Cota's 90g Wave Front

[cota472]

So the first part of this starts out exactly like my Biocube thread...

After being out of the hobby for 2 years, I started getting the itch to start another tank. I started talking to my wife about it and i wanted to stay small, 30g or less, She wanted to go big. I started looking for a decent used Biocube and had a couple leads on decent ones, my wife found someone getting out completely. They had a 90g wave front and three 29g Biocubes all for sale fully setup. I ended up buying one of the Biocubes, then a week later my wife and the wife of the guy selling the tank have been talking, discussing the 90g tank. My wife talks me into buying the 90g tank as well. Decent price and it included delivery from about 50 miles away.

Equipment starts with a Marineland Surfline 90g Glass tank. This is not a bow front but a wave front. on a matching wave front stand.
Filter is a basic HOB Emperor 400 (open to suggestions of a better filter)
ESHOPPs HOB Skimmer - Appears to being a good job, I have to empty every other day or so a decent amount of dark nasty smelling liquid
AquaEruoUSA 1/4hp Chiller - Working good at keeping the tank at a good temperature
Red Sea Wavemaster Pro connected to two Hydor pumps48" Coralife Dual 150w MH with two 36" 50/50 PC
Aqua UV Sterilizer

Livestock:
2 Clownfish, Not sure which variety but they have nice color to them
1 Hawk Fish
1 Blue Tang
1 Engineer Goby, My favorite fish in this tank. about 10-12" and looks like an eel
1 huge Serpent Star, arms stretched maybe 20" or more
1 Mandarin - Eats frozen brine
6 Anemones, I thought there were 4 or 5 but moved them around to get a proper count and yes there are 6, he started with 1
various hermit crabs and snails

Before we bought the tank I was telling my wife the light was going to heat up our apartment and I would want to look into switching it over to LEDs. She said ok, but wanted to wait for a while to save up the money for it. After getting the tank setup and having it in the living room for the first day, she said "So how expensive is it going to be to get LEDs for this?" LOL. I started looking around and doing some research on it, I also belong to a local club and asked them about the LEDs. They gave me various options, some were far more than I wanted to spend on it and some were decent. In the end, I am working with a member to build a custom full spectrum LEDfixture with a digital controller. it will cost me about $600 for everything but in the end with the savings on replacement bulbs and energy savings, it will be worth it. Plus by going to LED, I should be able to turn off the chiller and save more energy costs there.

Here are a couple pics, Enjoy

Filling it up

 

Finally full and lights on but still cloudy

 

Water has cleared up now

[1.0reef]

I love wave fronts!

The tank looks great, make sure the rock cannot collapse from the gobies burrowing. The clowns look like onyx or photons, maybe mochas? Do you have better pics of them?

[cota472]

The goby has been burrowing and the rocks have started to collapse, I need to get back in there to reseat the rocks better. Here is a better pic of the clowns.

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[1.0reef]

Wow what a nice pair! Prob "mochas" (B/W + reg clowns) or fancy occies from SA

[cota472]

I have captured the hawkfish and traded him in, he has eaten several shrimp and is very aggressive. I have a new cleaner shrimp and building up the CUC again. I was thinking since the fish I have are peaceful and fairly low dwellers, maybe adding 4-5 higher swimming small schooling fish. Any thoughts?

[cota472]

I have been busy with building my LED fixture and due to an ordering mistake on my part I am missing 1 set of colors on the tank but here are a couple pics of the progress with the LEDs

Figuring out the LED placement



LEDs epoxied down and wired






LED FTS












Once I get my other colors lit, I can start tuning the colors and brightnesses.

[JDigital]

Nice work on the DIY LED unit. Looks awesome.

[cota472]

Thanks, it will look better once I get the last LEDs on. I am waiting on 4 cool blue LEDs to even out the deep red and turquoise. These are not on at all right now.

[cota472]

So after much frustration with fighting nitrate levels and cleaning my HOB filter at least once per day just to keep it flowing. I have come to the conclusion that the HOB filtration sucks. After many discussions with LFS and some of the local reefers, I am giving up on the wave front with the HOB equipment. I am moving everything this weekend to make room for a 80g with a 20g sump. I will be using my LEDs since I just built them and the new tank is the same width and length as the wave front

[slowngreen]

Bummer on having to switch, that 90g is sick! Never seen a wave front in person. If possible, Id go with a larger sump while your at it instead of later. I started with a 15g sump on my 40b and was instantly not happy with the size, theres no room for anything.

[cota472]

We moved tanks today, drained the wave front and moved everything over to the 80g. My LED fixture fit perfectly into the canopy. I still need to rearrange the rock, but so far I really like the new tank.

[Coolhandreefer]

The 80g looks great, I really like the clean look of it and it will probably be MUCH easier to maintain with the sump!

[cota472]

I spent a good amount of time moving things around last night, I found the wife's missing yuma. I hooked up the ATO and now need to figure out connecting my UV and carbon reactor.

Here is an updated pic

Also I am wondering if my clowns may have spawned, I didn't see anything, but they were very docile until I got to one rock in particular I wanted to move. Then they both went crazy attacking my hand and going under the rock as if to check on something.

[cota472]

Added some new corals and fish this weekend, here is a new pic

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