Daplatapus's 77 Gal

[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

[daplatapus]

Fell in love with this guy at the lfs so got him

[daplatapus]

Next addition was a starry blenny


A kenya tree. If you EVER think of getting one of these... STOPPP!!!! DO NOT GET ONE
They are constantly dropping arms all over and you'll never get it out

[gregzz4]

Nice lookin' setup. I'm happy for ya with that massive sump. Nothing like having lots of water

How's the algae doin' with the GFO and how long have you had the reactor running ?

[ensquire]

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

[daplatapus]

Originally Posted by ensquire

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

Thanks! I think when I re-do it I'm going to try for more of a two island look and more bare sand. Hard to do though with these tank dimensions. Trying to talk the wife into letting me go with a 180 but no go so far.