The other BigJay's 90G chronicle

[BigJay]

Well as in my other post I picked up a less then 1 year old Oceanic predrilled 90 gallon bowfront yesterday. So going to start the chronicle from today because I think she will be finished filling by tommorrow night. Apparently my RO puts out more then I thought with fresh filters.



About 8 pm last night


9 PM tonight (theres about 5g in the sump already too)


Everything has been leak tested including the return pump. All the power heads seem to be in good working order. I need to replace two of the PC bulbs but for the price I paid I am not complaining. And most likely I am going to replace all 4.
The only thing I am waiting to test is the protein skimmer.
I started adding salt last night and have the koralia and a small rio ariating the water.
Tommorrow I am going to put in some dry base rock and then add the substrate. I think the placement of the base rock in the substrate should give me some stability over the long haul since this is a tall tank. A tall toppling structure could be bad. I am really torn on substrate size and depth.Right now I am thinking 1 to 2 mm size. But depth has me really scratching my head, but I am thinking 3 " 's at the moment.
I am going to start the cycle with a few dead shrimp. Then I am adding 80 more pounds of semi-cured live rock. My wife informed me today the biocube 14 will be dismantled and sold once the 90g is cycled and ready to take the inhabitants. Guess I'll be getting those halides sooner then later. So if anyone is interested in a nano tuners light upgraded Biocube 14 in about 6 weeks let me know .
We decided to temporarily employ a small lawnmower blenny in the cube for the time being. He will be the first inhabitant of the 90g once its ready. Man talk about a fish with character. He's a little pig too. Allthough he hasn't touched the HA on the candy canes. As of right now they most likely won't make it into the 90.
I'm going to try my best to take this build as slow as I humanly can.

[Heliux]

Looks good, glad to be along for the ride

[deaclauderdale]

Looking real good.

[Big Jay]

Sweetness. Good luck fellow "Big Jay". Keep us all posted!

[AndtheBonus]

So far so good! Keep us updated!

[BigJay]

Picked up about 17 pounds of dry base rock today and had several pounds already on hand. Put them at different places around the tank.Then I added 45 pounds of pink somoa and 40 pounds carrib sea live pink fiji. Its about .5 to 1mm diameter a little smaller then I was originally thinking but I liked it better once I had the two side by side. I perfer the pink somoa but the LFS only had 40 pounds (I had 5 already) on hand so he gave me a good deal on the live pink fiji. Pretty darn close to 3 " 's but the other 15 pounds in my bio cube will help.
I added two jumbo shrimp. Love the Publix seafood department when you walk up and ask for 2 shrimp... the ones on sale no less. hehe.
The protein skimmer is now operational and it seems to be in perfect working order. Allthough the dial adjustment is very very touchy.
Ordering 80 pounds of semi cured fiji tonight.

tank at 1:30 pm this afternoon


tank at 7:00 PM

[BigJay]

First big whoops. I thought I had choosen really well on the tank, waiting for the right one. This is where putting everything on paper SHOULD have been done before purchasing. Tank width at the ends is only 12" 's and I had planed on a HQI with T5 fixture but guess what they are all 15" 's .
Now I am stuck either going str8 halides or comprimising and going with just T5's. I want to use the canopy that came with the tank so retrofit is out of the question. At this point I am leaning towards the T5's and just giving up on most SPS's. I still have a little time to decide but I am not real happy.

[BigJay]

Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Calcium 440
Salinity 1.024
Alakalinity 5.5 meq/L
PH 8.3

I was doing 5 to 10 gallons a day of water changes due to the new semi-cured rock.But then I did 10-20 gallon water changes a day since learning the RO membrane was shot and my TDS in the tank was almost 800 and the water I was using was around 7.5 meq/L in alkalinity. Started dosing with calcium chloride instead of the normal bio calcium I use to bring the alkalinity down and raise the calcium to 440. As of tommrrow I will be switching back to 5 to 10 gallons per day for a few more days until I no longer see stuff coming off the rock, at which point I figure 5 to 10 gallons every 2 days for another week.
I put a couple blue leg hermits in the tank to help clean up the rock a little bit. I added a small 1/2 pound piece of rock out of my cube that is loaded with pods.
Everything is looking good at this point but due to the massive water changes I have a feeling my cycle is going to be soft but longer then normal. I'm in no extreme hurry so thats ok. I've been putting the bio balls out of my cube into my sump in hopes of help seeding but its really not much compared to the rate I am removing them and the size of this tank.



this is one of the porites that has visible polyp extension but my camera is giving me fits on macro shots in this tank.


