90g Fixer Upper Starter Project - My First Reef

[r33fermaddness]

SW tanks have always been an interest and wonder of mine, I decided to take the dive into it, so to speak, a few months ago. I've been doin lots of homework, reading and researching, hunting for a good startup project. I deliberated back and forth whether to make more of an investment on the startup with a new tank, possibly an AIO from Red Sea or Waterbox, or go the secondhand route.
I came across a FB Marketplace listing for this 90g glass tank and stand, plus 125lbs of live rock and what I came to find later upon pickup, in addition: a ~25 gallon acrylic sump, 2 x 200w Finnex titanium heater/controller combos, a return pump of currently unknown power, an aerator pump and several airstones, a Fluval LED strip with timer (not sure of the model, but it's older) and some other miscellaneous equipment like nets and such. Even for just the tank, stand and rock, which was listed for $200, I figured I'd be making out like a bandit - albeit with some work and TLC required.
Firstly, the biggest roadblocks. I never got the whole story, only that the guy selling it went away to college so he couldn't keep up the maintenance. The condition everything is in seems like the livestock was removed, tank was drained, and everything just sat in the garage until it was sold. Everything is filthy with algae, salt and calcium buildup, namely the rock - all sorts of dried organic matter all over. So, first step, which is more like a few steps in parallel, is cleaning and curing.


Thanks to anyone who follows along, I'll be laying the beginning out in multiple posts for organization and then periodic updates to follow as things progress. If anyone has advice or suggestions I am 100% open to tips and criticism! I am brand new to this hobby and need to soak in the wisdom.

^Before..

^After a bit of cleaning. Could still use another vinegar scrub, still need to tackle the plastic overflow cover.

^Cracked top frame (which was disclosed before sale, they're not too expensive or complicated to replace from what I understand), another part of the first step.
Featuring Bella's reflection ("Just what the heck are you doin Dad?")

Overflow, telescoping drain and return pipe. Not sure I'll stick with this return pipe, may do something spread across the length of the tank for better circulation.
Pipes need a vinegar dip and glass needs washing.
Side note: Can anyone enlighten me to how this overflow works? Will the water in this back bottom corner ever get circulated and cleaned? To me it seems like the water down here would get stagnant without any flow.

^May sand and stain the stand and doors all one darker color to better match the house décor. Hinge replacement is a must, they squeak and creak something fierce.

^Inside the stand, and some pretty aged misc. equipment.

 

[r33fermaddness]

SO along with all of ^ that going on, I have the live rock to think about. From what I understand, the cleaning and curing of it will take anywhere from a couple weeks to 3-4 months, depending on the level of filth. With that in mind, I wanted to get a jump on the process ASAP, so firstly I needed a solid influx of water that didn't involve driving to the LFS and hauling water around town. Thus began: the RO/DI adventure.

^Very simple 75GpD system with float valve from AquaticLife. Quite modest in comparison to some more established veteran setups, but I was stoked to get it in and set up. I'm only planning on ~15g changes every 2 weeks, plus top off water (which will eventually be in an ATO reservoir) so I figured I didn't need anything fancier.
Next was location. Our laundry room is in the basement, the tank is on the ground floor, and I'm a lazy dude. If I can avoid carrying 15g up a flight of stairs, let's just say I'll review my options.
*lightbulb*
We have a spigot in our attached garage (don't ask me, my Grandpa plumbed the house, and he's long since passed), so I thought, like an idiot (more on this in a sec), I could set up a water station in the garage. And it was a good thought, it fit perfect.

^The green hose connects to the spigot about 2 feet off screen to the right. I had planned on running the waste water out the garage to the left and down the driveway (since there was no drain in the garage. Water spigot, but no drain... Okay Grandpa), using a barrel with the float valve for freshwater, and the other for mixing SW. Simple, easy, effective. So I get all the lines connected and I'm ready to get it running and flushing. I open the spigot, nothing. Hmm. I give my dad a call; he grew up in this house (my girlfriend and I are renting from my uncle who bought it when my grandma passed - this house is a whole other monster rife with wacky plumbing and electrical) turns out, there's a shutoff valve in the basement. I closed the spigot, ran down, opened the valve; water rushing, good.
Water continuing to rush.
Crap.
I run back up to the garage.

