My 65 Gallon Flat Back Hex Build

dgagvgeg

dgagvgeg

Member
Just joined this site yesterday and after looking through some of the other members tanks and introducing myself in the introduction part of the forum I thought I would share some pictures and information about my current set up. Mind you this is my first tank (so be nice). Anyways my dad has been in the hobby for quite some years now and has a 75 gallon reef tank, a nano reef tank, and a 110 FOWLR tank. So I have been interested in the hobby, but never tried it myself. I bought this tank off Craigslist, it was a freshwater set up, but I feel in love with the shape and my dad said that we could convert it to a reef tank. The first few pictures I am sharing are of my tank the day I brought it home and filled it up with saltwater and 2 rocks I purchased from a local fish store.

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Now I thought this this tank was pretty cool because it had built in filtration in the back, but I was forced into trying to find a protein skimmer that the foot was less than 4 inches so that I could drop it into the back of the tank. As you can see from the first picture, I found one, but the lip on it was slightly too large, so me and my dad had to sand it down with his belt sander to get it to fit in there. (see 2nd pic).
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I swear the cycling process seemed to take forever, but it finally did complete! We were all so excited that we went to the fish store and purchased a pair of clowns (the kids named them Nemo and Nema). About a week later I wasn't too happy with my lighting set up (it came with the fish tank and was only a 36" fixture) So I purchased a Current Orbit Marine LED 48" light strip (on recommendation of someone from the LFS). Before and after pics of the lights to me it made a huge difference.

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Next I wasn't happy with my behind the tank filtration system, but was in kind of a bind because I didn't want to drain the tank and drill it. It was also too close to the wall and way too heavy to move to get a behind the tank overflow. (I know should of thought of all this before hand) The main problem I was having was that it was recommended for my protein skimmer to be sitting in 7 inches of water to be most effective, and with the collection cup I couldn't get it down any further. So after much research online, and many days of thinking of a solution I built a stand pipe and bought an Eshopps sump and placed it in the bottom of the stand.
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Unfortunately my fish got sick, and being new to the hobby I didn't know what to look for by the time I talked to my dad and asked him to come look at it, it was too late. I lost all my fish expect 1 (my cleaner wrasse) we believe it was ich, so after reading a lot about it online I decided not to introduce any new fish for 10 weeks. I did that and have only added 1 so far which is another Kole Eyed Tang. I have added a few smaller corals. I want to get more fish soon. Here is a picture of what the tank looks like today.
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Now after the big crash of my tank, my wife has been really reluctant to let me spend much money on it, that's why I haven't restocked much right now, but I also want to make sure my system is stable and let it age some more before getting anymore fish. But I am in the market for some more corals. Like cheap frags or if any of you local guys have too much of something that would be greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoyed my build, and will keep it up to date as I add more things!
 
Nice thread Dave. It stinks but is good in a way to get some of the common reefing problems early on, before you have lots of coral and fish to lose. I'm far too far away to make the PIF frags worth the drive for you. Soon enough someone closer will see this and have some to offer :)
 
I have mysitic monti u can have . Its little pissed cause i ripped it all off my over flow but will recover
 
madjoe said:
I have mysitic monti u can have . Its little pissed cause i ripped it all off my over flow but will recover
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That would be awesome, I pretty much only have small more well know frags, like green polyps, star polys, a torch coral, and my dad gave me a little piece of a hammer he had.
 
I have some small frags of things if you are interested. One looks like a Hollywood stunner chalice, have a finger of Devils Hand Leather, red montipora, some type of birdsnest. I work in Buffalo Grove so I could bring them to work one day.
 
rmeugene said:
I have some small frags of things if you are interested. One looks like a Hollywood stunner chalice, have a finger of Devils Hand Leather, red montipora, some type of birdsnest. I work in Buffalo Grove so I could bring them to work one day.
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That would be totally awesome, I have been wanting to get a chalice for awhile now. Let me know I will inbox you my cell so you could text me.
 
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