90 gallon newbie- build thread

Renelope · Jul 2, 2017

Hello everyone!
I live in Denver CO, and am brand new to the aquarium world, and while I've been wanting to get into it for years, finally got our tank up and running a few weeks ago!

My BIL lives across the country (FL) and does tank maintenance / builds for a living- came out on vacation and got us all set up! Wonderful birthday present. I believe he got us some great equipment that will work for my ultimate goal of having a reef tank.

We have a 90 gallon tank with about 50lbs of live rock and about 1-2 inches of live sand. We've also got a 30 gallon sump with refugium underneath the tank. I could probably expand more on equipment but I'm not even sure of the proper lingo yet lol

We have 2 ocellaris clownfish, a diamond watchman goby and a starry blenny along with some clean up crew of snails and hermit crabs.

brett_schn · Jul 2, 2017

Nice tank

Renelope · Jul 2, 2017

Here is a FTS as well as a picture of the sump area.

We had not put in the refugium yet in this photo.

FugeReefer · Jul 8, 2017

Very nice start! I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

How long are you into the cycling of the tank?

Renelope · Jul 28, 2017

Updated pictures - currently 8 weeks and experiencing a diatom bloom- but everything else is going well.

We added one additional piece of cured live rock to add some height on the right side of the tank, this piece had a few mushroom corals on it, and despite being a new tank, all seems to be quite happy, so we are happy watching it!

Renelope · Aug 14, 2017

Hello everyone,

Just a couple new pictures to add in to the tank thread. We've added a little fox face to the tank - and he has a lot of personality. He has befriended one of the cardinals and the two of them spend a lot of time together - which works out well because the other two cardinals look like they are bonded... No aggression from the cardinals but we shall see. I think adding in the fox face has helped some.

Diatoms are gone - and we had a very slight case of cyanobacteria, due to some over feeding - but that has cleared up completely as well.

The mushroom coral that came with our live rock is doing amazing, and we have 2 tiny baby mushrooms right next to him - so I think we are doing well! The mushroom does appear to be moving farther down the liverock though - perhaps to get out of the strong light, he is moving more underneath the live rock in the shadows...

Renelope · Aug 14, 2017

FugeReefer said:
Very nice start! I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

How long are you into the cycling of the tank?

The tank is about 2.5 months old now, and everything seems to be going well. The diatom bloom was unpleasant but cleared up in about 3 weeks...

leahfiish · Aug 14, 2017

I like the rock work. Looking good.

Renelope · Aug 15, 2017

Thank you Leahfiish! I'm still unsure where to place the large branched live rock, right now its placed up against the overflow box, and my clownish are "hosting" it, but I'd like to showcase it in some other way - its so cool looking.

I've got another smaller "claw like" piece of branched live rock on the bottom of the tank that has created a cool little passageway for the fish to swim in and around, but I'm starting to plan for corals and I'm not sure what would look good growing on that piece...

leahfiish · Aug 15, 2017

I have some branch rock in my tank and I think it will be awesome once I put some zoanthids or cyphastrea on it.

but I also like it because it does give a lot of places for fish to swim though without restricting flow like a giant rock wall would.

Parsec · Aug 15, 2017

I dig the aqua scaping, that is very interesting.

Renelope · Aug 28, 2017

Thank you! I wish I could take all the credit, but my Brother-in-law set up my tank for me, its still a work in progress, and I'll probably keep adjusting the aquascape but so far I really like it!