Wayne's 90 Gallon Build

[wmcinnes]

Originally Posted by Cubeman

Nice work there Wayne. Looks like you've done a really good job. With the light over the sump what you will find over time is that the right side of your skimmer will get encrusted with coralline algae. If you put up some sort of light barrier between the two sides it will save you a lot of work soaking and scrubbing the skimmer in the future.

Thanks for the input!

[wmcinnes]

Had a bit of a microbubble problem yesterday..
Skimmer discharges them everywhere and to be honest, my bubble trap does not do a whole lot of good and they seem to zip right past it.. Hopefully when I raise the stand and get the skimmer up a little higher and working as it should this will stop!

[Skimmerking]

Wayner look the tank and the rock layout. Well Done!!!! I would take the good rock and place it in the display and the dead rock in the sump. that is some noce looking live rock to be using in the sump. Just sayin

[wmcinnes]

Originally Posted by Skimmer King

Wayner look the tank and the rock layout. Well Done!!!! I would take the good rock and place it in the display and the dead rock in the sump. that is some noce looking live rock to be using in the sump. Just sayin

Thanks! I know!! It is some good looking rock but my dry stuff is all epoxied together and I am too lazy to break it apart and move it all. Hopefully the dead rock seeds nicely and starts to look like the good stuff eventually.. or maybe, if I am lucky, they will be covered with corals!

[newbie2]

Nice build so far! Its making me itch to switch one of my freshwater 90's over to salt! So many options and gadgets, and then there's the livestock choices!

[wmcinnes]

Alrighty! Well I added 2" of pvc to the bottom of my skimmer stand and now have it standing in about 7"-7.5" of water and it is has stopped overflowing and is producing a wet skimate! Problem solved!





I picked up some Cheato the other day and threw it in my refugium as well and while doing so, I noticed some pods in the refuge and in the DT. Life!! Score!







I also found a hitchhiker coral.. It is really tiny and im assuming bleached out if not, dead! Looks like some sort of Acan? I'm new at this so I am not really sure..



Thought I would throw in a shot of the QT tank as well for good measure.. Still empty sadly, not much longer though!!



All in all, still waiting on things to show up in the mail.

[wmcinnes]

Small update:

The tank is doing awesome, it has cycled and I should be getting some fish to go into the QT tank within the next week or so. FINALLY!
Sorry for poor quality pics, lost camera charger cord so these are shots from my iPhone.



One interesting thing that has happened is the refugium has exploded with diatoms. I am assuming this means it is doing its job because the DT is still crystal clear and looking good other than some hair algae here and there. I've heard that the diatom bloom is natural in a new system so I am not worried. The cheato is also growing like mad!! I had to harvest a football sized piece and I have still got a large amount in there! Basically just waiting for some algae growth in the DT so I can get a CUC.



I have been manually dosing vinegar to promote bacteria growth as well and the now that it is tuned in, the skimmer is pulling out some really gunky nog. I had heard about how bad skimmate smells but now that I have smelled it myself, I truly understand. It is probably the worst thing I have ever smelled in my life!





I also plumbed in two Phosban 150 reactors (one for GFO & one for Carbon), they are fed off a manifold from the return pump and the effluent from these reactors goes into the return section. So far so good!

[HaZRaTTy]

Hey,

Awesome build thread, great documentation. There is only one thing that I noticed that you might want to look into.

From what I understand ''T''n off the return with a gate and restricting flow adds stress on your return, which shorts life. If that's something you can deal with. Awesome.

Suggestion - From your Herbie, and your Emergency. Plumb your Emergency drain into your Fuge. The amount of water running through your fuge can be controlled directing from the gate valve of your main drain line.

Otherwise. Freaken awesome. can't wait to see the tank/fish/coral updates!!

[wmcinnes]

Originally Posted by HaZRaTTy

Hey,

Awesome build thread, great documentation. There is only one thing that I noticed that you might want to look into.

From what I understand ''T''n off the return with a gate and restricting flow adds stress on your return, which shorts life. If that's something you can deal with. Awesome.

Suggestion - From your Herbie, and your Emergency. Plumb your Emergency drain into your Fuge. The amount of water running through your fuge can be controlled directing from the gate valve of your main drain line.

Otherwise. Freaken awesome. can't wait to see the tank/fish/coral updates!!

I see what you are saying but my education tells me that a recirc on the outlet of the return pump into the refugium actually creates less backpressure on the pump and thus will actually prolong the life of the pump. If I had a gate valve throttling the flow directly on the outlet of the pump you would be correct, but the tee'd off line acting as slow flowing recirc line is a good thing! This is actually used in industry to prolong $$$ pump life.

Everything is working just peachy for me! So I am happy so far! Thanks for the input

[HaZRaTTy]

Well I guess you learn something new everyday, I was under the general impression any restriction of flow would cause the back pressure on your pump. That being said it could be because of the 12 hour night shift and being up for 30 but I can't wrap my head around the physics behind it and how it doesn't create it care to explain?