New 65 Gallon reef opinions/help

[bionewb]

So I have a biocube 14 that's been up and running for a year and a half now. I had no problem except when this summer we had a heat wave of over 100 degrees for 3 days. The entire state was sold out of air conditioners and I'm in college and cannot afford a chiller. Needless to say all of my softies died except my small frag of zoanthids. Well I was going to upgrade to a 20 long around christmas time but instead found a 65 gallon tank on craigslist for $175 with the stand, 150W metal halide, a 20 gallon sump,70 pounds of live rock, 4 clown fish, a 150w heater, HOB filter, and a no name 115W return pump. I couldn't pass it up all it it needed was a little TLC. I sold the light, redid the plumbing, got a maxijet 1200, 2 par38 lights, and am going to get a koralia 2 and a mag 7.

What does everyone think of the aquascape? I know the tank is very cloudy but that's because I just added sand last night. I went with a 2" sugar fine sand bed. I'm not really loving the scape, I was going to use PVC and drill the rock but I wasn't sure how exactly to it all. Haven't seen a thread with pics of attaching it to the rock just before and after pics. I have read threads about drilling the 1/2" hole and using 1/2" pipe but the thing people don't mention is that the INSIDE diameter of the pvc is 1/2" not the outside. I didn't have measuring tape with me so didn't know what size bit to get. I ended up just trying to stack them all without toppling them but to have a little more structure than to just throw them all on top. I tried to incorporate some caves and leave the center open on the sand for a future zoa/rocordia garden.

Anyway I'd appreciate any tips on flow, lighting, and aquascaping that you more experienced people have to offer.

oh forgot to mention, I have a 1" drain and 1" return

[jim.crunk]

Scape looks good from what I can see. I actually glued some of my rock to get it the way I wanted. You can superglue pieces of reef rubble to larger rocks to get secure structures and to build up for taller looking rocks.

As far as flow, lighting, and even aquscaping goes it really depends on what you want to keep in the tank.

Personally I like my rockwork setup to maximize room for my fish and I place my corals based on that. Many people are much more into keeping more corals so they scape for more them.

Check out all of the different tanks that you would like to steer yours towards:fish, mixed reef, lps, softies. It will be obvious which ones are truly done correctly. Follow their lead with what and how they run the equipment, BUT also make it your your own.

[Waddleboy]

i like the scape. i cant really see but i imagine the bottom are all caves which i like. I am fairly knew but from i know a little ill try to share. When you say par 38 are you talking about the halogen bulbs? I personally dont know how deep those penetrate if your looking to do coral. Personally my rocks are stacked on eggcrate and are holding up. I recently introdcued a diamond goby and he is digging all kinds of caves and nothing has moved so i think its good so far so i imagine yours will hold. Flow i find depends on what you want, but 10x-20x seems to be average so.. that being said you will have 1300 max flow with the return and powerhead so i think you should be good for lps and fish (please anyone if i am wrong correct as i am doing this from i have learned)... Other than that nice start. Also are all those clown fish going to be okay in a tank that size? I had 4 in a 90 when i was holding them for my friend and mine nearly tore hers apart? They can be territorial lil things

[bionewb]

I'm pretty sure that I am going to do a mix of mainly softies and some LPS. They are par38 leds. The amount of light should be fine for softies since most of them don't need a lot of light, and then at the top since the led's are only 5" above the water SPS should be ok if I ever get any. I personally like the movement softies add to the tank. The clownfish came with the tank, I am going to re-home them but they seem to get along great, 2 are a mated pair but all they do is swim in the current all day long. Haven't seen a fin nip once =)

[bionewb]

So I decided to take down the previous aquascaping because I knew I wouldn't be happy with it. I did the pvc method and drilled (what a tedious task) all the live rock and put my structure together. Here it is in the tank without water, apologies for the water marks on the tank, didn't clean it before the pic was taken.