New to hobby!! HELP ME

[Dapg8gt]

It seems Your obviously going to take the advice of the person selling you the stuff so why even come here and ask. We have all told you what you have is not optimal for what you want yet you still want someone here to agree with you. Am I missing something?

You say your lights are crap yet your gonna spend $150 on some more? (weird to Me)

You say you have a great hob skimmer.. You said you have an aqua c right? (So not a great skimmer FYI.)

You want to buy radion pros yet you seem to think it's optimal to run a penguin hob filter because your lfs does it..(another weird one)

I think you really should get the basics down and realize that you are going to have problems running your tank the way it sits. That filter should be cleaned a few times a week or else you will begin to have some real nitrate issues in the tank. Are you doing that? Did your lfs mention that?

It may seem harsh but it's the truth and the few people above took some time and explained in detail really good advice and have absolutely nothing to gain from it unlike the place that told you you are getting a fully functional reef system when in reality it's not even close it's really more suited towards a fish only tank honestly.

And the last pic you posted seems to be a sponge. They are great to have and will filter feed in turn cleaning the water so the more you have the better. Most of them don't like intense light and being exposed to air fwiw.

 

[twilmot]

Listen to what people are telling you. Many of the people have given you a lot of great advice on how to get your tank where you want it to go and not waste money to get there. You have even gotten the advice from a few tank of the month winners.

The guy at the fish store wants to sell you things. That is all. I would listen to what others have told you (all of who will not lose sleep and have nothing to gain by your successes or failures). Slow down, develop a plan, and follow through with it. Also, if you are going off shore for two months (I don’t know if this will happen often) I would look at getting a company to take care of your tank for you, or get rid of it all together. Two months of no maintenance will not work at all, especially with the set up you have right now.

I am not trying to be negative or disrespectful at all, but I would listen to the advice you have been given, come up with a plan, and follow through with it. Good Luck!

 

[dkeller_nc]

The tank is an aequeon and is tempered glass so it cant be drilled i called and asked them

Most tanks, even ones listed as "tempered" don't have tempered sides/backs. So they can be drilled - search the forums for "bean animal overflow", it's one solution that can be installed on the side/back that's silent and fail-safe.

The issue you noted with the T5HO light being somewhat dim at the sandbed is why I suggested that you get another tank. A 90 gallon is tall and narrow, and light penetration can be a problem. That's why my 90 gallon from the 1990's is still setting empty in the basement. Even with a 175w MH and 4 110watt T12 VHOs, lighting was barely adequate at the sandbed.

Anyway, good luck and hopefully you've found someone to take care of your tank, since at the very least it will require water top-offs.

 

[dbsalinas89]

O no lol i have a wife that will be taking care of it for the 2 months and doing water changes. Im sorry forgot to mention that ( i definately wouldnt leave it unattended like that ) besides the protein skimmer has to be dumped daily with the amounts of nasty **** it pulls out. I understand everyone here's advice i am just bouncing from this guys argument to that guys ect. Dkeller what you just said about the lights makes perfect sense. This is why i have looked into others. However because people told me not to i looked back into just saying **** it runnin soft corals and 2t5's. The 2 lights that cost 1600$ WILL reach to the bottom of the tank and thats the only lights i have seen video reviews of being powerful enough to provide sufficient light for tall tanks like my 90. Maybe i am wrong AGAIN! Im not trying to be a know it all im simply bringing my research to the table of salt water genius's and asking for an opinion.

 

[dbsalinas89]

I can go back to looking into drilling it. Ill contact melev

 

[dbsalinas89]

I can say 1 thing the jpj power head with wave maker system i posted on here i bought. Holy **** to much current. U can only have 1 going in a 90 lol

 

[dkeller_nc]

There are a number of LED fixtures that will penetrate the depth of a 90 gallon tank, among them Radion Pros, AI Hydra 52s, BuildMYLED fixtures with 60 degree lenses, and Reefbreeders (inexpensive Chinese LEDs, but quite powerful and popular fixtures).

On the more traditional side of things, 2X250 w Metal Halides with a modern reflector will also penetrate the water depth of a 90 gallon down to the sandbed. However, you might need a chiller in summer if you choose this option.

