Hi Everyone,
I am very excited to start the build thread for my new 90 gallon dream tank. This is going to be a heavy LPS and softie tank, I personally don't feel myself drawn towards SPS coral. I like things with flow and movement and character.
This build process actually started months ago as I started to piece together the hardware I was going to need as I came across good deals on equipment. I feel I am far enough along to formally start a build log.
I have been keeping fish tanks for over 20 years now, but always fresh water tanks. As I progressed on that side of the hobby, found that I mastered the high tech planted tank part, and to me that really is about as far as you can go with freshwater.
This was my completed 75 gallon high tech planted tank.
When the pandemic started I found myself having a little bit of extra time and money, so I thought I would give a reef tank a try. I really did not commit to it fully, only using the cheapest kit I could find incase I wasn't successful, I didn't want to waste a lot of money. Luckily I was sucessful and after having my 55 gallon up for a little over a year, I bought a house and had to move, so it was torn down.
This is how it looked towards the end of its life before it tore it down.
With the trial 55 gallon reef a success, more space and money, it is now time to move onto the big time.
From here I will be documenting the process of my 90 gallon reef tank!
Please join me for the ride!
I scored a brand new 90 gallon tank off OfferUp for $80, this has the dimensions of 48" x 18" x 24". I would have liked to go with a 120 for that additional depth, but it just didn't fit in the space I had set aside for a tank, so 90 it is.
With that I started building the stand. I like my stands very high so I can get the tank as close to eye level as I can, I think this stand is 37" tall. This is the first stand I have built that I went through the additional time and effort to build a proper cabinet around it. Usually I just wrap it in a black sheet and call it done. This was a lot more work, but I am very happy with the result, it was worth the time and effort.
Got it all painted up
After redoing the floors in the new house, it's in it's home
Fast forward here a bit, we have the tank in place, overflow and return drilled, and plumbing done
Went with a Fiji Cube 20 sump, a bit anemic for this size tank, but I needed the space under the stand for something else, we will touch on that later.
With the plumbing done, I built the floating canopy and got it into place and this is how it sits for now!
I was getting a lot of light bleed into the room with the Kessil A360X's with 55degree reflectors mounted at the BRS suggested mounting height of 13", so I found these movie light style shades to absolutely cut down on the light bleed on the walls and into the room
And that's where we're at now! Next up is to build an HNSA scape, get the scape into the tank, fill it with sand and water and get the first fish in there (after a proper QT of course).
Please join me in sharing your thoughts and suggestions, and I'm happy to answer and questions you have!
-Sean
I am very excited to start the build thread for my new 90 gallon dream tank. This is going to be a heavy LPS and softie tank, I personally don't feel myself drawn towards SPS coral. I like things with flow and movement and character.
This build process actually started months ago as I started to piece together the hardware I was going to need as I came across good deals on equipment. I feel I am far enough along to formally start a build log.
I have been keeping fish tanks for over 20 years now, but always fresh water tanks. As I progressed on that side of the hobby, found that I mastered the high tech planted tank part, and to me that really is about as far as you can go with freshwater.
This was my completed 75 gallon high tech planted tank.
When the pandemic started I found myself having a little bit of extra time and money, so I thought I would give a reef tank a try. I really did not commit to it fully, only using the cheapest kit I could find incase I wasn't successful, I didn't want to waste a lot of money. Luckily I was sucessful and after having my 55 gallon up for a little over a year, I bought a house and had to move, so it was torn down.
This is how it looked towards the end of its life before it tore it down.
With the trial 55 gallon reef a success, more space and money, it is now time to move onto the big time.
From here I will be documenting the process of my 90 gallon reef tank!
Please join me for the ride!
I scored a brand new 90 gallon tank off OfferUp for $80, this has the dimensions of 48" x 18" x 24". I would have liked to go with a 120 for that additional depth, but it just didn't fit in the space I had set aside for a tank, so 90 it is.
With that I started building the stand. I like my stands very high so I can get the tank as close to eye level as I can, I think this stand is 37" tall. This is the first stand I have built that I went through the additional time and effort to build a proper cabinet around it. Usually I just wrap it in a black sheet and call it done. This was a lot more work, but I am very happy with the result, it was worth the time and effort.
Got it all painted up
After redoing the floors in the new house, it's in it's home
Fast forward here a bit, we have the tank in place, overflow and return drilled, and plumbing done
Went with a Fiji Cube 20 sump, a bit anemic for this size tank, but I needed the space under the stand for something else, we will touch on that later.
With the plumbing done, I built the floating canopy and got it into place and this is how it sits for now!
I was getting a lot of light bleed into the room with the Kessil A360X's with 55degree reflectors mounted at the BRS suggested mounting height of 13", so I found these movie light style shades to absolutely cut down on the light bleed on the walls and into the room
And that's where we're at now! Next up is to build an HNSA scape, get the scape into the tank, fill it with sand and water and get the first fish in there (after a proper QT of course).
Please join me in sharing your thoughts and suggestions, and I'm happy to answer and questions you have!
-Sean