Blackacid's 75

[Blackacid]

Here is my 75g tank thus far. Please excuse the trial and error. I'm a n00b. All the pics link back to a larger version.

 

Here is the 75 setup in the house finally. At this stage I was mixing the saltwater, and getting my sump adjusted. The three pipes you see, going left to right, are: CL-Intake, CL-Return-1, CL-Return-2. These initially started off as 3/4" PVC. Each return had 3/4" loc-line Y's with dual flanges on the end. This was powered by a Mag12.

 

 

 

Here I've got the first batch of live rock (45lbs of Fiji from PA), and about a 4" sand bed. You'll notice that the closed loop changed a bit. I was getting really poor flow with the last configuration and a few people suggested that I shorten the CL-Intake and move to a larger diameter PCV. It is now a 2" PVC about 6" shorter. It has a strainer cap to prevent the system from sucking down any fish. It's claimed a few adventurous snails though. I also closed off one of the returns because the flow still wasn't satisfactory. With just the one return running though, it was about where I wanted it to be.

 

 

 

With the last batch of rock added, and some aquascaping done. The closed loop hasn't changed. I scaped the tank a bit and used the remaing 2" PVC pipe and placed them in the sand bed making permanent caves. I have a pistol shrimp that I was hoping would take to one of them. Click the image to enlarge. You'll also notice that I had added an anemone/clown pair. I really wasn't wanting to add this so soon but I couldn't let the deal pass me up.

 

 

 

Here is a close up of the anemone:

 

 

Here is one of Mr.Jingles (The Maroon Clown), and a few unwelcomed guests. I took Joe's Juice to those guys and got rid of them pretty quickly. The hard part was keeping Mr.Jingles from attacking me!

 

 

 

Here is Mr.Jingles hanging out with his buddy. This was taken a few hours ago. I'm pretty impressed with how fearless this guy can be when it comes to defending his anemone!

 

 

 

A new full tank shot. I made some more adjustments to the closed loop. This time I swapped the return pipes out with 1/2" pvc rather than 3/4". This made a huge difference. Running both returns gives me about the same output that I had using a single 3/4" return. If I run just a single return now it has very excellent flow. I've got a SCWD that I'd like to put in place (next weekend). I'm eager to see how well that works, switching between the two.

 

 

 

The latest fish addition is this Kole Tang that I got from Petland. It has been named Melanie. I have no idea why.

 

 

 

The light is a 4x65w PC. I'm planning to upgrade in the next month or so to a 2x250 MH system if I can find one in my price range. Below the tank is a 20g sump with an RS80 Euro-Reef skimmer. I'm using an OceanRunner 3500 for my sump's return.

 

Other inhabitants: 2 peppermint shrimp, 1 skunk cleaner, 1 mithrax crab, a handful of nassarius snails, 2 turbo snails, a sand sifting star, a gaggle of hermit crabs, and a pistol shrimp.

 

Other Corals are: 1 torch, 1 hammer, 1 candy cane, some shrooms, a ricordia, xenia, and big rock of zoa's. That's about all I've got for now. Thanks for reading!

 

You can check out all the pictures at my gallery, and get see larger version as well: http://www.robhough.com/cpg149/thumbnails.php?album=10

[Daemonfly]

Looks good, and the 2nd version of your rock stacking looks a lot better.

 

If you left the 2nd CL return open, you'd have the same total flow, but it would just be dispersed better. IMHO, I'd open it back up and possibly upgrade the return pump for better overall system flow.