^I burst into the garage to find water rushing out of this. Thankfully I had a 5g bucket not 5 feet away so I threw it under the stream and ran back downstairs to close the shutoff.
Now for those of you using your whole brain, you'd think that would've been the end of that idea, right?
That pipe burst for a reason, right? Probably not the best place for the RO system.
"Nonsense!" said the idiot.

It wasn't until after I watched a few youtube videos on how to splice and braze copper pipes, bought some new pipes from home depot, and replaced the burst pipes myself did it finally dawn on me.
It clearly gets cold enough in this garage to freeze water.
I can drain the pipe and close the shutoff to the spigot during the cold months, however,
I cannot drain the water from the RO system (well, at least not in a way that's efficient or preservative of it's lifespan).
*massive facepalm*

I concede. Into the basement it goes, I will endure the water hauling upstairs. I could use a workout anyway.Everything connected, RO system works great. The TDS meter however was faulty, fortunately Amazon replaced replaced it quickly and I just received it yesterday. Now confirmed, the RO system is dropping our water from 320ppm to a cool 0.

 

[r33fermaddness]

The sump and some of the equipment went for a vinegar bath Thursday, although we didn't have much vinegar so it was pretty weak.

Drained it, scraped and sprayed it down outside...

^Looking better. Gonna do another stronger vinegar bath to kill the rest of the stubborn stuff. The duct tape residue I can't do much about sadly. Isn't that carpet fantastic?

 

[r33fermaddness]

Today I also delved into the live rock section of the project. I had removed it from the bucket and laid it all out on a table in the basement a few days ago. A pretty impressive collection of it, I'm super excited to get it organized into a pretty reef.

^Lots of fun stuff to work with, also very dirty; lots of sand and organic matter. I tried my hand at laying some out in a "maybe" formation for the tank in the future, the cardboard represents the size of the tank.

^So lots of options there, I'd love some feedback on that arrangement, if it's too cluttered or needs more rock?

Either way, it all needs to be heavy cleaned first.

 

[r33fermaddness]

Tonight's mission, which I had just finished up prior to sitting down and writing this, was to get the rock started on the cleaning/curing. I read some more, watched some videos, talked to some local folks as well as posted here about it; I eventually decided to do things naturally with just SW and a bit of flow and heat.

^I had been going through some trial and error with finding an ergonomic way to deal with water changes while the rock is curing, I ended up with this contraption, a ball valve attached to a bulkhead at the bottom of the bucket I'll be using to cure. I filled her up to test the seal and it held for a good 12 hours before I got to work on the next step just earlier.

^I watched a youtuber make this little fixture for his rock curing setup, recycling the water bottom to top seemed like a good idea, and easy, so I added some piping to the return pump that came with the tank after rinsing it from the vinegar dip.

^Added the float valve, threw in the rocks around the pump and transferred over the 10ish gallons of fresh water I had been filtering the last few hours. Now the RO system still has a good 3-4 hours before it hits the flow valve, so I'll call it a night for now and come back to add the salt to the right SG tomorrow morning, from there I'll have a measurement of salt to add to the same water level when I do water changes. I'll also add the heater near the top of the bucket tomorrow; I didn't do this tonight because I didn't want to put it near the bottom in fear of rock shifting and crushing/breaking it (it's a cheaper 'quartz glass' heater I got specifically for this), and the water level wasn't high enough to submerge it near the top yet. From then, this will just sit and stir until the rock is clean.

^I also did some rearranging and pulled out the loose piece of carpet that everything was sitting on, juuust in case there's a spill.
Don't mind the central vacuum.

 

[r33fermaddness]

Finally got around to fixing up the cabinet over the weekend and the last few days, just wrapped it up earlier tonight. Didn't turn out quite how I wanted and it's far from perfect but the end result was acceptable to me and a major learning experience.

^Sanded down the face, doors, sides and trim

^Doors stained and coated with polyurethane. Found these nifty bronzed cast iron tentacle hooks on Amazon for 8.50/pc, I thought they fit the look I was going for pretty well.

