90 Gallon Mixed Reef Build

[177ichael]

It's been years since I've been back to this forum, but this is where it all started. I had previously been into freshwater tropical and Discus. I later moved and had to break down all my tanks. After a few years away from the hobby, I entered back into the hobby in a big way... I decided to set up a full blown reef tank.

Tank has been up and running for a year now.

 

[azure bones]

Looks very nice

Sent from my Droid desire using Aquarium

 

[177ichael]

More photos of fish and corals at around 1 year mark.

 

[BillyD918]

looks very nice! I do have 2 questions for you though. 1st is What kind of coral is that rainbow colored coral? 2nd is What kind of fish is that with the clown fish?

 

[177ichael]

looks very nice! I do have 2 questions for you though. 1st is What kind of coral is that rainbow colored coral? 2nd is What kind of fish is that with the clown fish?

Rainbow colored coral is a Favia. It started as one round head and is now in the process of splitting into multiple heads.

I have a Goldbar Maroon Clownfish pair. Female is large and dark Maroon. The smaller orange one is the male and will stay much smaller and darken only slightly. There's also a Blue Hippo Tang (Dori) and Yellow Tang pictured. Thanks for compliments.

 

[mr_X]

looks great. nice photos too. i see you bucked up for the bubble king skimmer~

 

[177ichael]

I'll be posting more photos from my past saltwater experiences over the last couple years. All of these experiences have brought me to the stage of where my tank is today. Please feel free to ask questions or comment freely.

 

[177ichael]

looks great. nice photos too. i see you bucked up for the bubble king skimmer~

I did.. Nothing compares to the BK and no way to reproduce effectively on your own. I can now feed heavy and stock heavy while maintaining excellent water quality.

 

[177ichael]

It began with welding in baffles for my sump.. A real PITA. We had to use acrylic weld and shave or plane the baffles to fit the odd squaring of the sump.

 

[melosu58]

Looks pretty impressive.

 

[177ichael]

Sump in stand all squeaky clean and new. Note, skimmer has been replaced with a Bubble King Mini 180 Gen 2.. Return pump has also been replaced with first an Ocean Runner 3500 and now an Eheim 1262 .

New is not a friend to the aquarium hobby. Our inhabitants like well cycled, slime covered equipment

 

[177ichael]

Looks pretty impressive.

Just the result of something I've become enthusiastic about. Thanks for compliment.

 

[177ichael]

Working on the canopy and stand in brother's garage. He needed my specs for the tank and rolled with his experience cabinet making from there. I gave him minor input for design details like trim etc.

I caught a cold standing out in that cold garage for a couple months but it was worth it.

 

[177ichael]

Stand in place, rocks and water in tank, canopy and lights in.

 

[177ichael]

I had to get my Powder Blue Tang out of the tank using a fish trap because it came down with Ick.. I added the fish too early and tank was not settled yet. I'm still upset about the loss. It was a beautiful fish.

 

[177ichael]

Shortly after I started running my lights, I realized I needed some sort of cooling. Even though I'm only running 4 by 54 watt T5, the tank was still heating up. I went to Fry's and picked up 4 120 mm computer style fans. They are controlled to turn on and off by my Reefkeeper 2 aquarium controller. When water temp gets above a certain temp, fans turn on. When water cools to certain level fans turn off. I've run fans through summer and they work well. Dosing pumps are also controlled by Reefkeeper 2 as well.

 

[177ichael]

Sump as it stands now includes: GFO reactor fed by Maxijet 400, small refugium on left side, BK Mini 180 skimmer, Eheim 1262 return pump (braided tubing plumbed to PVC), drew's dosing pumps for Alk and Cal, Reefkeeper 2 Controller.

 

[177ichael]

I'll be posting some pictures of my old 29 Gallon Biocube that was modified to be a little reef. The Biocube was purchased used from someone else who had the tank in his daughter's bedroom. It was used as a freshwater tank. I learned a lot from observing this tank for over a year. I also learned a ton from modifying and converting this tank into a reef. It paved the way for understanding how I wanted to set up my 90 gallon reef system.

 

[177ichael]

My old 29 gallon Oceanic Biocube

 

[177ichael]

I loved my Blue Spotted Jawfish in my cube. This is one of the brightest and interesting fish to observe. It moves like an Eel. Really cool but hard to keep in your tank.. Mine kept jumping into overflow in back of tank..

Some corals and fish were moved from my 29 gallon Biocube to my 90 gallon AGA. The Jawfish was brought back to the LFS.