My 90 Gallon Tank

[Cliff]

I thought I would start a tank journal for my new 90 gallon, such as it is right now. The plan has always been to move all of my guys from my 55 gallon into the 90 gallon before they outgrow the 55.

I got off to a slow start. The black sand I ordered on form the LFS came was supposed to be late so I thought I would have to wait a week or two.

It’s not all bad though. I took a little extra time to move all the furniture around in the living room to try to see where the tank would look best. Good thing we did that. We ended up putting the tank in a spot I had never thought of before. The only problem with the spot is that it ran parallel with the floor beams below. I re enforced the floor with a small 3 foot load baring wall in the basement utility room below. The floor would have likely supported the weight of the full tank just fine, but I figured for the extra $30.00 of wood and 2 hours of my time, I might as well just to it and be on the safe side.

Now for some tank details,
Equipment:
Lighting – A coralife double T5 fixture with two 39 watt blubs @ 6700 K. I’m planning to upgrade the wattage latter when I get some more money. Should be fine for now as all the plants I like are low light plants. I also added three of those little blue LED moon lights for night time viewing.
Heaters – One 300W Rena smart heater which will lead into the intake of the AC70, and one 200W Rena smart heater
Filters – an Aqua clear 70 and a FX5

I built the stand myself so I could get the look I wanted as this stand is going in the living room.
( http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=64244 )

Just got some more bad news on Friday. I was supposed to get my black sub straight this past weekend but I found out from the LFS (that ordered it for me) that it was backordered by their vendor. I called around to every LFS in the city (for a second time now) and no luck. Its going to be at least another two to three weeks before I get my sub straight. As it’s going to be another two to three weeks, I might as well take another two weeks (or longer) and complete a fishless cycle. I never thought it would be so hard to get black sand. :scry:

The AC70 for this tank has been running for 5 weeks now on the 55 gallon getting seeded. I was planning to move the AC70 with my fish and all the filter media from my 405 (current filter on my 55 gallon) to the FX5. I got to say, the only thing worse than looking at a tank during the fishless cycle process, is looking at an empty one.

I guess its not all that bad. At least I won’t be cycling the 55 gallon now. I can slowly move all my guys two at a time hopefully reducing the stress on them.

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/966/thumbs/90_gallon_day_1.jpg (http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/showphoto.php?photo=18348)

[Lab_Rat]

That stand is gorgeous!

[Lady Hobbs]

My gawd. I am so impressed with you Cliff. You planned ahead, thought everything thru, took your time and have yourself a perfect set-up.

Good for you! A job nicely done!

[Cliff]

Thanks guys.

I've been trying to put a lot of thougth and effort into this tank. My wife is looking forword to this set up. I think I know how to provide a good home for my fish based on everything that I've been learning here and my access to member's advice on this forum when I have questions. I want to make sure it looks so good it will impress my wife. She is really getting into the hobby, more than the past 12 years we have had fish. I want to make her passion develope even more.

[Crispy]

lookin good.. any ideas of what you're gonna stock yet?

[R2 Ranch]

Awesome setup!!!! Hopefully, you'll get your substrate earlier than you expect. Good luck to you!!!

[Cliff]

lookin good.. any ideas of what you're gonna stock yet?

Just all the guys in my 55 gallon which are: two BN plecos, two blue firemouths, two red severums, 7 congo tetras and one Blue acara from my 36 gallon (I have to separate a breading pair as I won't be able to keep up with all that fry much longer).

Once my 55 gallon is emptied, I will be replaceing the substraight and stocking that one with peppered corys, diamond tetras, and one more school of tetras (have not decided what yet) and a rubber lip pleco.

[Cliff]

I can’t believe it, 6 weeks later and I got my sub straight. I never thought it would be so hard getting black sand

The LFS I normally go to had tried to get it in for me 4 different times from a few of their vendors. When it didn’t come in as promised this past weekend, the LSF employee that always helps me went to other LSFs to get enough sub straight together for me. I ended up with 2 large bags of black fluorite and 9 small bags of the black sand I was originally looking for. Not exactly what I wanted, but it should work out just fine.

As this LFS is a part of a national chain, I will be sending a E-mail to their head office letting them know one of their employees went the extra mile for a customer.

I have to catch a flight tonight so I’ll have to wait to wash the sub straight until I get back Thursday night.

[Yourkisa]

Congrats there Cliff on getting over that next step at last !

It's also good to hear that your putting in a good word for them in helping you out there, people are so quick to send in the bad letters, you don't get to hear often about people sending in the recomendations over the good stuff. Kudo's there.

Have a safe trip and all that stuff, and happy washing on Thursday !

Keep the pic's coming when you can, always good to see a work in progress.

[Cliff]

I completed a fishless cycle in the 90 gallon because I had to wait a 6 weeks for my sub straight to come in and the only thing worse than looking at a tank cycling, is looking at an empty one.

My Saturday morning started by rinsing the substrate followed by rinsing the substrate again and finished with rinsing the substrate once more. Once that was done, I preceded to rinse the substrate again, followed by repeating the whole substrate rinsing process two more times. As you might be able to tell, I hate cleaning sand substrate. I’d sooner get dental work done. I thought that stuff would never get clean. But in the end, it was worth the effort (crystal clear water). I drained all the water from the tank and put the substrate in along with my DIY cave that I made followed by the new drift wood I got for the tank. I filled the 90 gallon ½ full with fresh water and moved the plants from the 55 gallon into the 90 gallon.

