A Living Room Reef: 90 Gallon Mixed Reef Build

[Sydoriakp]

and im doing a sump with fuge as well can I see more on how you plumbed the two together looks like exactly what I plan so awesome to see it setup for me is the fuge gravity feeding the sump ?? ty so much

 

[troubadour11]

That's a ripper of an update Troub, everything is looking great and the cycle is well under way at last :thumbsup: If those snails are happily doing snaily things i'd order a heap more as lots of hairy food is going to appear in short order mate. Keep feeding the tank a small pinch each day, i like the rock on shelves to keep good flow around it btw, nice idea that mate.

I finally finished the CAD wiring diagram for your disco/xmas LED's so just follow the bulb layout and you should be golden mate...........

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!! :lmao: That's awesome! Thanks Biggles. All the presents go around the fish tank stand this year! LOL

So I'm following your advice and still adding that daily pinch of food. The snails have been snailing around and in new places each day.

I haven't notice many other changes. There are some very small spots where it looks like maybe some coralline algae starting to take up on the dry rocks. But I can't really tell if it's that or any other type of pale reddish algae or bacteria. If and when those spots get any bigger, I'll snap a shot and post it up here.

I worry about throwing lots of snails in right now. Because there's only a bit of algae growing on the LR I seeded with. I'd like to drop in a few nassarius snails into my sand beds. That way they can start stirring/turning the sand over until the beds have more life in them. So what's everyone snails of choice out there?

And I am so glad I built those shelves for the fuge and sump! I think it's going to work GREAT! Eventually I expect to shift all the rocks in the fuge over to the sturdier shelf at the far end (closest to where the stairs meet the ground). Then I was going to use the smaller shelf closest to the overflow to keep my eventual Cheato ball up slightly off the sand. It's easier to access the right end of the Fuge for pruning and such. So that's where that is headed. But with the DSB in there. I definitely wanted the rocks up off the sand bed in order to maximize filtration from the rocks and not suffocate them under 4-5 inches of sand. Plus the added bonus of better flow. And I'm guessing it might make maintenance a little easier. I'll have to see on that one though...

 

[troubadour11]

Great build thread, thanks for sharing!! Looks like when I finally take the plunge, I don't have to have everything at once and instead take it one step at a time like you've done here....

Thanks for dropping by and checking it out SUMIXAM! So far this approach has worked great for me. And to be honest. While it might be AWESOME to be able to accomplish all this faster. I think taking my time and building it up piece by piece is going to pay off in the long run. It also kind of forces you to practice patience, not move to fast or make impulse decisions, and gives PLENTY of time to plan things out. My theory was:

1.) get tank, stand, mechanical filtration, pumps, etc. purchased (not worried about lighting at this point. I could use old lights to start off the cycle and upgrade or build better versions later)
2.) Start researching what we want to keep in order to plan for sand bed, rocks, & lighting.
3.) Start planning plumbing layout

- Then once I had my sand and rocks, I was ready to plumb and get the cycle going with all the filtration parts in place (even though they aren't all currently running quite yet ) But that's coming soon.

4.) With it filled and cycling. I could focus on seeding the system with LR, live sand, pods, worms, snails, etc. Temp lighting is fine for all of these things.
5.) I planned this time to let the system establish. Take a deep breath. Watch it grow and change for a bit. Establish healthy populations of all the things I seeded the system with. And during this time (where we are basically at now) I would have time to build the LED's, set up my Reef Angel to control the lights, heaters, temp probes, ATO, etc. Steps 4 and 5 will probably take 2-4 months.
6.) With all the lights & filtration set up, everything tied into the Reef Angel, and the tank cycled and established for a few months. I should be able to QT my first fish addition to overlap steps 5 & 6. Then we're off and running! I expect I'll drop the 1st fish in the DT about the time I have the lights and everything up and running.​

So far, the only thing I feel I could have put off is possibly the skimmer. I'm not sure if it's needed for cycling seeded dry rock. It's pulled nothing but a minimal amount of the finest of my sand dust (I did not rinse my dry sand before adding water)... and water. LOL. Not much waste in the tank yet. So I could have waited to purchase and added this in more in step 5. But it's running and breaking in and will be there when needed. So I'm cool with how it worked out.

Great Thread. Thanks for sharing your build with us.

I'm in the beginning phase of setting up my 90. This thread is helping me a lot.

