My 90 Reef Journal

[Cliff]

I’m starting my reef tank journal early in the process of setting up my first reef tank

I’m going to start off with a FOWLR set-up stocking reef friendly fish. Once I have learned from that, and the tank seems established, I will slowly add corals from there. Here’s what I have so far for equipment



90 gallon tank, drilled for a sump lines with a built in over box
30 gallon sump (I traded off the 40 I originally had)
Red Sea Berlin X2 protein skimmer ( I will have to up-grade when adding corals)
Aquaglobe Model AQ600 wet/dry pump
Double T5 light future with 108 watts and 10000K of light
Nova RO/DI system (still waiting for a few parts to come in that I ordered for it).

Equipment I have left to get:
3 power heads. Still trying to figure out which ones would be best for the coral that I like
Proper lighting for coral, I’m going for really good quality lighting so I will have a lot of options for picking coral.
Dry and Live sand, about 2" on the bottom
Dry and live rock, about 100lbs in total

Initial stocking list:
Two clown fish
Two Fox Face
Three or four blennies
One Yellow Tang (still need to confirm I could keep him in my 90)

My next steps are to build a stand for this set-up and re-silicone the 90 gallon tank. Once that is done, I’ll clean-up every, out it together to check for leaks, and make sure everything works as it should

[sheamurai]

On your way! Good luck and enjoy the ride, lol.

[Cliff]

So here’s my latest up-date for my 90 gallon SW set-up

Not much to look at yet as it is still a work in progress.

I know it doesn’t look it, but I have actually put a lot of work into the set-up so far. As the silicone in the tank looked like it was starting to lift in a few spots, I removed all of the outer seal and replaced the silicon. Better safe than sorry.

I’ve also built a stand for this set-up. I spent quite a lot of time looking at stand designs. I made a removable panel on one end of the stand so I can remove the sump when/if needed. The back and front are close enough to being exactly the same, so if we move and I need the panel on the other side, all I have to do is move the doors to the other side. I have enough room inside the stand to up-grade to a 55 gallon sump, should I feel the need for a bigger sump in the future (who am I kidding, I mean when I up-grade the sump). I also made the stand as high as I felt practical to allow for a bigger skimmer and a light should I need them in the future. My wife and I could not decide on wither we wanted to finish the stand with a medium brown stain (like the rest of our furniture) or paint it black. I ended up using a black stain instead. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but it looks like black paint and you can still see almost all of the grain in the wood. I still have a little work left to complete on the stand. I need to sand it a little, give it another coat of urethane, and put the doors on it. I also need a little trim work on the top around the tank to give it a more finished look. We really like the look of it in the room. The black makes it stand out and it looks good.





I set-up the sump and water tested everything last night. Every worked as it should. The only thing I have to fix is the drain line into the sump. There’s a small leak somewhere. I think I might have forgotten the Teflon tape on the bulk head fitting. I’ll just have to take it apart and reseal all of the threads. Once I got that fixed, I will run water through the system for about a week or two to make sure there are no leaks in the tank or sump. Just want a pc of mind as I bought them used (approx 10 years old).

When I tested the return pump, everything worked great. The level inside the sump stays at somewhere between 8 and 9” in the skimmer compartment, and around 6” in the rest. I even unplugged the pump to see what would happen when the power goes out. The water in the tank drained to just below the return line in the tank and the sump filled up to the top. No water on the floor. I plugged it back in and the water levels returned to the past levels. I’ll just have to make sure I don’t have any rock or corals that could be higher than the return line. I won’t need a one way valve on the return line either which is good as that can restrict the flow. I made sure I had left some room to the right of the sump for a external pump. That side of the sump is drilled so I would like to up-grade my return pump at some point to use a external pump increasing the available space in the sump if I decide not to get a bigger sump. Right now the flow is somewhere between 1200 and 1400 gph based on last night’s test. I can’t really go much higher than 1400 gph with a 1.5” drain line unless I increase it to a 2” drain line or adding a second drain line.





As I don’t like the look of equipment in my tanks, I covered the return line in the tank with dry rock. It looks less unnatural now. I also took a pc of clear plastic cut the same size as the internal overflow box and siliconed rock to it. I will attach this rock covered plastic to the overflow box when I’m ready to cycle the tank. I did not want to attach the rock directly to the overflow box itself in case I don’t like it or want to change it latter.



This weekend I’ll be setting up my RO unit and making a few DIY caves to stack my rock on when I get enough $$$ together for it.



The only things I have left to get is: the rock, sand, two more power heads, and a phosphate reactor, and then I’m ready for fish. It will be a FOWLR tank for a while until I can afford to turn it into a reef tank. I will be up-grading my lighting and skimmer before I will add any corals. I’m also going to make a canopy for this set-up when the weather is better as I will have to complete this work in my un-heated garage.

[sheamurai]

looking good so far!
A lot of forethought going into this, very impressive!

[Cliff]

Not too much of a up-date this time

I finally got around to setting up my RO unit this past week. I got a 4 stage unit with 75 gallon per day capacity and a 4 gallon storage tank. I tried mounting it under the sink, but it would not fit. I wanted the unit to be in the basement. I was the one that made the cabinets in the basement and when I did, I wasn’t thinking about a RO unit. So I just set-up everything on the counter. That should be for the best. My employer still wants to transfer me out of Saskatoon so I’ll play it safe for a while just in case I get an offer I can’t say no to.



I got a second holding tank for it to increase the holding capacity of the RO water to just under 10 gallons. That way we will always have water available for our own use even when I would need to complete a water change on the tank. I just need to get a “T” fitting to connect both tanks (I accidently bought the wrong size fitting). I’m going to try to take care of that today. Those fittings are hard to find.

[labnjab]

Looks like your off top a great start. I would have thought the return would be in the overflow to keep it hidden, thats how our is. I like the rocks covering the return. Once its all covered in coraline you won't be able to tell its there


You'd be amazed at the amount of water you will go through in a week between top offs and water changes. You'll probably find those storage tanks won't be enough without you having to fill them daily. I use roughly 2-3 gallons a day top off plus 10 gallons a week for water changes. I personally use large rubbermaid totes for water storage. I have a 25 gallon used for mixing saltwater and a 18 gallon for ro/di. I have a float valve rigged up in the ro/di tote so I can fill it and not worry about overfilling it. Both totes are in the fish room and ro/di unit is in the kitchen. I just ran about 30 feet of the ro/di tubing along the ceiling from the kitchen to the fish room. Then I just turn it on and forget it.