72 gallon bowfront reef ready...

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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Hey reefers,

I'm buildling my new reef and I'd like to borrow some advice from the pros... How much live rock should I put in the tank? How much live sand would you do? Where online is the best place to order from since I'm not in a rush with these items?

How about a good protein skimmer with what size pump would you place in there? Can I order that online? I have the sump by oceanic and plumbing kit picked out, but don't know what to place inside.

I already have the light picked out, Aqualight advanded series two 150watt 20,000k MH. I'm also thinking about adding some two 48 inch T-5 bulbs from commodity axis for the dusk to dawn affect. I went this route because they fit under the canopy with zero DIY. On this tank, I've decided to go easy on the do it yourself deal.

How about the size chiller for this tank?

Last question I still have the live sand from both my 12 gallon cubes, can I use them with my new bags of sand? Or should I just go new on all the sand?

Thanks for helping me out.... I'm tired of having my LFS give me solutions, they seem so pushy at times... And you guys are my special reef advisors, that speak objectively with experience...

Thanks,,

Mike Guerrero
 
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Master Er

New Member
Hey Mike, You were right about the tank...remember? So you finally opted for a tank upgrade...big upgrade. I think you'd probably need around 80 to 100lbs of live rocks for that tank. Sand would be around 1/4 to 1/2lbs per gallon, thats around 18 to 36 lbs. for a 72 gallon tank. I would probably use 25lbs only, I'm not that fond of putting too much sand but you should use your old sand....what did you do to the sand from the M.G. tank? Keep it wet since that already is live sand. Just mix it with the new sand in the tank. Good Luck!!!
 
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incysor

New Member
I'd stay away from the 72g bows. There have been a ton of them with failures that make the 24g nanocubes look like childs play.

Do a search on RC.

One of the guys in the local club had one fail on him, then the brand new replacement one failed on him as well. Ruined his livingroom carpet twice. He now has tile flooring, and a regular 90g.

Bows are also notoriously difficult to take photos of. I really liked the look of them when I first started into the hobby, but have since decided that I'll never own one because of the latter problem. ;-)

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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Holy @#$#!!!

Is right, I never heard about this, I already paid for the tank, stand and canopy but haven't picked it up... I will look into reef central right now !!! Thanks for the heads up....

Mike
 
leaffish75

leaffish75

New Member
I agree about them failing but if you go with them i personaly like a SSB with a DSB in the refugium. 1-2Lbs of LR per gallon general rule of thumb. A way to save some $ would be to get a pump big enough to run the return and the skimmer, unless you go with a insump skimmer.
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
There are two versions of the 72 gallon bowfront tank. One is made by AGA and the other is Oceanic. AGA supports the west coast mainly and Oceanic is east coast driven. AGA owns or purchased Oceanic...

Oceanic tanks look better, and are built with seems and look stronger than the AGA. I don't know which one I got, but my LFS told me he ordered Oceanic...

I will know at the end of the day....

Mike
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
I've been looking at RC and cannot find any leads on the cracked or leaking tanks... Anyone care to shoot me my first lead ???

Mike
 
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Kris

New Member
This is the first I have heard of these tanks "failing". You must also remember that one bad remark on RC gets blown WAAAY out of proportion. Either the purchaser/seller did not properly inspect the tank upon purchasing and there was shipping damage, or the tank was flawed from the start - which is rare for Oceanic or AGA period.

I had a 155 bowfront by AGA. Never had a problem with it. It had a chip on the left front glass edge, but there was nothing that could be done because the 3 replacements that came in were in worse condition than the one I had. Bowfronts are hard as hell to ship. Especially with ROAYL (a distributor out here on the east coast), they are idiots and don't care about anything.

Go with your tank and be happy. Oceanic is made of thicker glass, and better attention to detail. AGA is an excellent brand as well. Either way your fine. Just look over the tank and make sure there are no chips or cracks in the glass. Also look for inclusions in the glass itself (bubbles or the like). Again, these are rare for AGA and Oceanic.

You will be fine :)


I do agree with picture taking on these tanks tho. It's a PITA. The bow distorts alot.
 
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incysor

New Member
RC's search function is disabled due to high server load, as usual. But I do remember several threads on there about this.

Other than the marshreef threads, the others were found by searching google for 72 & bowfront & leak.

Honestly I think that oceanic makes good tanks, but they had a run of bad ones in the 72 bows. Maybe you can contact them and see if they figured it out. Since they replace them as long as you're using an oceanic stand you'd think they'd be pretty motivated to get to the bottom of it.

