Jim's 90 gallon tall build

[Mpfaff77]

Thats one area I wasnt sure about. I have plenty of PVC and egg crate, so I can lift it up. I'm a little confused about placement of the skimmer. There are water level marks on the unit at 10 and 14 inches. I'm not sure if thats supposed to be inside or outside the unit. I built the baffles at 12. I wrote to the company asking about this but didnt get an answer. I guess this will be one of those trial-and-error things, adding more under the unit until it starts working properly.

I have my reef octopus in 9" of water. On my PVC eggcrate stand I have threaded legs for adjustment if need be. And your baffle should have 2 dividers. 2 nd should be slightly higher and about 2" off bottom of tank that will allow skimmer section to stay at constant depth which is necessity.

 

[Retired_AF]

Raised up the skimmer... I can adjust as needed by changing small pieces of PVC...

 

[Retired_AF]

Started my leak test today. The overflow section has a pretty significant leak and I will need to reseal it soon. Then I will try it again.

My rock, sand and a bunch of other stuff starts arriving tomorrow! Since I'm using dry rock and sand for now that isnt a problem. I have 100 pounds of rock and 40 pounds of Tahitian Moon black sand coming in plus a lot of other stuff.

It's all coming together!

 

[Retired_AF]

Finished the leak check. Found 1 leaking baffle in the sump. Repaired it as well as the one for the overflow.

The stuff I ordered has started to arrive. Between today, tomorrow and Monday I should receive the vast majority. Then I can think about assembling the parts.....

Once I do that I can start mixing the water...

All of this after I verify the repairs worked, of course... ​

 

[Retired_AF]

Ahhh crap!!!!!!!!!!!

Tried my final water leak test... Darn overflow is STILL leaking! GRRRRR

 

[Retired_AF]

I have water flowing!

I finally got the plumbing sorted out and everything is working! It still has fresh water in it but I figured out the kinks in the plumbing and now have flowing water and no leaks. I have the sump levels figured out and marked.

The return pump is a little noisier than I had hoped. I forsee a replacement in the not-too distant future,

I have a question about the noise from the overflow. I dont think the wife will like the constant splashing noise. How do I quieten it down?

 

[Hondatek]

What kind of overflow is it?

 

[Retired_AF]

Corner overflow. In the center is a PVC pipe with slits cut in it (I assume to let water through since thats what it does) and a round sponge on the pipe about 3 inches in diameter and 4 inches tall. The sponge falls to the bottom of the pipe when the water starts running.

 

[Hondatek]

O sorry man can't help you there. If you had two pipes going to the sump you could put a ball valve on one pipe to quiet it down. I did that to my hang on overflow even though It is quiet anyways. Maybe making a standpipe or something along those lines . Hopefully someone who is familiar with those will chime in. Edit I forgot to mention my overflow has a lid . Believe it or not the lid is the reason my overflow is so quiet if i take it off it's very loud and annoying. Not sure what yours looks like but maybe you can make a lid for it.

 

[Retired_AF]

Lights are up and operational

Finally got the sump setup right by making and installing a durso standpipe. I had to run a new power outlet in the house to handle the power load this tank will give. Put in a 20 Amp GFI with a slave outlet (total of 4 outlets) that I can plug almost everything into. Hung the lights this past weekend. Now I can work on the sand bed and rocks...

 

[Retired_AF]

This weekend I cleaned the Tahitian Moon sand and put it in, then my son and I put in the dry rock, power heads and temp sensors. I have started making RO/DI water to mix the salt water, hopefully this week.

 

[Terrance]

Very nice so far. Looks like you're creating a tank for smaller fish since the rocks take up lots of swimming space.

 

[Retired_AF]

Exactly! My plan is more towards a reef with a few (maybe 6 -8) smaller fish, 4-5 inches maximum size with some inverts.

 

[Retired_AF]

Finally, I got all the water mixed, the tank filled, pumps running and dosed the tank to start my fishless cycle.

I had to move some of the rocks around as the sand was moving around some from the powerheads and rocks looked like they were shifting and getting ready to fall. I like the new arrangement better anyway. I'm at work now so pics will have to wait until later.

I was surprised at how little water it took to fill the aquarium and sump. I know the rocks and skimmer take up space but with a 90 gallon tank and a 20 gallon sump I only used 78 gallons of water.

I tested and recorded the initial parameters for everything except Magnesium. I am trying to find a test kit for that, probably will order it online if I cant find one around here. Also, I'm looking for some decent looking live rock to seed the tank while it is cycling. Hopefully I will be able to get it plus some rubble by the weekend.

Here's where I am really having to excercise my control and patience. I was in a store yesterday and saw a BEAUTIFUL flame angel. I wanted it SO bad but had to force myself to let it stay where it was.

Anyway, thats the latest. Thanks to all that have helped and offered advice on this and my other threads when I was asking questions. I am sure there will be many more to come and the people here offer advice without trying to get me to join their clubs (4 hours is too far to drive to join some of them). Thats why, after looking at other forums, I always come back here. You guys ROCK!

 

[Retired_AF]

I've been out of town for just over a week. When I got back I found that I have life in the tank!

I found some stomatella snails, 2 small bristle worms, some small white anemones and an aiptasia (now deceased), some white 'bugs' which could be small stomatellas, and several small feather dusters.

Did some testing and have found the ammonia levels are dropping fairly quickly, nitrites are present as well as nitrates. Preparing to do a PWC to help with the 'trates. Added some chaeto and grape caulerpa to the 'fuge. Started dosing some Purple Up to help the coraline spread.

It's coming together!!!!

 

[Retired_AF]

Did I screw up???

I am currently at day 20 of my fishless cycle.

At day 15 I started finding life in the tank. I found some stomatella snails, some tiny red feather dusters, an aiptasia (now deceased), a couple small white feathery things too small to take a pic of (possibly anemones, but they dont seem to move or retract when disturbed), and 2 small bristle worms (good ones, I checked).

Things have been progressing well but suddenly, 2 days ago, my nitrates skyrocketed from 0 to 40(Tuesday) to 160 yesterday. Today I did a 20% water change and retested everything.

I have been dosing ammonia daily to keep it at 2.0.

After the water change today I ran the tests and these are my results:
SG - 1.0245
Ammonia - 0.25
pH - 8.4
Nitrites - 2.0
Nitrates - 160, possibly more since the red was VERY dark. I retested after recleaning the test tube to make sure it was accurate.
Calcium - 460
dKH - 6

I am currently making more RO/DI so I can make salt water to do another PWC to get the Nitrates down, hopefully by Saturday.

I noticed that the Nitrate numbers jumped the day after I dosed the tank with Purple Up to stimulate the coraline spreading to my dry rock and adding macroalgae to the sump.

I know these readings normally fluctuate as the cycling process progresses, but the Nitrates numbers seem extreme. Did I mess up by using the Purple Up?
Should I continue dosing the ammonia? I have no livestock in the tank other than what is listed above so I am thinking yes, but I would like the Nitrites and especially Nitrates to drop some before I do.

Opinions??

 

[Bschowa]

looks great so far

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Hey how did you get your structure to stay like that? Looks sweet!

 

[Retired_AF]

Hey how did you get your structure to stay like that? Looks sweet!

Gravity... LOL

Seriously, I bought this from BRS and it locks together pretty well. I have rearranged some of them and will post pics later.

 

[Retired_AF]

IT IS ALIVE (almost)

Mixed day yesterday, good news and bad...

40 days into my fishless cycle... Cycle is nearly complete by all signs...

The bad new is that my moonlights have failed on my $300 light system...

The good news is that my dry rock now has little purple spots growing on it!