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Brad's 90 gallon mixed reef


Starkeyb

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For this build I am using a standard perfecto 90 gallon tank. I bought this tank new about 4 years ago and it has housed african cichlids from then until now. A friend of mine got me interested in salt water. I started about a year ago with a jbj 3 gallon pico then moved on to a 20h nano reef. I didn’t like how I was ignoring my 90 gallon in my living room to spend all my time with the 20 gallon. So, no more fresh water for me. I plan on this being a bare bottom mixed reef. I’m not sure how I’m going to like the bare bottom look, but I will start out with no sand.

 

FTS; 7/4/14

 

http://s264.photobucket.com/user/jeep303/media/90%20gallon%20reef/IMG_3723_zps58fe5e80.jpg.html'>IMG_3723_zps58fe5e80.jpg

 

Equipment List:

 

90 gallon tank drilled and overflow installed

Pan World 50PX-X return pump

DYI LED - A mix of LED Group Buy and Rapid LED parts.

Aqueon Proflex Sump

AquaC EV120 Skimmer

Apex Lite

1 Hydor Koralia Evolution 1500GPH and 1 WP40

BRS Dual canister carbon/gfo reactor

Single float switch ATO from www.autotopoff.com (for now)

500w Finnex Deluxe heating tube

 

Here is the build!

 

First step was I made my own rock. I started with the rock because of the cure time. I’m trying to keep costs low where I can so I did the portland cement/crushed oyster shell thing. I will also transfer my rock from my 20 gallon as well.

 

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Next, my tank needs an overflow. Went to BRS for a glass drill bit, internal overflow box and a bulkhead. I bought the 1200gph internal overflow and a 1.5 inch bulkhead and drill bit. I think maybe 1.5 inch pipe for the overflow may be overkill…but I guess that’s better then too small in this case. Drilling the glass was a little stressful, but I got it done without any issues.

 

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I also bought some equipment from a buddy for a very good price. He also has a 90 gallon reef and in the last year he has done a lot of upgrades, so I bought his old stuff. For a few hundred dollars I got a proflex sump, an Aqua C EV 120 skimmer, and a 6 bulb Nova Extreme Pro. I will also be using my Apex lite from my current tank.

 

Next I will be working on the stand. Hopefully I will have pics of the stand build in a few days.

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Stand got started today.

 

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My plan was to put this tank in the basement in our rec room. However, today my wife told me she would like to have it in the living room so she could see it and show it off. Along with this came a little more room in the budget for the tank, so I ordered a bunch more stuff. Pretty much all I need to do is get the stand built and finish curing the rock.

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Finally got back to working on the stand. I wanted to get farther along then I did but at least its progress. I'm getting frustrated because the stand is the hold up at the moment. I got a bunch of stuff this week and I'm ready to start plumbing!

 

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Doors done minus one piece of trim because I didn't buy enough...doh!

 

Doh! I hate when this happens to me. :angry:

 

So close. So close. :D

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Ok, good progress today. Stand mostly done. Plumbing mostly done. I hope to leak test before I go out of town next week. I don't know how long my rocks are going to take but the PH is still really high in the water tubs. I've been changing the water every day.

 

Anyway...new pics...

 

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My rocks took about eight weeks to fully cure. I changed water about every day. I made sure to remove the scale off the top of the water too by pouring it off the top.

 

It looks great IMO.:)

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My rocks took about eight weeks to fully cure. I changed water about every day. I made sure to remove the scale off the top of the water too by pouring it off the top.

 

It looks great IMO. :)

 

The past few weeks I have been doing water changes every day. Before that, It was probably more like every 2-3 days. I'm going out of town for a week so that will prolong this process unless they magically finish up in the next couple days.

 

I filled the tank from my garden hose today to test out my plumbing ability and see how it all works...test went well. I'm going to drain it all out when I put the rocks in then start the process of refilling with ro di water.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I really like the "openess" of the stack. It almost looks woven in the section with the long horizontal pieces. I also like that the left is slightly higher than the right.

 

I usually find that I start moving stuff around as I add coral. :)

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BattleAthletics

Just about ready for stain! Im ready for this stand to be done.

 

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Holy Jesus, if he made cabinet/stands it would look like this.

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I really like the "openess" of the stack. It almost looks woven in the section with the long horizontal pieces. I also like that the left is slightly higher than the right.

 

I usually find that I start moving stuff around as I add coral. :)

 

Thanks. I'm just going to leave it like this for now. Like you said, I will have to adjust things as I go. I got the tank about 80% full of ro water. By morning I should have enough to finish up and fill the sump.

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  • 3 weeks later...

OK sorry for taking so long to update. Tank is doing well. I had a small spike of ammonia for a couple days. Never got higher then .25 though. Other then that its all cycled. I have a little reorganizing to do in my cabinet, but for the most part im happy with everything.

 

I've had my frogspawn, candy cane, duncan , and some zoas from my old tank plus my clown fish living in the tank for a couple weeks. I just received a shipment from reefs2go this morning with 7 green chromis, fire and ice zoas, icyhot zoas, and a platygyra. The zoas are still closed up. Here are some general pics, I will update my equipment list and take more pictures when I have time.

 

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Looks great brad!

 

Thanks dude!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just updated my first post with a current FTS and equipment list. Tank is doing very well it seems. I'm getting my calcium and alkalinity dosing dialed in. From here I want to add a few more fish. I want a mandarin, I have pods all over my tank so I think I can support one of those now. Then I just need to collect some more corals and wait for my current stuff to grow out a little. I think my next few coral purchases will continue to be softies or lps. I want to try some sps in a few months. Also I can't was to upgrade my lighting. I am eyeing up the AI Hydra and the Kessil A360. I think I'm leaning more toward the Hydra since Apex is coming out with their new lighting wizard that works with the Hydra.

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Also I can't was to upgrade my lighting. I am eyeing up the AI Hydra and the Kessil A360. I think I'm leaning more toward the Hydra since Apex is coming out with their new lighting wizard that works with the Hydra.

 

Just an FYI, Neptune supports Kessil A360 on the Apex. It's just two 10V DC channels, one for brightness and one for spectrum. You need a special cable that BRS sells for the A360 that converts the two 10V DC Apex channels into the 1/4" Stereo Jack that Kessil uses (which is a genius solution by the way).

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Just an FYI, Neptune supports Kessil A360 on the Apex. It's just two 10V DC channels, one for brightness and one for spectrum. You need a special cable that BRS sells for the A360 that converts the two 10V DC Apex channels into the 1/4" Stereo Jack that Kessil uses (which is a genius solution by the way).

 

Yeah I really like the A360. Im still don't know which light I would want but its going to be awhile before I buy new lights.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Well, I made a few online purchases and all of the sudden I find myself going to DYI LED route. It has taken me a couple evenings to get to this point. I hope to have the light at least partially working by this time tomorrow.

 

What I got so far:

 

36 inch makersled heatsink

14 cree xp-g cool white

14 cree xp-e blue

14 cree xt-e royal blue

4 cree xp-e green

4 luxeon deep red

4 used mean well dimmable drivers

 

Still need:

 

2 dimmable nano drivers

2 total spectrum uv leds

1 more apex vdm module

 

At a minimum tomorrow I hope to have the white, blue and royal blue circuits running tomorrow and have the tank supported by only the led fixture. If I have enough time I also would like to have the red and green running too. The red and green however, would have to be running on the same channel due to only have 4 channels available on the apex and only having 4 drivers at the moment.

 

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