Eric's 90 gallon reef build.

[carey]

Grats! I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I got my unit.

Make sure you flush the membrane and dont use the first 5-10g of water that comes out.
Then you are set.

 

[Ericwm]

It said to run it for an hour, I'm almost there then I will make some for my water change tomorrow. I figured it was a must before I filled a 90 gallon tank with about 20 gallons in the sump. That's a lot of 5 gallon buckets!

 

[Ericwm]

now that I have my inline TSS monitor I now know that my water only has 5 ppm out of my tap. Seems low, I guess that is why my water is so good.

 

[carey]

I have 126 outta the garden hose outside. I get 2 going into the di and 0 coming out for the tanks.

 

[Ericwm]

I finished my last baffle in my sump today, I am considering adding one more to hold a filter pad after my first section otherwise it's done. The pump goes in the last section not the middle I just have it away from my wet silicone right now. I also put my first coat of paint on my back wall. Everything is starting to kinda come together.





Hopefully I will get to the stand this week.

 

[Kristy3693]

Looks awesome. I am going to do a black background someday, I just love them!

 

[Ericwm]

Yeah I was kicking myself for not doing one on my last tank, that was one of my multiple reasons to upgrade. I think I am going to add one on my old tank too when I move it so it wasn't a huge reason I guess but I definitely like the look.

 

[Ericwm]

My sump is complete, I finished it up last night. Here is a pic of the final product.

 

[carey]

Very neat and clean. Great job.

 

[Ericwm]

Very neat and clean. Great job.

Thank you, I was impressed with myself.

Today I got my final coat of paint on the back of my tank applied. I also started on my stand, I ran out of wood so hopefully I can get some more and finish the framing tomorrow. I picked up some lace rock from my LFS and played around with some aquascaping.



This is what I got so far, I am thinking this on one side and the existing rock from my 29 on the other. I like the look of 2 piles with maybe an arch between the two.

 

[Ericwm]

I started assembling my stand tonight. I have most of my structure put together, it just needs the ventricle supports in the center of my long horizontal beams. It seems pretty strong, I still haven't put in all the screws yet because I want to finish squaring it up. It seems like it will hold and leave me plenty of room for my sump.

I just hit my picture quota so it looks like I will have to wait until I set up photobucket to attach a pic.

 

[Kristy3693]

You can get acrylic rods and drill your rock, it makes for some awesome rock scaping, secure too.

 

[Ericwm]

I was thinking of using aquarium safe putty epoxy to secure and form my rock work. Has onto e done this or heard Rolf it? If so how well does it work?

 

[Gregcoyote]

I was thinking of using aquarium safe putty epoxy to secure and form my rock work. Has onto e done this or heard Rolf it? If so how well does it work?

Many of us have used this. Make sure the putty is for potable water sources.

 

[Ericwm]

That sounds like a plan then, I just want to make sure with my rock stacked that high that it is secure.

I figured out the photobucket thing. Here is the beginnings of my stand.

 

[Kristy3693]

The putty didn't work well for me. I was working with live rock. I think if it was dry base rock, it would have worked better.

 

[Cichlidjon]

Hey I'm following! I started a 125g build thread so I'm copying alot of your ideas especially that sump, it looks professionally good! Question for you, what did you use to secure the pieces of your stand? What is it's dimensions?

 

[Ericwm]

Hey I'm following! I started a 125g build thread so I'm copying alot of your ideas especially that sump, it looks professionally good! Question for you, what did you use to secure the pieces of your stand? What is it's dimensions?

Thank you for the kind words. I am still in the process of finishing up the stand, work and yard work got in the way. I was hoping to have my tank up and running before school starts back up, that is Monday so it looks like I missed my goal.

Right now I only have a few screws in it but it is already strong enough for me to jump on. I am going to add some metal brackets from Home Depot and a bunch more screws once I get it all squared up. They sell 90 degree brackets and some flat plates for 60 or so cents each. I will take some pictures once I get it completed, hopefully within the month, maybe this weekend.

The tank footprint is 48" by 18" so I made the stand 49" by 19". And will have another half inch of offer hang on the top panel once I get that on. This will center the frame of my tank on my frame of the stand and give me an inch of the top surface on all sides of the tank. The tank is 36" tall and once I add the top surface and the small feet it will be ~37". I hope I like the height.

 

[Ericwm]

Here is my stand as of today, I got my brackets I and a ton more screws in. Now I need to paint my top and poly urethane my frame. I am also need to add my plywood...

Edit. Sorry I'm not great with this photo bucket thing.

 

[Cichlidjon]

Looking good how have you been testing the stands tolerances?