Dave's 90 Gallon Upgrade, a WV Reef Tank

[Dave21]

I've never done this before but thought it would be fun to journal my new tank upgrade and share my experience with the tank, products and design as I go along. I got into the hobby about a year and half ago with a 29 gallon and have learned a lot along the way. My family and I have really enjoyed the first tank and we decided to upgrade. My first post will be a little lengthy because I'm catching up to where I'm at now. I've been trying to make this a budget friendly tank so have tried to utilize used items, DIY, and budget friendly products. I did splurge on a few items for added security and convenience such as an Ink Bird WiFi Temperature Controller, ATO, and water level sensor.

 

So I started with an older 90 gallon tank with homemade stand I found on Facebook Marketplace.

 

I've been successful with my 29 gallon using a Tidal HOB filter but for this build decided I wanted to try a sump. Due to the dimensions of the stand I had limited options for sump size. And again since I'm trying to keep this build budget friendly, I decided to build my own sump. A 20 gallon long turned out to be the biggest I could fit. I was able to get a tank for $25 on sale from a LFS and picked up one of the generic DIY sump kits on eBay. I layed out the sump to have a 15inch refugium space in the middle and left enough space (though tight) in the first chamber to fit a Bubble Matus Z-7 space saving skimmer if I want to add a skimmer down the road.

 

 

Next I debated on drilling the tank but decided against it due to the age of the tank. I decided on the eshopps PF-1000 overflow box with U tubes after talking with a local guy who has used hang on boxes for years. Additionally the PF-1000 has a nice feature that in the event the return pump kicks off, there is a small plastic dam in the bottom of the overflow box that prevents the siphon from breaking and will restart automatically. I went with the PF-1000 instead of the 800 because it had two bulkheads instead of one and I wanted to run a herbie style overflow to keep the tank ultra quiet. As an added safety I picked up an Auto Aqua Smart Outlet that detects the water level and will shut off the power to the return pump if the display water gets too high (e.g. siphon break). After testing multiple times I'm totally confident the chance of overflowing is next to zero. The return pump kicks off within 30 seconds when the U tubes are removed and the 20 gallon still has approx. 3inches of space when testing the event of a power outage (unplugging the return pump).

 

 

For a background I did not want to paint the glass in case I ever decided to change the color or use the tank for something else one day. I also couldn't find a background online or at the fish store that I really liked so came up with the idea to paint a 24in x 48in light panel for a drop ceiling. My wife and I picked out a dark blue paint (it looks much darker than the photo), painted the semi smooth side of the panel, and faded the paint as it got to the top to give it a bit of a surface water look by lightly showing some of the fogged white of the panel. I'm really happy with how this came out and the texture of the panel gave it a nice effect when mounted behind the tank.

 

 

Moving on to substrate and rock work I was able to find a steal on Facebook Marketplace and picked up 40 lbs of dead rock for $10 bucks! I used the bleach method to clean the rock and picked up another 50lb box of Caribsea Moani to add to it. I decided to use Caribsea Special grade for the sandbed and was able to get a great deal at Petco. I put in approx 60lbs of sand to give me an even 1.75'' to 2'' sandbed over the entire tank.

 

 

Moving onto lighting I did a lot of research and posted on here to get suggestions. I got good suggestions from everyone but ultimately decided to give the Amazon SmatFarm 95W lights a try. I found some info online with people sharing some par numbers ( https://www.reddit.com/r/ReefTank/comments/yr47gp/smatfarm_95w_g5_led_par_measurements_settings_21/ )that looked good and on my 29 gallon I've actually had good success with one of the cheap $50 bar lights. So far I really like the features of the SmatFarm and overall color of the light output and the ability to adjust the six individual spectrums. The light also has a nice sunrise, sunset, and moonlight feature.  Now will they grow coral we will see as in the coming months but for $250 total delivered it was worth a try. The lights are allegedly supposed to fit a rimmed aquarium but would only fit if I trimmed the rim and made some modification, which I did not want to do. So I decided to stain and mount a 2x4 behind the tank to mount the lights on.

 

 

Lastly I hate having to remember to top off water and like the stability of an ATO so picked up an Auto Aqua ATO from Amazon. I've been running one for about a year and a half on my 29 gallon and it has been one of the best investments I've made into that tank! Since space was limited under the tank and I didn't want the top off bucket visible, I was able to run the fill line and pump wire into the closet where I keep my RODI filter and the rest of my fish stuff. I was really happy with the clean look this gives the tank when everything is closed up.

