Bloke's 90g Build Thread

[Bloke]

Well, I did not get as much accomplished today, but I did manage to fine tune a few things.

On the return line, I did not like the hole drilled in the 1" to 3/4" reducing elbow, so I replaced it. It was spraying water through that hole into the tank and making a lot of noise. I know the hole is drilled in the elbow to act as a back syphon, but the sump I am using was originally used on a 150g tank and even if the 90g does back syphon to the bottom of the locline, there will still be plenty of room in the sump in the event of a power outage. Oh, I also bought some new locline and swapped out the fan nozzels for straight nozzels. No pics.

Second, I bought some 5/8" vinyl hose and plumbed in the UV. I bought a Coralife 9w Turbo Twist. I can only guess, but I am running around 200-250gph through it.

Lastly, I managed to get 125lbs of rock into the tank. Don't mind the lights - that's 300w and will be replaced with the retrofits mounted into the canopy, but as you can see (barely) this round of aquascaping is done.

I have no doubts the look will change as I can see more clearly what is in there. I am not extremely fond of what I see right now, but you can only do so much with round Fiji rock. In any event, as the tank begins to clear I will continue to shift and shuffle the rock to get something a little more appealing. Oh - the MaxiJets are coming out too. They are there for circulation right now. I will be using two Koralia #3 pumps (850gph each).

I did manage to check the water and everything looks good. Every bit of the rock that went into the tank was cured and 75lbs of it came from the 55g, therefore, along with the sand and mud from the 55g, I hope to not have much of a cycle. I will add the fish slowly beginning tomorrow (maybe) and will use Seachem's Stability as I add new fish.

 

[Bloke]

Well, I am not thrilled about the aquascaping, but I moved a few things around and tried to get things looking as natural as possible. It has always been my opinion that if you stack too much, it gives it less of a "natural" look and that is not my goal. For example, the top left of the rocks is BUGGING me! However, like I mentioned earlier, it is sometimes difficult to get something natural when all the rocks are round...

Anyway, here is Aquascaping Round 2. Rather than build a rock wall in the back like others seem to do, I tried to build depth to the rock. I like it to come towards the glass as well as have caves. Of course, when things get purple it always looks so much better

Any ideas or suggestions are definitely appreciated!

 

[Bloke]

Well, today was dedicated to getting the lighting installed into the canopy. Again, I was planning for 4x54w Actinic T5 to supplement 2x250w 10k MH along with three 3" Sunon fans to keep things cool.

DNGSPOT offered his help and even though we started late, ate a liesurely lunch, made a trip to Lowe's and two trips to Home Depot, we managed to get everything working.

Here is a shot of the project once completed:

 

[Bloke]

Also today, I managed to quiet EVERYTHING down quite a bit. The return line was burping and about every 15 seconds a large bubble would come out of the drain line making a loud... well, bubble sound. Anyway, while at Lowe's on one of the trips, I picked up several PVC reducers to get the noises stopped.

The drain line is 1.5" PVC and here are three reducers getting it down to 1". It's pretty cool in that it creates a funnel and the water sort of spirals out of it.

 

[Bloke]

Overall, except putting the side paneling back on, the project is done!

I have fish and a few corals to put in over the course of the next few weeks, but now I can sit back and look at the tank and enjoy the hours of my labor. Of course, there will always be another project, but now this thread and change from "build" to "progress." YEAH!

Here's a shot - lights on and plumbing running! It's amazing how the water clears up in a day or two!

And here is a shot of the first occupant. I have been checking my water over the last few days to make sure my pH and dKH were right as well as reverifying my gravity, etc. Things looks great and again I don't expect much of a cycle, but I'll watch it. (Also, king oz, since you were so critical of my last picture, I tried to get EVERYTHING in focus this time. ) This Desjardin's Tang has been setting in QT for about 2 weeks.

Here he is making a pit stop to the Cleaner Shrimp:

 

[james734]

Looks great..

 

[Bloke]

By the way, my lights have been on since 12:00 and it's about 3:00. I put my hand on top of the canopy and it wasn't very hot. In fact, it was about as warm as the back of your computer monitor. The fans I am using do a fantastic job of pushing air. I think these are fans I purchased: http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/Pr...1A-1123HST.GN&R=997-0190&sid=4699638039AEE17F. They are far better than the IceCap or Coralife fans sold by most aquaria vendors.

Look at the specs... Coralife Fans (3" push 31 CFM and the 4" push 67 CFM) Cubic Feet per Minute https://www.aquarium-supply.biz/ordering/lighting_fans.html. These Sunon fans push 105 CFM. They have a metal fan instead of plastic and they spin incredibly fast; so fast the finger guards are not a suggestion, but a requirement. If you get your finger cought in these fans, it might take it off! With three of them pushing air in, it keeps things fairly cool.