Finished the staining over the weekend, finally went to grab some hinges this morning and got it all together after work.
Couple things I would've done differently:
- I purposely used 2 different color stains for the cabinet and for the trim and doors. Judging from the colors, I was aiming for the trim and doors to be a bit darker than the cabinet. Where I messed up was using Stain+Polyurethane on the cabinet, which is where the glossiness is coming from; whereas on the trim and doors I used Stain and then polyurethane separately. The multiple coats on the cabinet to achieve the color I wanted created a thick, almost shellac-like coating and diminished much of the character of the wood, unfortunately.
- I wasn't nearly as meticulous as I should've been in this process, the stain isn't completely uniform, there are some hardened drip spots on the sides and a lot of brush marks on the doors; poor lighting and hastiness played a part in this.

If I were a perfectionist with the motivation, I'd strip it all off, sand it down again and give it another shot; but I'm more or less happy with it how it is. The real showcase is what's going to be in the tank anyways, I just wanted the cabinet to better match the house, which is full of 70s dark wood paneling and cabinetry.


The top frame replacement for the tank should be here tomorrow, so I'll probably muddle my way through that this weekend, and then on to tackling the plumbing!

 

[LBReefer]

Great little adventure you got here. Following along.

Are you going fowlr or reef?

 

[r33fermaddness]

Great little adventure you got here. Following along.

Are you going fowlr or reef?

Thanks for checkin it out! Yes, certainly quite the adventure.
Definitely going reef - so many beautiful corals out there.

 

[r33fermaddness]

OOF
Nobody told me how much of a pain in the rear end that was gonna be. Took several sessions of a couple hours each whenever I had the time over the last couple weeks to get the entire top frame off. I cut it into 4” sections with a small hacksaw and then used a variety of tools to pry the pieces off and scrape the old silicone. I was told that was the best way to avoid potentially cracking the glass. Incredibly frustrating and tedious process; I would 100% spend the extra cash to avoid having to do this again.
That being said, several hours, some sweat and a bit of blood later...

Finally done!
Planning on painting the bottom trim black to match along with a new coat along the back glass; it got pretty scraped up and is starting to peel on some places.
So for now, the project is pretty much on pause until the rock is done cleaning. I’ll do a couple things in the meantime like cleaning the overflow panel and sump, plan out the sump and plumbing but I’ll do another solid update once the rock is ready to roll

 

[r33fermaddness]

Hello! It’s been a bit. I’m nearing the finish line of the setup!
Over the last month I:
-Took the bucket of rock outside and added a gallon of bleach to punch the stubborn organics in the face. That stewed for a week, I added seachem Safe as a dechlorinator for a week, then I changed the water out with fresh RO to rinse for a few days before I removed the rock to dry.

- Tried my hand at a little scaping, gettin some ideas on how I want it to look.

- Ordered the rest of the equipment needed to start the tank, sans the lights I want - I figured I’d save for them and upgrade when I have more specific lighting requirements; opfor a cheap Hygger led strip for now.

- Finished the plumbing and sump setup.

- At the advice from a fellow reefer, I converted the installed durso overflow and return into a Herbie overflow and plumbed the return up and over the opposite side of the tank. This was a bit of a challenge as I couldn’t manage to remove the bulkheads or the barb fittings attached to them, so I was kinda stuck with the size fittings and had to adapt them to my piping. All in all, it’s running perfectly after some dialing in and I’m very pleased with the outcome.

I filled the tank today and am currently testing the plumbing. Assuming there are no problems, I’ll drain everything and finalize the aquascape, then the cycling finally begins!

 

[r33fermaddness]

The build is finally finished! It’s been a long few months in gathering materials and equipment, but over the weekend I added the rock and filled the tank with SW. My Red Sea test kits arrive tomorrow and I’ll be starting the cycle with their Reef Mature Pro kit.

Currently using a 5g bucket for the ATO reservoir, I’d like to upgrade with a 10g tank I picked up during Petco’s sale recently, but it will have to wait until I find a nice side cabinet to store it as it won’t fit under the tank. I also have yet to add the wave pumps and my media reactor which I’ll be using for carbon and gfo; those three are my next to-do’s, but I’m excited to see it all together and working properly.
This is just the beginning!


