Poidog's 70g Tech Tank Build

poidog

Active member
flaming prawn would be cool in a nano. If I'm going to drop some $$$ it'd be a candy basslet.
 

Spoofer

New member
Sorry for the late response, i don't have alerts setup on this forum... I used PVC liner from home depot - used for shower construction.
 

poidog

Active member
Thanks Spoofer. I actually did foam floor tiles. They protect against moisture and cushion any sump vibrations.
 

poidog

Active member
Well I decided to work from home today, and my lunch break was going to aqua cave and MCF... haha

At aquacave I picked up the SRO Water Blaster 2000 for my return pump. After the Sicce being loud, and the Marineland a bit better, I wasn't really happy with the noise level still - The Marineland had no vibration noise, but the motor was noisey. With some more research I decided to pony up the extra $ for the Water Blaster. This pump is 97% silent right out of the box. I'm assuming the 3% of motor noise that is left will quite down after a couple weeks of break in.

With Nitrites now at 1 and falling, I stopped at MCF and picked up 3 blue/green chromis. Nothing fancy or expensive, but good little fish to help the bio load going, and I wanted a mini-school of them for the tank anyway. Also grabbed me some chaeto - sadly it was pod free. I was the only one there but it was a whirlwind of activity as everyone was putting out tons of new corals. A good mix of LPS, SPS, and some zoas.
 

ColaAddict

New member
MCF sells live rotifers and copepods, initially it's ~ $5, then you keep the container and can keep refilling for ~ $2. I get copepod refills there for my mandarin.
 

poidog

Active member
MCF sells live rotifers and copepods, initially it's ~ $5, then you keep the container and can keep refilling for ~ $2. I get copepod refills there for my mandarin.
Nice. What about any amphipods? Should I add those too? I know any wrasse I add will eat them.

I think I'll be making my way back there tonight or this weekend and get some clean up crew members.
 

poidog

Active member
Boy it was a long night last night! The first round of corals entered the tank. I got an order in from AquaSD and got:
Ultra frogspawn, Ultra acan frag, ORA purple stylo, superman monti

After getting the corals in the tank (acclimate and dip) I transferred my clowns from the nano to the new tank. Mama basically hopped right into the net (she lets me pet her), while it took me an hour to catch the male. Jose the bluespot sat there and watched the whole thing go down... it was very amusing to him... ha!

With the spike of heat yesterday temp in the tank got up to about 84 degrees... while it wasn't really hot in our house. I decieded to buy a chiller today because I don't want to have the close the house up and turn the air on all the time. I got the JBJ actica 1/10 chiller from PA... it'll be here tomorrow. I didn't want to have to buy one unti next summer, but I figured I might as well while they are on after-summer sale right now.

I will take pics of the new additions and post tonight.
 

poidog

Active member
After working for 12 straight hours today the tank in finally fully up and running. All is transferred from the nano as well. I'm exhausted. I promise pics tomorrow....
 

poidog

Active member
pics as promised!

all lights on





sump light on




left to right: ATO, heaters, carbon reactor, skimmer, fuge


left to right: fuge, temp probe, carbon return, ATO drip, return pump










t5s only
 

ColaAddict

New member
Nice set up. Only thing is, I don't know if coraline algae will affect skimmer performance, but you will start getting coraline algae growing inside your skimmer because of the refugium light. I would try to find LED's for the refugium that shines straight down into the refugium.
 
Just saw this tank in person today. This is one stunning setup! Super clean!

poidog is badass!

BTW, I was just looking at reefcleaners.com today. They are selling pods if you're still looking. I believe the description even mentioned amphipods. This site has amazing customer service. John will totally hook you up. I'm always reading stories of people ordering things and they end up with way more than they ordered. I personally ordered about 20 empty shells for my scarlet hermits. They were selling shells that were too small and shells that were too large. I wrote to John about the issue and he had his guys hand pick shells that were just the right size for my crabs. Plus, I ended up with something closer to 50 shell rather than 20.

Good luck! Can't wait to see the progress on this tank.
 
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