Morbius18's New 90 Reef

[morbius18]

I have never had a tank thread before, so I decided to do one with my new build.
This past weekend (10 Jan 09) I purchased a 90 gallon acrylic tank, stand, canopy, sump & chaeto, sand, about 20lbs live rock and a coralife superskimmer for $400. I have to drive about an hour to pick it up. The bad: The tank has no return pump and the Skimmer pump is broken. The stand is missing the doors!?!
I had to load it into my Mercury Mariner, but it didn't fit. I had to have the back hatch open and bungied close. I wrapped some cable around the back to keep it from falling out. When I got home, my wife helped me carry the tank and stand into the house. She had to stop and rest about every 10 feet. So I finally got it into the house and into the living room, and my kids kept climbing into the stand and messing in the sump. So now the tank is facing backwards against the wall.
My first project is to make doors. Sunday night I went to home depot and got them to cut some pine boards the size of the door holes plus 1 inch for overhang. I bought all the hinges, handles, and small locks to keep small children out. Next on the project is to buy a pump for the skimmer, either a mag 9.5 or mag 12 return pump, an O ring for the skimmer, acrylic scratch remover, and a drain hose. Right now the doors have been stained to match and are drying. The live rock/chaeto is in a container with a light. I've killed off about 7 glass anemones and am well on the way. I'm just waiting for Income tax return to purchase stuff.
will post pictures tonight.

 

[morbius18]

I forgot to mention that I have a 45 gallon hex tank that I will be transferring over to the new tank when I'm done.

 

[BigAl07]

Do you know what size your over flow/bulkhead are?

The reason I ask is I have a 90g RR and it takes a Mag18 return pump.

sounds like a REALLY fun project

 

[morbius18]

The bulk heads are 1 1/2 inches. The sump is a combo refugium, so I want moderate flow, with a vortech MP40W in the tank I think that I might have enough, but I also have a pair of Maxijet 1200 and a pair of 400 for behind the rock work if needed.

 

[morbius18]

Here is a picture of the tank before cleaning.

Here it is after the cleaning. I need to get some polish to get out minor scratches.

Here is a picture of the refugium supplies:

here are the doors after being stained and coated with varnish

 

[Adam Black]

Very nice tank! What are the dimensions? Looks like maybe 24W? You'll love that extra 6 inches!

 

[bratyboy2]

:hallo: very nice. got to love starting from scratch its always fun to add what you want and not what they have. love the tank though should be fun to scape and stock.

 

[morbius18]

Yep, the tank is 36 wide, 24 deep and 24 tall. I'm thinking of replacing the sump though, the one I got, the guy setup as a refugium. It was originally a wet dry with a filter tower on one side. It just doesn't seem like it would be big enough/enough volume for a 90 gallon. It is 30 inches long, and about 18 inches high, but there is a curcular cutout between the baffle to prevent overflow if the sponge that separates the compartments clogs. The cutout is about 7-8 inches from the bottom, so that would be the max depth.

 

[morbius18]

I also have a 25 gallon tall tank that I am thinking about modifying into a sump/fuge. It is 24x12x20, so I could get more depth of water for the fuge.

 

[ReefLady]

Looks like it's going to be very nice!!!

 

[morbius18]

I don't know about the flow that I should have through the sump though. The drain is 1 1/4 inch or at least the PVC coming from the bulkhead is.

 

[bratyboy2]

well if you look around a some of the fuge setups they always have a lower end away from the entrance pipe so no matter what the outpu is you will get a good enough flow to carry food and the like out to the DT

 

[morbius18]

The lighting that I was planning to put into the hood was a 250watt MH 130watt Power compact fixture. Short of putting a 400 watt MH in the hood, I am a bit leery if this will be enough lighting for SPS. I could probably retro more lighting into the hood, but since the tank is 36 inches, space is somewhat limited.

 

[yungreefer2410]

yes mh will work. t5s will work if you can find a strong enough 36'' fixture which could be hard. i would go with one 400w mh

 

[morbius18]

Here is shots of the tank after attaching the doors, polishing the acrylic, and moving the refuge stuff out of my bedroom into the fuge. I've decided to use my income tax return to get a new sump, this one is a pos.

 

[Jeremy0322]

That is an awesome size for a tank, cant wait to see what you do with it. As for the sump, it may be much more cheaper to build instead of buy, but thats just my opinion. I build mine, it was pretty easy, and cost about 10 bucks considering I got the tank for free and the lexan baffles for free. Its hard to save money in this hobby, so any chance you get needs to be grabbed, and this may be one of them.

I am following along for the progress now, should be awesome! :chair:

 

[morbius18]

I just went on drsfostersmith.com and bought a Eshops sump, mag 9.5 return pump, vortech mp40W upgrade and a few misc supplies, so hopefully when the stuff gets delivered the tank will start to take shape. Tonight, I will put some water into the display tank and mix up the salt in the tank. I have to wait until the tank is up and running to move the lighting system from my hex tank, so no lights until I am ready to make the change.

 

[Mya]

Nicely done. Keep up the hard work. It will be well worth it. I'm sure.
I love my 90 and now could never imagine having a small tank again.

Btw, make your own sump/refuge. I made a refuge for my 90 out of a 20L and I'm lovin' it.

 

[yungreefer2410]

he already bought one but IMO its much cheaper to diy one. its so easy mya can do it!! just kidding mya

 

[Mya]

No harm in telling the truth my dear friend.
It is easy if I can do it....

haha