Breakdown:
- 90g Display - 84g total volume + Rocks
- 25g Sump - 11g total volume
- DIY Herbie Overflow (conversion from Durso)
- LifeGard Quiet One Pro 4000 Return Pump (to be replaced by Current USA’s eFlux return pump eventually)
- Reef Octopus Classic INT-150 Skimmer
- AutoAqua Smart ATO Lite
- BRS Dual Media Reactor (carbon/gfo)
- Hygger 32w LED strip (to be replaced with Current USA’s marine lighting eventually)
- Current USA eFlux Wave Pump x 2 - still need to purchase.

 

[thewire]

What's your opinion on AutoAqua ATO lite? If you are given a choice, would go it with them again? I am thinking getting one new for $6x ish instead of buying some used other brands for more

 

[r33fermaddness]

What's your opinion on AutoAqua ATO lite? If you are given a choice, would go it with them again? I am thinking getting one new for $6x ish instead of buying some used other brands for more

Well all I can say right now is so far so good. It was incredibly easy for me (who’s doing this for the first time with no experience) to set up and it’s been running perfectly since Tuesday. So far it’s kept my salinity perfectly stable. I think the long run will be the true test; I have yet to see how long the pump will last and if there will be any problems with the optic sensor.
My only issue has been keeping the water level in the sump stable, but that’s more due to the Herbie drain and the gate valve being touchy but I understand that’s a common issue with Herbies. Even with that issue though, like I said my salinity hasn’t moved and I’ve checked every day since Tuesday.
At this point I would absolutely go with it again, but we’ll see how it holds up over time. I’ve heard good things about the Tunze ATO which retails for I think 200$ and employs a float valve as a secondary fail safe for the sensor. Hope that helps!

 

[r33fermaddness]

Update!

Christmas bonus well spent on snow tires, wave pumps and a higher quality return pump

In my research on lighting, I ran across the Current USA Marine lights - a fair middle ground between the cheap Hygger LED strip I’m currently using, and the higher end lighting setups like AI/Red Sea/Kessil LEDs, or Halide setups.
As a pretty new reefer, I don’t have aspirations for keeping high end corals any time in the near future, so I figured a middle ground would be the best route.

Cool thing about these lights - they interface with Current USA’s eFlux products via their LOOP controller. It allows you to link return pumps, wave pumps and the lights to a single controller with either IR or Bluetooth. The wave pump controller allows for different wave and gyre patterns as well as a feed mode in tandem with the return pump.

So anywho. My eFlux wave pumps and return pump arrived today and I’m ecstatic after getting it all installed and running.

The wave pumps are rated at 660gph. Playing with the wave controller is pretty neat, I’m excited to see it more in action when I start keeping corals.
The pump. This thing is S I L E N T - I love it. I was using LifeGard’s Quiet One for the last month and I thought it was pretty quiet (hence the name) but this proved me wrong. There’s no hum like I heard with the Quiet One, I wouldn’t even know it’s running if not for the check valve above it. Also I’m a big fan of the DC upgrade, the pump’s rated for 1900 gph, so it’s nice to be able to dial in the flow more accurately than the Quiet One which just had an adjustable intake vent.
And again, having a feed mode available for all the pumps will be nice too.
(+ now I have a backup return pump in case the eFlux ever fails)

In the last weeks I also installed my BRS dual media reactor, I’m currently just running some carbon but going to switch to GFO and Two Little Fishies NPX biopellets (also arrived today) - I’m having some issues with high phosphates (I think there’s still some decaying organics on the rock) and highish nitrates, so hoping this helps.

I’m starting to see how this hobby becomes an addiction...

Oh we also got a handful of snails this past weekend

 

[r33fermaddness]

We picked up a pair of clowns over the weekend, I decided to forego quarantine this time; the LFS I got them from is owned by a good friend who explained his quarantine protocol in detail, these clowns had been quarantined and medicated with copper for 4 weeks before he added them to his displays, and they’ve been happy and healthy in his displays for several weeks.
Everything from here will be additionally quarantined by me, regardless of where I get it. I just figured the first fish I added are already in basically quarantine. I won’t be adding another fish for at least a few weeks so that gives me time to observe and remove if necessary.
So far so good though! They didn’t eat the day I added them, but I wasn’t surprised. Yesterday and today they’ve been gobbling down the marine s pellets.

 

[r33fermaddness]

Been a while, figured it’s time for an update! This’ll be a big one

Since my last post, we added:

Joe Exotic, tiger conch snail XD (whom I haven’t seen for the last week or so and I’m getting a little concerned)
Along with a handful of nassarius. None of the turbos made it, unfortunately.

