Antics
New member
I decided to wait a half dozen weeks or so before posting my build so that I would have plenty of photos for everyone to enjoy. Just as a little background information about me, I live in Florida and have been in the hobby between 6-8 years with periods of inactivity in between. I also work at a LFS so I have a varied degree of experience listening to interesting problems and solutions on a daily basis.
My last aquarium with a reef was a 60 gallon cube. I liked the tank a lot but I had three real complaints that won over and made me break the system down and sell out of the hobby for a year or so.
Learning from that experience, I decided it would be best to go with a canopy this time around. I enjoy canopies because they are an attractive solution to having a lid while also trapping some light in the system. Living in Florida, and dealing with pretty hot annual temperatures, this also had the downside of buying a chiller. Regardless, I was okay with the initial chiller cost and electricity because I wanted peace of mind and stability. I keep my home at 77 degrees normally and It's not uncommon for an AC to freeze up in summer and my home to shoot up another 4-6 degrees so a chiller would help me sleep easier.
With this in mind I purchased a 90 gallon drilled corner over flo Marineland aquarium with the stand and canopy. I picked it up from work and loaded it up on a truck to take home. As I was getting up three flights of stairs, oh did I not mention that I live on the third floor? At this time I began to seriously doubt my estimation that the floor would be fine with a 90 gallon aquarium. When I made the order I was confident and had no worries. Reading on other forums made me much less confident. By the time I had the aquarium home, I had basically ruled out ever using it. After considering the tank volume was 90 gallons with a 30 gallon sump, I estimated the aquarium would sit close to 1,500 pounds when all the equipment, water, rock, and sand was calculated.
Just as an aside, at this point I should say that in retrospect I'm almost positive I would have had absolutely no issue with this on the third floor. I live in a condo and each floor level is concrete not turn of the century wood beams. Regardless, I didn't want to worry about it so I decided to pursue a different avenue.
We have a larger Red Sea Max at work and after a lot of consideration I decided to go with the Red Sea Max. The price wasn't really an obstacle for me because I knew I would spend at least that much if I were buying my own pumps, lighting, and skimmer after the cost of a tank, stand, and canopy. My only difficulty was choosing between the C-250 and E-260. I loved the rimless look of the E-260 and the ability to use an optional sump in the future. However, I wasn't too thrilled with the choice to use AI lights and again, I wasn't going to trick myself into getting a tank that was almost identical to the cube I grew to hate.
I've always loved T5's and I had already budgeted the necessity of a chiller. I put a down payment on the C-250 and eagerly awaited the aquarium to be delivered.
My store has enough distributors that I could have had this tank delivered within 3 days of order. However, I really wanted to take my time getting everything set up because I know how impatient I am. My boss made a request for delivery to be 6 weeks after I placed the order. During that six weeks I made sure to go about preparing everything I would need for the aquarium.
Always support your Local Fish Store... except when you can't! My store couldn't get this type of salt, which I really wanted to try out. They also don't deal in dry rock other than the Walt Smith and Caribsea. Because of this, I decided to go with BRS because they always have great customer service and pricing/rewards.
Unfortunately, I wasn't too pleased with the rock selection I received. This isn't BRS's fault. When I made my order I mentioned the dimensions and size of my tank and asked for pieces that would be easy to aquascape with. Once I received the rock though, I knew I really only liked the "Double Island" style of aquascape, and decided to try and order a larger piece that I would enjoy.
Ultimately I was happy with a few of the larger pieces and decided to begin my cure. I mixed up my salt and threw the rocks in a brute set to 86 degrees. I don't know if the temperature helped or hurt, but I assumed that being on the warmer end of the spectrum would speed up decay and break down of organics. Two days later...
The photo may not stress the color, but the water went from pure 1.025 RODI to a dark amber colored in only 48 hours. The smell was terrible and I was worried that my wife would not allow this process to occur for much longer. Unfortunately I was doing this cure inside to make the necessary water changes much easier. I didn't bother testing the water for phosphates. I knew they would be off the charts. I continued doing 100% water changes once a week for 7 weeks total. Half way through I switched from running carbon in a bag to running a GFO reactor.
At the end of the 7 weeks my water now looked like that after a full week. Much improved isn't it? I never went the dramatic route of muratic acid of SeaKlear but that's just because I could never really trust those methods as reef safe despite numerous testimonials supporting the methods. Here is a better photo of the large rock I ended up using. I don't know how to describe my feelings for this rock. I love its personality if that makes sense. I think it looks very cool!
After my rock was done cycling I had been waiting with tank in hand for almost two weeks. I was excited to get it all together, but I was kind of dreading the process of building the stand, putting the tank on top of it, running all the equipment etc. I do this kind of stuff every week at work, but when you have to do it at home it suddenly becomes tedious and took just a little bit of the enjoyment out of all my preparation.
My last aquarium with a reef was a 60 gallon cube. I liked the tank a lot but I had three real complaints that won over and made me break the system down and sell out of the hobby for a year or so.
