My 90g Build Thread

The pump is pushing about 700gph. It's not extreme by any means. I think overall it'll be ok. I just like having the ball valves in place if I need to adjust things. I didn't have that option with my current tank and it's something that has really irked me. 

Plumbing is glued and the sump is finished. Finally!

Again I apologize for camera phone picks, but when it's up and running I'll steal my wife's SLR and take some good shots.

As you can see, I returned the sump to it's original design. I figured it's something different so I'll give it a shot. The Overflow return pipes come down and drain at the 2 far ends of the sump. The far right will house the skimmer and a small carbon reactor. The far left will house the refugium with DSB, rock rubble and chaeto.


The far end tube was not glued going down into the refugium. I decided to leave it this way and built a second 6 foot long pipe. This way I can do water changes a little bit easier. We'll see how it works. I personally don't do large water changes since it's in my office, so I think it will handle the smaller water changes just fine.


Skimmer and return pump area. Egg crate helps keep big stuff from getting out of the refugium.



I installed a small shelf to hold my stuff. My tank has been just a big cluttered area with everything, so this will help keep it neat.



I set up the 3 VHO bulbs that the tank came with. I purchased an acitinic bulb to get a bluish tint. I will also have 2 150w MH pendants. Initially I'm going to use a 10k and 20k bulb, but if I don't like the color I'll switch it out for a Phoenix 14k.





I'm actually pretty impressed with the amount of light put out by the VHO's. I was thinking that the 150w's wouldn't be enough for the 90g but with those VHO's and the 150's I think I'll be just fine.

Plumbing looks good. It's very neat which I dig!

Tomorrow I'm going to put in some water and I need to design my rocks. I'm thinking of doing a tower in front of the overflow and a small pile to the right. I want to keep some open spaces, but at the same time have something very unique. We'll see what I can come up with.
I really only have LBTR to work with which doesn't have fancy shapes as most....


Edited by Luckedout - January 08 2010 at 12:07am

Ok. I totally underestimated the amount of work it was going to take to move my livestock and everything over. Granted I spent too much time on my rock work, but also some of my fish decided that moving was not for them. Apparently there was a lot of complaining about making new friends and being at a different church... 

Anyhow. Moving your livestock and corals from a 54g corner to a 90g tank makes your realize how much you don't have. This tank is looking bare right now, but hopefully it will start to fill out in the months ahead.

I added fresh oolitic sand and then put in some crushed coral and finished it off with live oolitic sand from my tank. I'm assuming the finer sand will make it's way through the crushed coral to the other sand bed and hopefully leave some good bugs and stuff on it's way.

Here's my tank with the sand in and my rock formations.


Ok. So initially I was going to build 2 towers of rocks, but then I decided that just one was needed to cover the overflow. I took a 1/2" drill and drilled through all the rocks. I used a 3/8" acrylic rod to brace the rocks in the stack. I then placed 3 small rocks at the base with just a little sand underneath. I then have the base stone on top of these. It worked well because even though it looks like it's on the the sand my hermits and starfish were going back and forth underneath it. I like how it turned out. It took me about an hour just to get this how I wanted it and make sure that it's stable enough. It's not going anywhere.





I decided to leave the other side fairly open. I want lots of room for fish and coral growth, but it also leaves me room to upgrade the structure if I see a need.





My sump. I noticed today I'm getting micro bubbles so I'm going to have to figure out where they're coming from.


Tank today with it's new inhabitants. As you can see.... lot's of empty space! We'll see how my frags start to grow out, but I'm in need of some fish too.






I also divided up my tank slightly. Softies will dominate the left side of the tank. This I will keep more shaded. The right side of the tower and the right rock formation will be a mixture of LPS and SPS.

Nemo's just happy his frogspawn made it over.


I'll share more equipment photos later. I'm just happy to have everything moved over. The only thing I lost was my royal gramma. Otherwise it was a pretty successful move! I like the tank a lot better and I've been getting a lot of good comments on it from my patients! Let me know what you think!

Thanks! My next goal is to set up an auto-top off. I have a lot more lights on this tank so I lose a lot more water to evaporation. I'm looking around at various DIY auto top offs... seeing what works.

Yeah I have an RO unit in my office. I'm tempted to just run a line through the drop ceiling over to the tank and just use a small plastic toilet float valve to turn it on and off. I think the simpler I can keep it the better. Do you see any problem with setting it up like that?

This could work OK but occasionally those valves start to leak which could be a problem. Also mounting the toilet valve in your sump could be difficult. For a sump mounted ATO connected directly to your RO unit I like the ones like the Level-Loc unit. It's simple and has backup safety features built in.

I don't have any experience using a toilet flush valve as an ATO but I have had many of them leak in my home and at my business which causes water to slowly fill the tank till it runs down the overflow tube. I would assume the same situation would exist in a reef tank.

Burt, would a regular drill bit work ok on thin acrylic if I go slow?