90g build thread

[KDC]

Hello everyone!
While I have had SW tanks on and off for over 15 years, this will be my first build thread. I'm really looking forward to hearing everyones idea's and opinions.
I've found from following other builds that the more pictures they add, the more people comment and follow along. So, I will do my best to keep everyones attention.
It shouldn't be a long thread because there isn't a whole lot of modifications for us to do, but it might be drawn out because I am having to wait for my husbands help on some of it and he's not a reefaholic like I am! :fish1:

Now, to get to the good stuff! To start it all off I should let you know that I just bought a 90g tall, starphire, RR with 1/2 inch glass and it is the largest tank I've had to date. We are military, so it will probably be the largest tank for awhile. The tank was bought used, down in Dallas when I went down there for NextWave. The only thing that I don't love about it is the overflow. It is huge! There is actually an extra piece of 1/2" glass under the overflow and the over flow is also made of 1/2" glass with a black acrylic cover. It is HEAVY!!
My husband and his brother brought it in the house before painting the back, and they are trying to think of ideas on how to get it painted without having to lift it again. :lolspin:

The next couple of pictures are of the tank and stand. You can tell that I didn't get a picture before J. started cutting out the front, but I put the door back on to show what it looked like before. In the last picture the entire front has been cut out. We cut out the front to make room for a larger sump. J. is in the process of making me a shelf that will slide part way out if needed, so I will have more room to work. It will cut down on the height I have for a skimmer (still trying to figure out which one I should get), but he is also going to make cabinets to go on each side of the stand with slots in the sides so I can run tubing and electrical cords.

I hope some of you will follow along and see how this all turns out. I am ordering live rock through the group buy, so the plumbing will need to get done in a hurry, even if the rest of it takes a while.
Please feel free to make suggestions or bring up problems that you think I might run into. This is the first RR tank I've had and the first sump I've set up, so if I anyone see's a flood in my future please speak up!

 

[KDC]

Well, I didn't mean to post the same picture twice. Let's try that again. Here is the one that I meant to post second, it shows the whole front of the stand cut out. The whole stand is made out of 3/4" plywood, so it is solid and actually looks nice stained.

 

[mikencarol]

I love heavy tanks...We have a new home and I feel more secure about having a big box of water inside if it is hevy tank...you may need that 37 I was asking about for a sump?????? Get that sucker running...you may want to borrow or buy some live rock that is in an existing tank to help get it going........our frag swap is Soon!!!!!!

 

[Lytehouse]

Congrats KC

Looking for water

 

[Triple_B]

Awesome! We love pics, so keep them coming! You don't really appreciate how big that overflow is in the fist pic, but the second... wow, that sucker is huge! haha

My wife tells me I have issues because I honestly think the worst part about being in the military is the fact that I will have to move one day, and my wife won't let me get a bigger tank because of it. lol.

 

[KDC]

I love heavy tanks...We have a new home and I feel more secure about having a big box of water inside if it is hevy tank...you may need that 37 I was asking about for a sump?????? Get that sucker running...you may want to borrow or buy some live rock that is in an existing tank to help get it going........our frag swap is Soon!!!!!!

I won't need the 37g, I got a 36 inch Precision Marine sump that fits under the tank perfectly! I ordered a half box of the ultra walt smith fiji rock and I'm getting some from another site. It won't be ready for the frag swag, at least for this frag swap! But I hope to have it cycled and steady for the next one.

 

[KDC]

Awesome! We love pics, so keep them coming! You don't really appreciate how big that overflow is in the fist pic, but the second... wow, that sucker is huge! haha

My wife tells me I have issues because I honestly think the worst part about being in the military is the fact that I will have to move one day, and my wife won't let me get a bigger tank because of it. lol.

My husband is the same way. We're supposed to be here for the next 36 months so I'll get a chance to really get this one started. If I can just get my brother-in-law hooked, I can leave it here since we'll keep coming back.
I'm going to set up my 29g biocube again too and I am in the process of getting a 34g solana.
I didn't have any idea how big that overflow was before I bought it. All the pictures I had gotten showed it full with the lights on, so the overflow blended in with the black background he had taped on. I was going to redo it until we saw that it was also made out of 1/2" glass... then everyone in my family bailed on that idea.
I'll see what kind of pictures I can get from the top, it is quite an impressive tank once you see all the additional glass.

