New 90g Tank - been away for a while

[Ricardo Muniz]

Hello All,

I’m glad to be back to this forum. Its been almost a couple of years since I joined when I got my first tank... a RSM 130. Still have it and now Im moving into a bigger sized tank.

See below my current RSM as it is now

So, I wanted something bigger and found a 90g All glass aquarium pre drilled. I restored the base, cleaned up the parts that It came with and now Im getting all my equipment to start it. See pictures below.

I look forward on getting your help in putting this new dream together!

Thanks,




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[Pat24601]

Great set up! Nice pics !

 

[Uncle99]

Welcome to the site.
Have fun!

 

[DaveK]

Looks like your doing a good job restoring the 90 gal tank. However, I'd consider reworking that trickle filter, as there are much better ways of using a sump today.

 

[Ricardo Muniz]

Looks like your doing a good job restoring the 90 gal tank. However, I'd consider reworking that trickle filter, as there are much better ways of using a sump today.

Hey Davek, thanks for the feedback, can you give me some pointers?


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[DaveK]

Trickle filters were a vast improvement over what was being used before, which was usually undergravel filters, either normal or reverse flow. Trickle filters do a few things really well. They are great for gas exchange, CO2 out and O2 into the water. They are also good at the reduction of ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. In fact this is also why they get into trouble on systems. They are so effective at this that there is often a big increase in nitrates to deal with.

Trickle filters and move a lot of the biological filtration outside the tank. This is not necessarily bad. The bioballs can grow a lot of bacteria because of the thin film of water and layer of air around the bioballs. This was important in the days before widespread use of live rock. Today the live rock is used as the biological filtration.

A more modern design would tend to use filter socks for mechanical filtration and a large powerful skimmer to remove as much of the waste products before the biological filtration needs to deal with it. There would be no bioballs. Check out a few modern sumps.

In your specific case, I'd remove the bioballs and drip tray and replace them with filter socks and a skimmer. Since the area may be fairly small, you might need to go with smaller filter socks and skimmer than you'd normally want to have. You may need to get rid of the filter sponge also, just to get the room you need.

Of course you could replace the entire sump, but that would be expensive, and I'd say get the tank running first before you get involved in upgrades that are going to be fairly expensive.

 

[Ricardo Muniz]

Thanks Davek, I will start this system and eventually upgrade the components as I go. Right now my priority is getting this tank cycled so I can move the livestock from the other tank.

See below some pictures. Got my sand, put some saltwater in there and added my bacteria. Tank will be cycling for a couple of weeks before I put anything in there.

Thanks,



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[Ricardo Muniz]

Hello all,

A small update... My tank cycled and I was able to introduce my rocks, coral and fish from my smaller tank.

See picture below

I have also installed my 1/10 chiller that was on my other tank as well.



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