Korndiddys 90g 3D build

Korndiddy20 · Mar 11, 2021

Hey guys, I wanted to start a thread that tracked my build and showed the progression of my tank over time. I’ve never had a thread like this so bare with me.
I’ve been in the hobby for over 20 years but like everything else a lot has changed in the hobby over that time. I watched hours apon hours of brs tv on YouTube and applied my previous experiences to start my build.
I had some left over equipment from my old tank that worked great so I decided to reuse to keep the cost down. I had 3 AI prime 16hd, Trigger system sump, SWC cone skimmer and my 4 stage ro/di filter.
I started by purchasing a 90g seapora reef ready tank and stand from my lfs.

I knew I wanted to run bare bottom because of the success and the ease of cleaning long term. The problem was I didn’t like the look of glass on the bottom. After watching some videos and seeing that you can use silicone to glue down black abs acrylic sheet I decided to go that route. I purchased a 4x2 sheet of abs black acrylic and cut it to size.

Korndiddy20 · Mar 11, 2021

In the past I used filter socks and soft tubing for plumbing but this time I wanted to try hard plumbing and a compact roller mat.
To get the roller mat to fit I had to use a jig saw and cut off the filter sock holder, this was a very tough decision to cut up a $300+ sump but knew I didn’t want the hassle of cleaning filter socks and was going to do what it takes to get the roller mat to work.

I ended up having to cut a little bit more so that when the dirty roll got full it’d still fit.
I needed a new return pump and decided on the Reef Octopus VarioS 2. Based off brs videos 10x turn over is a lot and not needed, the Varios 2 should give me plenty of turn over and I can turn down if it’s to much. This will also help extend the life of the filter fleece on the roller mat.

Korndiddy20 · Mar 11, 2021

*While I was in between tanks I used 2 30g nanos to hold my livestock from my old tank while I got the 90 ready.
One of the things I was dreading was what to do about a background. Do you use a printed background? Paint? Blue? Black? Uhhh!!! I wanted something different but yet not permanent if I didn’t like it. What I wanted was a background that you could easily change so you can keep your tank interesting. What I decided on was to mount a 43” tv behind my tank. The tank is a few extra inches off the wall and the tv is on a arm so I can push the tv back for cleaning of the tv or the aquarium glass. Also, if it didn’t work out I have access to the screws of the tv and wall mount to remove if needed. Now I can stream YouTube or videos of reefs and that instantly becomes my background. When the tv is off my background is black. I did have to paint a border on the back glass to frame in the tv and with the corner overflow box the tv fit dam near perfect.
I do not know what the long term effects would be with a tv on the back, algae, salt creep, maintenance, etc. But with the way it turned out I couldn’t be more happy!! The tank looks 3D and I can even turn up the volume and have the sounds of the ocean!!