 

 

That brings us to where I'm at now. I started cycling the exactly tank two weeks ago today with Fluval bottled bacteria and dosing ammonia to 2ppm. Today my ammonia test came back as zero but I'm still measuring 2-3ppm nitrites so not quite ready to add the first fish. Below is the stocking listing we've come up with.

 

1. Pair of Clownfish
2. Firefish
3. Coral Beauty
4. Yellow Tang
5. YWM Goby (or Diamond Goby) with Pistol Shrimp
6. 3 or 4 blue-green Chromis
7. Fire Shrimp

 

 

 

1. 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

6 hours ago, Dave21 said:

I've never done this before but thought it would be fun to journal my new tank upgrade and share my experience with the tank, products and design as I go along. I got into the hobby about a year and half ago with a 29 gallon and have learned a lot along the way. My family and I have really enjoyed the first tank and we decided to upgrade. My first post will be a little lengthy because I'm catching up to where I'm at now. I've been trying to make this a budget friendly tank so have tried to utilize used items, DIY, and budget friendly products. I did splurge on a few items for added security and convenience such as an Ink Bird WiFi Temperature Controller, ATO, and water level sensor.

 

So I started with an older 90 gallon tank with homemade stand I found on Facebook Marketplace.

 

I've been successful with my 29 gallon using a Tidal HOB filter but for this build decided I wanted to try a sump. Due to the dimensions of the stand I had limited options for sump size. And again since I'm trying to keep this build budget friendly, I decided to build my own sump. A 20 gallon long turned out to be the biggest I could fit. I was able to get a tank for $25 on sale from a LFS and picked up one of the generic DIY sump kits on eBay. I layed out the sump to have a 15inch refugium space in the middle and left enough space (though tight) in the first chamber to fit a Bubble Matus Z-7 space saving skimmer if I want to add a skimmer down the road.

 

 

Next I debated on drilling the tank but decided against it due to the age of the tank. I decided on the eshopps PF-1000 overflow box with U tubes after talking with a local guy who has used hang on boxes for years. Additionally the PF-1000 has a nice feature that in the event the return pump kicks off, there is a small plastic dam in the bottom of the overflow box that prevents the siphon from breaking and will restart automatically. I went with the PF-1000 instead of the 800 because it had two bulkheads instead of one and I wanted to run a herbie style overflow to keep the tank ultra quiet. As an added safety I picked up an Auto Aqua Smart Outlet that detects the water level and will shut off the power to the return pump if the display water gets too high (e.g. siphon break). After testing multiple times I'm totally confident the chance of overflowing is next to zero. The return pump kicks off within 30 seconds when the U tubes are removed and the 20 gallon still has approx. 3inches of space when testing the event of a power outage (unplugging the return pump).

 

 

For a background I did not want to paint the glass in case I ever decided to change the color or use the tank for something else one day. I also couldn't find a background online or at the fish store that I really liked so came up with the idea to paint a 24in x 48in light panel for a drop ceiling. My wife and I picked out a dark blue paint (it looks much darker than the photo), painted the semi smooth side of the panel, and faded the paint as it got to the top to give it a bit of a surface water look by lightly showing some of the fogged white of the panel. I'm really happy with how this came out and the texture of the panel gave it a nice effect when mounted behind the tank.

 

 

Moving on to substrate and rock work I was able to find a steal on Facebook Marketplace and picked up 40 lbs of dead rock for $10 bucks! I used the bleach method to clean the rock and picked up another 50lb box of Caribsea Moani to add to it. I decided to use Caribsea Special grade for the sandbed and was able to get a great deal at Petco. I put in approx 60lbs of sand to give me an even 1.75'' to 2'' sandbed over the entire tank.

 

 

Moving onto lighting I did a lot of research and posted on here to get suggestions. I got good suggestions from everyone but ultimately decided to give the Amazon SmatFarm 95W lights a try. I found some info online with people sharing some par numbers ( https://www.reddit.com/r/ReefTank/comments/yr47gp/smatfarm_95w_g5_led_par_measurements_settings_21/ )that looked good and on my 29 gallon I've actually had good success with one of the cheap $50 bar lights. So far I really like the features of the SmatFarm and overall color of the light output and the ability to adjust the six individual spectrums. The light also has a nice sunrise, sunset, and moonlight feature.  Now will they grow coral we will see as in the coming months but for $250 total delivered it was worth a try. The lights are allegedly supposed to fit a rimmed aquarium but would only fit if I trimmed the rim and made some modification, which I did not want to do. So I decided to stain and mount a 2x4 behind the tank to mount the lights on.

 

 

Lastly I hate having to remember to top off water and like the stability of an ATO so picked up an Auto Aqua ATO from Amazon. I've been running one for about a year and a half on my 29 gallon and it has been one of the best investments I've made into that tank! Since space was limited under the tank and I didn't want the top off bucket visible, I was able to run the fill line and pump wire into the closet where I keep my RODI filter and the rest of my fish stuff. I was really happy with the clean look this gives the tank when everything is closed up.

 

 

That brings us to where I'm at now. I started cycling the exactly tank two weeks ago today with Fluval bottled bacteria and dosing ammonia to 2ppm. Today my ammonia test came back as zero but I'm still measuring 2-3ppm nitrites so not quite ready to add the first fish. Below is the stocking listing we've come up with.

 

1. Pair of Clownfish
2. Firefish
3. Coral Beauty
4. Yellow Tang
5. YWM Goby (or Diamond Goby) with Pistol Shrimp
6. 3 or 4 blue-green Chromis
7. Fire Shrimp

 

 

 

1. 

 

 

I like your scape! 🙂 

[Dave21]

21 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I like your scape! 🙂 

Thanks! It took a couple weeks of the wife and I playing around with it before we were satisfied with the results. 

[debbeach13]

Wow what a nice system. I hope you enjoy for years. I also really like that scape. 

[Cyprinodont]

Always love to see some DIY and less-than-top-of-the-line equipment being used. I'm also running my nano on a seachem tidal filter and I love it. Curious about those lights and how they compare to the $500-900 level ones. 

 

Any plans on coral stocking?

[Dave21]

On 2/7/2023 at 9:48 AM, Cyprinodont said:

Always love to see some DIY and less-than-top-of-the-line equipment being used. I'm also running my nano on a seachem tidal filter and I love it. Curious about those lights and how they compare to the $500-900 level ones. 

 

Any plans on coral stocking?

I found a lot of good reviews and positive feedback on forums but didn't find a whole lot of information on PAR numbers or photos showing growth. The Reddit post I referenced aboe  was about the only post I found sharing some PAR numbers and they look pretty good. I planned to post some pictures through the end of the year showing if and how they grow coral in case it helps someone else out. First impression I'm impressed with the quality and light. I really like the visual colors, being able to set the spectrum of each light channel etc. The display, settings, and controls are pretty simple which I liked.

 

I'd like to stock the following corals but I'm sure I might end up finding other corals that catch my eye either on local Facebook groups or my LFS lol.

 

• A Toadstool of some sort (I really like tanks I've seen that have a large one as a main piece on one of the sides)
• Bubble coral, probably regular blue coloring unless I found a good deal on a neon green one
• Pulsing Xenia, probably will just move some from my current tank.
• Assortment of different colored Mushrooms.
• Trumpet Coral
• Goniopora
• GSP
• Some sort of Hammer Coral
• Plating Montipora
• Birds Nest

Once the tank gets established I'd like to add an anemone and try and get my clownfish to host it. I'm not 100% set on what I want to do for clownfish. I'm debating just adding a pair of standard clownfish or some color variation or a single Lightening Maroon. I've heard I'd have to stick with a single Maroon if I go that route because they are difficult to pair.

 

 

 

On 2/7/2023 at 7:24 AM, debbeach13 said:

Wow what a nice system. I hope you enjoy for years. I also really like that scape. 

Thanks!

[Dave21]

Update: So the tank finally finished cycleing. It took three and a half weeks total using Fritz bottled ammonia, dry rock and dry sand with Fluval bottled bacteria. After about 2 weeks ammonia finally dropped to zero but nitrites were still over 2ppm. So I did a small dose of ammonia to keep the bacteria that feed off it sustained and after another week and a half the nitrites finally came down to zero. I did one more test dose which processed in 24hrs so we were good to go. 

 

I did a near 100% water change to bring nitrates down to about 5ppm (pic above is before water change) and the family went up to our LFS to pick our first fish. 

 

We were originally looking for a pair of some type of ocellaris clowns or a lighting maroon clown; however, when we got there i let my 5 year old pick and she really wanted a pair of tomato clownfish they had so we went with them. Now we're waiting on her to finish deciding their names lol. 

