Bwhit's 75 The Sequel

[bwhit1406]

My original plan was to start a 55 gallon in my computer room. I picked up a tank at a great price but once i got it I just wasn't happy with the depth. So I Sold the 55 gallon at a profit, and picked up a new 75 and a used stand for $100. So far I have 20 pounds of dry rock I got from craigslist $20, and a Iwaki 30RLXT That I bought on ebay $60. Total investment so far is $120 after profit from 55 sale. My plan is to use an overflow from glass-holes.com and drill maybe 3 holes for return flow. Rock work is going to be drilled and put together in columns. I am also thinking of doing a work wall on the back. This tank will be mostly SPS. Hope to have it cycling by late May

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Ignore the messy Garage :smack:

 

[bwhit1406]

ok I made the trip to homeDepot and got material for some DIY rocks. I used Portland cement 1, 2 sizes of rock salt, and crushed coral. Total cost of material 60 bucks. This is my first attempt at this, so we will see how the first batch comes out. Total project cost so far $180

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[garywebb96]

Good start. Your moving faster than me:chair:
I'm up the road from ya in Ocala. I want to do the glass holes return on my tank also, but I'm not real sure about drilling this tank. I got it from a friend and it's not marked as to who made it. It was drilled in the bottom corner from from the factory but I don't know if the sides can be drilled. Anyway, enough about mine and good luck with your's. I'll follow along and try to learn something.

 

[bwhit1406]

I will be following yours as well. Right now I am still trying to finalize my design.

 

[bwhit1406]

ok I need some feedback here. I have a rough layout of holes to be drilled.
Black holes are feed to closed loop. Red holes are closed loop return. Overflow box feeds sump and white holes are return from sump. I need to get this ironed out so I can mark the tank and form up the rock wall for the back of tank.

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[bwhit1406]

Well its slow going and I know I said I wanted to buy as much as I could used the LFS was selling the new Snapper 18's for $195. So Here is my official closed loop pump. This brings the build total to $389.

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[bwhit1406]

Just an update to let you know I am making some progress. My first batch of DIY rock was all flat bottom for the bottoms and some flat pieces of the columns. My second batch I used salt molds to make rocks with various bottoms and shapes. Both batchs have been curing since Feb 6. I just finished my DIY Rock wall and one side was setup enough to get some pics.

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