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http://marshreef.com/modules.php?name=F ... nk+leaking

http://aqualinkwebforum.com/eve/ubb.x?a ... 7516072243

http://marshreef.com/modules.php?name=F ... highlight=

http://marshreef.com/modules.php?name=F ... t=bowfront

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/printth ... did=100483

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthr ... id=1079258

http://aqualinkwebforum.com/eve/ubb.x?a ... 8456069422

http://www.simplydiscus.com/forum/showt ... hp?t=26159

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/showt ... hp?t=19948

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/sh ... hp?t=47873
 
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incysor

New Member
Kris said:
This is the first I have heard of these tanks "failing". You must also remember that one bad remark on RC gets blown WAAAY out of proportion. Either the purchaser/seller did not properly inspect the tank upon purchasing and there was shipping damage, or the tank was flawed from the start - which is rare for Oceanic or AGA period.

I had a 155 bowfront by AGA. Never had a problem with it. It had a chip on the left front glass edge, but there was nothing that could be done because the 3 replacements that came in were in worse condition than the one I had. Bowfronts are hard as hell to ship. Especially with ROAYL (a distributor out here on the east coast), they are idiots and don't care about anything.

Go with your tank and be happy. Oceanic is made of thicker glass, and better attention to detail. AGA is an excellent brand as well. Either way your fine. Just look over the tank and make sure there are no chips or cracks in the glass. Also look for inclusions in the glass itself (bubbles or the like). Again, these are rare for AGA and Oceanic.

You will be fine :)


I do agree with picture taking on these tanks tho. It's a PITA. The bow distorts alot.
Click to expand...
Just cause it's the first you've heard of it Kris doesn't mean it hasn't been happening. The first I heard about it was when I asked one of the LFS owners about them, (cause I was thinking of getting one), and he told me he wasn't carrying them anymore because he'd had to deal with so many leaking one.

If it's an oceanic tank, then it's garanteed for 5yrs as long as you're using their stand. If it's an AGA then you're SOL if it fails.

Personally I'd just spend a little extra money and go with the 90g. Or a little less for a regular 75g. For me it would be worth it for the piece of mind.

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Kris

New Member
I never said it has not happened.

Most of those threads you have pulled up are from several years ago. I am pretty sure the problem has been resolved. The only "new" one I saw was February of 05, but that was just another "i heard or a friend of mine" posts about the tank. Most all of them are just regurgitated posts.

Anyways.. do as you wish.

I personally have never had a tank leak, crack, blow up or anything else.
 
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dragon79

New Member
Brother, I told you to research before doing anything harsh. I'm sure the dude you bought it from wouldn't mind if you went to a 90 gallon instead. Look into the pricing difference, he may give you a good deal, or if it's too past your budget get the regular 75.

From threads we've read on tanks cracking in general...i dont think you want to be one of those people to come home and see water damage and dead fish and coral all over the place.

Best of luck to you...
 
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incysor

New Member
This really isn't meant to bash oceanic. Some day in the future I expect to be buying a couple of their big ones. Heck, my 75g and 40g, are both older, used, oceanic tanks. I don't know of any other company out there that gives you any warranty on the tanks. And hopefully I"m posting enough links with good comments so that you don't think I hate oceanic or anything. However I do think that bowfronts are more prone to leaking than regular tanks, and the 72g, in particular seemed to have had more issues than the rest.

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Here's a new thread about a 150, with exactly the same experience that my boss went through 2 months ago. Not the same size/type tank at all, but it shows that even though oceanics are well built they sometimes screw things up, know about it, and just wait for the tanks to come back under warranty, instead of being proactive and approaching the people to replace them before they fail.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

Back to the bowfronts

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

A thread with good experiences.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

Back to the not-so-good.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

Not specific to 72.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

Good & bad.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

Not specific to 72
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

Good/Bad
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

155bow
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

90bow
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak

Same guy from earlier thread.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... t+AND+leak
 
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incysor

New Member
Why? I think the first paragraph of the last post sums it up pretty well. Whenever possible I like to try to provide links to point out where my information/opinion is coming from, so folks don't think I'm just talking out of my @ss.

Yesterday when I said I thought the 72bows had problems several people including you said they'd never heard of any problems with them. Since the RC search function wasn't working at the time, (and RC is the main place, but not only place I'd read this), I posted links I found through google, and yahoo. Later in the evening when I could run the search on RC I did, and posted the links.

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drty811

New Member
we write these posts for opinions...answers , sometimes good and bad. i would be glad somebody knew info that would save me from a disaster.
 
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dragon79

New Member
drty811 said:
we write these posts for opinions...answers , sometimes good and bad. i would be glad somebody knew info that would save me from a disaster.
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i agree, if there are people like incysor out there to share what they have read or experienced, it keeps us from repeating the same error.

Thanks Incysor and all others who continue to contribute with good advice. I am sure Mike is reading all of these threads and choosing now very wisely as to what he'll be purchasing now...
 
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