Hey there Baiggann! Thanks for checking it out. I'm glad my thread is helping! I've received LOTS of help from others, so it's nice to be able to give a little back! I'm loving how my system is going so far. Other then taking seemingly FOREVER, LOL, everything has gone nice and easy and smooth so far. Lets hope it keeps going this way! ;-) And so far, there isn't really much I would have changed in the process. Other then having more money to accomplish it quicker :facepalm: But then I wouldn't have had as much time to :reading: and probably would have made many mistakes in the process.

really helpful thread as im setting up a 90 gallon soon in my basement where did u get ther rock from? trying to find a nice cheap dry rock vendor hopefully with free shipping ..? nice setup well planned ill be following

and im doing a sump with fuge as well can I see more on how you plumbed the two together looks like exactly what I plan so awesome to see it setup for me is the fuge gravity feeding the sump ?? ty so much

Thanks for popping in and following along Sydoriakp! I ordered my dry rocks and dry sand from MarcoRocks.com. I picked up a packaged sale deal (I'd have to look back to refresh my memory) but I think it was 100 pounds of their Key Largo rock and 160 pounds of Bahama White dry sand. I got free shipping with the package. I think you just need to order over a certain amount to get it shipped free in the US. I then added an extra, I think, 20 pounds of their "prime cut" rock. Which is the Key Largo rock, just got flat on 1 side for shelves, overflow covers, etc. I did describe my tank size and what I was trying to accomplish when ordering the rock. And I feel they took that into consideration and picked out sizes and shapes that would aid in my design. That being said... I still did a fair amount of chiseling and shaping the rocks.

I also used their "E-maro" cement and bonding agent. I did lots of research on hydralic cement and other things that potentially alter or leach things into the water. I thought about drilling with rods, zip tieing to pvc, etc. But in the end, I am VERY glad I used the cement. Their "E-marco" cementing package was the best deal for the price, for the "right" type of cement to avoid those leaching issues. I ordered a 15 pound package and it was the PERFECT amount for me. I have just a bit left over (but not a lot of waste). And I had enough that with any mistakes or whatever I didn't run out. And it was really easy to work with. I would recommend using them, and would use them again based off my experience so far. Just be sure to see all that with actual Live Rock and Live Sand. I've put about 20 pounds of LR and LS into the system now on top of the MarcoRocks order.

I'm at work now, so I'll try to get a couple new pictures of the plumbing between the sump and Fuge for you soon. To answer your question in words, the Fuge is gravity feeding to the sump. The sump sits on the floor on a board (to insulate it from the cement floor). I have an old Fluval 305 Canister Filter (from my fresh water days) that I'm currently running empty. I might use this to run Carbon/GFO if needed down the line. The Fluval draws water from my center sump Skimmer section and pumps it up into the Fuge at the far end. I built an elevated wood platform to lift the bottom of the Fuge up around 10 inches. Then I drilled the end pane of glass on the fuge and installed a 700 gph Glass Holes overflow kit. This overflow drains through the bulkhead and gravity feeds back down to the sump. The Fuge water enters the sump through a bulkhead in the return pump chamber. Basically the Fuge water enters through where you would attach an external pump. I'm just using a submersible, so rather then installing a plugged bulkhead, I made it the return from the Fuge.

This design is working great so far. My only issue is some micro-bubble spray from the fuge drain in the return chamber of my sump. It's not a big issue at all really... it should be easily solved. And I get NO micro-bubbles feeding to the DT.

One thing to keep in mind... if you're installing an overflow for the Fuge. Make sure you size the gph of your overflow and pump correctly. You don't want a pump running 1000 gph with an overflow that's only capable of 700 gph. I'm only ever planning on running about 300-400 gph through my Fuge and will be putting a single powerhead in for addition water flow if needed. So a 700 gph overflow was more then enough for this application. And I'll try to get you some better pictures of the layout up here soon.

:beer:

 

[troubadour11]

Oh.... and one last thing today. Here's a question to throw out there. This was definitely NOT on my dry rock before I added sand and LR. Anyone know what this could be?

- I think it kind of looks like a sponge of some sort.?.?.? I think it's kind of odd that it started up in a crevice of dry rock about 1 week after the first LR additions -

Any thoughts on what I'm looking at here?

Until next time :thumbsup:

 

[biggles]

That blob is most likely a spongey thingy sp. thing...... others with more blob knowledge might be able to assist more. My sump is full of sponges all over the glass, love all the wacky stuff from live rock. Nothing beats your first salt water tank experience mate, the life that you'll see appearing everywhere that's migrating from the LR will keep you entertained over the cycle - trust me. Make sure you have a torch for night snooping :thumbsup:
No need to rush more snails, i just meant don't wait until you have a lawn before loading and firing a snail bazooka at the algae.
I just want to say that the way you're explaining how you do things and why you've made certain decisions on your setup is fantastic and the more info you share here the better for everyone else starting out - great journal mate
I particularly like the fact you don't hide stuff for months like a certain sneaky little rat cunning %#(^%$# reefer we both know...........