My temperature hasn't raised a degree in the three hours my lights have been on, but I'll watch it to see what happens.

 

[Bloke]

OK - here is a tank shot showing progress thus far. Things are progressing swimmingly without trouble. I do get more evaporation than I thought I would, but the auto top-off takes care of things as long as I check the water params like I should. I am even seeing things starting to purple up a little bit.

Water Params Today:
pH: 8.3
dKH: 10
NH3: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
Ca: 460

You can't really see, but I do have the K3 pumps in full force and it has really help to keep algae suspended and off the rocks, etc.

I tried to get a shot where you could see everybody, but I think the Coral Beauty is missing from this picture. Right now livestock includes, from left to right, the Cleaner Shrimp, the Desjardin's Tang, the Mimic Tang, and the two True Percula Clowns. The dorsal fin of the Mimic is healing nicely after his butt-whoopin' and the only fish remaining in the QT is the Purple Tang. I do not want to add him before I add a Kole Tang, but I am trying to hold out to see if Sea Dreams can get me a Chevron Tang instead.

 

[Bloke]

Just a new picture... True Percs came out and are going to work in a BC14. B/W Ocellaris from 10g replaced them in this tank.

 

[Bloke]

Progress:
There have been some casualties... The Mimic Tang one day just suddenly disappeared. He was always a little skittish and hid quite often, but I think he became food for the crabs and shrimp. That's an expensive meal. I am not sure how/why he died. He ate and seemed healthy. He was the second fish in and no aggression was shown.

Additionally, I have lost one of the two cleaner wrasses, but I half expected them dead a week ago. They are often tough to keep and once the parasites (their food) was gone there probably isn't enough food to sustain two of them.

Everything else seems ok. Everybody seems to be eating peacefully and happy. There isn't any aggression between the tangs like I thought might exist, but it helped to put the most agressive fish in last. As far as the tank, water params look good and coraline algae is taking over.

 

[Krish]

Looking great man...Congrats!!

 

[Reefergeorge]

Looks good, beautiful fish.
If your still useing that uv, the max flow on the coralife 9w should be 200gph. Anything more and it's pointless.

 

[ReefferMan]

So how does the powder blue get along with the regal and the sailfin? I'm setting up a 300 gal and was told that the powder blue would fight with the sailfin... What's your experience so far? How long have they been together?

 

[Bloke]

You know, my Sailfin is VERY peaceful... It's my Purple Tang that is the beast. My regal is nice and the Powder Blue is slightly pissed sometimes... but that Purple Tang. Every fish needs to back away or he will pick a fight.

In other news...
A few trips to the LFS landed a few additions to the tank. Most noteworthy of the bunch is a Ritteri Anemone which the store refused to sell me without buying the accompanying Skunk Clownfish (as per the previous owners request).

I believe that this set came from Bogey's tank so it's good to know that I can go straight to her for info, especially since she's local. I know Ritteri(s) like to move until they find themselves a happy-spot (as do all anemones) but this guy has remained right where I initially put him. I know this species likes lots of flow so I put him in a place where I thought he would be happy. There is about 2000gph random flow past him at most times.

Bogey stated that while in her tank, the skunk remained with the anemone most of the time. In fact, when the guy at the store removed the anemone from the tank, the clownfish remained in the anemone even out of water! However, once placed in my 90g, the skunk clownfish began spending a lot of time around the bottom right side of the tank. Quite unexpectedly, my True Perc pair have taken over hosting the anemone and the skunk has taken to the Koralia powerhead on the right side.

Hmm... Not the best picture, but decent enough to show.

 

[Bloke]

Looks good, beautiful fish.
If your still useing that uv, the max flow on the coralife 9w should be 200gph. Anything more and it's pointless.

I am using an 18w UV right now. Should I slow down the flow through it as well?

 

[Bloke]

Here is a FTS:

July 24, 2007

September 30, 2007

Several fish have been removed to lower the bioload as well as allow these guys ample room to grow. The fivefish you see are the only fish in the tank:

True Percula (mated pair)
Desjardin's Tang
Purple Tang
Regal Tang

 

[Scooterman]

Sweet, your tank & design has come a long ways from the build, really looks nice! Congrats on the set-up & success

 

[Bloke]

We went to OKC this weekend and I found a pretty cool offering. It's not fully open yet, but check out that color. Have you ever seen a goniopora this bright?:

 

[jezzeaepi]

dyed most likely =\

 

[jezzeaepi]

http://www.goniopora.org/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=33