Spark's 75 Gallon Upgrade

innerspark

Premium Member
Supporter
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
1,908
Likes
8
Points
38
Location
RSM
#1
So a few people have been asking when I was going to start my build thread. Well I guess I can do that today since I've got just about all my plans in order and I'm just waiting now for the tank to be ready.

The Tank:
The tank I found is a Lemar 36x24x20, 3 sided starfire, center trapezoid overflow, rimless tank on a steel stand. A great member on this very forum (won't name names just yet but you know who you are and you rock) was willing to hook me up on a sweet deal that was right in the price range I wanted to be on this build. I'm just waiting for it to be ready for me to pick up at this point.

Equipmen List:
So I'm buying just about all the equipment that the tank is currently setup. I maybe missing a few things here in there but I'll up date this list later once it's all built.

2 wp25's from my current 2 systems
GFO reactor from my frag tank
SWC Mini S
40 Gallon Breeder Sump/Refuge
Mag12 Return
APEX (got to have this after omars tank) :)
and what ever else I decide to add as I am building this thing out.

Light:
For the lights I plan on taking my T5/LED combo I just finished for my frag tank and build a new floating canopy for it. This time I am going to make the canopy be 30x20 so that it will be 2” smaller on every side of the tank. But for the people who don't really know too much about this T5/LED combo I made here is the details. I have 2 Aquaticlife 30” T5 fixtures. Each fixture has a Blue+ and a Coral+ 24 watt bulb in it. The LED fixture is a DIY that I build using a Rapid LED 20” Heatsink with 30 LEDs running 60 degree optics. In the mix of 30 LEDs I have 20 Royal Blues, 4 Cool Blues, 3 UV’s, and 3 Natural White leds. This give me a really nice 18-20k look at 100%.

I will continue to post updates on this thread and photos as the build progresses. I plan on starting to build the canopy this weekend and hopefully start mixing salt so that once I get the call to pick the tank up, I will be ready as I am going to a complete swap from my 29 gallon to this.


Here is a teaser of the LED's
 
Last edited:

innerspark

Premium Member
Supporter
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
1,908
Likes
8
Points
38
Location
RSM
#5
So its been a productive day. I should be picking up the tank in a few weeks and I already got the canopy built, half my corals moved to the frag tank, and 30 gallons of water mixed. Still need to mix at least another 30-40 but I will get that next weekend. Anyways here are some photos.

Just finished cutting the wood.


A little prep work


Finished product. Need to paint it still but I am unsure if I am going to go a basic color or make it look like a concrete slap hanging from the ceiling.
 
Last edited:

innerspark

Premium Member
Supporter
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
1,908
Likes
8
Points
38
Location
RSM
#6
UPDATES:

I painted the canopy over the weekend but have not taken any photos of it yet. I now have about 60 gallons of water cycling in Brute trash cans and just waiting for the tank to be ready for pick up. I have also moved about half my corals to the frag tank and the night before I pick up the tank I plan to completely breakdown my 29 gallon, more all corals to the frag tank, and move all fish, rocks, sand, water, and rock all to buckets so that I can replace the 29 gallon with the new 75.
 

innerspark

Premium Member
Supporter
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
1,908
Likes
8
Points
38
Location
RSM
#7
Since they were on sale for Black Friday I ordered 2 BRS Dosers for the new tank. Just hooked on up to the frag tank. These dosers are preset to dose 1.1ml a min. Currently one is going to be running for 10min a day with alk and then I will adjust as needed as my frag tank is slowly being loaded with all of my corals tell the new tank is picked up and fully up and running.

 

innerspark

Premium Member
Supporter
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
1,908
Likes
8
Points
38
Location
RSM
#8
So I finally picked up my new tank today. So far everything has gone smooth. Still have not seen all my fish out but they are there swimming around and the few that have been out obviously love the extra swimming space. Here is a photo to hold you guys over as I start to do the rest over the next month.

 

innerspark

Premium Member
Supporter
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
1,908
Likes
8
Points
38
Location
RSM
#12
Thanks everyone.

Congrats Mike! What a sweet tank. What do you have left to do?
Move all coral over, replumb the return line, skin the stand, setup the apex, finish aqua scaping, hand the light (currently over the frag tank), move the fish over from the frag tank, and I'm sure I'm missing all kinds of stuff.

Tester coral went in last night. I had a very small ammonia spike when I first kicked everything on but no real signs if any issues now and I have polyp extension on the few things in there.
 
Last edited:

innerspark

Premium Member
Supporter
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
1,908
Likes
8
Points
38
Location
RSM
#13
So far tank fish stock is:
A pair of Ocellaris Clownfish, Royal Gramma, Yellow Tang, Fire Fish, Mandarin Goby, and a Melanurus Wrasse. I also have a Six Line Wrasse, Clown Tang and a Starry Blenny that I will move in once I figure out a few more fish. Currently they are in the frag tank providing food for all the corals I have sitting in there waiting to move. Thinking about another wrasse, a Flame Angel, and a few Chromis.

Coral:
Radioactive Dragon Eyes, Eagle Eyes, Pulsing Xenia, GSP, random zoa's and polys, Toadstool, Torch Coral, and a Screaming Birdsnest frag as my SPS testers.

Inverts:
A few snails, a few crabs, a sand sifting starfish, a cleaner shrimp, and a peppermint shrimp.
 
Last edited:

innerspark

Premium Member
Supporter
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
1,908
Likes
8
Points
38
Location
RSM
#14
So last night I replumbed the whole tank, got my refuge going, added my phosban reactor with carbon, moved my starry blenny over, set up the auto feeder, got the apex online, calibrated my temp and PH, added some bristle worms and pods from the old system and started cleaning up the mess this move has made of my condo.
 
Joined
Feb 5, 2013
Messages
688
Likes
1
Points
18
Location
Ladera Ranch
#17
You moved? Or just moved in? I remember you were down crown valley. Nice tank btw, I like the dimensions you got

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
 

innerspark

Premium Member
Supporter
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
1,908
Likes
8
Points
38
Location
RSM
#19
Spark's 75 Gallon Rimless Upgrade

Wow what a crazy few days. Not much tank time but I will say Tuesday I finally figured out the programming on my apex, got my wp25 hooked up to it and have created a few profiles. So far everything seems to be running ok. As of this am I think I need to calibrate my PH prob again as it says its running low which is not making any sense to me. Everything seems to be doing great, I have good skim mate in the skimmer, and all but 2 fish are out during the day swimming about.

Last night I started designing a new board for my LDD drivers for my lights. I am thinking about adding a driver for moonlights as well as a way for me to control Canopy and Stand fans. Hopefully I can get some good input from ddavies as I have sent him a txt about my plans to see what he thinks.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!
 
Last edited:

innerspark

Premium Member
Supporter
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
1,908
Likes
8
Points
38
Location
RSM
#20
Made some more progress on the tank the last 2 days. I now have all my corals and fish from my frag tank all moved in. Picked up some Cherry Charms from Chad at Coral Gazers today along with a light hanging kit and got my canopy floating in the air over the tank. Also hooked my second wp25 up to my apex and my BRS doser. Looks like all that is left is to clean up all my wiring and build my skin for the stand. I'll post a photo later after I download it from the camera
 

Latest posts

Top