today I got a Hawaiian Flame Angel, all from Reefwise. I'll be posting pics soon. Now to begin getting corals.
 
icedearth15324 said:
Got my first unique inhabitants last sunday and today. I got a yellow tang, powder brown tang, yellow eyed kole tang, and today I got a Hawaiian Flame Angel, all from Reefwise. I'll be posting pics soon. Now to begin getting corals.
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WHAT IN THE NAME OF SWEET BABY JESUS!!!!!!!!! Great taste in fish, but I hope they are all really small. that is a lot of tang for a 75
 
frostyjay1 said:
WHAT IN THE NAME OF SWEET BABY JESUS!!!!!!!!! Great taste in fish, but I hope they are all really small. that is a lot of tang for a 75
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Lol! The yellow and kole should be okay, but eventually the PBT will develop an anger for anything else tang...have an out for them in the near future.
 
I have a feeling the tang popo's will be on their way lol!

Like Jay said, as they get bigger and start showing more aggression or stress, find someone with a larger tank who can take them off your hands.
 
I have a cousin who has a 220 who will already take the PBT if it gets too large. I got my advice from Brian at Reefwise on the fish and he said the PBT will be either hit or miss. It may stay smaller and be ok, or it may outgrow the tank and I'll need to get rid of it, or get a larger tank.

I know a lot of people are against what I did, but I've done a lot of research and talked to a lot of people about what I will have in my tank. I have a lot of hiding places in my rockwork where each tang has their own place to hide and I am feeding them pieces of seaweed as well.

The current sizes of the tangs are as follows: Kole - 1.25-1.5", Yellow - 2-2.25", Powder Brown - 2.5-3". So they are still fairly small.

If my main sources of information gave me a definitive no, I would not have bought the PBT. But they gave me a nod of approval but to be warned down the road. Hopefully in 2 years I'll have my own place with a much larger tank so I won't need to get rid of him.
 
I hope you have a mondo skimmer so you can keep them well fed. It takes a little bit of the edge if they're full and happy. I'm not concerned so much about size of tank, more than the known aggression of the PBT.
 
Here's an FTS as of last night:

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I moved over my corals, RBTA, and my sixline from my 12g. All of my fish are such prima donnas now. They love attention. There has also been 0 aggression so far between the fish.

And my welso one day after moving it over:

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The canopy is almost done. Just waiting on a replacement controller for one of my fixtures, then they will be installed.
 
I finally finished my canopy, the tank is finally done! YAY

Anyway, a little about my canopy. It is made of 8"x1" pine. At the top are two hinged doors made out of 2"x1" pine. This way I can open each side independently of the other side. At the top of the door is 1/8" aluminum, with my LED fixtures bolted to them. They have holes cut out for the fans and plugs, and we have door handles on each door as well.

All in all, the LEDs are about 9" or so above the water, and they are giving me a perfect spread.

Here's some photos:

FTS
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Close up of canopy:
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Top of canopy:
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Inside canopy:
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So glad to finally be fully done with this thing.
 
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