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My 75 gallon upgrade build

J

Jonjonmolina333

Alright so i am upgrading from a 35 gallon rimless 24x18x18 to a 75 gallon deep blue reef ready tank which is 48x18x21. Now I'm am keeping my maxspect razor 160w 27inch led light, too expensive to upgrade that yet. An ADHI 20 gallon refugium sump that is really only holding my reef octupus sro-1000 lss instead of an actual refugium. And as a return pump i have a Sicce Syncra Silent 2.0 Multifunction Aquarium Pump (568 GPH). I also ordered from reefcleaners the 50 lb box of rock. And a few hydro koralia pumps for circulation.

I am about to do the plumbing and want to run a manifold off the return since I really only run it half open right now on the 35 gallon. I don't expect much change since its the same size tubing and distance on the overflow and return.

I will be running a brs dual reactor for carbon and gfo, and a nextreef mr1 filled with crushed coral I find it helps a little with my ph by about 0.4 don't know if that will continue on the bigger tank.

Can I have suggestions or pictures on how to build the manifold and any other things to make water changes easier. Also a way to setup a mixing station, where can I get the big square plastic containers that are 25+ gallons. Also an easy to work with auto topoff that isn't too expensive. Any another recommendations. Thanks.

Moving this weekend my house and next weekend the aquarium. So hopefully by this weekend plumbing is done.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
A move is always time for an upgrade!

I am no good with plumbing but I know a couple of people on here have a manifold (as do I) so hopefully they will chime in. How many "Ts" do you plan on running and what do you plan on running off the manifold? Is it possible to upgrade your sump considering you now have a longer space? You can get an acrylic one build to your specs which would fit better under there and offer you up some more room and maybe room for a fuge.

Go to AO and get the ATO that they sell. It is cheap and driven by air pressure and not a float valve. They are much more reliable (IMO) and will help you out.

I believe Petco is having thier $1 a gallon sale right now, you might be able to pick up two 20ish gallon tanks for your mixing station cheaper than the plastic ones right now and you know they will hold water.

As far as the mixing station goes, it depends on where the tank is and where your RODI unit is going to be located.

If you are going to run a manifold, you might want to look at the MR1 shorty reactors, one for carbon one for gfo. If might make thing a bit easier for you and provide some more flexibility. I ran the BRS dual for a while and like it a lot, but when I upgraded I switched and liked them better.

I don't think you will need the crushed coral reactor as hopefully with more rock and sand (if you are going with sand) it will help buffer your tank better.
 
J

Jonjonmolina333

Planning on moving this Saturday 5 or Sunday 6, Depending on the help that I can get. Also anyone that has any tanks or equipment to help move, can I borrow it?
 
B

BuGG

Hey Jonjon, you can have some RO water if you want. I have at least 30 gals in 6 buckets. You can also borrow the 20 gal tank I used when we fragged the purple cap. I will PM you.
 
J

Jonjonmolina333

Okay so it's been a long time and a lot of upgrades. All of which I will update later on. Currently I upgraded my power supply setup to the reef keeper light. I currently have controller, 2 pc4, and temp probe. Now my question is I need to get an auto top off. I don't want to go crazy expensive. I use about 1 gal/ day of Rodi. I know the tunze osmolator 3155 would be the best for my system but a little expensive. I saw the tunze nano 3152 which seems like a good idea since it does 0.75 gal at least that what I understand. Now I also like the avast ato manual but I still need to get the pump which most say aqua lifter but I don't like it. I know avast ato digital has an option for the rkl but i need to get the module to use it which then makes it about the same price as tunze 3155. I want to get some opinions. Tunze nano 3152, avast ato manual and which pump, or the tunze 3155?
 
M

matt2939

I've got the avast with the aqua lifter pump. Works great for me. I like it better than the JBJ I had before.


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Rwc

Rwc

Tunze 3155 best money spent and good piece of mind with quadruple fail safe. Optical eye sensor ,float shut, audible alarm, and an auto shutoff if the pump runs for over two minutes. I don't know enough about the other ato's listed to comment.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
The one from Ao is the avast model but you can use any pump. I use a maxi jet.
 
J

Jonjonmolina333

Checked the others really want to stay near $100.

I was thinking the manual avast. Then using a maxi jet 1200 pro which can be used externally, since the water container I have has a small opening. Anyone using the maxi jet 1200 pro externally? Any leak problems?

That's why I mentioned the tunze 3152, it comes with the small pump to go into the hole. I just do not know if it pushes about 0.75 gallons in 5 mins will it pump twice a day because I use about 1gallon a day on average. If so, that might be piece of mind for me. Since most say tunze is great.
 
J

Jonjonmolina333

Hi all it's been a while. Between teaching and going back to school it has been crazy. Sadly my tank has taken the bulk of my stress and lack of energy. Well I have been having problems with my tank for a while and it feels that every time I correct something, a new problem appears. Now the final problem which I hope to fix is I have a big nitrate above 70-80 ppm. I have been doing 3x 15 gallons water changes but the level barely drop and corals are stressed as it is. I want to do a big water change at least 60-70gallons on my 85gallon total setup.i believe a large water change will do better than more harm at that level of nitrates. I was wondering if anyone had spare buckets and a big 50+ container. Pleas let me know if you do, I am currently at linden 07036, hopefully anyone 30mins or so away, that I can pick up. Will return ASAP just want to do a water change soon.
 
saltkreep88

saltkreep88

Are running any filter floss? Also are you vacuuming the junk from the sand and the bottom of the sump during the water change?

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J

Jonjonmolina333

I clean the sump every few months but I have not touched the sand bed its about 1.5 inches and I have never had a problem with nitrates, I started to use different food in the past couple of months and did not rinse it before feeding. I believe that is the problem. Thanks guys for offering, Ill send you a PM.
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Jon, rinising food does virtually nothing to your phosphate levels in your tank. HERE is an article explaining this. The conclusion from this Randy paper is, "So the hypothetical rinsing step has removed about 1 percent of the phosphate in that food...........That amount washed away does not seem significant with respect to the "in tank" target level of about 50-100 times that level (say, 0.015 to 0.03 ppm), nor does it seem significant relative to the total amount of phosphate actually added each day in foods (which is perhaps 50-1000 times as much, based on input rates from Table 4. Again, the conclusion I make is that rinsing is not really worthwhile, in my opinion."
 
J

Jonjonmolina333

Wanted to thank again Paul and Praveen for lending me their water containers. I had high nitrates and with there help I did a 90% water change, it's now barely readable. Bad test kits did me in, but that's life. Lol. But anyways, it's the spirit of the group and the lending hand which makes reefing worth while, of course the tanks too.
 
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