Great work Troubster :thumbsup:

 

[Sydoriakp]

ty very much for the pely biggles ill be checking on macros website very shorty and look forward to watching your post ty for the advice as I was going to run my tanks overlow into the fuge then into the sump but now I may just use a submersible return pump for both fuge and dt so im not forced to run 800 gph into fuge I have a hang on the back overflow box rated for 800 gph that ill run my fuge it may be a bit much but its what I have and I don't have to buy a new pump or drill or anything ( save me money ) again ty for advice

 

[Bello]

:lol: troub, your thread just flew by me .... take a couple days off and see what happens

Ok, so where are we now? Glad to see the snails doing well, the tank's coming to life. As biggles mentioned, whatever little pinch of food you add, will degrade and feed the pods etc when they arrive.

Any more purchases? What's the planned stock list now? Finalized the led's yet?...Lol, so much to do.....My tanks, turning a year old, and i STILL have soo much to do

Things seem to be humming along nicely. As per biggles's theroy, it'd be interesting to stock the tank with cool inverts and hardy soft corals, before you add fish.

Waiting for the next update...and I won't let this one fly by me

 

[troubadour11]

I just want to say that the way you're explaining how you do things and why you've made certain decisions on your setup is fantastic and the more info you share here the better for everyone else starting out - great journal mate

Great work Troubster :thumbsup:

Thanks for the great complement Biggles! It definitely means a lot coming from someone with way more experience and who has great success keeping a reef! :thumbsup: I'll do my best to keep it up.

And by no means is my "method of madness" the solution for everything. But based off of my research and theories, I feel it's been a great step by step approach that has allowed me to build a solid foundation for a healthy reef system. It helps to force patience on me to let the system develop. And
most importantly (for me), it gives me very attainable short term goals. This keeps me motivated and pushing forward because I'm always checking a big accomplishment off the list and moving onto ever more exciting things.

I thought that blob thingy looked like a Spongey sp. also! Ha-ha. Thanks for confirming :twitch: So far we've still got the 5 snails with us. The first round of LR we picked up seems to have faded quite a bit. I'm guessing the coralline is just loosing a bit of it's intense color. The rock is probably not "dieing" so to speak. More then likely just acclimating to the system and will bounce back to glory once I get the Christmas lights and Disco ball in place? We've been spying the tank at night with a flash light. But not much visible life in there yet. I'm hoping soon... but then again... I've been busy at work all week. So I haven't had proper sit, stare, and observe time the last few days.

ty very much for the pely biggles ill be checking on macros website very shorty and look forward to watching your post ty for the advice as I was going to run my tanks overlow into the fuge then into the sump but now I may just use a submersible return pump for both fuge and dt so im not forced to run 800 gph into fuge I have a hang on the back overflow box rated for 800 gph that ill run my fuge it may be a bit much but its what I have and I don't have to buy a new pump or drill or anything ( save me money ) again ty for advice

No problem at all. I went with this set up just because I had the old Fluval 305 canister that I could use to pump water up to the fuge. I currently have no reactors and don't have the plan to add them unless it's an absolute necessity as the system matures. I thought this could possibly kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I get the water pumped up to the fuge. And I can run Carbon or GFO in the baskets of the canister if I want. Instead of adding reactors.

If I did not have that Fluval 305, I probably would have T'd off my return to split it to the DT and fuge. Then let the fuge gravity feed back to the sump just like it currently is. I can easily modify my plumbing design to that later on if I decide to ditch the Fluval or it dies. If you go with the 1 return pump that's T'd off, I'd recommend a ball valve or gate vale after the T on the fuge side. That way you can easily adjust and dial in the amount of flow you want through the fuge, and the rest cycles back to the DT.

I think your 800 gph overflow will be perfect for the fuge. I installed a 700 gph on mine, and it's more then enough. Based off my :reading: I decided to keep a slower flow through my fuge and sump on purpose. So even though I'm set up for 700 gph, I'll really only be running about 300-400 gph through the fuge and sump most likely. I settled on that 300-400 gph estimate by looking at the specs on my UV Sterilizer and Protein skimmer. For me, those 2 pieces of equipment were recommending 300-550 max gph in order to maximize contact time and efficiency. Then if I need it, I'll drop powerheads in for additional circulation. Sounds like you've got a good plan and ideas and are well on your way though!

