Smack's 90gal Build!

Sounds great! I cant wait to follow your build.. I swear without these threads I would start a new tank every few months.

 

Update! Been a little bit but I got some more pics and the tank is on its way to being ready =D

Broaner: Yeah that is a big concern. I think I'm going to shy away from doing it at the moment. I believe if something died, my pod population would take care of it (my 5 inch tang was a skeleton within a matter of hours =/) but still it could be an issue and really not worth risking. Plus it would be a perfect home for any hitchhiking mantis and I don't want that.

So besides scrapping the tunnel, I have a few updates:

Over the last 2 weeks I was getting some more equipment and painted the back of the tank black. Unfortunately I'm having a wall built in the same room as the tank so this has had me terrified of doing anything in fear of contamination. Well as of this last weekend, the outside of the wall is completed and painted so I began to fill my tank after a serious cleaning of the inside.

I was originally going to put the tank on the side of this new wall which is separating my laundry room from my downstairs tv room, but because the construction hasnt finished all the way, there was no way I could keep my reservoir in the laundry room and fill it (sheet-rock dust = bad). So I had a new idea which really worked out to my benefit. Instead of having the RO/DI filter and res together behind the tank, I moved the tank to the opposite side of the room and drilled a hole into the sub-basement from there. Then I fitted my Res with wheels(32 gallon barrel). This allowed me to keep the RO/DI filter by the laundry drain, but also allowed me to fill the res and then simply roll it to the other side and put the pump in and connect it to the sump whenever the tank gets low. It worked out better than I imagined. If it helps to know, I have a split ranch house which has 1/2 basement 1/2 finished downstairs so my tank is against the basement wall, which allows me to hide a lot.

I got my RO/DI filter from TheFilterGuys and while yes it was 300 bucks, the Ocean Reef +1 setup is beautiful. I still need to mount it somewhere, but everything is great so far, 2 ppm goes into DI and 0 ppm comes out =D

 

So once all that has been completed, I moved my tank into the opposite corner:


And I began to fill er up...



Lights work and look nice. (T5, 10,000K & 460nm)






This is the line to my reservoir. I'm using my sump pump to fill the tank since its such a good pump (Eheim 1250)

Eventually I plan to put in either a 1/4 inch quick line to the res, or use a mini Eheim. I already have both pumps so its a matter of how each operate in the scenario with an ATO Unit.



Almost there! Thats all RO/DI water and salt added. I think I may add another 10 gallons of new water then fill the rest with my current tanks water to get some nitrates in there. I plan to add sand tomorrow. I hope it settles fast enough. Do you turn off your powerheads when letting the sand settle? I feel like I could keep them at the top of the tank just churning the water and it won't disturb the sand.

I want to move the fish by Monday so I'm cutting it slightly close. I hope to seed the sand with some of my gravel on Friday and Saturday. That with about 20 gallons of the current tank water should speed up the seeding. Just keeping my fingers cross everything goes well from here on.

Btw, that sticker on the tank was IMPOSSIBLE to get off. I had to use my acrylic scraper to scratch it off bit by bit. Talk about ridiculous...

 

One more!

While I was filling the tank, I also cemented my plumbing parts for my return and drain setup. I'm only going to use one hole of the two in the overflow so that I can see how well that flow is.

Any know of any good guides of testing out a sump system? I'm keeping some towels on hand when I do. Probably going to test the return line outside first with a bucket/pump. First time setting up a sump so this will be an interesting experience.

 

Bringing the sand over tonight and putting 80lbs in! Best to give it an extra day to settle. 80lbs of "live" sand, 40 lbs of base rock, and 40 lbs of live rock (from current tank) is the current planned totals. Debating whether I should add another 20 lbs of live rock shortly after... hmm we'll see.

 

Congratz im excited on more photos of the progress. i will starting my setup anytime soon i think in two weeks!

 

Nice Atlantico! What size is the tank and do you have a build thread? I like following along the threads, really helps with learning better techniques.


So I put all the sand in, and its a cloudy mess but hopefully tomorrow night or Saturday morning it will be looking better. Looks like the 80lbs will give me a 2 inch cover, maybe a little less/more in some areas, we'll see how it settles then I'll even it out.



Tomorrow I get a 1/2 day @ work Woohoo! So I'm going to home depot to grab the last part for my return line and finish cementing that together. Then I'll be taking some gravel and maybe a piece of LR or two to put in the tank later in the day, depending on how well everything settled. The salinity is stable @ 1.024 so as long as the sand settles I think I'll be able to transfer some of my CuC soon, and get a few more hermits/snails along with it.

Back with an update tomorrow! Night.

 

-Build is going great! Did you make the canopy? Looks nice & matches the design of the stand.
-I assume the mirror is to make it easier to see plumbing behind the tank?
-What do you think about the Eheim 1250? I think I will use this for my return pump, in my sump. I need about 5 ft of head(my stand will be 3 ft. the tank is a 55g, 21" tall). Will this be sufficient? I know Eheim is a good company.
-Lets see under the DT!

 

Hey Seano, thanks! I did not make the canopy, but got lucky in finding a real decent one, though was pricey too ($200). I wish I had carpentry skill that good haha.

The mirror is actually from the previous owner who decided to glue it to the wall (like completely sealed it, not worth trying to pry it off), but like you mentioned I found that the mirror actually can help see behind the tank better. Plus if any water splatters, its easy to wipe off of glass.

The Eheim 1250 is unbelievably quiet, just a soft humming noise, probably as loud as the humming you can get from a koralia 2 or 3. I expect something good for a $100+ pump, but the Eheim def impressed me. I use it internally for the most part, but I have tried it externally for moving water around and it worked pretty well. There was a drip or two at the connection to the output but nothing serious. And yes it does pump pretty well. Emptied my res pretty fast, maybe 30 mins or so with a 8 ft head line from my res. My sump head will be shorter, and with 5 feet I think you would be all set for a decent flow.

I'll get some pics of the below and behind the wall either tomorrow or sat, since I wanted to first get the return line up with it. For now its a mess of pcv and tubing down there lol.

 

No not yet but i will in two weeks im thinking of a 120-150 gal range!