I then started to remove the fish into temporary buckets about ½ full. Silly me, I thought they would be easy to catch with all the stuff taken out of the tank. I hate Murphy’s law. We had a ½ hour power failure right in the middle of catching the fish. When power came back on and the fish were out, it was time for to move two filters. The FX5 had some seed media before I started the cycle on the 90 gallon, did not need to do anything with it. I had bought the AC70 about 2 months ago and had it running on the 55 gallon to get it seeded so I could just move it to the 90 gallon. I also moved the 405 I had on the 55 gallon and placed it in the 90 gallon. The 405 is only going to be there for a week or two. I want to keep the 405 seeded while I redo the 55 gallon and then I will move it back. Lastly was minor adjustments to placing the two 300 watt rena smart heaters. I cut off the intake screen of the AC70 and added a ½” tube on the Rena 300W heater which I placed inside the intake of the AC70. This was the only way I figured I could get a good amount of water flowing through the heater as the AC 70 intake is much larger than the ½” tube opening on the rena.

The last step was to acclimate the fish to the new water conditions then place them in the tank.

The whole process would have gone a lot smother without the power failure.

Did I mention that I washed the sub straight?

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/966/thumbs/90_Gallon_day_11.jpg (http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/showphoto.php?photo=18483)

It’s been almost 18 hours now, no signs of a mini-cycle, all parameters at 0 (PH7.6). Everyone seems to be adjusting to there new environment OK. The cichlids were very stressed during the move, but they seemed to start to get over the stress of the move within about 1 hour after being in the 90 gallon. They’ve started coming out of the little hiding spots they found and are exploring their new home. They should be ready for food in the morning.

[Oskar]

Beautiful tank and stand.

[MCHRKiller]

Tank looks great! Looks like you have some healthy looking plants there as well :22:

[Cliff]

Thanks for the replies

Jenn, after re-reading your replies to my other thread, I did end up putting a additional light fixture on the tank to make sure the watts/gallon were (at least) the same as my 55. I didn't realize (at the time) I was a little too aggressive cutting back on the lighting. I'm right around 1.5 watts/gallon at 6700K now, just like the lighting on my 55.

[ohmikeosh]

Looks awesome, I love that black sand it was worth the wait though. Wish I would of done that. thumbs2: what are those moss ball things called and how do you keep them down? Looks great!

[Cliff]

Mike, the two smaller one are moss balls made (made by one of the store's vendors I assume) using java moss, and the two larger ones are naturally occurring marimo moss balls. You just have to sweeze out the air as best you can then wait a day or two and they sink on their own. The made ones sank right away.

[MCHRKiller]

I think youve got a good amount of light on there now, very acceptable amount for the plants and HOT5s are more efficient so WPG for them doesnt need to be so high. Im sure the tank will do very well for you :22:

[Cliff]

It's been up and running for 3 weeks now without any problems. There was no mini cycle or spike after moving everything over from the old 55 gallon tank.

I've added a few more plants consisting of: two Lutea plants, an oinion plant, and a mistry plant the guy from the LFS had no idea what is was so sold it to me for 1/2 price :hmm3grin2orange: . I moved some of the plants around and added one more large moss ball as well.

I'l still trying to decide if I want more Java Fern or some Java moss on the pc of drift wood you see on the left hand side of the tank.

So far the fish seem to be doing very well and I can hardly wait to see these plants grow.

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/966/thumbs/90_gallon_2.jpg (http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/showphoto.php?photo=18649)

[SpyderSpy6]

Looks really awesome!

Do your cichlids mess with your plants?

[Cliff]

SpyderSpy, my fire mouths spend most of their time sifting through the sand. The blue acara doesn’t bother with any of the plants, neither do the severums. However, the severums will munch on the smaller moss balls and they just love the cucumber I put in the tank for the plecos

[Pleco380]

Amazing tank! I love the stand too.

[Cliff]

The AC70 I had on the tank as my second filter did not sit right on the top frame of the tank. It sat about 1” higher than it should have and the sound of constant water falling was distracting. So I replaced it with a XP2

This is my first XP filter and I love it. It’s a very good filter. I love how you can adjust the spray bar to aerate the water at the surface.

Still have the FX5 running, but you wouldn’t know it by how quite it is

Two outstanding filters

[Cliff]

I had to make a few changes to my lighting when I had a switch on the fixture short out on me. I also took the 405 off the tank (was just keeping it there to keep it cycled for my 55 gallon). I moved the XP2 spray bar near the FX5 spray nozzle to increase the water surface agitation. I’ve been adding more plants here and there all week now. I think I’ve got the plants figured out.

I’m still debating whether or not to grow some java moss on some of the driftwood

Any suggestions would be appreciated. :22:

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/966/thumbs/90_gallon_week_4.jpg (http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/showphoto.php?photo=18699)

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/966/thumbs/90_gallon_week4_2_.jpg (http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/showphoto.php?photo=18700)

[tori.lock]

I personally love the look of moss growing on drift wood. It might be nice if you add a little clump at the top of the tallest part of drift wood and trailing down. I just think that it always makes it look a little more natural. It keeps it natural and rough without removing the clean aspect of a more modern tank.

[Cliff]

Thanks Tori.lock

I think I'll order some java moss and give it a try.

[promise]

Hey cliff whats the plant in the lower left front corner? i like it alot

[rothenb1]

Looks great! Nice looking congo tetras, they're really neat.

[Cliff]

Hey cliff whats the plant in the lower left front corner? i like it alot

The tall plant is a onion plant (forgot the tech name)

The smaller one in front of the cave is a Undulata (Cryptocoryne undulata),



Thanks for the replies everyone

[promise]

undulate is the flowering one, i like it. and i love the tank too, very nice set-up