- Rimless
- Light Bleed
Filtration
Learning from that experience, I decided it would be best to go with a canopy this time around. I enjoy canopies because they are an attractive solution to having a lid while also trapping some light in the system. Living in Florida, and dealing with pretty hot annual temperatures, this also had the downside of buying a chiller. Regardless, I was okay with the initial chiller cost and electricity because I wanted peace of mind and stability. I keep my home at 77 degrees normally and It's not uncommon for an AC to freeze up in summer and my home to shoot up another 4-6 degrees so a chiller would help me sleep easier.
With this in mind I purchased a 90 gallon drilled corner over flo Marineland aquarium with the stand and canopy. I picked it up from work and loaded it up on a truck to take home. As I was getting up three flights of stairs, oh did I not mention that I live on the third floor? At this time I began to seriously doubt my estimation that the floor would be fine with a 90 gallon aquarium. When I made the order I was confident and had no worries. Reading on other forums made me much less confident. By the time I had the aquarium home, I had basically ruled out ever using it. After considering the tank volume was 90 gallons with a 30 gallon sump, I estimated the aquarium would sit close to 1,500 pounds when all the equipment, water, rock, and sand was calculated.
Just as an aside, at this point I should say that in retrospect I'm almost positive I would have had absolutely no issue with this on the third floor. I live in a condo and each floor level is concrete not turn of the century wood beams. Regardless, I didn't want to worry about it so I decided to pursue a different avenue.
We have a larger Red Sea Max at work and after a lot of consideration I decided to go with the Red Sea Max. The price wasn't really an obstacle for me because I knew I would spend at least that much if I were buying my own pumps, lighting, and skimmer after the cost of a tank, stand, and canopy. My only difficulty was choosing between the C-250 and E-260. I loved the rimless look of the E-260 and the ability to use an optional sump in the future. However, I wasn't too thrilled with the choice to use AI lights and again, I wasn't going to trick myself into getting a tank that was almost identical to the cube I grew to hate.
I've always loved T5's and I had already budgeted the necessity of a chiller. I put a down payment on the C-250 and eagerly awaited the aquarium to be delivered.
- Preparation
My store has enough distributors that I could have had this tank delivered within 3 days of order. However, I really wanted to take my time getting everything set up because I know how impatient I am. My boss made a request for delivery to be 6 weeks after I placed the order. During that six weeks I made sure to go about preparing everything I would need for the aquarium.
- Live Rock
I've only used true live rock once and I almost instantly regretted it. I know many people love the Russian roulette of hitchhikers and whatnot, but I absolutely hate knowing that I introduced something annoying or frustrating into my system. Because of this, I've almost always used dry rock when creating my aquariums. In my much hated cube I used the BRS Reef Saver rock. I really enjoyed how easy it was to aquascape and though it was pretty porous. I loved the noise it made when it entered water. For those who haven't had the opportunity, the reef saver rock sounds like muffled Rice Krispies as its submerged.
With this build I wanted to go with something different. Before I used Reef Saver rock on my 60, I had ordered the Pukani dry rock. I loved the look of the Pukani, but it was filthy when I ordered it. I wasn't willing to let it cure for weeks on end before even chancing it in the display. Additional research this time around told me much of the same. However, because I was giving myself a 6 week lead time, I decided it would be a great time to try out the Pukani.
Always support your Local Fish Store... except when you can't! My store couldn't get this type of salt, which I really wanted to try out. They also don't deal in dry rock other than the Walt Smith and Caribsea. Because of this, I decided to go with BRS because they always have great customer service and pricing/rewards.
Unfortunately, I wasn't too pleased with the rock selection I received. This isn't BRS's fault. When I made my order I mentioned the dimensions and size of my tank and asked for pieces that would be easy to aquascape with. Once I received the rock though, I knew I really only liked the "Double Island" style of aquascape, and decided to try and order a larger piece that I would enjoy.
Ultimately I was happy with a few of the larger pieces and decided to begin my cure. I mixed up my salt and threw the rocks in a brute set to 86 degrees. I don't know if the temperature helped or hurt, but I assumed that being on the warmer end of the spectrum would speed up decay and break down of organics. Two days later...
The photo may not stress the color, but the water went from pure 1.025 RODI to a dark amber colored in only 48 hours. The smell was terrible and I was worried that my wife would not allow this process to occur for much longer. Unfortunately I was doing this cure inside to make the necessary water changes much easier. I didn't bother testing the water for phosphates. I knew they would be off the charts. I continued doing 100% water changes once a week for 7 weeks total. Half way through I switched from running carbon in a bag to running a GFO reactor.
At the end of the 7 weeks my water now looked like that after a full week. Much improved isn't it? I never went the dramatic route of muratic acid of SeaKlear but that's just because I could never really trust those methods as reef safe despite numerous testimonials supporting the methods. Here is a better photo of the large rock I ended up using. I don't know how to describe my feelings for this rock. I love its personality if that makes sense. I think it looks very cool!
After my rock was done cycling I had been waiting with tank in hand for almost two weeks. I was excited to get it all together, but I was kind of dreading the process of building the stand, putting the tank on top of it, running all the equipment etc. I do this kind of stuff every week at work, but when you have to do it at home it suddenly becomes tedious and took just a little bit of the enjoyment out of all my preparation.
Cleaner Shrimp has finally decided he can leave the cave hes been holed up in since I introduced him last week. Forgot how small he is! Might consider picking up another one in the next few weeks.