:lol: troub, your thread just flew by me .... take a couple days off and see what happens

Ok, so where are we now? Glad to see the snails doing well, the tank's coming to life. As biggles mentioned, whatever little pinch of food you add, will degrade and feed the pods etc when they arrive.

Any more purchases? What's the planned stock list now? Finalized the led's yet?...Lol, so much to do.....My tanks, turning a year old, and i STILL have soo much to do

Things seem to be humming along nicely. As per biggles's theroy, it'd be interesting to stock the tank with cool inverts and hardy soft corals, before you add fish.

Waiting for the next update...and I won't let this one fly by me

HA, maybe if you kept your hands from meddling in your tanks you wouldn't be falling behind on my thread. I mean come on... that's what you're here for. Me and my build.... not your tanks. What are you thinking Bello!?! LOL I'm just kidding you buddy. We all drift in and out sometimes. The tank and husbandry definitely takes priority over the thread!

Where are we now. Pretty much the same spot as last Saturday. No new purchases since last weekend. 5 snails still alive, some slightly fading LR I mentioned above, and just letting it cycle away during the week. From 10 am to 8:30 pm I'm running a cheap-o blue LED strip and a normal output T-5 (2 bulbs... actinic and daylight). Then I have the 2 compact fluorescent lamps running on an inverse light cycle over the fuge in the closet. We're seeing some minor changes in spots on the dry rock... so it's starting to have things happen. We're definitely getting a light film on the inside glass. I'm getting the magnet scrubber built into my routine again. And that's really about it for now. Waiting and watching...

Although I am planning to get this LED build ordered up. I was awaiting some response on some parts. I got my answer and am ready to finalize the order and get it placed. It's looking like we're going to be starting out with:

- 12 - Cool White - CREE XP-G 5w
- 6 - Neutral White - CREE XP-G 5W
- 14 - Royal Blue - CREE XT-E
- 6 - Blue - CREE XP-E Blue 3W
- 6 - Violet 410/420nm
- 2 - Red - CREE XP-E
- 2 - Cyan - Philips Rebel
​

All run on 4 drivers at 700ma. I think we'll have Blues, RB, Violet, Red, Cyan on a string. And then Whites and a couple blues/RB on the other string. I haven't been able to find a place to get a PWM signal driver that can run 1-3 diodes. So splitting the red and cyan out separate isn't doable right now. And this set up should be a solid start. And I just want to get my hands on it and get it built and above the tank ASAP! I'm guessing this assortment should give us around a 10k-14k look to the tank once we dial in the dimmers. Hopefully not to deep ocean blue and not to yellow/drab/white. How is that looking to you? You'll notice I took your advice and swapped out 2 Cool Whites for 2 more standard Blues since we last talked.

I'll toss up our hopeful, planned, possibly overstocking list for everyone soon. LOL. I just finished up lunch and have got to get back to my animation. But we have planned out an idea similar to biggles theory and what you mentioned. We're going to start with the micro-critters we've been talking about. And add snails, CUC, as needed. Then move onto a shrimp or two while we get ready to QT our first fish addition. During that time, we should be able to add in a select coral or two while we're waiting for our first fish to get done baking in the QT. So I'm hoping and expecting a good month or two at least of just micro-critters, snails, maybe a shrimp or two, and picking out a few corals to start off. Before we even get into adding any fishies :fish1:

 

[Bello]

Tell me about it Troub, I'm just trying to stop meddling with my tanks, but it just doesn't seem to happen

Sounds like your tank is into its cycle, and there's life popping up....... "It has begun"

Good thing you added the cheapo light fixture, that'll do fine for now. I keep one of my "experimental" tanks in indirect sunlight, with no other lighting... works ok for softies & lps

The LED combo's look good :thumbsup:...I think you'll get a nice crisp look :thumbsup: A small note is to remember is that the cree red's are at 630nm, while the rebels deep red are at 660nm. Doubt that really makes a big difference. It hasn't ime, so far.

The drivers section is where your gonna lose me . I didn't really want to break my head with many drivers, numerous wires etc, so I took the easy way out and use basic cheapo drivers that power 20-25 leds per driver. So each fixture has a couple drivers only and its pretty easy to maintain.

Exciting times ahead Troub, stocking is always fun , and we'll be along for the ride :thumbsup:

 

[troubadour11]

Sounds like your tank is into its cycle, and there's life popping up....... "It has begun"

Good thing you added the cheapo light fixture, that'll do fine for now. I keep one of my "experimental" tanks in indirect sunlight, with no other lighting... works ok for softies & lps

The LED combo's look good :thumbsup:...I think you'll get a nice crisp look :thumbsup: A small note is to remember is that the cree red's are at 630nm, while the rebels deep red are at 660nm. Doubt that really makes a big difference. It hasn't ime, so far.

