Hemmdog’s 90gal Seaciety and 40gal Vale of Shadows

Hello! Just starting my build thread for my main display; a 90 gallon I set up in August 2018. Thank you for stopping by and please leave comments or questions below!


3/23/19


1/17/19

 

Yeah I got a question, where are the rest of the pictures! Lol. Welcome nice tank, do you keep a lot of rock in the sump?

 

Thank you!! My first fan ! . Pictures and a full write up are coming. Yes I do use a fair amount of live rock in my sump due to the Tonga branches working in more of a minimalist aquascape. The bottom layer of my fuge is marinepure ceramic bioballs, with extra Tonga branches and porous live rock I had.

I used the remainder of the marinepure balls after the baffle, it also helps catch some chaeto for me.

 

So I began this journey with my 90 after starting a biocube 32 a year prior. My corals quickly outgrew the 32 and most fish I wanted needed a much larger tank size.

I shopped around online and was almost set on ordering the RedSea Reefer 425XL. My hesitation was hearing locals in the Bay Area of California telling horror stories of the stands collapsing during moderate earthquakes; which we get here somewhat frequently. 2nd was the sump, I wanted acrylic and a really efficent design which ReaSea did not offer.

Fate would have it my LFS had a client who was moving and selling one of his displays for a decent price, so they took it off his hands. The tank (Oceanic 90gal) sat at the shop for almost 3 months before I asked any questions about it. Upon further inquiry he told me that oceanics are beasts; very sturdy, quality glass, and a really rock solid stand that won’t collapse on me. These points gave me peace of mind that the ReaSea stands have been making me weary of. According to my LFS owner Oceanic went under because they spent to much on quality matierials. This may have just been a sales pitch but that’s the kind of issues with a company I like!


Anyways, it included a sump, and a really good sump at that! A Trigger Emerald 26 in perfect condition.

He said he could get it to my house and help me plumb it for $500. Sold!!

 

First thing I do not like. The stand, I wasn’t looking for black, if I was going to do the Reefer I would of done the white stand. I looked into just buying the panels and attaching them to this stand but it wouldn’t have fit right. So I went the DIY route! After researching the best way to paint furniature for the look I was aiming for I discovered that it was called a “Piano Finish” . Notoriously difficult to pull off. Challenge accepted.

Went to HomeDepot; grabbed some sand paper, corse, medium, and fine. Along with some white latex primer, Rustoleum ,and high end brushes. It took my wife and I all afternoon sanding and applying primer. I did two more coats of primer the following days. It was starting to come together.


Pics were after the 1st coat.

 

Did 5 coats of oil based white paint over a week. Then let the stand gas out outdoors for another week. It really turned out good, not quite as mirrorish as I was going for, but hey, I tried.

 

Stay tuned more fun pics to come with actual living things in them!

 

My vision: I wanted to keep my existing coral and transfer over my fish, and add oodles of acros.

When shopping for rock I compared them all, reefsaver, Fiji, Tonga, pukani, Caribbean. Price wasn’t really a factor because they last forever, I was mainly looking at filtration and aesthetics. I wanted something that didn’t look like everyone else’s scape. Even though it’s more challenging for coral placement I went with 75 pounds of dry Tonga branches. It was pricy, but I got some really nice complex branches.

Cycled for 2 months.

Cleaned the sump and display out with vinegar and rodi and ran that though the system for 2 days then just rodi for 2 days, emptyed it, then more rodi running for 2 more days.
It came out like new. Treated myself to a emerald 10g Trigger ato res

I began thinking about my scape after I got the rocks, i sure could of used reef2reef back then lol. I had no idea how I was going to arrange them. I wanted them to hold themself naturally without the use of epoxys. Looking back on it I should of just done the epoxy; they are caked with coraline already anyways. If there’s a way to retroactively do that after corals have attached let me know!

 

There we go, there's the muck

 

sweet nice work on the painting.

 

Thank you!

 

first off.. FINALLY! your build thread. OKAY! looking really good man! SO.. few questions.

- what equiptment are you using?
- lighting and schedule how far above the tank are you keeping them?
- not a question, but that stand.... man did you transform that ****! great work.
- what fish are you housing?
- for your curing process what did you use?
- dosing ?

