Daplatapus's 77 Gal

[daplatapus]

Originally Posted by mike31154

Nice job so far. My 77 is a Hagen as well, purchased used a number of years ago. No idea how old it is, but it's pretty robust that's for sure, no center brace needed apparently. Interesting that you mention your stand is solid plywood. I've peeled a little of the black vinyl off the bottom piece of mine & it looks like very high density presswood. Not sure about any of the other parts, doors etc, haven't peeled any vinyl off those to check. Perhaps mine is a bit newer than 1992 & they went from plywood to presswood to increase the profit margin in later years.

Mine is not drilled, running sumpless but also have plans for a new tank with basement sump. Aquascaping is a bit of a challenge as you mention with the narrow 16 inch side dimension. I have two groups of rock more or less running down the center so I'm able to clean most of the glass, although there are a couple of spots I can't get with the magfloat where one rock & a coral are too close to the glass. C'est la vie. My livestock seems relatively content with the way things are arranged, but I guess they don't have a choice, they're stuck with where they are for the moment.

Your RODI system looks bomber. Might even be overkill for your area. Not sure about Victoria, but I know from reading various threads here that the Vancouver folks have very low TDS water to start with. Some of them could probably run DI only to get pure water & the DI media would still last a long time. You've got a TDS meter built on to yours, might be an idea to see what your tap water TDS is and tune your RODI rig for better efficiency. If TDS is really low, you may be able to run one or more of your housings empty & save money on filter media plus increase production with less waste water. Looks like it also includes a booster pump, which may or may not be required depending on incoming water pressure. If you're on a well, the booster pump will definitely help production.

Looking forward to seeing more. I started SW with no experience either (not even a freshwater tank) and aside from the odd newb mistake, haven't had any major set backs.

Thanks Mike!
Yeah, no center brace in mine although if you put your eye to the front panel it's got a clear deflection to it, maybe 3/8" or so. But It's always had that so not too worried. I did re-seal it when I got it back from my sister and other than some cracking on the top rim that oozes salt creep (that drives me nuts!) it's still a great tank.

My rock work ended up being just a wall with a couple top pieces leaning on the back glass with a bit of epoxy in-between. I too have a couple pieces too close to the sides and can't clean as well as I probably should. Not real happy with it and I'm going to try re-aquascaping once I get my nano up and running. I'm going to try and move 30% of the rock to the nano and the sump.

As far as the RO/DI system, you're totally right, way over kill. I tested the incoming water once I had it set up and if memory serves me correctly it was around 70 TDS or so. after the RO it's 0. I actually never thought of skipping a chamber, thanks for the idea.
My house pressure is barely 60psi and with the 2nd reef miser membrane they recommended at least 80 psi to get the 1:1 discharge rate. I'm on a water meter so water conservation is pretty key for me.

[daplatapus]

I got a used 80 gallon from my lfs for cheap for my sump. Here's a pic of running spa flex from upstairs down to the sump and getting my baffles set up.


Water testing the refugium side of the sump


This Version 1 of my drain plumbing.


And from the other side


To get the right height for my skimmer I cut 4 pieces of 4" ABS and drilled a bunch or 2" holes in it all. I took all my LR rubble and packed it into them once I got the system up and running. And yes, that is the remnants of my under gravel filter I used as my skimmer platform

[daplatapus]

Here's where I finally had just fresh water in it trying everything and leak testing.


I quickly learned that because the water level in my skimmer section was lower than the water level in my refugium section it won the battle with gravity and I'd estimate 95% of the water goes to the skimmer section. Turns out that was a blessing in disguise. It first plumbed it as you see in the earlier post with 2 ball valves after the T. I never was able to balance the system out. I ended up cutting in a gate valve above the T and it works great now.

[daplatapus]

Next step was getting sand and salt water mixed up and in the tank. I went and bought 120 lbs of Tonga LR and because of time constraints had to just shove it all in the DT.


It sat like that for at least 2-3 weeks. I ended up sticking 3 cocktail shrimp in there over that period. They totally disintegrated and dissolved in the tank and I never saw any ammonia, Nitrite or nitrate. To this day, I've never seen any of the 3.

Version 2 of the sump drain plumbing looked like this


and my first attempt at aquascaping which is pretty much how it looks now. Although I may have moved 1 or 2 top pieces

[daplatapus]

Within a couple weeks I had tons of weird little things growing and crawling all over the place. After 8 weeks I decided I was never going to see a cycle and got some critters. With the addition of a dozen or so snails and some hermit crabs I bought a Yellow watchman goby which I still have and a skunk cleaner shrimp.





next was a pathetic piece of GSP

[daplatapus]

Then came a peppermint shrimp and a pair of Occellaris clowns which to this day have not hosted anything


A couple nights after I got the clowns the male decided to go hardwood floor surfing



I also got a blastomussa which I didn't know how to care for and pretty much melted with my MH's

It has since rebounded and is doing quite well now.

I also added a little zoo colony and a torch





And here's a FTS after about 4 or 5 months. You'll notice a few other additions from what's been mentioned thus far.

[daplatapus]

With all that was going on in the tank I had a tough time keeping my PO4 under control, and my over feeding didn't help either. So I got a couple BRS reactors and started running GFO and carbon. I had a heck of a time with running the reactors with Maxijet's so gave up and plumbed a manifold off my main pump to run them

[ensquire]

Great job on the scape, lots of caves and places for coral.