Zeus, Midas blenny. Promptly took up residence in a hole on the top of one of the rocks. Sadly we lost him, leapt from the tank while we were both at work. He was a bit of a bully, taking chunks out of Omen, the smaller clown.

Hades, Banggai Cardinal. Super chill.

Ares, Coral Beauty. My favorite of the tank thus far. Spends the day nipping at rock and grazing on seaweed I leave for him (or her? *shrug*). Was a bit of a bully when I added our latest fish (below) but that stopped after about a week or so.

This shy guy; Noodle, Engineer Goby. Don’t see him too much, unless he pops his head out from his burrow to grab some food.

Around this time I started to have some cyano crop up, initially it wasn’t too bad, but then out of nowhere it exploded and covered all the rock and some of the sand. I think it was exacerbated by the lighting change, as this was when I upgraded to Current’s Pro IC lights.

How it started...

Ended up getting pretty bad, a bit worse than this before I decided to do a chemiclean treatment. Tried a couple other things to combat it first like shortening and dimming the lights and lightening the feedings. At first my girlfriend loved the color *facepalm* then eventually it started getting thick and slimy and it became “gross looking”.

In the meantime, we added

Athena, Tomini Tang. I was really after a Tang to round out the tank, but 4ft just wasn’t a good match for most of them (I know, jury’s out. Some people say it’s fine, some say 6ft minimum.) I would like to avoid having to rehome anyone because they outgrow the tank. The Tomini seemed like a good choice as they don’t grow quite as large. I was apprehensive with this one with their more specialized care requirements and fragility compared to everything we’ve added so far, but we’ve had her (him?) for about a month now and no problems.

Also around this time, I wandered down the coral path.

A good looking bunch of Mind Blowing Palys, LFS said this was a good starter to see how corals would fare in the tank. So far, so good! Already started to grow several heads. I’m also adding coral cautiously heeding the coral beauty, he hasn’t nipped at the Palys (or the other two frags I added last weekend, below) but from my understanding they’re more prone to munch on LPS, I guess we’ll see!

Finally the cyano got to the point that I had to do something about it; after trying to combat it naturally and clean it during water changes with no success, I eventually wound up doing a chemiclean treatment, and wow that stuff works.

48 hours of treatment and aeration and a 25% water change did wonders. I added Microbacter7 to my weekly maintenance since and the water quality has significantly improved, the clarity alone is extremely satisfying. Starting to see coralline encrusted on the rocks and glass, sponges here and there in the tank, all over the overflow and sump.

Added a nice looking Hammer and Devil’s Hand this past weekend and so far they’re doing nicely, although the Devil’s Hand is looking a bit limp and I’m not sure if I should be concerned. Tested some parameters this morning and things are looking more or less okay; nitrate was around 10-15 (where it has stayed since I finished cycling), phosphate is around .08-.1, a little higher than I’d like, but I’m a couple days overdue for a water change so it doesn’t surprise me. Alkalinity was a little concerning at 6.5 dKH, so I dosed some of my leftover buffer from the Red Sea starter kit to raise it 1 and I’ll retest tomorrow after the water change tonight.
Also need to buy calcium and magnesium test kits sooner rather than later so I can figure out if and when I need to start supplementing that, but I figured with just a few frags I’d be okay for now.

There ya have it though, a nice almost 6 month update from the start of the tank. It’s been a wild ride so far, and I’m happy I’ve gotten this far without too many speed bumps or any catastrophes.

Going forward, there are really only a few more fish I’d like to add before I probably max this tank out; that being a Royal Gramma, some kind of Butterflyfish - I’d really like a copperband but I’ve heard they’re notoriously hard to keep, so I’ve been leaning towards a pearlscale - and a Foxface. With that, I think I’d be happy with the populace of the tank and content to watch them grow. After that I’ll probably just end up focusing on corals and upgrading the system for them (assuming the coral beauty doesn’t end up dining on anything, fingers crossed).

Until next time! Thanks for following along

 

[bitwise]

I’m doing a similar 90 gallon fixer upper project but you’re a few months ahead of me. You’ve got a sweet fish collection.

One piece of advice: swap out those metal clamps near the return pump. It looks like they have already started to rust.