My biggest tank yet 90g

[Fink]

I picked up a setup a few weeks ago from Facebook marketplace. It came with a tank/stand/sump/light. Unfortunately it was missing most of the plumbing...

I had to wait a few weeks to get a local guy that used to run our only saltwater aquarium store (he is out of business now) come help me do all of the plumbing.

This is the tank now, dry before I get anything going (I know there is some cleaning in order before I fill'r up.

 

[Fink]

Does anyone have any experience with this aquatic life T5 light? What is it good for growing? Is it a problem that whoever owned it before me flip flopped the bulbs so the white button turns on blues and vice versa?

 

[Fink]

Can anyone tell me whether I need to scrape off the coralline residue on the overflow before I start this tank up? I had some on my used biocube when I set it up and I left it with no I'll effects, but I wanted an expert opinion...

In other news, I picked up sand, rocks and a used skkmmer yesterday!

 

[MarshallB]

Very nice! Since its been sitting dry I would definately clean it out and scrape everything off before setting it up.

 

[Fink]

Rocks are in! We are getting there... I decoded to leave the coralline residue. I dont know why, but i feel like it helped me supprt sps quicker in my biocube, but i may be wrong.... Hopefully not

 

[Fink]

So its been about 10 days since I added water... and we got our diatom bloom. I added a couple of mollies to keep things going and a small cleanup crew. Looks like we are heading the right direction!!

 

[PokeFish]

Looking good! Will be following!

 

[waterskiguy]

Does anyone have any experience with this aquatic life T5 light? What is it good for growing? Is it a problem that whoever owned it before me flip flopped the bulbs so the white button turns on blues and vice versa?

Any t5 fixture is going to be good for growing most corals. If it is a 4 bulb, you might be on the low side of PAR - photosynthetic active radiation (the growth intensity capability of the light) but still able to grow anything. A 6 bulb would grow just about anything in that tank very well. There's something about t5's that just grow and color corals like no other. If the channels are mixed up, switch the bulbs to the corresponding channels. You can run and bulb combination you want. That's how you tune t5s for color. Most people use some sort of combination of ATI blue plus and either purple plus or aqua-blue special. I run 3 blue plus with one purple plus supplemented with leds over my tank. with just the t5s on, it gives me a blueish white look with a little bit of a red undertone.

Good luck on your new journey!

 

[Fink]

Any t5 fixture is going to be good for growing most corals. If it is a 4 bulb, you might be on the low side of PAR - photosynthetic active radiation (the growth intensity capability of the light) but still able to grow anything. A 6 bulb would grow just about anything in that tank very well. There's something about t5's that just grow and color corals like no other. If the channels are mixed up, switch the bulbs to the corresponding channels. You can run and bulb combination you want. That's how you tune t5s for color. Most people use some sort of combination of ATI blue plus and either purple plus or aqua-blue special. I run 3 blue plus with one purple plus supplemented with leds over my tank. with just the t5s on, it gives me a blueish white look with a little bit of a red undertone.

Good luck on your new journey!

It is a 6 bulb T5, with blue led night lights. Thanks for all of the info on the lights, I didn't know there were options, I thought u just bought "THE" T5 bulb and then you were good. I like the look of my Cree LED fixtures, so I may look around and see if I can simulate that color with T5s. The current bulbs look more like the Kessil color spectrum, which I do not like.

 

[Fink]

6-ish month update. Getting some good growth, but currently fighting vermitids...

 

[Fink]

6-ish month update. Getting some good growth, but currently fighting vermitids...

This was at about 2-3 months

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Nice neon green toad you got there! Following along

 

[fishface NJ]

Get bumble bee snails. When you get the snails: If possible to remove the rock and scrape off as many of the vermitids as possible. The bumblebee snails will keep you count in check. They suck the vermetid from its shell.

 

[Fink]

Get bumble bee snails. When you get the snails: If possible to remove the rock and scrape off as many of the vermitids as possible. The bumblebee snails will keep you count in check. They suck the vermetid from its shell.

So I can't really remove the rock, those two big pieces are epoxied as one huge unit, so they weigh a ton, and I feel like it would probably cause more harm than good to remove them.

I also thought heavily about bumblebee snails, but I have some really ridiculously huge mexican turbos, and some conchs and I didn't want to risk them... I've also heard wildly varied results on whether they do anything to vermitids at all. Have you personally used bumblebee snails to fight vermitids?

 

[Fink]

Nice neon green toad you got there! Following along

I never asked you for a picture of the mother colony, probably should have, but it's growing out nicely for me. If it's anything like my other toadstool it'll quickly reach hulk-like proportions.

 

[fishface NJ]

So I can't really remove the rock, those two big pieces are epoxied as one huge unit, so they weigh a ton, and I feel like it would probably cause more harm than good to remove them.

I also thought heavily about bumblebee snails, but I have some really ridiculously huge mexican turbos, and some conchs and I didn't want to risk them... I've also heard wildly varied results on whether they do anything to vermitids at all. Have you personally used bumblebee snails to fight vermitids?

I had rocks covered in vermitids ...two different times. First time I placed 8 BB in the 90g tank. The Vertmitid numbers stopped increasing and 2 years later I had forgotten all about the vertmitids. When I went to down size the tank to a 40g, I took the BB out of the tank. A few months later I had the vertmitids showing up again. I then realized why I had had BB snails in the tank. It was easy enough for me to remove the rocks and place them right back after popping the Verts off the rock. I placed 4 BB snails in the tank and have not seen any Vert in the current tank. This has been over 2 years.

 

[Fink]

I had rocks covered in vermitids ...two different times. First time I placed 8 BB in the 90g tank. The Vertmitid numbers stopped increasing and 2 years later I had forgotten all about the vertmitids. When I went to down size the tank to a 40g, I took the BB out of the tank. A few months later I had the vertmitids showing up again. I then realized why I had had BB snails in the tank. It was easy enough for me to remove the rocks and place them right back after popping the Verts off the rock. I placed 4 BB snails in the tank and have not seen any Vert in the current tank. This has been over 2 years.

Hmm... may have to weigh whether I like my big chonky snails more than I hate the tiny webby ones.... Thanks for the input!

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I never asked you for a picture of the mother colony, probably should have, but it's growing out nicely for me. If it's anything like my other toadstool it'll quickly reach hulk-like proportions.

Recently trimmed it (5-6 days ago?) and it has already bounced back. Definitely watch for it shadowing. I havnt moved it because it’s growing so well (high part and flow) but I have to keep and eye on my chalice and torch (who is ticked off atm idk why)

 

[Fink]

Recently trimmed it (5-6 days ago?) and it has already bounced back. Definitely watch for it shadowing. I havnt moved it because it’s growing so well (high part and flow) but I have to keep and eye on my chalice and torch (who is ticked off atm idk why)

my cap is about the same size as yours, but the stalk is like half the width, he's starting to droop