My 175G bowfront

[rsisvixen]

Its been around 15 years since I was last in the Saltwater hobby, things have certainly changed since then
Since immigrating to Canada I've looked forward to getting back into the hobby and finally in June we got a brand new 175 second hand-hadn't ever been used.
I actually think I used up all my luck finding the tank as its been pretty bumpy since then.
It sat in our Garage till Aug/Sept as we were trying to find help to move it into the house and a kind member helped us out.
Water was added-tested for leaks and that went well
Its not reef ready so I am doing a CPR hang on the back overflow.
Heaters were ordered as well as an American marine wireless thermometer.
After 4 days the thermometer went off the rails-started reading higher and higher temps even though the glass thermometer read no such change-so back it went.
Finally we have all the rock and sand and that was set up last weekend, aquascaping was frustrating to say the least.
And now 3 months after getting the heater it randomly died-light is on but no heat.
Feeling a little cursed with electronics at the moment

Last few pics are cloudy as sand was just added.
Not sure if the pics came through.

[WarDog]

Looks like a great start to me, keep us posted!

[Bblinks]

Welcome back. That's a great size tank to start with. I am just not a huge fan of that cpr overflow, I woke up to cpr raining saltwater all over my face and my bed. It was definitely not a good wet dream. Just make sure you have a lifter pump to start the siphon. Looking forward for more updates!

[rsisvixen]

Yes I got the lifter pump with the CPR, I also got the hubby to drill a small hole in the return pipe just at the water lvl so I break the back siphon in case of a power out.

[mohammadali]

get a water detector from ebay or the home depot

[Dearth]

I feel for your frustrations as I think we all can relate in some way.

Keep moving forward and looking forward to your tank build never be afraid to ask questions even if you think it's stupid the only stupid questions are the ones that are not asked.

[rsisvixen]

Sand has settled.
Got myself a second heater while I wait for the first to be replaced-guess it pays to have a backup
Let the cycling begin
Already noticed brown spots on some of my rocks, assume its some form of algae from the real reef rock pieces.

On a side note my curse has now moved to the house's plumbing and I have 3 leaks that decided to happen simultaneously in the ceiling.
What a way to end 2014.

[rsisvixen]

Well update, the worst of the diatoms have been taken care of by the ceriths, just a bit left on the glass.
Ceriths have been laying eggs so I'm assuming between the baby ceriths and the copepods my glass should be clean in a week-they seem to be eating roughly 2 square inches a day.
Added a red grape macro algae and a Coral Banded shrimp ( not the easiest to get a pic of as he hides during the day ) Just moulted last night as well.
Also have a few blue leg hermits, hard to keep track of them-they seem to change shells everyday ( must be females )
Got my first batch of fish in QT, 5 vanderbuilt chromis, although depressingly lost 4 overnight the first night-not sure why as all my parameters are perfect, did a proper acclimatisation and they were all fine just before lights out. So I have no idea what happened. Last one is fat, eats like a pig and swims about just fine. My theory is either there was something already troubling those 4 and the change to a new place was enough to kill them or the big one chased the others till they died during the night. ( Probably the most fish I've ever lost overnight in all my years of fish keeping)

[Animal-Chin]

Hey tank is looking good. I'm a local Maple Ridger too and I'm running a 125 full reef. I don't know if you're planning on doing coral but I just had a bunch of branching green montipora break off and would be happy to give you a few frags to try out. It's the green coral in the middle of my tank up high. If you ever need an hand with anything tank related just let me know, I'd be happy to help...

[rsisvixen]

Wow, nice setup-mine is still a long way from looking like that lol.

I appreciate the offer, I am planning on doing coral, want to have a mixed reef setup. I'm not sure if my lighting is enough for the montipora at this time as I'm currently running coralife T8's (they came with the tank) Planning to upgrade to leds later in the year.

You don't have any algae you want to get rid of by chance? Lol, between my ceriths and copepods I'll be algae free by friday at the rate they are going. My tank seems to be running counter to most people as I have a lack of algae issue vs an Algae problem. I felt like being different lol