CliffC's 90 gallon

[CliffC]

Back in October I tore down my 55gallon, loaded up all my crap into moving boxes and moved the family across the country to NJ to be closer to my wife's family here in PA. More like my wife made us move but potato/potatoe. Anyway, I told her the condition was I get a bigger tank when we get settled. Here we are almost a year later and I'm finally getting around to doing it. My goals for this tank, other than larger, was to have it not suck as bad as the old one. I'm a fan of Algae Turf Scrubbers(ATS) and my last tank incorporated one into it but the way I did it was... bizarre, to say the least, ugly, inefficient, insert some more negative adjectives here... Anyway, I decided this one would be prettier but, just like my last tank, not break the bank. You won't find name brands in this tank build. You're going to see Jebao pumps, generic shipped direct from China Chinese made lighting, etc. Even the tank I got off Craigslist from a widow and her new guy selling all her old husbands fish stuff. I've got three kids, 1 of whom is in diapers, and one (first girl, oh boy...) on the way. I'll save the "bling bling" for the next one.

I did learn some things along the way though, and I'm going to try to incorporate them so that, while it won't be the most expensive tank, it should make a pretty nice home for all my lil gill breathing friends and their coral buddies.

At this point I'm still waiting on test kits to make sure my water is good, plastic to build a LED ATS, PVC plumbing to make a manifold to drive my carbon reactor (Ok... I might splurge on a Nextreef MR1 here) and ATS from my return pump and PVC plumbing for a Calflo return manifold up top. I feel these are must do's before I put any livestock in there. Down the road I'd like to get this fancy contraption I saw on ebay called a Kalk King that will help maintain my pH and calcium with kalkwasser. It'll also replace my 2$ special ATO I have in there now as I worry that if it fails I'll end up with a freshwater tank and water all over the floor.

The specs:
90 Gallon tank
29 Gallon sump (Yay Petco 1$/gallon sales!)
Jebao DC-9000 return pump
6 stage RO/DI system that at some point will probably become a 4 stager with better filters
El Cheapo Salinity/pH monitor direct from China
El Cheapo 6 light T5HO 48" lighting hood with timer, also direct from China.
SCA-301 Skimmer (that I will probably turn on very rarely to never)
13W UV Filter
Finnex 300W heater
"BeanAnimal" plumbed C2C overflow
70 lbs of dead rock

ToDos:
Test kits
Kalk King
Carbon canister
ATS build

The pics:

Old tank, the coralline was just starting to fill in and I had to dump it. Grrr. You can see on the right where I'd sectioned off a portion of the tank and made an overflow out of it that fed all my water thru the ATS. Bad, bad, bad idea. It just got messy in there and was hard to clean out and I had to shut down the tank to clean the algae off the screen.



Sump area:


Water ingress


Return area


For being a cheap pump it sure is quiet!


Pre-lights


Drain plumbing. Left side is emergency drain


Return, main drain, backup drain


Light has a goofy leg. Working with ebay seller to get a new one...


Just adding a bit more salt... Here's where I'm at so far


My last tank had a Six Line Wrasse, Orange Spotted Goby, Blue Tang (Dori fish), some Blue/Green Chromis, a couple of Peppermint Shrimp, some Ricordeas and Zoas. They all got along really well and barring any issues getting them I'll probably do the same thing. Even the Goby, little sucker was always messing up my sandscape.

 

[downbeach]

It looks like you've got all you ducks in a row Cliff, nicely done. BTW, it might be more appropriate to use tomato vs potato here in NJ.

 

[Zippy69]

Welcome! The fragswap might be a great way to meet some of us here in the club.

 

[kschweer]

Welcome to jersey and welcome to the club! As Pete said you should try to make
It to the swap its going to be a great time. Can't wait to see the tank come together

 

[Hawkeye]

Those extra 5" front to back make a big difference when comparing the 55 to a 90 eh? But from the wife's point of view - it's still a 4 ft tank - so everyone wins!

I tried to get my wife to go for the 6 foot tank but only was able to get the 120...LoL!

 

[CliffC]

Thanks for the welcomes! Looks like the frag swap is only an hour north, I think I'll be able to make that!

I'm definitely enjoying the extra gallonage, I've read larger tanks are easier to keep the water quality stable too, so hopefully my lil guys will like it as well. If I had a custom tank I would've extended it another foot to 5 ft in width but that's only like 20 more gallons so tomato/tomatoe? lol

 

[CliffC]

Got a pile of plastic yesterday.

Wonder what I can turn it into... Not sure why these are upside down. You just gotta tilt your head a little.


No fingers were harmed in the grooving of this acrylic.


Oh look! An algae turf scrubber! One step closer! Just need to get my plumbing now to power it off the return. PVC parts website is saying Friday.

 

[AnthonyJerseyShore]

Scrubbers are great. Macro algae works well too. Combination of the two is guaranteed sweetness.

Edit: I'd also recommend adding a mesh screen inside of your algae scrubber. Gives the algae a place to grab on and build off of. It's also easy to remove for weekly scrapings. And yes, you will be doing weekly scrapings once it get's going

 

[hans24hrs]

Welcome. Hopefully meet you sometime. I am new to the club but met a lot of the people at dnov house for a meeting. Everyone is really nice and helpful, I am sure you will enjoy the club.

 

[jgraz]

Is that kit you purchased for the scrubber or did you diy that? Nice work there. I've been considering adding one to my sons 45cube but frankly I have no idea where to start.

 

[CliffC]

Scrubbers are great. Macro algae works well too. Combination of the two is guaranteed sweetness.

Edit: I'd also recommend adding a mesh screen inside of your algae scrubber. Gives the algae a place to grab on and build off of. It's also easy to remove for weekly scrapings. And yes, you will be doing weekly scrapings once it get's going

Yep! This will be my 2nd scrubber. First one was a SM100 clone. Worked ok but it was overflow fed so I had to shut down most of my tank for cleaning. Nightmare! Plus it was HUGE and 2700K T5HO powered. This one is 12 inches so much more manageable and LED based so lower watts used. I just got done roughing up a new screen!

Welcome. Hopefully meet you sometime. I am new to the club but met a lot of the people at dnov house for a meeting. Everyone is really nice and helpful, I am sure you will enjoy the club.

Thanks! It seems like most of you guys are in north jersey but I'm planning on attending the frag swap this weekend so I'm sure I'll get to meet a lot of you there.

Is that kit you purchased for the scrubber or did you diy that? Nice work there. I've been considering adding one to my sons 45cube but frankly I have no idea where to start.

DIY. it's just some plastic I got from delvies. Scribbled down dimensions on a napkin. Grooved some holes. Gave me an excuse to buy a table saw. This is my 2nd DIY scrubber, they're not real hard to build. Rules of thumb are 12sq in per 1 cube of food fed. Use 2700-3000K lights on both sides or 660nm red LEDs to grow the algae. Aim for 35-50gph thru the unit. And clean the screen every 1-3 weeks depending on growth and wallah! P and N go bye bye (or somewhere towards 0 anyway...)

 

[CliffC]

Almost four months! Time for an update! Tank is settling in ok. I went to the Frag Swap and got a few Zoas, my favorite is the Rasta because they coalesce under the daytime lights. They grow really slowly though. The other Zoas are just ok in color without the right lighting but are multiplying much quicker. I also picked up a Green Star Polyp who is adding new little polyps weekly. Had a little scare that I was doing something wrong. Wife bought me a Blue Rebel Zoa from RR aquatics back in November, which came with a free Pink something or other Paly which was a nice surprise, I almost threw it out! Doh! I acclimated it via the drip method for like four hours. Tossed it in my tank and it closed up. Ok, normal I thought... Well they stayed closed up for a good 3 weeks. But then they finally opened back up and they're taking off. It's my largest colony of Zoas now. I wish I had the lights to bring out their colors though.

The scrubber is working well. My N and P are both at 0 on the API color match strips and my Hanna P checker. I'm only running carbon. The Kalk King finally got purchased last month and my pH now sits at 8.1 - 8.3 depending on the time of day, Calcium was at 440 or 460 (Added a double drop of reagent and that's when the color changed, so not sure) so that thing's doing what it's supposed to.

Things I've learned: Damselfish are Assholes! And I can't get them out of my tank fast enough. I did a fishless cycle but being a n00b I still wasn't certain that I did everything right and Petco only had one Chromis so I picked him up and two Damsels just to minimize my losses if I screwed it up somehow. Well apparently I didn't screw it up because they're all still here. I also added a Golden Headed Sleeper Goby and a Six Line Wrasse. The Goby doesn't take any crap from the Damsels but I think they got to my Wrasse because I found him on the sand dead not long after adding him. The Damsels are the only fish in the tank who don't run and hide when I stick my hand in it. In fact the one raises his little dorsal fin like a rabid hyena and comes at me. Which scares me way more than it should. I also added a cleaner shrimp a few months back and he just hangs out all day.

I battled a SUPER BAD case of Cyano early on. Red EVERYWHERE. I bought some of that ChemiClean stuff and overnight it dried up and went away. That was in late November. Hasn't been back since. The Dinos came for a bit but I got some of those Astrea snails because the ~100 Ceriths/Nerites/Nassarius snails I bought as a CUC weren't doing much for them or anything really, they just kinda sat around. Nerites at the water rim, Ceriths at the bottom, and the Nassarius under the sand until feeding time. The Astreas had the tank cleaned up in about a week and it was looking BAD before then even with the Cyano gone. Love those little guys...

I clean my ATS once every two weeks and that's about all the maintenance I do. I used to test alot more but lately I've slowed down to once a month. The only parameter that's ever off is Alkalinity (little low, 118 today, 120 last week).

I picked up some bubble algae from one of the corals. It's slow growing and I got most of them. Only 1 or 2 remaining that I can see anyway. I'll stay on top of it as I hear it can become a PITA. Also brought in some pineapple sponges from another coral. From what I've read though those are nothing to worry about.

Oh! And I pulled my Petco 1$/gallon 40G breeder out of storage and set it up across the room. Going to use it as a quarantine tank. It's sitting there almost empty. Found a hitchhiker in my main tank. A little hermit crab was feasting on a snail in my main tank. Snatched him out of there and didn't have the heart to toss him so to the QT he went. Put my old turf scrubber on it. Hopefully I can grow some pods in it

Recently ordered a surprise pack of 5 corals and a rainbow Ricordea. They'll show up Tuesday. Hoping for some hard corals in the mystery pack. I had a (pretty sure it was anyway..) Favia in my old tank. Would like to get another one of those. I like the way they extend their sweepers after dark while they searched for food.


So that's the four month update! Hopefully in another four months I'll have some AMAZING corals and fish to show you all. But for now here's a FTS, some close ups of its current inhabitants and also my "Ella"-fish I added to my human display tank in late October.