Newby building a new tank

[Jtleland]

It's been a long time since I had a fish tank (think high school). That tank was a 20 gallon freshwater tank, so this reentry into the hobby is going to be quite the experience. I'll be looking forward to asking questions and getting advice from some of you "grizzled veterans".

My tank is a 90 gallon acrylic tank, and I am choosing to aquascape with real reef rock. The sump is a Trigger Systems Ruby 30. Skimmer is a Bubble Magus Elite 5. Return pump is a Sicce Silent 4. Lighting are 2 Or it Marine IC led's. I'm using sea lettuce in the refugium tank as cheto was too hard to come by from Algae Barn.

Future goals are for this tank to have soft corals and a few cool looking fish. As this is my first jump into the hobby, I'm a bit scared of doing stonnies or more difficult corals.

What would you experts recommend as far as making this a 5+ year tank?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nice looking system and should be successful
A couple pieces of live rock Will be beneficial in both seeding tank and providing a bacterial means of breakdown of ammonia and nitrate

 

[LoneStarReef]

Nice tank!! However I do wonder if you will have issues with dinos down the road because you don’t have any live rock. You need biodiversity and a way to break down fish waste (as per @vetteguy53081 above).

 

[Jtleland]

Nice looking system and should be successful
A couple pieces of live rock Will be beneficial in both seeding tank and providing a bacterial means of breakdown of ammonia and nitrate

Thank you! Are you saying that any nitrifying bacteria that I added during the cycle won't be sufficient? If I get some live rock, how should I treat it before adding it to the tank, or can I add it to my sump?

 

[Reefer58]

Very nice looking tank! Looking forward to see how this progresses .

 

[Gedxin]

Tank looks awesome! I like the surrounding cabinetry work too, very slick.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Thank you! Are you saying that any nitrifying bacteria that I added during the cycle won't be sufficient? If I get some live rock, how should I treat it before adding it to the tank, or can I add it to my sump?

nitrifying bacteria added during cycle will be sufficient - there are lots of different ways to start - seems you are planning well

Also - let me be among first to congratulate you on your build thread! Once you link it to your account, it can take a couple of hours until your build thread badge shows up

 

[Jonathan Adams]

It's been a long time since I had a fish tank (think high school). That tank was a 20 gallon freshwater tank, so this reentry into the hobby is going to be quite the experience. I'll be looking forward to asking questions and getting advice from some of you "grizzled veterans".

My tank is a 90 gallon acrylic tank, and I am choosing to aquascape with real reef rock. The sump is a Trigger Systems Ruby 30. Skimmer is a Bubble Magus Elite 5. Return pump is a Sicce Silent 4. Lighting are 2 Or it Marine IC led's. I'm using sea lettuce in the refugium tank as cheto was too hard to come by from Algae Barn.

Future goals are for this tank to have soft corals and a few cool looking fish. As this is my first jump into the hobby, I'm a bit scared of doing stonnies or more difficult corals.

What would you experts recommend as far as making this a 5+ year tank?

following your journey! About to get into the hobby after years of reading lol so don't be upset if I cheat of off you a little lol

 

[Jtleland]

I had a touch of a setback in the last couple of weeks. I had gone on a quick vacation and stopped dosing my tank with ammonia for about a week. When I returned I introduced a clownfish to the tank and was obviously feeding him too much and had a bacterial bloom. He wasn't doing very well, so I removed him and decided to start the cycle again as I'm pretty sure that I killed all of my good bacteria.

I bought a better light for my refugium and bought more sea lettuce macroalgae. Now the tank is really doing well with ammonia uptake and the fuge is keeping nitrates and phosphates very low. I will be reintroducing the clown back into the tank this weekend.

 

[Jtleland]

Good morning! Here's a photo of the whole setup as of now. 90g in the center and 2 x 10g QT systems that can be set up or taken down quickly when needed.

There's a bluehead fairy in the far left tank currently. An Orange Blaze Clown named Apollo and a McCoskers Wrasse named Hephaistos in the DT. The tank on the right is empty at the moment awaiting some new inhabitants coming in on Tuesday.

I installed a new battery backup for all life support systems this morning and rerouted some of the wire mess behind the tank. Next up, I'll be taking out some of the sea lettuce. The new Kessil refugium light I added a couple of weeks ago is making the lettuce grow like crazy.

I'm so happy that I got back into this hobby. As stressful and disappointing it can be at times, those moments where everything is working the way it is supposed to and your pets are happily swimming and dancing around their home makes it all worth it!

 

[Jonathan Adams]

I like how your sump and fuge are elevated and next to the tank haven’t seen that setup before!

 

[Jtleland]

The fuge and sump are under the main cabinet.

 

[Jonathan Adams]

Ahhh I see! So are those just holding tanks next to the main display?

 

[Jtleland]

Ahhh I see! So are those just holding tanks next to the main display?

Yes, sir! For quarantine purposes.

 

[Jonathan Adams]

Easy transfer I like it!

 

[Jtleland]

From the ,"nothing good happens fast" category, I had a bit of a setback in my build. I got a little ahead of myself and added two wrasse to my tank without thoroughly quarantining them and inadvertently introduced flukes into the display tank. I lost my Orange Blaze Clown in the process, and went down a rabbit hole. RIP Apollo.

I ordered a UV Sterilizer and proceeded to drop my tank salinity to 1.009 over a 6 day period, left it hyposalinity for over a week. I then installed the sterilizer and then raised the salinity back up to 1.026 over another week. I now know that everything that enters this tank will do a minimum 30 day QT.

Today I added a strip of LED lights to the inside of my sump cabinet. I was tired of having to use a flashlight to get any work done. At the moment this will remain a "fish only" tank until at least the 1st week of December since my wife and I will be out of town for our anniversary and I would hate to have our house sitter trying to maintain a newly minted reef tank.

I have a question for anyone who uses sea lettuce as their macro algae in the sump. How do you keep your lettuce from clogging the flow into the return pump area? I have a fair amount that stays on the bottom, but some floats and stays at the surface and blocks some of the flow through the sump. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[attiland]

Nice start for sure

Thank you! Are you saying that any nitrifying bacteria that I added during the cycle won't be sufficient? If I get some live rock, how should I treat it before adding it to the tank, or can I add it to my sump?

Live rock has loads of different bacteria on it and most of it not responsible for nitrifying but beneficial for your aquarium/ fish and corals. No treatment required just put it in and the magic happens. At least in the beginning I would put in the display later can be moved to the sump. A fist size will do the trick

 

[rhostam]

Congratulations on the new build! I need a UV like that!

 

[Jtleland]

A lot of things going on since my last update! I added a powder blue tang, a yellow tang, and a yellow watchman goby to the tank back around Halloween. All good on that front.

I also added a few corals after our trip to Yosemite. Added a couple of Leptoseris, some Zoas, a couple of birdsnests, a White Center GSP, an LA Lakers Turbinaria and a pulsing xenia. So far, so good!

We have a small algae bloom going on, but I'm not too worried as parameters are good and the tangs are doing their part.