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Another 90 Gallon...

T

The Wrong Reefer

So I'm just about done, and it only took 2 years :)
Here's my build... I've pretty much built everything myself that I possibly could, i.e. stand, canopy, scrubber, LEDs, etc... The tank finally matured these past few months (or I should say I matured) and stuff is finally starting to grow and color up nicely!

Current Setup:
90 Gallon Aquarium (brand unknown) with overflow
20 Gallon ETSS Sump (Skimmer cut out)
Mag 9.5 Return Pump
SWC 160 Cone Skimmer
80 Square Inch Algae Scrubber lit on both sides by 16 Deep Red and 2 Royal Blue Steve's Led's split up on two brick heatsinks ~1/2" thick mat of Green Hair Algae harvested from screen approximately 10-14 days on average.
Ecotech MP40w... WOW!!! LOVE IT!!!
~75lb Dry rock and 80lb Sand from Reefrocks dot net
1 Single BRS Reactor, Occasionally ran with High Capacity GFO to assist Algae Scrubber when Nitrates/Phosphates get out of balance, Utilize Carbon on occasion as well for water clarity.
2 BRS Dosers to dose 2 parts (in process of fine tuning, currently dosing 60mL each part throughout the day (awesome investment!!!)
R.O. (No DI as of yet) via a split from my drinking water fountain (wife loves it when I fill up my top off container and there's no water to drink for an hour...)
DIY Auto topoff consisting of an old cell phone charger, Solid State Relay, 2 float switches, auto lifter aquarium pump, and an outlet box with over ride switch. Topped off with pre-mixed lime water.
Lighting courtesy of StevesLEDs
28 5,000k Nuetral white, 28 Royal Blue, 14 Cool Blue, 14 Cyan, 14 Deep Red, 10 UV all controlled via 2 Typhon LED controllers from BoostLED, LEDs running around 40-60% currently, reds and cyans not utilized.
PAR Readings were around 250 on sandbed with LEDs @95%, highest reading on rockwork were 350 near top, but overall consistent in tank. Color is awesome!!!


Not gonna list every coral and fish... what you see is pretty much it.

Overall the most growth and color have been over the past two months, since getting my phosphates, calcium, alk in line and stable and I also had red slime algae which after battling for at least 3 months with good husbandry, I caved and dosed with the yellow powder. Slime has since cleared and allowed EVERYTHING in my tank to take off.
Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures at the moment, but I guess these can be my new "Before" pics and I'll call it a fresh start :) Enjoy!

Next purchase is a BRS 4 stage RO/DI so I can dedicate that to my tank. Other than that I think I have everything I need right now, except for some more Acro!:love-struck:

















 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
Great build and great write up. I can't see the pics here at work so I will have to enjoy them later.

What are your calc and alk testing at? With topping off with kalk and dosing you might want to pick one as with both you can run those numbers pretty high.

Get that DI sooner than later. That is probably why you had the red slime and your algae growth.

Also you might want to recheck the PAR numbers. 250 on the sandbed sounds right, but they should be a lot higher near the top of the water. If the corals are happy, then don't mess with it, just something that stuck out to me especially after reading an article last night on zoas getting 1000 par in shallow water in the wild.
 
T

The Wrong Reefer

Thank you for the compliments. I have been keeping close watch on the alk and calcium. Alk was around 11 back when I was manual dosing and zoas were starting to retract/close up. I have alk between 8-9 dKh right now, calcium hovers right around 400ppm. Everything seems happier now. I don't test magnesium or any other trace minerals as I keep up on water changes. I usually skim very wet, 3-4 gallons over a few hours and move my top off inlet tube to the fresh saltwater reserve. I do this once or twice a week and it really makes the water crystal clear and cuts down on the algae film on the glass.

I thought PAR should have been higher, but I am running no secondary optics, so yes, measurable PAR is lower, but more consistent throughout the tank, with no spot light effect with the LEDs. I've used optics before on other LED fixtures and the PAR levels are much higher, but I've been trying to avoid any spotlighting. Also, from what I was told, LEDs tend to over saturate the PAR meter, and levels can be considerably higher than what my meter is reading. Either way, I am still only putting out about 1/2 of what the LEDs are capable of right now and everything seems to be responding very well. I've been able to grow several different montiporas, birdsnest, some milli, and green slimer so I think I have enough juice for some simple stuff. I got a Joe the Coral Acro from that guy in Malvern yesterday so I am now monitoring that to see how it does in my tank. Time will tell.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
As long as the corals are happy, keep doing what you are doing. Looking forward to following along.
 
Sobo's Reef

Sobo's Reef

Its scary how much you're tank looks like mine! (Minus the corals obviously) but the setup, even the frag rack on the right lol

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4
 

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