 

[dbsalinas89]

Still looking into trying to contact melev to have custom sump built and tank is still looking great! Zoas are twice the size they were in the lfs and the hammer gets so big he looks like 1 big hammer instead of 2 seperates ( coming from 2 heads ) and the nepthea is thriving and loving the current from the 1600 gph power heads. Firefish and hippo tang are eating and swimming around and the sea urchin is the freak that comes out at night lol. I have red coralline algae growing on my rocks now. Noticed a patch of red yesterday morning on my sand bed and today woke up to it on 2 rocks!! Thanks for all the great advice / tips everyone i am taking them all into consideration and still reading / researching things to do / things to come! Thanks again!

 

[dbsalinas89]

Any suggestions on overflow sumps?

 

[IUfan]

Great to hear your trying to contact melev. Did you look at his sight for an explanation of how a sump works?

The red coralline algae, without seeing a picture is probably cyano bacteria (not good) that's a symptom of having too much nitrate in the water, not cycling long enough before adding fish, not having adequate filtration.

Glad someone else chimed in on the tempered glass, I've never heard of the whole tank being tempered, usually just the bottom. Go ahead and perform the test to see if the back panel is tempered and report back your result. Then we can help further.

Melev makes great stuff, but I will advise, and I'm sure he will say the same, that the cost of shipping a big sump will be nuts. Your better off buying a 40 gallon, and having some glass cut, it's so simple, cheap and very effective. Unless you live close enough to melev to just pickup, then that could work.

I'd suggest a overflow box from him, you can do coast 2 coast, which runs the entire back of the tank, but I made mine 4 sided, 4 feet wide so about a foot short either side of being coast 2 coast. Hopefully this makes sense.

Lighting. Upgrading the lights is a great idea, the lights you posted work great just like a lot of others, I run radion pros over mine, I chose Radions because of the upgrade ease. I started with gen 1's and upgraded them rather than buying a new unit. That was a big deciding factor for me.

^^^ this isn't necessary right now. Concentrate your energy, research and money on getting the filtration up to par, before cyano takes over.

I'm sure I won't be the last to say this. Hippo tang is not a good choice for a 90, your not going to like or probably take my advice, but you'd be better off returning him to the store and getting a credit back. Hippos need the swimming space and require minimum 180.

 

[dbsalinas89]

Thanks for the information! I was told that at the LFS about the hippo tang and he will give me store credit when he gets bigger hes only about 3/4ths an inch right now he has then 4 inches long in his 90s so i imagine it will take a bit.

 

[dbsalinas89]

Update on the tank! Looking great! All water parameters are perfect except now calcium is down to 420 so gonna keep a watch on it! My hammer is splitting ))) hes had the bubble for a couple of days now and is really reaching out and showing his size!

 

[dbsalinas89]

 

[dbsalinas89]

Getting 40x16x16 sump from melev looking at return pumps ect now from marine depot. Any suggestions on return pump brand ect and overflow?

 

[IUfan]

There's many to choose from. I imagine you'll want to run internal pump (pump that sits in the sump). I like the DC pumps, quite efficient and some nice benefits. Again there's a wide range, waveline, Diablo, and many others, IMO there all made in China and cased differently, all doing and working roughly the same.

I run the Jeabo, they are 1/2 the price of the others, but there pretty much exactly the same as the rest. I run the Jeabo DC12000, it splits and feeds 2 reactors, and this is for a 180 with high flow. I think a DC6000 could be optimal for you, depending on how capable the overflow is, if your not going to have a Beananimal overflow, you may want to go with a DC3000, and rely on the power heads for good flow. I think either would be a good fit, advantage is, not much price difference, and can always turn the 6000 down if need be.

 

[dbsalinas89]

Ok! Thanks so much for the info i will look into those brand names and the models u suggested!

 

[dkeller_nc]

An alternate opinion. I would buy the highest quality return pump that you can afford simply because other than your tank's heater, it's the one piece of equipment that you really want "reliability" above all else.

In fairly small submersible pumps, this generally means Sicce or Eheim. Eheim has the longest running track record of near bullet-proof operation for years and years. Sicce is a close second, but they haven't been available for quite the length of time that eheim has been.

 

[dbsalinas89]

Ok thanks again dkeller!! I need to matrix your knowledge into me lol!

 

[dbsalinas89]

What about algae? Can i grow it more or something? It all got ate up by the tang and emerald crab and its like emaculant now but im thinking the little cleanup crew is gonna starbe

 

[dbsalinas89]

White dots swimming around and covering left side of tank??? They look like white little ticks or something? Anyone know what these are