LoCoReefer's 90G Revival

[LoCoReefer]

Hi everyone,

 

I finally decided to upgrade to a larger tank . My current tank is a 29G biocube, which I plan to keep operational even once the 90G tank build is complete.  I purchased this 90g tank for $250 and judging by the old equipment associated with the tank I must venture to guess it is almost certainly older then 10 years old  .  That being said I have my work cut out for me over the next month or two, which is great because I haven't gotten my hands dirty in quite some time.  I will be updating my progress all along the way.

 

 

Here is a picture of the tank when the seller actually had it filled with water, but no longer maintaining. I arrived to the tank broken down in the garage.

 

I began curing the live rock as soon as I brought it home as it had been dry in the seller's garage for quite some time. The smell from the bacteria die off for only 3 days of curing almost triggered a gag reflex.  This will take multiple weeks of 100% water changes till no more die off is present. 

 

Removed sand from tank to trash. Seller tried to convince me to wash sand and reuse it, but honestly there was way to many dead snails and organics in it for me to reuse. Decided I am going bite that bullet and purchase new live sand.

 

Had to hit every glass panel with a razor blade to remove the coat of algae which was caked on the glass.  Still have more cleaning to do on this front to get the glass shimmering.

 

Removed old bulkheads and internal plumbing from tank. I honestly don't feel comfortable with bulkheads that have been in a tank this old remaining in place. Not to mention, I felt the return bulk head wiggle a bit.... I will be redoing this tank with all brand new hard plumbing.

 

Applying rust remover to the light mounts in the canopy. I am not sure how well the rust remover is going to work. I plan on repainting the two panels with a metallic paint after the rust remover does it's thing.

 

Using the belt sander to sand down the stand, canopy, and tank trim to prepare for primer and then paint with a black semi-gloss finish.

 

Stand is primed. Ready for the black finish

 

 

 

canopy contains two metal halides, four T5 bulbs, and two nifty moonlight bulbs

 

these moonlight bulbs are actually quite bright haha

 

 

 

Small pic from my biocube. You can just barely see my rose bubble tip behind the frogspawn haha

Edited January 30, 2017 by LoCoReefer

[LoCoReefer]

I decided to do a quick drawing of the plumbing design I will use for this tank.

Edited January 27, 2017 by LoCoReefer

[Jon Lazar]

Plenty of people are successful with a single overflow pipe. But systems like the beananimal and Herbie, which use multiple pipes, are more robust. You could do a herbie with the two existing holes, and run your return over the top of the tank.

 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[LoCoReefer]

That could definitely work Jon. I would have to drill an additional hole in the canopy top and the tank stand for the return pipe, but those are easy changes.  However, the two existing holes in the tank are 1 inch and 3/4. Do you see an issue with having the emergency overflow being 3/4?

Edited January 29, 2017 by LoCoReefer

[Jon Lazar]

If you decided to go with a Herbie, I would use the 3/4" hole for your siphon, and the 1" hole for the emergency.  The Herbie is a relatively easy upgrade to your initial plan both in terms of safety and noise.

 

Of course, you could always remove the stock overflow altogether, plug the existing holes with bulkheads, and drill the back of the tank for a ghost/shadow overflow.  That's an even bigger upgrade in safety, noise, and appearance IMO,  But a lot more work and expense.  And you'd have to verify your tank isn't tempered glass.  But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it.

[Jon Lazar]

Regardless of your plumbing plan, I would fill the tank and leak check it before you get too involved.  You didn't see it when it was full of water, so you really don't know whether it might have a slow leak that the seller didn't know about, or maybe forgot to disclose.

[LoCoReefer]

I just added up what it will cost me to swap out all the existing bulbs in the tank....  $233.86 Yikes!!  Does WAMAS have any kind of membership with Drs. Foster & Smith to get some kind of discount? 

 

x2 Halide Bulb - 250W 10,000°K $119.90

x2 Compact Fluorescent Straight Pin Bulbs Actinic 65W  $59.98

x2 Compact Fluorescent Straight Pin Bulbs 10,000°K 65W $53.98

 

 

[John Ford]

It's a yearly expense also..

 

 

I just added up what it will cost me to swap out all the existing bulbs in the tank.... $233.86 Yikes!! Does WAMAS have any kind of membership with Drs. Foster & Smith to get some kind of discount?

x2 Halide Bulb - 250W 10,000°K $119.90

x2 Compact Fluorescent Straight Pin Bulbs Actinic 65W $59.98

x2 Compact Fluorescent Straight Pin Bulbs 10,000°K 65W $53.98

 

 

[surf&turf]

What brand halides were you going with?

[LoCoReefer]

What brand halides were you going with?

 

I was going to go with Hamilton.

[LoCoReefer]

Finished the black coat, now onto the poly-acrylic finish.

 

New bulbs arrived today from Drs. Foster & Smith.

 

 

34 inch emerald trigger system sump to arrive in the next day or two. Slowly but surely getting there. 

[LoCoReefer]

Finished installing the soft close hinges. Trigger systems emerald 34inch sump arrived today. Now I can move onto the plumbing.

[LoCoReefer]

Hard plumbing completed today. Leaked tested and all went well.  Moving onto aquascaping in the morning.

 

[HgrReefs]

Nice work. You are going to love that sump!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dr.eclipse]

Coming along nicely. Great job on that stand.

[LoCoReefer]

Thanks everyone for the kind words, I just finished my aquascape. I went with a more open style aquascape to give the future inhabitants more room to swim. The water is still cloudy as I haven't finished filling, I ran out of RODI water and had to make more.

[LoCoReefer]

New Sump additions: Skimmer (Nyos Quantum 120), Added Tray filled with Fiji Mud in Refugium, LED grow bulb (No Macro algae yet though), and added some carbon before the return section.

[LoCoReefer]

Water is just about cleared up now.

 

Here is a night shot with the two lunar leds on.

 

[LoCoReefer]

Long overdue update.

 

Tank Upgrades

Return Pump: Varios 4 controllable DC pump (1050 GPH) Reef Octopus

Lighting: Finally got around to replacing the existing lighting setup. I added two 2x24W Aruba SUN V T5HO-Hamilton. Each T5 ballast has one 24W ATI Coral Plus and one 24W ATI Blue Plus. I also added two TrueLumen Pro LED Strip Light, Actinic Pacific Blue with Canopy.  My two 250W metal halides remained in the current setup. This lighting upgrade required me to build a whole new canopy that is not quite finished yet so when I look at the tank it currently blinds me from the front lol.

Dosing Pump: Jebao Auto Dosing Pump DP-4

Dosing Product: Aquaforest Component 1+, 2+, 3+

UV Sterlizer: Added 25W Pentaire UV sterilizer

 

I broke down my 29G nano upstairs and migrated all of my corals, 2 clowns, 2 damsels, RBTA anenome, and my CUC to this 90g.

 

(New Lighting Canopy)

 

(FTS 4/5/17)

 

 

(Dosing Pump)

 

(Varios Return)

 

(UV Sterilizer)

 

(QT Tank)

 

(Only Trulumen LED strips)

 

 

 

[LoCoReefer]

Can anyone help tell me what the white specs are in my refugium? I hope it's a copepod population beginning to blossom, but they don't seem to move at all.