72 bow front build

[tenMann2]

Well after a couple of years of, looking at others builds, wanting and not having a tank, I decide it was time. My cousin pointed out a MR member was selling a 72 bow front RR tank and we jumped on it. Next thing you know my family room went from 3 sofa's to 2 sofa's and an angry mother. :birthday: (Happy Birthday to me) Besides whats a family room without a family conversational piece, right? I'll admit 72gal is more then I wanted to start off with but you know when you see something and you want it you get it.


I didn't start off with much more then some dry rock. and about 80lb of sand/crushed coral 60/40 mix. 06/23/10

Whats below the tank in the stand. Sump and plumbing came with the setup. A sump designed by Pro Clear Aquatics, don't know the exact volume. Stand is about 3ft high, has plenty height and space for a future skimmer.

Sadly my first attempt ended in a unpleasant way. I had a ich breakout in my first week and got worse in the second week. I ended up losing all my fishes except for 1 engineer goby which is still alive today.

So after that I had it fish free for close to a month and treated it with kick-ich. I decided to go out and buy live rock, which I picked up from someone who was breaking down his tank. Roughly 110lb in all. 08/07/10

And here is how it sits after almost three months. Added a new light, last one (24" 2 bulb wasn't enough lol) New light is bright and provides a lot of brightness. 09/15/10

Livestock and equipment in the next post.

 

[tenMann2]

Tank Specs & Equipment
72 gallon Bow Front + glass top
110lb of live rock
80lb of sand/crushed coral (3" deep sand bed)
3ft high Stand, stained dark wood
48" Nova Extreme 8x54w T5HO (432 watts) + (4) LED's Moonlight / (4)12K and (4)460nm Actinic Blue
Pro Clear Aquatic Sump - Bio Balls
(2) Koralia EVO 1050gph Power-heads

nothing advanced right now, will add a skimmer and media reactors in the future.

Livestock and Invertebrates:
(3) Golden Sergeant Major Damsel (Abudefduf saxatilis)
(1) Chromis Damsel (Chromis viridis)
(1) Convict Blenny - Engineer Goby (Pholidichthys leucotaenia)
(1) One Spotted Foxface 3.5" (Siganus unimaculatus)
(1) Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus)
(1) Richmond's Wrasse 4" (Halichoeres richmondi)
(1) Zebra Barred Dartfish (Ptereleotris zebra)
(2) Red Firefish (Nemateleotris magnifica)
(1) Purple Firefish (Nemateleotris decora)

Clean Up Crew
(2) Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)
(1) Coral Banded Shrimp (Stenopus hispicus)
(2) Mexican Turbo Snails
(25) Nassarius Snails
(25) Turbo/Astrea Snail
(10) Cerith Snails
(5) Margarita Snails
(5) Pink Margarita Snails
(3) Astria Snails
(20) Dwarf White Leg Hermit Crabs
(25) Blueleg Hermit Crab
(3) Scarlet Hermit Crab
(3) Emerald Crabs
(1) Serpent Starfish
(2) Cleaner Clam

Corals
Bubble tip Anenome
Purple Mushrooms
Pulsing Xenia
Purple Xenia
Kenya Tree
Pulsing Sinularia

 

[rkaragozler]

nice set up, but get rid of the bioballs

 

[KathyC]

Bioballs are usually not suggested for a reef tank due to their propensity for trapping a lot of detritus (and thereby becoming a nitrate factory).

When people remove these, they usually do only a handful at a time (it takes awhile) as you also have a lot of your bacteria growing in there. I could not take some out more than every 3 days or so.

Otherwise - looks like you are off to a good start

 

[CDANN76]

coming along pretty well.i also have the same tank.love it.when people walk in they just stop mid sentence and stare..BB`s can be beneficial,BUT you will need to keep them and the pre filters very clean or you can build up nitrates real fast.. i had them on old 55 gal reef for over 2 yrs before swapping out to a sump/fuge..just couldn't keep up on the cleaning..

 

[tenMann2]

coming along pretty well.i also have the same tank.love it.when people walk in they just stop mid sentence and stare..BB`s can be beneficial,BUT you will need to keep them and the pre filters very clean or you can build up nitrates real fast.. i had them on old 55 gal reef for over 2 yrs before swapping out to a sump/fuge..just couldn't keep up on the cleaning..

Thanks for the comments guys.

I'd plan on taking out the bioballs in the near future for a sump/fuge setup only because of everyone say that bb's are a nitrate factory. My nitrates are at 20ppm, got it down from 40 by doing several water changes. But it still stays at 20. How do I clean out the bio balls without removing them all at one and crashing the tank?