This was a dry rock I bought for putting a frag on thats been in my cube probably about a month. Its literally crawling with pods and its been in the way inside my cube so I decided to put it in the new tank.

[BigJay]

Oh and with the PC lights it has now the tank is running a steady 76.5 degrees. I am still not sure how I am going to handle the lighting situation over the long run. Turns out the 8 x 54 T5's I wanted are too wide for this tank too.
The skimmer is doing really well. It took a little while to get it set up right but now its a snap to adjust.
been looking for a 10 gallon acrylic to add in the stand for a refuge.

[BigJay]

Day 10

Nitrite , nitrate 0
PH 8.3
Alk 5 meq/l
Calcium 460
temp 76.5

All the cube inahbitants handled the move from the cube well. Just a refresher due to tropical storm Fay they were all moved. Everything is looking really good. Seems things are much happier in this tank. I can see much better polyp extension on the acro. A white spot that had showed up on my green cap has almost completely healed in the last 2 days. Everything including the fish and zoo's seem to like the increased flow in this tank.
The lawn mower blenny is always out and about now and constantly eating. I don't think he was happy at all in the 14. Even though he was bought as a temporary inhabitant it was too small a tank for that fish at any size.
Bought michael's aquacontroller jr with the DC8 , PH and temp probes which should be here tommorrow. Gonna pick up another Koralia 4 and start them in a wave pattern. Changed all pc bulbs. 2 10k's and 2 460/420 actinics. My plan is to start the actinics at 8 am then 10 k's at 10 am to 8 pm then actinics off at 10 pm. Then the moonlights on the aquacontrollers lunar pattern.
I started researching cell cast acrylic suppliers and plan to order the material to build the fuge unless I sell just the hood of my bio cube. Looking to build a 15 gallon tall fuge and add a bubble trap in my sump.
Will add pictures when my wife gets home with the camera.

[yungreefer2410]

nice just following along

[BigJay]

first time ever UPS got to my house at 2 PM (usually its 5 to 8PM ) to deliver my aquacontroller and of course my wife was home to get the package . Note to self.. all future tank packages delivered to office where wife won't see them.

gotta get some calibration fluid. I think its off. Temp is also showing 2 degrees warmer then my other thermometer. But since I use it more to verify a constant temp its no biggie.


fish saver running during tropical storm Fay





night shot



getting a little bit of a diatom bloom. Got to do another water change tommorrow.


acro and stag (fuzzy pic sorry)






eagle eyes (all the zoos are showing ridiculous extension since the move into the new tank)


mushrooms (flash made them look kind of white)


sunbursts zoos and a turbo snail


gsellers never told me the name of these zoo's


Lawn mower blenny aka super pig


nemo


the size of these things are crazy. The big one is at least twice as big as the next size zoo in my tank. And they are very aggresive eaters. You can see a new polyp right in between the two coming out on the right


green cap

[BigJay]

latest additions

yellow watchman has found a spot he seems to like



midas blenny. I didn't quite realize how big he was til I got him home. Hes a monster.



xenia


sea cucumber

[BigJay]

Just some full tank shots after getting my cleaning crew and macros in from Reefcleaners.org

no flash


with flash and captions (for some reason the green cap and the psmmacora caption didn't take)


lastly my aquacontroller all set up. Ph probe finally calibrated.. just waiting for a new temp probe to come in the mail.

[blue_eyes53813]

Your tank looks very nice....