Eva's 90 gal baby

[Evik]

Whoopee - snow day, time to start my tank treat . I’m upgrading from my first 29 gal reef tank to 90 gal – to me big tank.

I started the 29 gal tank about 2 years ago; I will post some progress of that tank; like a memory lane since back then I didn’t know there is a reef club. I thought I’m the only strange one in my neighborhood. After many mistakes and learning more from books or online I started to feel I’m ready for bigger tank. And now when I found my new reef family I feel confidant, that with your help I can handle it and some day grow bigger.
Just wanted to mention I came from Europe, so excuse my “language”, thank God for spell check, but sometimes I can confuse even the spell check :.
So I bought the set up from Danny (roadking05) made some changes, painted the stand so it will fit better with our room, filled it up with mix of RO/DI and Tropic Marine PRO, add more cured rock and I’m adding the water from my every week water changes of the 29 gal to seed the new tank. So far I’m on second week, keeping water at 0.125 and temp at 78 no light and skimmer yet.

Here are my questions:
1. When should I start to test the water for ammonia?
2. How long do you think the cycle can be?
3. Should I start skimming (I bought new skimmer – Beckett with mag 9.5) but not sure if I should run the skimmer, when the bacteria should help to cycle the water
4. To aqua cape, do you secure the rock with glue or can I lean it to the back wall?
5. The light is coming, I got 8 54W T5s, but I think I should add the light when I will transfer my corals

And the biggest question and fear - the transfer. How to do it? Any suggestions are welcome .

Thanx a million

 

[lithivm]

Cool! so your upgrading huh? if you have a Reef setup for over two years you must know how to go about the transfer but are probably very nervous huh? :-\

I'll let the Guru's of the forum give you tips.

Where you from originally (in Europe)

 

[Evik]

Yap lithivm nervous. I made already many small mistakes and don't want to do the big fatal one .
I'm from Czech republic, are you from Litvenia? Just guessing ;D

I want to post some pictures of my 29 gal - kind of like a memory lane


Start - the rock is from Sandy Hook don't worry removed it soon

Added CC and real live rock

Removed CC added live sand

Added some nicer rock and some corals

Lots of changes - sand out - was giving me problems, added more corals, finally it looks like a reef

Thru 2007 look, final set up, added more fish, more corals, then different corals when some didn't make it(so sorry, but you live and learn now I now you can ask and learn ;D

My favorite fish

Favorite coral (so far)

Unusual picture - crab massacre - found them like that, they killed each other

Thank you for looking, pictures of new tank are coming ....

 

[lithivm]

Thats a beautiful tank!! Nice aquascape!!

I'm originally from Spain...

 

[roadking05]

Hope everything is going well for you. Let me know if you need anything

 

[Evik]

Thanks Danny, how is doing your 180 ?

Actually, can you tell me how you make the transfer? Do you have to cycle your new tank? See I got new cured rock and I'm adding the water from my old aguarium (every few days I'm doing "water changes" )to add the good bacteria to help cycle the new tank faster.
I'm puzzled if by doing that I'm helping to speed up or prolonging the cycle . Anybody any ideas ??????????

 

[Evik]

Finally the pictures of the 90 gallon


This is the original Danny's tank:

Got it home and it's waiting to be placed in a hobby room we share with my husband - here you see his side ;D

I painted the stand black so it will look better in the room, added new rock and waiting for now

 

[billyr98]

waiting is very key...

also be very careful with those electrical cords, you have no drip loops and water can travel down them and go right into the extension cord... sorry thats my electrician coming out...

 

[Evik]

Thanks very good point, but it will not look like that, trust me. This is just temporary curing the rock, I'm not doing anything now . Will fix it anyway

 

[BobCReef]

The old tank looked great Eva. I think you will even better with your new bigger tank. Great looking pictures too. I would let the new tank cycle before adding anything. You may remember it usually takes 4 to 6 weeks to cycle. When you say you added MORE live rock, do you mean you used the rock from the 29 and added more to it or is this all new rock. If some of the rock is from the 29 it may shorten the cycle time.
Be patient. At least that's what i keep telling myself

 

[Evik]

Thank you Bob, I know the patience, the patience, it's sooooooooooooo difficult
I'm only on my second week and already feel it has to be cycled, but it's not yet :'(

 

[Baxreefs]

Nice to see you get started, from seeing your 29, you'll have fun with a 90. Take your time. The established rock will help, but if you cut the cycle too short you risk a nasty hair algae stage.

Good luck

 

[shipwrecked]

gd luck with the new setup,I too have a 90...if it goes the same for you as it did me,you'll run out of room in no time..lol keep the pics coming,I will follow this post,happy reefing

 

[Hawkeye]

if you lean the LR against the backwall - it will be hard to clean the back wall later and it can result in some detrius (e.g. poop trapped) build up. That stated, a lot of people have the "fruit stand" look where you lean LR against the back wall. You can compensate by having a PH in the back or more powerful flow in the tank to prevent stuff settling in the back.

Nice job painting the stand - looks great in your home!

 

[Evik]

...if it goes the same for you as it did me,you'll run out of room in no time..lol

I'm afraid of that already ;D I like so many corals, and starting to feel the addiction. Are you ready for upgrade? How long it usually takes, guess it also depends on finances ??? Bummer

a lot of people have the "fruit stand" look

Thank you Phil, I definitely don't like the "fruit stand look". I will try to stack it up without any glue, if I need to use some, what would you recommend?

 

[Hawkeye]

I personally haven't used any since I never really had any frags in my tank...I picked up some corals from fellow reefers way back when that were already set on LR so just added that to my tank. I don't even know how to frag a coral...something I'm sure I'll learn soon enough with this club.

Anyways - since I personally haven't used any glue - suggest you go into the DIY forum and read there. Here's one recent thread that may help: http://www.njreefers.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=7859.0

 

[Evik]

Thank you Phil for the tip

 

[Phyl]

To "glue" rock together you'll either want to use epoxy or some sort of concrete type stuff (Merv bought/used some for his setup, but I don't remember what it was called). The problem with building a big structure is that once you have it built you need to worry about being able to get the pieces (however large you make them) out of the tank.

Some folks use acrylic rods to tie the rock together. Marco Rocks does, and I think Ed may have as well, but I'm not sure. I'd go the rod route if I wanted something permenant. Personally I just stacked the rock in a way that it intertwined and stayed stable. That's worked for me.

 

[shipwrecked]

I agree with Phyl,if you "lock" the rocks in place without any glue when comes the time to rearrange the rockwork,or have a need to move some rocks you have the freedom to do so.In the past I have been able to do some amazing ledges,arches etc locking them in place,good luck and keep the pics coming

 

[Evik]

Thank you guys

I want to do two islands setup and was thinking to glue together the bottom rocks to create a base, then I will stock up free formation. Mostly because the bottom will be new rocks and later on will come the old with corals.
I read (I do a lots of reading, so I don't have to ask so many questions ;D) I should add the old rocks with corals slowly to new aquarium, of course when the water will be ready, how slow and what should I watch for?