 

After the first day they settled in are eating and have already started exploring their new home. 

 

[Dave21]

It's been a while so figured it was time for an update. Tanks been go great. The two clowns have settled in and we added a new addition, Triton the Midas Blenny. He wasn't on our original stocking plan but saw him and loved his swimming style so decided to swap out the firefish plans for him. 

 

 

He's picked a nice home right up front on the front top of the left rockscape. Which I couldn't have picked a better spot for since you can see him all day long. 

 

Also started adding some hermits, nassarious snails, and transfered some trochus snails from my 29 gallon (they've actually been successfully breeding in my 29 gallon and I have dozens of them from just starting with 5). 

 

I had one hiccup when a spot show up on my one clown that I panicked and thought might have been ich but fortunately just turned out to be a piece of sand or something stuck to him for a day. This was probably a good thing because it prompted me to set up a small quarantine tank for future additions. Since this tank is going to be a long term tank I want to avoid issues popping up. Fortunately it fit nicely below my 29 gallon. 

[Lebowski_]

Stunning scape

[Dave21]

It's been a while since i've logged an update, been a busy summer but wanted to share some updates. 

 

Tanks been coming along good with an addition every month or so. The ugly stage was actually pretty quick. I got a bit of the brown hair algae pop up on the rocks and sand so sent some pics to reefcleaners who do a great job with putting together a cleanup crew. I picked up a conch and assortment  of snails/hermits that along with some more frequent water changes got it knocked out in a few weeks. 

 

Since then the rock has darkened up nicely to a dark purple/blue grey color. 

 

We eneded up going off our stocking list a bit and now have the two tomato clowns, midas blenny, a yellow blotched rabbitfish, coral beauty, three banggai cardinalfish, and just added a diamond goby this weekend who went right to work digging a den under one of the rocks. 

 

We also picked up a fire shrimp a couple months ago and sally lightfoot crab. 

 

For coral we placed some xenia, a couple toadstools, some type green branching soft coral (picked up on Facebook), an sps branch coral, kenya tree frag, some green mushrooms, ricordea mushroom, and plating monti. So far all seem to be doing good and growing except the one green toadstool is struggling. I actually had it in my other tank where it was the only coral that struggled. I had hoped it might do better in this tank but is still having the same issue. 

 

So overall we're really happy with how things are progressing. Still would like to add more coral and maybe a couple more fish to add a bit more coral and a couple cleaner shrimp. 

[Lebowski_]

Looking great.

[Dave21]

Thanks! 

 

We're thinking our next addition will be a pistol shrimp next month with a YWM goby. I didnt realize until after picking up the diamond goby that they typically wont pair up with pistol shrimp. 

 

On a side note after introducing the diamond on Saturday we havent seen him since. I have a tight lid with only small notches for the overflow U tubes and return line and havent seen him anywhere outside of the tank so dont think he jumped. 

 

We havent been able to find him anywhere in the tank or in the one borrow he dug anytime day or night. Rock was all set on the glass before filling around with sand so I dont think he could have gotten crushed. 

 

I know its only been 3 days and I assume he made it but how long before we should assume he didnt and was cleaned up by the snails and crabs?

[Dave21]

An update, the goby finally made an apperance after about two weeks and is starting to come out more. I was also able to get my camera figured out to take some better pictures without them washing out to a blue color. 

 

Also was able to move some more coral to the tank, mainly a nice candy cane and a bubble coral. 

 

 

Now that ive been able to take some decent pics below are some photos of where the tanks finally at about 6 months in. Also so far im not sure how the lights are doing. The color functionality etc is excellent. Just not sure how coral growth is yet. The coral all open up but just not seeing a ton of growth, but i know it took some time in my 29 gallon before they started taking off. Time will tell!

 

 

[WV Reefer]

19 hours ago, Dave21 said:

An update, the goby finally made an apperance after about two weeks and is starting to come out more. I was also able to get my camera figured out to take some better pictures without them washing out to a blue color. 

 

Also was able to move some more coral to the tank, mainly a nice candy cane and a bubble coral. 

 

 

Now that ive been able to take some decent pics below are some photos of where the tanks finally at about 6 months in. Also so far im not sure how the lights are doing. The color functionality etc is excellent. Just not sure how coral growth is yet. The coral all open up but just not seeing a ton of growth, but i know it took some time in my 29 gallon before they started taking off. Time will tell!

 

 

Looks nice.