Tecno and Rocknerd's 90 gallon build

[Tecnomage]

I talked with Rob yesterday and he mentioned starting a build thread so I figured I would fire one up with pics and explanation. I tend to be wordy sometimes so forgive me in advance.

Background:
My wife and I wanted to start a saltwater tank on more of a budget, we figured it'd be cheaper and better in the long run to get a tank off craigslist and fix it up. Not only is it cheaper but we'd learn a lot more on how to fix things. Even right now it's been frustrating at times but overall very rewarding. Just remember this was a tank that'd been neglected for a while since the owner didn't have time to take care of it anymore.

Tank stats off craigslist:
90 gallon reef ready glass tank and stand
28 gallon plastic tub sump
8 T5 bulbs mounted directly to wooden hood (no reflectors)
Wet Dry filter setup in sump
Kent Marine Nautilus Turbo Eductor Protein Skimmer
120lbs or so of live rock (approx)
150lbs of live sand (approx)
Bio balls in wet/dry filter and overflow
A very confused dungeness crab
A ton of algae

 

[Tecnomage]

Ok, I'll shutup now and get on with posting of the pics!

Day one:
Tank has been transported and filled with new water.

Sump is setup and functioning

Hood is on and everything is flowing

 

[Tecnomage]

Day 3:
General rock scape is in place

 

[Tecnomage]

Day 5:
All our water tests came up clean, we avoided a cycle by reusing the sand and live rock. So we added our first fish.

Here's a closeup

She was in heaven and started munching algae in the first minute after being introduced into the tank.

 

[Tecnomage]

Day 9:
No ammonia, no nitrites and 10 ppm nitrates so we added a couple Zoas, that was going to be it but my wife fell in love with the rose bubble tip, I knew it was pushing it but decided to add him anyway.

Here's a closeup:

 

[Tecnomage]

Day 10:
Decided to add a 6 line wrasse, cleaner shrimp and a firefish. (The wrasse turned out to be a little bastard, but that's another story)

 

[Tecnomage]

Day 16:

Sump build! (I'm excited to get rid of the plastic tub). 1" baffles 12" tall for the trap 13 for the refugium. 3" stand for a future skimmer (SWC 160 cone)

Bubble tower, I didn't take a picture after it was drilled out or filled with liverock. (TAP plastic's scrap bin, total cost $10 for plastic plus $12 for applicator and weld-on)

 

[Tecnomage]

Day 19:
Sump is installed!

Bubble tower is hiding in the background:

 

[Tecnomage]

Day 22:
Finally got my shipment from BRS (delayed by train derailment), Running GFO and carbon in the reactor, put sand and cheato along with pods from livecopepods in the refugium. JBJ autotop off system is installed but not yet turned on.

 

[Tecnomage]

Day 23 pics
We added another firefish (2 females as far as we can tell, 2 lawnmower blennies and a pulsing xenia) a few days back, but I didn't take pics.

Thanks Rob for helping with with my refugium. He gave me some variety in the macro algae.

And that's how it stands today. The wrasse got removed, there are a couple hermit crabs, some emerald crabs and a money cowrie in there too.

 

[Tecnomage]

Current full tank pic:

 

[Krish]

23 days posted in about an hour. Everything came together nicely! You will notice the algae growing on the rocks will start to disappear as you start to lower your nitrate levels. With the addition of the refugium to help in nutrient export, should also help some.

Good luck with the tank and thanks for sharing!!

 

[dtd87]

Looks pretty nice! I love the firefish.

 

[Tecnomage]

Thanks guys.

dtd87 the firefish just love to hang out in the center of the tank when anyone is around and just strut.

I did stop by Barrier Reef, I knew it was probably a mistake stopping in, but I saw this guy and just couldn't pass him up.

 

[Tecnomage]

My wife takes better pics then I do. This is just proof

 

[jrgilles]

Looking great man. Nice pics!

 

[Tecnomage]

Thanks Rob for your help and encouragement. We've been fighting all the algae and some nitrates the past two months. But I finally feel like I can start stocking more into the tank. New pictures incoming.

 

[Tecnomage]

We stopped by Red C Aquarium over the weekend and weren't planning on buying anything. It was so slow we chatted with Rob there and he offered to frag some things for us, so we have some new zoanthids he fragged on the spot for us. I brought out the big camera to take the pics so I'll probably have to crop and resize these

We also picked up this guy:

I never took a picture of this, but we put it in the tank a few weeks ago:

 

[Tecnomage]

I figured I'd add a few more pics, everyone loves pics

 

[Tecnomage]

Thanks to Rob @ Red C we have new additions to the tank. ORA captive bred.