First saltwater tank, thanks everyone.

In December I wanted to setup my first ever saltwater tank. Not knowing too much about the hobby, I searched Google and found two forums which help me tremendously on how to build a sump and choosing the right equipments such as light, skimmer etc.

Well it has been almost 3 months of planning and I think I finally got 50% done. I would like to thank everyone on this forum for all of your help.

Here is a list of equipments that I got for this tank.

90 Gal tank
38 Gal sump
MSX 200 Skimmer
2 x 250 HQI Coralife
9.5 Mag-Drive
2 x Hydor Koralia #4
1 x Hydor Koralia # 3
Maxi-jet 900
250W heater
80lbs live rock and 50lbs base rock
70lbs sand
Seachem 35Gal RO unit

 

Some pictures of the project I would like to share with everyone.

I was lucky, building the sump without any leak. The only rookie mistake that I made is that the return section a bit small.

 

More pictures of the sump

 

I bought 80lbs live rocks before my 4 weeks vacation and hoping that it would cured by the time I’m back.

First try.....

 

Guys at BigAls made it look easy when showing me how to stack the rocks. I think it took him about 15 minutes. When it time for me to play with the rocks, I think it took me at least 2 hours. Sometimes I got too frustrated I didn’t want to continue until the next day. Eventually I stack it on the floor and then slowing transfer piece by piece to the tank.

Second attempt....

 

Added some sand.....

 

Looks very nice! Congratulations on the set up. You got some good equipment from the start, and you will be very glad you did once everything's is up and running.

 

My Current tank....

Any comments are welcome.

 

Now I need your help for picking the live stock and corals. I have lots of questions and was hoping you guys would point me to the right direction.

1. In which order should I buy first, live stock, cleaning crews or corals?
2. What type of cleaning crews should I buy? And how many
3. If I have an RO unit do I still need Prime for the RO water?
4. My temp is at 77F and my sanity is at 1.025, are those good numbers?
5. I would like to keep clams, hard and soft corals, what type of food do I need.
6. Which dry food should I buy for clown fish.
7. I have a section for refugium, besides cheato and sand what else do I need in my refugium?
8. How long should I leave my compact fluorescent bulbs on for?
9. How long should I leave my HQI on for?

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thank you

 

Thank you. Many people told me that without proper equipments the tank will fail.