The drivers section is where your gonna lose me . I didn't really want to break my head with many drivers, numerous wires etc, so I took the easy way out and use basic cheapo drivers that power 20-25 leds per driver. So each fixture has a couple drivers only and its pretty easy to maintain.

Exciting times ahead Troub, stocking is always fun , and we'll be along for the ride :thumbsup:

"It has begun" - Hahahaha :lmao:

The cheapo fixture works great to brighten up the tank. I've never seen bare rock look so beautiful! :lol: My wife is worried we're "killing" the live rock. Because the first LR addition has paled in color quite a bit since adding it. I'm guessing that's just cycling, die off, and lack of powerful lighting, etc. And it will bounce back in time. Plus there is some white spongey looking growth over some areas of all the LR that showed up after bringing them home. It kind of comes and goes.

We also noticed some crazy looking stuff growing over a small pile of food. I have been dropping a small pinch of food into the Fuge and DT each day. There was a small pile of food that was sitting near a rock on the sand. This morning when I looked, there was a giant inflated pile of semi-clear goop over the food. Kind of looked like a goober of hair gel in there. I'm guessing that is just bacteria piling up and breaking down the food. But I don't really know. If it's still around and I have time, I'll throw a picture of it up.

One lighting note... I ordered up my LED build supplies today! Here's the final list for the LEDs. Again, you'll notice I swapped out the Cree Red for the Phillips Rebel Deep Red. I saw your comment on those and looked at the spectrograph a bit more a decided to try the deep red. I couldn't find much info to compare the 2 other then their nm wave length. Which do you run?

- 12 - Cool White - CREE XP-G 5w
- 6 - Neutral White - CREE XP-G 5W
- 14 - Royal Blue - CREE XT-E
- 6 - Blue - CREE XP-E Blue 3W
- 6 - Violet 410/420nm
- 2 - Philips Rebel ES 660nm Deep Red LED
- 2 - Philips Rebel Cyan​

I couldn't figure out my driver situation the way I would "prefer." So I went with the straight forward approach to start. 4 Meanwell dimmable drivers. I'll split the 48 LEDs up onto those. 2 drivers on each fixture will work great to start. So that's exciting... I'd love to get those up and running. I don't think it will be tough to build. But in order to get it all running, I need to tie it into the Reef Angel. That could be a bit of a process. But we will see.

One last update to make. We've placed a couple orders to continue to slowly seed the system and add to the micro-fauna and sand bed life. I won't be getting any of it until mid / end of next week. So I'll have 2 full weeks of letting it cycle with the 5 snails until we add any new life to the system. We will be getting in:
- a few bristle worms
- a few spaghetti worms
- a mixed bag of amphipods/copepods/mysid/etc
- a ball of cheato ("loaded with pods")
- a few Nassarius Vibex snails - for my sandbeds to get them stirring around
- a few Dwarf Cerith snails for small crevice, rock, glass, and sandbed cleaning
- and finally - a small little package of mini brittle stars. The ones that only grow to about and inch and reproduce and create a sustainable population in the system.

Once we get all that in. We can really let it sit and establish for another good spell while I try not to electrocute myself building the lights :celeb3:

Lots going on... but still trying to go slow and take my time too. I'm excited for the LED order. That will be a HUGE change to the system. And then I can really look at adding in my first beginner corals. Even before a fish hits the system! Exciting stuff!

And then we can REALLY start talking about a stocking list for battle! :uzi:

 

[biggles]

I couldn't figure out my driver situation the way I would "prefer."

Okay i'm a bit lost here Troub, apparently this is no longer a reef forum and your a bloody nascar team owner or something........ also, when you have time can you translate your lighting discussion with Bello into english please mate - no hurry....... :uhoh3:

All the critters on your list sound great, i added my skunk when i was about one month into the GHA cycle, nothing else was in there but for some acros, nitrates were zero when testing as the algae was ripping it out at a great rate. I think you mentioned your coralline was paling, that happens a lot and is just bleaching which will return color eventually. If i take a snail which is covered in deep red and purple coralline from the sump and put him in the display he is bleached white after a day of halide lighting lol - i noticed this oddly amusing event just by chance - the first time..........
Be super careful when doing the electrics buddy - check everything twice, i've been zapped 4-5 times over the years and seen a guy light up with 440V and it's bloody terrible. Get yourself an electrician's set of screw drivers that are insulated and hold onto Bello when testing - Bello would make a good grounding probe i reckon.........
Stocking list for battle hey......... i knew something was up when you and Bello were having that gobbily goop convo in some coded alien language. Critter pics asap please mate

Oh btw, hope the car does well in the next race mate :thumbsup:

 

[Bello]

lol, biggles you're nuts

Anyways, Troub, sounds like a good list and a good plan. Try a couple beginner pieces and see. I wondering if you have lfs's around you that accept coral trade ins or returns etc?

The reason I ask is because now I'm only trying to keep really nice pieces, and have trouble selling/trading my older uglier pieces. So was just thinking that it may be better to research these guys and build a solid rapport :thumbsup:

The driver setup sounds good, keep it simple ....so now you may as well practice taking critter pics till things come in

 

[troubadour11]

Okay i'm a bit lost here Troub, apparently this is no longer a reef forum and your a bloody nascar team owner or something........ also, when you have time can you translate your lighting discussion with Bello into english please mate - no hurry.......

All the critters on your list sound great, i added my skunk when i was about one month into the GHA cycle, nothing else was in there but for some acros, nitrates were zero when testing as the algae was ripping it out at a great rate. I think you mentioned your coralline was paling, that happens a lot and is just bleaching which will return color eventually. If i take a snail which is covered in deep red and purple coralline from the sump and put him in the display he is bleached white after a day of halide lighting lol - i noticed this oddly amusing event just by chance - the first time..........

Oh btw, hope the car does well in the next race mate :thumbsup:

:lmao: Didn't you see that the movie Turbo came out? You know... the one by Dreamworks or whoever about the racing snail. I was just trying to decide which of the 5 to put in the drivers seat for the big race against him. :facepalm:

I'll do a bit of a write up on the what's and why's for you on the lighting soon. I should be getting a delivery on Tuesday or Wednesday. So I can post pictures of things as well then.

I get what you're saying on the bleaching for the coralline on the live rock. I guess I just didn't expect it that much since I don't have very strong lighting at all on it. But I guess it's possible and more then they had on it in the store.

It seems like it's taking longer then I expected to see any algae. Maybe it's because of the low powered lighting? This fixture was enough to grow algae in our fresh water system. For whatever that's worth.

Or maybe it's just going slowly and there isn't enough nutrients. I've only been doing a very small pinch of food into the fuge and DT each day. And it's right around a 200 gallon system over all. So maybe it will just explode with growth when I hit a tipping point.

I'm also guessing that this next round of additions with the pods, worms, nassarius snails, and mini stars might help the system advance. All of those critters should help to break down the pinch of food I'm adding each day a little faster.

so now you may as well practice taking critter pics till things come in

Ok... and here's some current pictures of what's a-happening...

- Here's the current updated FTS -

- You'll notice the left end of the tank in this picture. The dry rock looks more yellow like there is new growth. This is not really the case. I had some old warm fluorescent fixtures sitting on a shelf in the garage. So I plugged those in as well to give it a little more light.

So now we run the cheap-o low out put 2 bulb T5. A cheap-o blue LED strip. And 2 twelve inch warm fluorescent tubes. So that is why the rocks are looking a little more yellow all of the sudden.

For the most part, the tank looks the same as mentioned before. The 1st live rock has paled, the newer has not very much. We do have a film on the glass though. I need to run the magnet scrubber over it. And our snails are starting to spread out onto the glass, overflow, return nozzles, etc.

Critter pics asap please mate

- Driver Option #1 - This guy can cover some ground!!! :bounce2: -

- Driver Option #2 - He doesn't cover as much ground. But what he does cover, he covers in STYLE! :bounce3:

- Here's something new that has shown up. It seems to grow over anywhere some of the pinch of food settles and sits. It's kind of translucent or milky white / partially clear. Is it a type of bacteria bloom on the food that is breaking down the food?

- It's been around of a week or so now on some of the first food pinch we added. Both in the DT and Fuge. It seems to be VERY slowly shrinking. Oh, and the pink specks are food floating around. I had just tossed in the pinch this morning when taking the pictures.

:fish1:

 

[ltkenbo]

Maybe it's some type of sponge? I've seen this growth is someone else's picture before and they said something about a sponge.

Nice build by the way, I have a 75 I am currently building and used a 1500 gph glass holes kit for my overflow in my DT. I'm thinking about using marcorcocks as well. In the last picture you posted, how many lb. of the sand have you put in the DT?

 

[troubadour11]

Maybe it's some type of sponge? I've seen this growth is someone else's picture before and they said something about a sponge.

Nice build by the way, I have a 75 I am currently building and used a 1500 gph glass holes kit for my overflow in my DT. I'm thinking about using marcorcocks as well. In the last picture you posted, how many lb. of the sand have you put in the DT?

