My 90 Gallon build - First SW/Reef!

[kopaczjm]

I'm relatively new to the hobby. I ran a freshwater cichlid tank for a few months and was bored fast enough to take the plunge. I bought a 90 gallon acrylic with stand for $250. endend up sanding the stand down and repainting and then sanded/buffed/polished the acrylic tank. Would i ever buy a used acrylic tank again? No. But am i happy with the results? Eh. it turned out ok.

Equipment list:
90 gallon acrylic with over flow. dual drain x dual return.
Pine stand with canopy
2x Tao Tronics TT-AL16 LED lights
Jebao RW-15 (love this!)
No name pre-built acrylic sump. chambers. currently just using it to skim and filtering through some filter floss.
HOB skimmer (need to fix my Euro-Reef)
800 GPH external return pump
4 stage RODI

Tank has been up and running for almost 2 months, although at about month 1, my 30 long sump started leaking and i had to swap it out with my current sump. the water parameters were weird for a few days and then seemed to level off. the only thing that hasn't recoverd is the PH. which is 8.8 according to my test kit. currently attempting extra water changes to battle that.

Right now i'm making a few beginner mistakes.

1.) I wasn't monitoring my light cycle from the beginning so i have a hair algae problem. I am in the process of piecing together a CUC. i have an emerald crab and a handful of snails in the tank already, and have another 100 snails coming this weekend. next in line will be hermits and a cleaners shrimp. I have some reading to do on battling hair algae.

2.) I added 5 chormis and am down to 2. they didn't die from bad water quality, they got sucked into the overflow and were never heard from ever again... i bought them very small. should have had some type of protection so they didn't meet their end so soon.

3.) I'm not testing for everything yet. I test PH, Am, NI, NA consistently but nothing else.

4.) I added corals to my tank already I have 5 kenya tree frags in my tank. they appear to be doing great in my questionable water quality. There is also a mushroom that hitchhiked on a piece of live rock i grabbed from my buddies tank to seed my live rock. (possible hair algae source?)

Future plans for the tank:
-new heaters. i am a running a single heater at full bore and my water temp is a hair under what it needs to be.
- ATO - i am adding RODI water to my sump every other day to avoid shooting bubbles into my tank. haven't decided how i want to set this up yet. float valve and a big jug... might use that to dose the water though instead of a separate dosing set up.
- dosing if i dont inclue that with ATO. I have been dosing Kalk using a small valve coming out of the bottom of a Dickey's 32oz plastic cup.


Fishlist Wishlist:
2 clowns - occellaris or black and white
Yellow tang
yellow eyed kole tang
long nose hakwfish
flame angel (still considering as they are questionable in a reef setting)
firefish

- really wanted a powder blue tang, but decided to go with cheaper tangs to start with as this is my first tank and i'd feel more comfortable putting that expensive of a fish in once the tank is more established.

Corals
really sticking to some basics right now. next addition will probably be a hammerhead or torch coral. the life long plan for this tank is to pick up zoa's whenever i can find cool ones i can't pass up, or deals i can't pass up. I haven't done enough research on stony corals to know what will work in my tank.

EDIT* - will upload more pictures once i get my home computer set up.

 

[fishroomlady]

tank looks really good! You did an excellent job on buffing out the acrylic - it's really clear and shiny

 

[kopaczjm]

thanks! it was a royal pain. i ended up only doing the inside. the outside doesn't have any scuffs or cloudy spots, but there are a few decen scratches. they are way towards the bottom and at this point i'm content leaving them be.

 

[abinder]

It would be a good idea to start testing for Alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium if you're going to be having corals in the tank.

It sounds like your tank has cycled, so you probably don't really have to test for Ammonia and Nitrite now.

Supposed, the Red Sea NO3POX supplement is suppose to help control hair algae and it also will combat Nitrates and Phosphates.


Allen

 

[kopaczjm]

i ended up with a lawnmower blenny and going to give my new CUC a chance. i also went in with a tooth brush and removed a good amount from the tank. some of it has grown back already, but the blenny is still probably getting used to the tank. hopefully he start going to town soon. also grabbed a handful of hermits to add to my 70+ snails. my petco is getting a kole tang soon and another LFS has a tiny sailfin. if they both are healthy on wednesday i'm probably going to pick them up. kole will be around $30 and the sailfin is $45. i'll try my best to wheel and deal! haha if in 2 weeks there isn't considerable reduction in algae i will try going the chemical approach.

 

[kopaczjm]

Is there a way to edit my first post? my plan was to add pictures and update everything in the main post rather than have 20 posts scattered about.

 

[kopaczjm]

My lawnmower blenny is very sneaky!i've seen him twcie since i put him in the tank.

 

[kopaczjm]

Lots to talk about! tank is doing great especially with the addition of the Sailfin Tang! still can't figure out how to edit my posts to put all of my updates in the first post. thinking maybe i haven't been a member long enough? checked out the forum help section and couldn't find any information on editing posts other than "you can edit your post".

Anways... crafted a media reactor out of some PVC, 90 degree barbed ends, and a union. currently filtering carbon through it with a maxi jet pump. also filtering a small media bag of carbon where my drain hits the sump. on my last tank the water was cloudy and parameters were very inconsistent until i start filtering activated carbon. my tank is steady right now, but i like to "over-engineer" everything if possible. i definitely do not have enough filtration. i did just pick up a large protein skimmer on the cheap. $45 and it came with 2x 10gallon tanks, an airlifter style pump i'll be using for ATO, and also a large running wheel and heat lamp for my girlfriends hedgehog. his store was going out of business so i was able to pick up quite a bit for a great deal. will be switching over to the new skimmer this weekend. and planning to start the ATO build soon. haven't decided on a design yet. most likely going to lift out of a 5 gallon bucket.

the addition of the sailfin and the lawnmower blenny to my clean up crew has all but kicked the algae issue. here is my snail list:
40 x Dwarf Cerith
5 x Florida Cerith
25 x Zig Zag Periwinkles
10 x Nerite Snail
20 x Nassarius Vibex

$27 + 9.50 for shipping from reefcleaners.org - i like their availability and prices. shipping is always tough to coordinate, ran into a few hiccups, but in the end my order shipped out and got here when they said it would. trying to deal with the post office however...

also picked up some some egg crate. going to section off my sump so macro algae doesn't get sucked into the return pump. also going to use it as a lid until i get my BRS screen. planning to use the egg crate as a frame for the BRS screen. my acrylic tank has a partial acrylic top. so the top is separated into two 12"x18" openings. planing to to do 2 separate screens for the openings.

also where the drain goes into the sump you can see in the last picture of the first post, i got rid of the 3/4" tubing and converted it to 1 1/2" all the way through. didn't realize how much it was hurting my flow. glad i got that figured out.

Goals for january -
-finish lids/screens
-complete ATO set up
-3x female anthias
-leopard wrasse
-hammerhead frag from a buddy
-acan and monti frag from another buddy


will add pictures when i can figure out how to edit my first post.