 

[KDC]

So, could someone please explain to me how to quote two or more messages in one reply? Otherwise, this thread will be extremely long just from me trying to make replies and thank people. :-D

 

[Lytehouse]

So, could someone please explain to me how to quote two or more messages in one reply? Otherwise, this thread will be extremely long just from me trying to make replies and thank people. :-D

next to the quote button is a " button. Push it on each response you want to include and they push post reply and they will all show up

 

[KDC]

next to the quote button is a " button. Push it on each response you want to include and they push post reply and they will all show up

thank you!!

 

[pwhitby]

Looking good Kayce!!

Glad to see you getting this set up.
Paul.

 

[KDC]

Ok, here's round two. I took some pictures to show you guys how much glass this thing has. It's outrageous! :-D You can see in the second picture that the glass is doubled over around the edges and under the overflow. All the extra glass is 1/2 inch just like the rest.
John also just painted the back. As you can see we just taped up some paper, decided we didn't like the carpet anyway and had at it. It looks nice and actually didn't make a mess at all, though we have exiled the children to their playroom and are airing out the house with fans.
Next up, (before we push it back against the wall) will be to attach the light hanging fixtures, and then to start cleaning it out. I knew it needed it, but after seeing the third picture, I noticed that it REALLY needed it! LOL

 

[Lytehouse]

Great,

nice back makes corals stand out

 

[Mylilreef]

so does it have the extra 1/2" glass all around the bottom too? if so, what a BEAST! i've never seen a 90g that shape before(tall). what are the dimensions out of curiousity? it looks the perfect size for where you're putting it too.

 

[KDC]

so does it have the extra 1/2" glass all around the bottom too? if so, what a BEAST! i've never seen a 90g that shape before(tall). what are the dimensions out of curiousity? it looks the perfect size for where you're putting it too.

It does have the 1/2" glass all around the edges. So, I can't exactly blame my husband and his brother for not wanting to take it off the stand again. I guess that would be why they made the stand out of 3/4" plywood.
Your right, it looks great on the wall I have it on. We have these two short wall leading into our dining room that are about 46 inches wide, so I couldn't go with a 48" tank and I didn't want a 55g. I wanted something with more depth. I found this one for sale in Dallas, it is 36x18x30. Really deep, but I love it. Of course, I also haven't yet had to get in it to do aquascaping, but I think that once it is done it is going to look great.
We finally got the smell of paint out of the house, but John forgot to put anything on the tiled floor behind him and so the kids and I ended up with black spray paint on the bottoms of our feet. Luckily it washed right off of us.

 

[KDC]

Ok, so here we are a week later and so far my husband and his brother figured out how to get the plumbing hooked up once, but things were a little off and crowded. Since we couldn't use the slide for my sump with the plumbing the way it was, John decided to take the slide out. You can see the slide in the bottom of the tank as John put in the extra 2x4 supports for the front.

After taking the plumbing apart to get the sump and slide out, John saw that the return lines weren't even and they way it was glued was slightly crooked which meant that as long as the ball valve to my return pump as open everything was ok and the sump could be centered under the tank, but if we had to turn if off, it was right up against the acrylic and then the sump had to be pushed up against the left brace.

So... now we are just going to start curing our live rock in a large tub so we can make sure that the plumbing will work without flooding out the living room.
I think I am also going to start up a smaller tank for seahorses and use my 29 Biocube for a pair of maroon clowns and maybe a dottyback or pygmy angelfish. I've got a thread in the seahorse and pipefish forum asking about which tank people would recommend me using. So, anyone out there that reads this one, I would really appreciate your opinion on my other thread about choosing a tank. After that decision is taking care of I will start a thread for that build. I love getting everyone's opinions, advice and encouragement since my poor husband has no interest in any of this past building the stands and plumbing the sumps. :-D

 

[Lytehouse]

pick up your rock yet?

 

[KDC]

I'm going to pick it up next weekend and more than likely it is going to go straight into my 29g. I got lucky and found someone down in Dallas that has a pair of YSM's that he is willing to hold for me till I can get down there the second week of April. So that's the tank that needs to get up and going first. I am looking at buying some buna live rock from live rock n reef. It looks like it will stack and interlock really well and as tall as my 90g is, I'll need to be able to stack it higher than normal.

 

[Lightsluvr]

Is your tank a Glasscages product?

It's looking good...

LL

 

[KDC]

Is your tank a Glasscages product?

It's looking good...

LL

Thank you! I can't wait to get it all set up.
I bought it from a guy (who was brand new to SW), down outside of Dallas and he had bought it as a complete set up from someone else.
I love it! I can't wait to get it set up. I'm going to overnight some uncured live rock and see what I can find. This is one of my favorite parts of setting up a new tank.