Yeah. It could be some type of sponge. I haven't really ever seen anything like it before. At least something in there is alive :spin1:

And thanks for the complement on the build. It's moving along finally. It's definitely starting to get more and more fun as we move into each phase. I'm looking forward to the next livestock addition to seed the rocks, fuge, and sand bed. It will be fun to watch the micro-fauna for a little while before adding in the bigger attractions.

As for how much sand is in there. I would ball park it probably around 85-90 pounds or so of oolithic sand. When going to fill it, I first added just under 80 pounds. And that looked like a little much when it was dry and I still had 10 pounds of live sand to seed the bed with. So I removed probably around 4-6 pounds. I was hoping to get about an average 2.5 inch sand bed for the DT. I then started filling with water and added the 10 pounds of live sand. Once that settled, I funneled back in about 1/2 of the dry sand I had removed to get what it currently looks like. So I would guess 85-90 pounds is pretty close.

I'm happy with the look of my current sand bed depth. So far anyway. It drifts a little and moves around the tank some. It has a few piles that are close to 4 inches in spots and 1 or 2 spots that are 1-2 inches.. But then it is mostly around 2.5 inches on average between the drifts.

I think it will work great for what we are planning. It will be deep enough for keeping some sand bed dwelling creatures. But doesn't really fill up the tank to much. It will give us more space for fish and corals having a shallower bed in the DT. It is really just a 2.5 inch bed with drifted piles. I decided to switch and keep the planned DSB in my 75 gallon refugium though. That way I'm still able to get the filtering benefits of a large DSB, but don't loose space having it in the DT.

 

[Bello]

Troub, do you plan on adding a background for the tank?

Seeing much algae yet? It usually appears around the 10 day mark, but that again depends on the amount of nutrients in your tank, which at this point is probably.....minimal..

The pics are coming out pretty good :thumbsup:, but wait till the leds come in .. Its horrible to take pics with them...Speaking of leds, when are they coming in?

 

[troubadour11]

Troub, do you plan on adding a background for the tank?

Seeing much algae yet? It usually appears around the 10 day mark, but that again depends on the amount of nutrients in your tank, which at this point is probably.....minimal..

The pics are coming out pretty good :thumbsup:, but wait till the leds come in .. Its horrible to take pics with them...Speaking of leds, when are they coming in?

Yes, we do plan on doing some type of background... eventually. I'm not 100% sure what we are going to do. We've been discussing a type of shadow box design/idea that I think could be really cool with our rock work. But that will have to get built in a little later. I've got some links and threads stored from awhile back I could find as examples if you need to see what I'm referring to. There's lots of easier options we could do as well. Any recommendations?

For now, I'm happy with it cycling and establishing base populations of the micro-critters we're adding. The background is kind of just some icing on the cake :hb2: to me. It can be that last little 10% of work to make it that much more AWESOME'r in the end. :dance:

We aren't seeing much green algae on sand or rocks at all really yet. Which kind of had us worried for some reason. We are seeing film algae on the glass and the snails have been traveling around scrubbing those areas. But I'm assuming it's because there isn't much in the way of dissolved nutrients yet. I kind of grind and crumble up the pinch of food I've been adding. But I don't think it's breaking down very quickly with only the 5 veggie eating snails in there. So I'm expecting to see some changes in that after we add this next round of pods, worms, mini-stars, & nassarius snails. I'm expecting them to help break down the pinch of food more quickly into dissolved nutrients and we will see some changes.

On that same note though, we'll be adding a small ball of cheato to the fuge. So that may out compete any algae growth. As long as the cheato stays alive and grows. We'll know there are nutrients flowing through the system and I won't worry about not seeing green growing algae in the DT.

I am also thinking I might dose a little phyto every so often after I get the pods, etc. order in they system. Just to help those new additions establish and settle in with plenty of food since the system seems to be somewhat sterile still. LOL

I also added those 2 additional cheap warm yellowish fluorescent fixtures over the DT this weekend. I haven't seem much changes from that yet. But I did notice some new reddish growth on top of one of the rock towers over the weekend. So maybe the extra pop of light from those will help kick start some growth. I'm not sure if it diatoms, cyano, coralline, or the start of green or red algae. If it continues to grow, I'll snap a pic when there's enough there to note. But it was definitely something new popping up after almost 48 hours of the additional lights. So that might help as well.

I just checked our shipping notice. It looks like the LED order should be in early this week in the next day or two. So that will be a nice surprise waiting for me when I get back from work one day this week. Then mid-week, we should get our new micro/macro-fauna livestock to seed the fuge and DT with. Another exciting step for me!

