My new Baby

[ZoaMaster09]

I was tired of my 24g Aquapod, so for my birthday I decided to buy a 90g Tank. I'm slowly buying all that is necessary and I have no clue of the stock list yet. Here is what I have purchased already this week.
Any help and suggestions are high appreciated

 

[jennmac415]

wow... that is SOME birthday present!!! Congrats and Happy Birthday...have fun setting it up.

 

[ZoaMaster09]

Thank you, I haven't been able to sleep well lately because I just can't wait until I have everything set up. I have no one to help me move stuff around so I always have to wait for people who are willing to help
What reef safe fishes should I put in this?

This is what I was thinking
2 fire fishes
1 Yellow watchmen gobbie
two Cleaner shrimps
one blood shrimp
one six line wrasse
two clowns
one royal gramma

 

[blennymower]

That light fixture puts out a lot of heat (I Have one). Hopefully you have it in a large room with lots of ventilation/air conditioning. My room where the tank is would get seriously hot with the amount of heat the fan put out. Had to drill a hole in the wall to ventilate that heat lol

 

[noahm]

good fish list. That's about a proper amount. What kind of powerheads? I would recommend koralias if you are on a budget, but you will be happier in the long run with the controllability of the Tunze or Vortech. The Koralia controller IMO is OK, but then you are in Tunze territory money wise.

 

[ZoaMaster09]

Thank you for the heads up blenny. I'm not sure where I will be putting this tank(maybe in the dinning room) but I will make sure to buy a big fan for it.
I'm almost certain that I will use the koralia power heads because I used one before and its ok I guess (I have never used vortech or tunze power heads).

ps: whats a good protein skimmer for this size tank?

 

[BonesCJ]

I ran an Octopus NW-150 on my 90 and loved it, performed great

 

[fox2589]

i second the octopus 150,or maybe an msx 160..-drew

 

[ZoaMaster09]

I just took a look at it and its like $189 and I dont know if I can afford that( I might have to wait one week or so before thinking of buying that. I have spent a fortune already

 

[luther1200]

The 1 area not to be to frugal is a skimmer IMO. Its a critical part to most of our tanks, and you need a good 1. If you can't swing i right now I would just wait until you can. You won't need it for a while yet anyway.

 

[addonnis242]

+1 on the best skimmer you can afford. When I started my 120 I went with the octopus NW 200 after reading that it could be modded to perform even better than they do out of the box. It never lived up to my expectations. For my new 215 gal. I got the biggest beast I could afford the Reeflo Orca 250 a little bit of overkill on the 215 but I can over stock and over feed and it should still keep up easily. Plus when I upgrade I won't have to buy a new skimmer.

 

[addonnis242]

Oh; I forgot to mention the Vortechs blow the Koralias away and the different flow settings are awesome.

 

[ZoaMaster09]

Ok so I just ordered the Octupus 150, I hope it lives up to its expectations. What if I use 3 Aquaclear 70 powerheads, wouldn't it be enough flow ?

 

[ZoaMaster09]

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

Nice b-day present

I will echo whats already been said, wait and save when it comes to a skimmer. Also dont take the train of thought of "well if i mod this skimmer, with xxxxx then it will perform as good as this skimmer". Mods are what you do when you should of bought a better skimmer (not knockin the modders out there, its fun....i know )

 

[rbnice1]

I had a AquaC EV120 on my old 90 and it worked great.

There are a bunch of decently priced skimmers for 80-100 gallon tanks.

Like the rockwork!

 

[fasteddie99]

:thumbsup:

Looks good, you've made good progress in a short amount of time. Curious to follow along through the cycle. :spin1:

Gotta love these new smilies.:fun4:

 

[ZoaMaster09]

How long is the cycle going to last a month, two?

 

[nikon187]

More than likley you will need more flow than 3 aquaclear 70 powerheads. 1 Vortech is equal to 8 aquaclear 70's. You will want anywhere from 20X-60X turnover in the display tank depending on corals and rock placement (1800gph - 5400gph) to elimintate dead spots. Your cycle could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to 2 mths depending on the quality of live rock and amount of die off.

 

[lordofthereef]

Coming along nicely. What is the reasoning behind the light diffuser beneath the sand?