 

Thank you so much man! And thanks for the interest and complements on my first wack at painting something I’m going to keep haha! My lights are 11inches above the water; aquatic life hybrid with blue + and actinic + from 1pm to 7pm
2 360we’s on at 11am, zero color ramp to 40 color 65% intensity by 12:30-peak at that until 7:15 then ramp down back to zero and lights off at 9pm.
I started with just 2 360’s and it wasn’t enough coverage. I also have a 360X on my coral qt I plan on getting another and swapping it with my 360we’s. Maybe a good Valentine’s Day gift idea lol.

 

Curing process: 35gal brute can with lid, stock biocube return pump, 1/2 inch hose, hydor 500gph something powerhead, jager 200 watt since its outside.

Ran the rocks with rodi plumbed with soft plumbing to the sump from the brute, it was insane how gross that water got, yuck. Did 3 100% rodi water changes on that. Do this outside, your wife/family will thank you.

After that I just did 50% water change every 2 weeks with Red Sea coral pro. I’m not sure if you can saturate rocks with trace elements, but that’s what I was trying to do with high element content salt.
I didn’t test the water till the end of month 2, nitrate was at 5 on salifert, I was cool with that. No bacteria added besides one bottle of Dr. T OneandOnly after I finally got sand rock water in the display, haven’t added any since.

 

awesome setup, cant wait to see the progression on this beauty ! great work and dedication you've put in thus far

 

Equipment:
What I had
-360we
-360 spectral controller
-mp10wqd

What I knew I needed
additional light
return
skimmer
heater
powerhead(s)

I really figured maybe I’d spend around $1000 to $1500 on equipment, yea that didn’t happen..

Made a huge BRS order

Big ticket items were:
Reef Octopus VarioS-4 DC controllable return-$260
Kessil 360we- $350
Reef Octopus eSsence S-130 Skimmer-$300
Tunze ATO 3155-$200
Cobalt Neotherm 300watt heater-$140
Maxspect gyre xf230 (2) with advanced controller- $320

Special grade reef sand 40lb dry-$40
Special grade reef sand 30lb live-$63
Jager 150watt heater for backup-$20

Impulse buys
BubbleMagnus BM-T11 with 3 1-liter res-$370
AquaMaxx fluidized media reactors standard size (2)- $160
Sicce pumps for reactor (2)-$72

Good times, the total came out to $2,854. A little over my initial estimate, clicked submit order anyways.








At this point I had to stare at all my goodies in my living room for another month before my rocks were done cycling haha.

 

After the Tonga branches cycled for 2 months I was beyond ready to start my 90!

Plumbing was pretty straight forward with just 1 drain into the sump. Did a Durso style drain behind the overflow, used some dosing tube to extend the air intake to behind the tank, it was making a slight sucking sound my wife wanted to kill me over.

This was my first plumbing job, I just looked at plumbing in tanks at LFS’s around me and kinda figured it out, pipes make sense.

I did get 1 good tip: before you put the purple epoxy on the pvc pipes assemble the whole thing, mark straight lines across the connections with sharpie or something. Then when you epoxy you just line them back up. It was super easy. Then just wipe it off with a magic eraser or even warm water on a washcloth.
I picked up a Japanese hand saw, also a good tip I got.

Filled it with ro and ran it overnight. No leaks, winning.

 

Drained it; let it dry completely out. Then added sand and a whole mess of saltwater!
Carribsea Special Grade reef sand 50 pounds dry, rinsed in a 5 gal bucket with RO many times until clear.30 lbs of the same but live added directly to the display.


So cloudy!

 

Brought the water up to temperature and fired it up! Woo!!

Then did my “on the fly” scape because I’m stupid and thought rocks would magically stick together and “float” with no epoxy.

The first month I only had 1 360we on the 90 because my coral and fish were still in my 32 gallon using my other 360we(at the time) (now has a 360x). After the first week I transferred my black & white ocellaris.
~Fun fact: he was my first saltwater fish, his name is Marlin, lame, I know..
I’ve had him about 16 months now.

 

P.S. that giant pile of cables is still on the floor on the right. I need a cable management guru to come in with some zip ties and wall hooks. I also have mounts for all my controllers they just still aren’t mounted. The wires and energybar are off the floor on egg crate but it’s still pretty sketchy.