72g bowfront build

[LuckyReefer123]

I dont exactly know what the twirly thing is. I do beleive its some type of sponge.
And yes, that video of yours is nice! But think again, the larger the tank, its acutally less overwhelming to care for. Everything is more stable in bigger tanks. You can have a better heater, a chiller, Auto Top Off's for calcium and things like that and even water. But yes, WAY expensive!

 

[20nano]

haha yeah, too much for my current income, I have no hard coral in my 20g except a small monti thats been a half dollar coin size for the past 2 month or so. I want to buy some really nice big pieces. Save up and invest into a 12inch branching coral would be nice huh?

 

[LuckyReefer123]

Try Craigslist. Lots of people parting out for great prices! Not many coral get to be 12 inches unless its SPS. I have a kenya tree, over grew in my tank so fast, i have 14 pieces fragged, and have another 15 i can frag. AND THEN i have to snip the mother tree from outgrowing so much. Its a pain! But my friends say my tank looks like it would belong in a fish store so im proud of that. Your tank will look the same in no time im sure!

 

[20nano]

i bought a green neptia at about 2-3 inch frag or so, its like a almost 10inches high and 6 inches wide now, about the only big coral i have...besides my 5head giant frogspawn tat got smaller when it splits to 10 total heads.... tats when i realized i need a bigger tank.

 

[20nano]

can i see a pic of your tank?

 

[20nano]

in thinking about custom building my own 40 x 8tall x 6 or so wide on top of my tank behind the canopy so i can grow chaeto and pods there so they can fall into teh tank via gravity instead of from refugium down below and get kill by the return pump up, wat do you guys think?

 

[LuckyReefer123]

I just realized i dont have any recent or any very good whole tank shots. Its hard with my tank because of my lights. The camera makes the tank bluer than it actually is. So it kills a lot of color. Ill try to remember to post one tomorrow.

 

[20nano]

not such a good thing for a reefer but YAY i have skyrocketed ammonia, cycling is doing its THING!!

 

[20nano]

So anyways, short story even shorter. When i set up my 20 gallon awhile back, i never checked for nitrate during cycle until i saw diatom. Now that this 72g is coming along nicely. I realized my ammonia has spiked, which is normal, but I have 0 nitrite still and spiked nitrate. Is this cycle a bit out of order? Should I set up my refugium now or is that not necessary until later on? I want to put it in but I havnt gotten the time and though it would be fine until cycle near its end. What do you experts suggest?

 

[Jackalope]

ehhh when it comes to fuges... you dont want my honest oppinion on them. i would wait till it cools down on the cycle personally. algae/cheato/plants take up phosphates for growth. w/o them, i would think they would die. i could be Completely wrong!

honestly in all simplicity i run a skimmer and a 7" filter sock. my LR does the work nature intended it too. i found my fuge worthless, ditched it and the system has run fine for quite some time.
others have run fuges for over 40 years! PaulB is the man when it comes to bio diversity. his tank is an antique and has surpassed the test of time for decades! both ways work, but i like simplicity =-)

 

[20nano]

So, i set up this 72g using new bags of nature's ocean live sand. 110lbs of sand to be exact. I have about 60 or so lbs or live rocks from another reefer in my area as well as 2 fully cycled and awesome 5 rocks from my current operating tank of about 8 month. So far the cycle has only been going for 9 days. 2 days ago i have a spiked level of ammonia at about .25PPM-.5PPM and nitrite 0. Since the beginning of this cycle, i think my nitrate is present as soon as i dropped in 2 raw shrimp. They rotted in my tank and i removed them earlier today. Is there any chance that, since the rocks are cycled through another reefer's tank and seeded from mine as well that diatom has already passed for those rocks? Do you guy think its safe now? I wont be adding fishes or anything, What do you guys suggest? Im gonna make an Algae Scrubber right now.

 

[PIMPALA]

love the scape!! makes me miss my old bow front.


oh, and dont let odyssea scare you. i had a 36" 250w MH with PC actenics on my bow front for about a year or so, with NO issues. its been sitting in my garage for 6 months, and still works just fine. they had problems with their older stuff, but the new products they put out are awesome for the money.

 

[20nano]

i decided to buy 2 250w HQI pendant along with 4 48" t5ho instead so i can put my canopy on. Its those cheap plastic flimsy canopy that came with the tank.

 

[PIMPALA]

cool! cant wait to see pics!

did you get the $99 special?

 

[20nano]

what 99 special?

 

[20nano]

Well guys, I havnt had much time to fiddle around lately but now that i made a few days free, i transfered everything over from my 20 and here are a few pics. more to come. let me know what you guys think!! I'll try to post more updates as i get more things going on as well as my water changes and test. Will ask for advice if i run into any trouble.

 

[Robzilla]

Wow that looks awesome! Tagging along!

 

[20nano]

lol tagging along on a thread not many people care to follow. But yeah, I added my protein skimmer from my 20 gallon today, small but at least it helps a little. Will buy a new and bigger one when i get a chance.

 

[20nano]

Here are updates of my tank and corals. I just added a fire tomato clown and right when i put it into the tank after 2 hours acclimating, it swam into my Rose Bubble tip Anemone!!! YAY!!!

 

[20nano]

Also, heres a picture i caught of my dog, woke up the white male by accidently when i kicked his toy.