First Big Tank - 90 G - Advice Wanted

[blsnelling]

Hello. My 14 year old daughter and I are in the process of setting up a 90G aquarium that we bought used. It was previously used as a salt water reef setup. This is our first large aquarium. She currently has a 20G tank with a HOB on her dresser. Despite our fish ignorance, we have done very well with it. We have over stocked it, purposely forcing ourselves into an upgrade

So far, the tank has been thoroughly cleaned and the overflow removed. I will be using stand pipes from the bottom drilled bulkheads. I ordered an Eheim 2217 . I've added 75# of new gravel. I'll be installing 48" of bubble wand and 2 air stones. All plants will be artificial in this tank.

I've been researching about fishless tank cycling and doing this forum with lots of great info. Sadly, I just replaced and disposed of the filter from out 20G HOB just last night. It was filthy...just what I need to seed the new tank. By the time I realized that I could use it, it had already dried out. It will be a few days yet before I begin cycling the new tank, so I'm think the new filter may have sufficient bacteria in it by then. What about adding some of the gravel from that tank to the new one.

I'm a regular forum user and enjoy enteracting with those of similiar interests. I look forward to your feedback and suggestions.

Here's my daughter and the "new" tank.
View attachment 151720

 

[meegosh]

Congrats on the new tank! Always fun to have a new project.

As far as cycling, anything you can take from the established 20g will help seed and speed up the cycle in the 90g. Gravel, plants, decor, etc all have some bacteria on them. If you don't want to mix the gravel with your new gravel, put it in an unused pantyhose or mesh bag and tie it to the side or if you have room in your filter, put it in a media basket.

Best of luck! The tank looks great!

 

[aquariumlover10]

what fish will you be buting in the tank.

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[Rivercats]

Something else... 75 pounds of gravel probably won't be enough. One pound of gravel per 1 gallon of water equals about 1 inch of substrate.

 

[meegosh]

Something else... 75 pounds of gravel probably won't be enough. One pound of gravel per 1 gallon of water equals about 1 inch of substrate.

Looks like plenty (even none would be fine) for an artificially planted tank. Looks more than an inch in the picture too.

Edit: May want to consider closing/relocating that HVAC vent above the tank. It probably won't cause an issue but could cause some temp swings.

 

[blsnelling]

Thanks for all the replies and advice.

Congrats on the new tank! Always fun to have a new project.

As far as cycling, anything you can take from the established 20g will help seed and speed up the cycle in the 90g. Gravel, plants, decor, etc all have some bacteria on them. If you don't want to mix the gravel with your new gravel, put it in an unused pantyhose or mesh bag and tie it to the side or if you have room in your filter, put it in a media basket.

Best of luck! The tank looks great!

Great idea.

what fish will you be buting in the tank.

+=

Gouramis, Barbs, Tetras, Pictus, Pleco, Angel, etc. Just a wide variety of community fish.

Something else... 75 pounds of gravel probably won't be enough. One pound of gravel per 1 gallon of water equals about 1 inch of substrate.

It's a little better than 1 1/2" deep. How deep is ideal?

Looks like plenty (even none would be fine) for an artificially planted tank. Looks more than an inch in the picture too.

Edit: May want to consider closing/relocating that HVAC vent above the tank. It probably won't cause an issue but could cause some temp swings.

The tank is only setting here temporarily. The drywall in most of my basement is not finished. I'm in the process of finishing the wall where the tank is going.

 

[meegosh]

There is no ideal level of gravel in a tank with artificial plants, in my opinion. If you had live plants, you need more substrate so the roots have room to spread around. Being that you are going artificial... you could do without gravel if you wanted.

You said you are going with a bubble wand.. you would need at least enough to cover it and weigh it down (which 1"+ should be more than plenty).

 

[blsnelling]

what fish will you be buting in the tank.

+=

Gouramis, Barbs, Tetras, Pictus, Pleco, Angel, etc. Just a wide variety of community fish.

I'm taking a new look at this. We don't have to move all of our fish from the 20G they're currently in. I'm open to suggestions. I'm interested in color most of all. I want some decent sized fish, but also want some schooling fish. I like a lot of fish and don't mind pushing the population limit.

I'm looking at some other threads and found a couple particularly interesting fish. Blue German Ram and Bolivian Ram.

Give me some ideas on what and how many I can eventually stock this tank with.

 

[Bwiz123]

Jaguar cichlids

 

[blsnelling]

Jaguar cichlids

Somehow, I don't think that fits in with "lots of fish"

 

[aquariumlover10]

I'm taking a new look at this. We don't have to move all of our fish from the 20G they're currently in. I'm open to suggestions. I'm interested in color most of all. I want some decent sized fish, but also want some schooling fish. I like a lot of fish and don't mind pushing the population limit.

I'm looking at some other threads and found a couple particularly interesting fish. Blue German Ram and Bolivian Ram.

Give me some ideas on what and how many I can eventually stock this tank with.

I would do a biotype setup.

+=

 

[GNarnian]

I personally love Angelfish, though when they get bigger, they tend to want to eat smaller fish like neon tetras. Buenos Ares tetras look pretty nice when they are schooling, in my opinion.

 

[somethingsfishy]

Why did you decide to remove the overflow?

 

[imtcurveball]

Something else... 75 pounds of gravel probably won't be enough. One pound of gravel per 1 gallon of water equals about 1 inch of substrate.

I find this not to be true. 10 lbs will normally give you about 2" per 400 square inchesin my experience. I measure by the area of the base of the tank. Not the volume.
For example... My 37 gal has more than enough gravel and I only have 10 pounds. It also depends on what kind of gravel. Good luck on your build.

 

[blsnelling]

Why did you decide to remove the overflow?

Everything I read pointed to that being a sump setup only. I wanted to go with a canister. I'm still going to use the bulkheads, just with stand pipes. Since I already have the holes, I figured it would make a cleaner installation. The back of the tank will be black, as well as the stand pipes.

 

[blsnelling]

I personally love Angelfish, though when they get bigger, they tend to want to eat smaller fish like neon tetras. Buenos Ares tetras look pretty nice when they are schooling, in my opinion.

I love Neon Tetras. However, my Pictus cat already ate them Of course, the dynamics will all be different in this much larger tank.

 

[blsnelling]

Guess who sent me a Valentine's present today....Drs. Foster & Smith

 

[blsnelling]

For those of you that haven't seen a Eheim 2217...

 

[blsnelling]

A few more pics

 

[blsnelling]

The last of them...