And for today... I leave you with these:

- Cheap-o light sunset over the weekend -

- Cheap-o light moonlights over the weekend... I think there must've been 3 moons out that night. It's such a bright full moon!!!

 

[Bello]

Looking good Troub :thumbsup:

I'm not sure how the shadow box would work out with the overflow box in the middle, looks difficult.....It did consider the option of the shadow box when I was doing the cubes, but got lazy

You should be getting brown algae first, and then green....atleast thats what happens in my case .... Things seem to be on track, are you testing for nitrites?

I've never dosed phtyo, but it seems that it will help out with the pods, the logic is sound

Don't worry too much about the algae now, but don't go overboard with feeding either

 

[troubadour11]

Looking good Troub :thumbsup:

I'm not sure how the shadow box would work out with the overflow box in the middle, looks difficult.....It did consider the option of the shadow box when I was doing the cubes, but got lazy

You should be getting brown algae first, and then green....atleast thats what happens in my case .... Things seem to be on track, are you testing for nitrites?

I've never dosed phtyo, but it seems that it will help out with the pods, the logic is sound

Don't worry too much about the algae now, but don't go overboard with feeding either

Hey thanks Bello. It definitely is coming along... And it seems like it's coming along a lot faster then it was 3 or 4 months ago! :thumbsup:

We're still playing with the shadow box idea. I don't know if we'll go that route yet or not. But I like the concept and the looks of other builds I've seen do it. That was part of the reason I designed the rocks as 2 towers on each side of the overflow. So once it's all grown in with corals, the overflow and rocks will look like the end of a rock wall sticking out with the "infinity" kind of cave feel the shadow box would give. But maybe calling it a Shadow Box is a bit misleading. I'll have to do some testing and play around a bit. But maybe a Light Box would be a better description. We will see... I'll play around with the idea and concepts a bit later on after I get my DT lighting burning brightly :spin1:

Of course I've never dosed phyto (or anything else :-/) before. But the bit of research I've done on Mandarins and pod breeding and stuff makes me think that it might not hurt. I don't know if it will be a continual part of my tank. But my theory is that at the beginning here when I'm trying to really boost and establish a solid population. Dosing a little phyto on occasions early on might help the population to establish a little faster. But it may not be needed. It was just a thought I was rolling around my head.

I haven't been doing much testing really yet. We have that old expired (and I mean WAAAAAY expired) strip testing kit. We saw an initial Ammonia spike and it dropped as Nitrate and Nitrite registered higher down the line. We tested a few more times and again a week and a half later and all the levels showed lower amounts or almost not registering. So that was when we took the water sample to a store and had it checked on a non-expired kit. We tested zeros there. That test at the store was a week after the 1st round of LR. Then we doubled the amount of LR and added the 5 snails that weekend. The tank has been running like that for the last 1.5 weeks.

But I think the system is finally starting to move along toward the algae wars. Here's a shot of what I noticed starting to grow on the dry rock over the weekend. I checked the Fuge this morning and there was about 3 times as much in there as in the DT.

I'm guessing ^^^that^^^ might be the brown algae you were referring to?

And I have also stopped adding a pinch of food each day for now. It got to the point there was still some food floating around the next morning. So I figured I'd halt the ghost feeding until all the food I had added moved on through the chain or until we get the new critter livestock in to help break down any food. We are starting to get plenty of snail poo on the sand bed now though!

I think we're timed really well with this next addition of rock and sand bed critters. It seems like we ghost fed with the 5 snails and live rock just long enough to let the system adjust and slowly start to move along. I also feel really good now seeing the mini-explosion of whatever that is in the picture that I called the brown algae. Because I'll have a small ball of pod seeded cheato coming in with the critters. And if I'm starting to see some algae growth... that means there's food for the cheato too.

 

[biggles]

It's all going well Troub, the algae is a good thing and means your system is well into the new tank cycle. The timing for you next additions is spot on mate, no need to ghost feed every day if the food is building up so just use your judgement.
On the subject of encouraging the micro fauna, i have to say that during the SPS feeding experiments i have noticed that pods, mysis etc go crazy for Reef-Roids lol. The side of the sump tank i feed and video on ends up with heaps of excited critters within minutes when i turn the pumps off and target feed the corals. No idea why but they seem to like that stuff a whole lot more than the cyclop-eeze etc - put that one on your shopping list at some stage as it's a good all round micro critter/SPS food i think judging from what i've seen. :thumbsup:
A nice skunk shrimp will be happy in there if your nitrites have bottomed out and your just seeing nitrates btw, i added mine when the tank was a lawn lol.