JimON's 90 build

[JimON]

Hi everybody. Thanks for checking out my build thread! I have been out of the hobby for about 10 years, and it is time to get back in. Back in the day, I was all about Frontosa, and kept a couple different colonies. At that time, I had a 300, a 90, a couple of 55's, and various 10's and 20's around the house, and it consumed too much of my time that needed to go to my kids, the house, life, etc.... I downsized from all that in 2005 and just had 1- 24 gallon cube that I had a little reef in, which I took down in 2007. A lot has changed since then, kids are grown, and instead of chasing women, I told my wife I needed another tank. (I never intended to chase women, and I think she knows that...) About 2 months ago, I bought a 90 with stand and canopy that fits perfect in a little niche in our living room. Since then, I have read a ton and gotten great advice from the folks on this site, so thank you! Everything is coming together now, and it's time to start a build thread, so here we go!

What I have so far:
90 glass with center overflow. Will set up with a Herbie drain system.
48" Photon V2 light
Jebao CP-40 wave maker. Been thinking about getting a couple Koralia 2450gph as backup.
Lifereef CLF-1 sump, skimmer, fuge, and ATO reservoir should be here in a couple weeks.
Tunze osmolator ATO system
Salinity tester
70 pounds Bahama Aragonite and 100 pounds dry rock, both from Marco
Got a smoking deal on an indoor/outdoor 13 Watt LED from Lowes for fuge, daylight spectrum

Still to get:
Test kits for water quality
Heater (It's 115 here today, don't need one just yet..)
Will pick up reactors along the way as needed
I'm sure a bunch of other stuff that I haven't thought of yet.

 

[JimON]

The tank, stand and canopy in it's new home. Chester the Bordeaux checking it out.

 

[JimON]

This morning I cut the eggcrate for the bottom of the tank, and then used it to fiddle around with different rock placement, making sure I wasn't too close to the glass. Once it is in the tank I will epoxy it all together. After I had the rock as I liked it, I drilled 7/16" holes, (really just widened the existing holes), to accept future frag plugs. What I am thinking, from left to right is:

Left Front single small rock- GSP
Left Back stack- bottom Zoa's and Paly's, mid LPS, top SPS when tank can handle it
Center single rock- Zoa Island
Right front small rock- pulsing xenia
Right back stack- same scheme as left.

Ideas?

I have all the rock cooking in bleach now. Will go a few days on that, then switch over to salt water and do several changes prior to adding to the tank. I am going to cycle and finish curing the rock simultaneously.

 

[JimON]

Today was plumbing day. I got the return plumbed through the back of the stand and up over the top. Meanwhile, rocks are still cooking and there is a ton of debris in the bottom of the tub. A few pics:

 

[JimON]

I hope I figured right on return through the cabinet location! Up over the top here with return.

 

[JimON]

Eggcrate just waiting for rocks.

 

[azsoccerpop]

Nice Job JimON what type of Drain you going to run? I started with a Durso but switching to a Herbie full siphon was the best idea I ever made. Good Luck and if you have not done so go over and say hi in the FRAG forum. many many great minds in there.

 

[JimON]

Hi azsoccerpop. Going to run a Herbie, too. Was talked out of the Durso by some folks on here about a month back. Will check out the FRAG forum! Thanks!

 

[JimON]

Got my tanks this week for the water/QT station, 2 - 45 gallon. This morning I built my rack. Top shelf will be RODI water, middle shelf will be my QT station, bottom shelf will be salt water mixing/dispensing.

 

[JimON]

Today I got the water/qt rack into the laundry room, and also drilled the 45 gallon tanks for the bulkheads. Folks, please learn from my mistake, make sure you allow enough room to account for the bottom of the tank when you drill into the side!!!:headwally: I wanted the output to be as low as possible, and just went to town drilling without taking into account the width of the bottom. I jammed the bulkhead in, and filled around it with a ridiculous amount of aquarium silicone. Going to wet test it on the 4th. Keeping fingers crossed. Again, :headwally::headwally::headwally:

 

[JimON]

Happy 4th everybody! Today was a fairly productive day. I installed 2 LED lights in the cabinet, (one white for working, and one black to make the blue acrylic on the sump/fuge/ato pop), and also installed 2-10 plug strips in the cabinet. Should be plenty of juice. I have them hooked to a heavy duty GFCI, let's hope it can handle it all. I also got the 2-45 gallon tanks for my water station tested, no leaks! I was pretty worried after I screwed up the first drilling, but all is well. I have heard from Jeff at Lifereef, and my system should ship out tomorrow. Getting close to actually having water in the tank now!!! A few pics here. First one is the new electrical work. The strips of plugs fit perfectly! Then with the black light only, which should really make the blue pop on the filtration. (I hope...)

 

[BANANAHANDS]

Looks good! Where did you get the water tanks for your mixing station? Locally? I'm in Gilbert.

 

[JimON]

Hi bananahands! Thanks! No, I looked locally, but couldn't find exactly what I needed, so I ordered from tank-depot.com. Shipped out of Texas, just under $300 for both including shipping. I think I ordered on a Monday and they came that Thursday, great service!

 

[JimON]

Going to be a busy weekend. Yesterday 4 EXTREMELY well packed boxes arrived from Lifereef. Woohoo! Going to get them plumbed in, and also get the water station going. I ordered a pump for the station from BRS which will be here on Tuesday.

Pic below is of the very first CLF-1 and ATO that Jeff has ever done with flourescent blue. The black light makes it shine pretty nice!

 

[JimON]

Another with the ATO.

 

[JimON]

It was a productive weekend. On Saturday I got most of the plumbing done on my water station. Today I get my vinyl hose and tomorrow the pump to run it all. I have about 85 gallons waiting and ready to go to the dt once I get those things. Will post pics once complete.

Yesterday I got the Lifereef system all plumbed in, and set up my rockscape on the tank. Funny thing, after a few weeks and even with the pics I took prior to soaking them, I ended up with a different set-up than I had before they soaked, and had drilled all the frag holes with. Some holes will still work, some don't. Next time I will drill the holes on all sides of the rocks prior to assembling the structure so no matter how I put it together, it works.

 

[JimON]

Rock is 100 pounds of Marco.

Some pics:

 

[JimON]

Now the fun begins. Water is in the tank, and the cycle started yesterday.:celeb2: Water is still a bit cloudy, but a few pics. Skimmer is obviously still breaking in. My water station worked great getting the water to the tank. I will post pics of it soon.

 

[JimON]

Forgot to mention, 20 lbs of fiji pink and 5 pounds of LR in the fuge. The light is a 13W LED that was on sale at Lowes a few weeks back that said it was good for wet areas. 6500K.:beer: