Neverlost 90 Gallon Reef Build Thread

Well, I figured I would start a build thread to document my efforts here and so that others may learn from the mistakes. The goal is to end up with a 90 gallon reef living room reef with a custom stand/hood, T5 lighting, auto-top off from an RO/DI in the basement, powerful skimmer, UV sterilizer, Fluval additional filter.

First, Some pics of the custom stand... some lessons were learned here. And of the tank which had its small corner chips ground down, its trim re-painted, and a little touch up siliconing. The stand went together pretty well, the 4x4 in the back left corner had to be chiseled out to allow the drain/return lines from the tank to enter the stand. The staining was pretty easy, but the damn hole-filler putty didnt take stain too well, so that was a drag.

Next up... planning the lights, putting fans in the hood, working on plumbing and deciding if I want to make my own agro-crete reef structures...

 

great start NeverlosT

youve been busy already I can see

Ill tag along and enjoy the progress on this one

Steve

 

i agree with steve, very nice start. looks like everything is well planned out, which is more thaan half the battle, keep it up and also keep updating

guy

 

Update 8/31/09

Ok. The stand has been finished and urethaned. The top is very level but the bottom appears to be slightly uneven, so I will handle this with a little shim-work which was going to be needed to make the tank level in the living room anyway.



I installed two 100+ CFM DC (quiet) fans into the hood to cool all of the lighting but will have to modify the hood to contain the new lighting plan...
Front to back:
Two 36" T5 Blue +
Two 175W Ushio 14K Halides
Two 36" T5 Blue +

If you have any suggestions on the lighting, please feel free to provide them. The only items I have left to get are the reflectors for the halides and T5's. I also attached a pic of the hood I picked up cheap which is being butchered to remove the Halide mounts.




This is the new tank (the 2nd 90 I have bought used in like 2 weeks). It has MUCH thicker glass (1/2" thick on the front and back, 3/8" on the sides) so it does not need center bracing which opens up the top quite a bit. I filled it up and saw no considerable evidence of the sides bowing out, so I believe this setup will work great. This tank also has the return on the opposite side from the overflow which I like.



Next update will be of the finished hood/lighting system. It should be bright as heck. I am also re-siliconing the overflow in the tank today. The filtration gear all gets here on the 11th of Sept.

I already got the skimmer though, an ETSS Reef Devil run by a Mag 7, as well as a few options for return pumps. I am in the process of trying to find a good ATO and RO/DI system.;D

 

Well, here is an update on the hood and you can see the stand where the tank will be eventually, it is all level and shimmed up (since the floor was not perfectly level).

Ok, here is the lighting setup (so far just two 250W metal halide 14K setups driven by one single blueline ballast, but soon there will be two T5 tubes with Actinic + bulbs for a total of 608W of lighting over the tank).
I put frames around the bottom and top of the halide pendants to hold them in there so you can tip the lid back and there is a little tab you can twist to take them out. The fans are dual 100+CFM dc fans run on a transformer a buddy had so they take very little power and are powerful to keep gas exchange good and the bulbs cool.

So now I just need to decide what to coat the inside of the hood with (if anything) and then mount the T5 lights (the hood is currently stained and urethaned).

The final shot is of the stand in my living room where the tank will go!

 

very nice! i'm liking this thread! and i saw for your lighting that a 90 is only 36"! man that's the same length as my 46 bow! i got gipped lol i could of gone bigger! but really, this is going to be an awesome reef

 

Silly goose his 90 is 48 inches :

 

oh haha ok i'm going a lil crazy tonight

 

too true ocean paradise, it is a normal 90, the only small difference in size is that a typical 90 gal footprint is 48.5x18.5, whereas mine is more like 48.5x19. Since they didnt put a center brace on this tank, they made the front and back glass very thick, which bulks up the one dimension. I was lucky the hood and stand still fit!

Thanks for the kind words puffer chick!

 

Progress!!

I have finally at long last finished the hood (with some help from my brother!)

It has two 250W Halides, and two 48" T5 bulbs with SLR reflectors. The two fans were creating so much pressure in the hood that I had to put in some vent holes, which I installed clamshell covers to and now they blow on the top of the halide pendants so the fans cool the lower AND upper parts of the halides.

It is pretty darn bright. You can also see in one of the pics that the tank has been plumbed with two 1" lines to the basement. Pics of the sump are on the way soon (it is a REALLY cool design I think, made out of another 90 gallon tank, with internal refugium!). Also, I ordered the reeflo GOBY GOLD pump today and an Aquacontroller APEX controller!