Dan's 90 build
 

Welcome to the build of my "reverse" 90 gallon tank filled with some salt and water.

I just picked up this bad boy today, and am pretty excited to get to work on it tomorrow! The dimensions are 4' long, 2' wide and 18" tall and will be viewable from three sides. Kind of like a peninsula, but also kind of an island?

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/P1000983.jpg

(This is on my kitchen counter and not the stand where it will end up)

Basically, I am replacing my old tank because it was covered in scratches. Who likes scratches? I know I don't! That and the tank was an old sketchy thing, that just didn't make me sleep easy.

This new one is gonna be an mixed reef, with mostly SPS and LPS. It is highly likely that most of the equipment will be traded for something else as I get a couple more pennies. I will share more pictures and a breakdown of the equipment being run tomorrow.

wow man, that is one fantastic looking tank.....I love the dimensions. I just set up a 90 48lx22wx20h

Love the rimless look....what are you using for lights? and what is your existing tank?

wow that is a sweet looking tank, can't wait to see the progress on this one :biggrin:

Thanks Chris(ty), hah see what I did there? two names for the price of one! ... sigh.

I'm going to use a 6 bulb Tek, (who knows I'm considering the possibilities of changing to LEDs in the future just for fun). My old tank is the same dimensions, however there are a lot of things that I wished to change (overflow, no center brace, no scratches, no chips on the side etc...) so I did!

Now to get to some work, and I will update my progress shortly.

Well, the old tank is now void of fish/corals. Unfortunately my camera decided it was out of battery power, so all of the photos are with my phone.

These are the last two photos of the old set up right before it was taken down. The sand is super dirty, as well as everything else. But that will just make the new set up look that much more new and fancy, right?

Side 1
http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/IMG_0040.jpg

Side 2
http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/IMG_0038.jpg


The fish/coral/rock is now all chillin in these containers. I underestimated how many containers I needed, so now I'm off on a mission to scrounge up some more!

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/IMG_0042.jpg

Very nice, those are the dimensions I want for my next tank

so.....hows it coming, did you find some more containers to house all your live stalk?

Yup, I was able to retrieve more containers. I want to keep as much of the original water as possible so as to make everything less stressed when entering the new home. Right now I am looking at two empty fish tanks, and a disaster of buckets, towels, power cords, and plumbing. I have an anthia and a couple of chromis MIA, I am hoping that they were in the rock and not fish jerky under my couch or something.

I owe whoever invented towels a huge thanks. Towels are awesome. I also swallowed a few good mouth fulls of seawater when starting a suction to empty the tank, and sump. Next time I'm going to hook my tubes up to a maxijet or something. Bleh. Tomorrow will be where all the plumbing gets done. Since I am sitting down, might as well go through the specifications of my equipment.

Lighting

Main tank is lit by a 6 bulb HO T5 tek fixture, and the refugium/fragsump has a cool little ecoxotic LED spotlight.

Skimmer

Reef Octopus Extreme 190 (maybe 160? can't remember exactly)

Flow

Weakest part of the tank so far, and is accomplished by a few Koralia 4's and a Iwaki 600gph external for the return. I'm leaning towards the vortecs as a replacement for the Koralia's.

Other

Currently running biobeads, and carbon is run passively.

how have the bio pellets worked for you so far? I read a few mixed review on them that have made me hesitant to try them...so for now I have an empty reactor hanging in the side of my sump....lol

how much turn over do you have with the 4 K's?

As far as I can tell, the pellets (in combination with other things) seem to work for me as I consistently have not had detectable nitrate/phosphates ever since I have put them on. That being said, ever since I put them on I have had better equipment as well (ie, no more sea clone 100! yuck). I always do less than is what is recommended, and then slowly work my way up. So I don't have a lot of pellets in the reactor. I would recommend them, just don't expect them to be the wonder cure to all your nitrate phosphate woes, just one more piece of the puzzle.

As far as turnover, I don't really conceptualize flow in terms of numbers (which means I simply have no idea, but I guess I could calculate it). I go more by "feel" and how my corals are looking. I feel that my sps in some areas could have had better polyp extension, and the polyps weren't waving like I would have liked. I think "random" flow would help as well, but so far I just have a few steady streams, and no wave making gizmos.

Progress so far has been good, but like always I have run into some hurdles. Plumbing is done, and I have to say I am a fan of the flexible PVC, over the rigid stuff. Much easier to work with. Unfortunately, after putting my first drops of water I noticed that the overflow is not water tight. So I will either slap some silicon, or orca glue or something to make it water tight. I am running a "herbie" overflow system, and from my understanding a watertight overflow is essential if I don't want the entire tank to drain during a power outage.

I also lost a firefish to the floor, as he apparently was not a fan of the temporary rubbermade.

Enough blah blah. Here are a couple pictures.

New tank! On stand, with sand.

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/P1000991.jpg

My helper was supervising diligently, and not overly impressed. That and constantly drinking from my reservoir of RODI water.

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/P1000988.jpg

Well, everything is moved over into the tank. It took me longer than I would have liked, and some of my coral spent much too long without light and so are a little unhappy with me. I'm pretty sure everything will perk up, except for a green birdsnest mini colony stn'd on me so I fragged it all up.

The tank is still a little cloudy, and I'm finding that the return is putting a few micro bubbles into the display.

Here she is, being scandalous and showing what's under her skirt.

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/P1010003.jpg

The frag rack is in it's temporary home, and I will throw it in the refugium where I will hopefully have a mini frag/refugium tank. I'm curious to see what this guy does, and if it will grow any of my frags. Time will tell

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/P1000996.jpg

I also picked up a Reefkeeper light, and am pretty happy with how it is working out for me. It may not be as fancy as some controllers, but golly it is much cheaper! I may look into adding more expansions, but for now it will do.

This picture depicts quite well one of my my pet peeves of my new tank: Koralia cords. I was pretty happy when my partner told me that I "needed" to get an mp40 for the tank. So that will be the first big purchase for this tank.

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/P1010028.jpg

I'm only about 25% pleased with my aquascape, so it will have to change. I am looking into maybe drilling the rock and creating more intriguing structures, rather than two little mounds. Any suggestions to aquascape? I have fair bit more live rock kicking in my sump, that I could add or take away certain pieces.

To do list includes:

Hanging the light fixture.

Changing the 'scape. (just want to let everything settle in a bit before I start mucking around)

Mounting the corals.

Fixing the microbubble problems.

And probably some more I can't think of.

Lookin good so far man

I agree with your partner though.......the cords have to go...lol as for the aqua-scape maybe a 2 island look? I think that would be sharp in there.

looking good Dan!

Thanks Chris, and Jon.

So I got a little bored, and I aquascaped the tank. A little bored is a giant understatement. Here's the proof:

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...gsterDan/1.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...terDan/2-1.jpg

But what about the stuff that lives in the live rock, even...

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...gsterDan/3.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...gsterDan/4.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...gsterDan/5.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...gsterDan/6.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...gsterDan/7.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...gsterDan/8.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...gsterDan/9.jpg

Please tune in tomorrow for the completed look! I will also unveil some freaking awesome goodies I picked up!

Dan = 1

Boredom = 0

:lol: Oh my, the anticipation for tomorrow!!

Wow, that T-Shirt has a cat with lazer eyes, that's at least +4 Awesome. nice tank, it'll be nice to see it all come together.

+eleventy. that shirt made my morning :mrgreen:

Can't wait to see the finished product.......oh and love the action shots LOL....very creative.

Hmm... who cares about the tank? Where can one find a shirt with a lazer shooting cat? Inquiring minds want to know!

Nice going.

Ok, it's tomorrow already!! Let's see the new scape!

+1!! :lol:

I haven't taken any pictures of the final scape yet! I guess we will just have to wait for me to get back from school, as the lights aren't on yet :twised:

As far as the shirt, awesome right?! My partner got me that for Christmas, she knows me way too well! I'm pretty sure she found it http://www.threadless.com/product/13..._Big_Adventure . I think if everyone had shirts with that level of awesome, the world would be a much better place!

Well, here she is.

Side 1

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/P1010078.jpg

Side 2

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/P1010074.jpg

It is IMPOSSIBLE for me to get a picture that depicts the "depth" of the aquascape, so this corner shot will have to do.

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/P1010080.jpg

Oh, and I am officially broke as I went beyond my means and got myself a vortech! Woo! This thing makes a huge difference. Wish it was a little quieter, but whatcanya do right?


So, is the new 'scape better?

Scape is awesome man!! I love the 2 island look....and man, I wish the wife would let me drop the $$ to get a vortec

how about an end shot?

wow. scape looks much better! i really like the black sand.

Way better, much more open with demension to it!

Yeah it is looking great Dan. The live rock looks great now!

love the new scape, and the black sand.
really great look to the whole tank.

Looks fantastic, I like the openness :biggrin:

Thanks everyone! I like it way more.

As far as the openess, I'm kind of hoping that will change as my frags grow into some great big colonies. :cool:

Your Vortech wire should be going up and secured instead of hanging down.
In-case the two parts came apart, your dry side will fall and get damaged $$.
Also, how do you like your LED bulb?

very nice looking tank, i like the new aquascapeing... makes me want to redo mine again... again again.

Lol. Just saw this. Your aquascape update was funny and even maybe a touch creepy...well done! That shirt is bangin' man =)

Very nice tank and a nice clean scape. Good luck with the rest.

Yeah, I know it is supposed to be secured above rather than bellow. When I was putting it on, I just couldn't bring myself to do that as the wire looks silly. So, to compensate I secured the wire in two spots so if the unit pulls one of the sticky pads, hopefully it wont pull off both? I know it has a little ways to fall as well, and will swing a bit. I'm really hoping it wont be a problem.

Hah, yeah I was kind of going for the creepy factor as well. Though it did give me a moment where I was thinking "Is this the type of thing I should actually post?"

I hear ya, especially when you go the LFS and see a cool piece of live rock and think "oh that would make a cool ledge thingy!" But for now I'm satisfied.

Much better. You did good!

Watch out Brett is going to stalk you and then steal all your fancy tee shirt ideas for his own. Tanks looking wicked really enjoy the dimensions and you can't beat that black sand.

Thanks Lance. I don't know if you remember my old 33 gallon tank, but looking back at photos is always kind of funny.

Thanks! I will have to incorporate a few of my t-shirts into the build, as I have more along the same lines as the lazer cat shirt than I would like to admit!

Jackie, I just realized I didn't answer your question about the LED bulb. So far, I like it. I like how it is a lot more blue than most bulbs used over a refugium. I have yet to determine how I like it in terms of growing frags. I just chucked a bunch of frags that I "made" during my aquascapeing adventure. I will get back to you with a little more of a solid answer in a couple weeks when I see how they do under that light.

Also, Spencer at Blue World put my aquascape story in his blog! Haha, this makes me happy. http://www.blueworldaquariums.com/blog/ I feel like I have greatly improved the quality of the blog posts. Not to mention "improve" the reputation of his little store.

Yes I do remember it. That was on the other forum wasn't it?