Jimmy's 90 Gallon Build Thread

I have both Pukani and ReefCleaner's. I made an arch with Pukanis, I love it. The leftside is ReefCleaners. I love it too Here is a FTS.

 

Which rock did you like the best? How was the weight of the two? I know Pukani is nice and light. I'm just wondering how much I'll need :\

 

The Pukani is less dense, making it lighter. The pound/gallon rule doesn't come into play with dry rock. I ordered 35LBs of Pukani for an 84 gallon (half round), and it was plenty. I have never ordered rock from John at ReefCleaners, but I've heard it is the same as Marco Rocks, which I have ordered from. For a 90 gallon with an open scape, 50 Lbs of dry should be fine. Less open scape, maybe 70 or so.

Keep in mind that the Pukani is DIRTY rock. You can start curing that by not adding a fish or shrimp, etc. It will cycle on its own due to the die-off contained inside it. I loved the Pukani, but found scaping more difficult (than with Marco Rocks) due to the odd shapes.

 

Yeah, that's the nice feature about ReefCleaners... they come professionally cleaned so you can start cycling them right away. I'm still going to cycle them in the Brute, but yeah.

In other news... I'm working on the vent fans. I soldered the two 120mm canopy fans together today and checked them off the power supply and they work great. Now I just need to finish skinning the canopy back so I can drill their holes and mount them. I'm also planning on 80mm vent fans for the stand (in the sump region). I'm venting these all out the back of the canopy/stand so you don't see anything from front or sides. I will be using conduit tubing to keep all the wires (for fans and LEDs and LED cooling fans) in one bundle so it minimizes the appearance of stuff behind the tank. I also got some hooks (large and small) to hang wires inside the stand so things stay organized and neat.


Fans are wired in parallel allowing 1 - 12v DC (1.5A) power supply for all 4 fans.


In addition to being soldered, all connections are also heat shrink wrapped and then those are heat shrink wrapped together as well. This should help maintain the integrity of the soldered connection (as any forces would be on the tape, not the soldered connection).

 

I also used Pukani for my 90, ordered 80 Lbs. used about 60lbs, but I had some variety to choose from. It is more difficult to scape with but the rock is very unique and porous(pros and cons). I have some good pictures of my Pukani rock all laid out on my build thread search "JB's 90 Gallon". It really isn't that "dirty". BRS also offers the "reef savers" rock with is "cleaner" and easier to scape. Join a BRS group buy if you go the BRS route and you can save some money.

On your drain setup looks like a great idea, but you may still run into a lot of bubble "popping" noise at the top of the outlet.

 

My BRS order should be here TOMORROW!

 

I would like to be able to run a mixed reef. This is what I was thinking for lights...


I need feedback in terms of... is this light intense enough for a mixed reef? Is there good spread of colors to avoid spot lighting? (I'm planning on no optics). Do I go with 14k or 20k 50W multichips? I was thinking 14k because I can add blue to it with the additional lighting... but I can't "remove" blue from 20k if it's too blue (especially with the accent lighting). I want to get in on the LED group buy... so I need to decide this somewhat quick. I have the GPU coolers on the way in for the multichip, so I'm pretty set on having most of my lighting come from those and the Crees just being additional "accent" lighting (and they'll help with phase in/out sunrise/sunset).

I will have at minimum 2 drivers, more likely three (so I can control Royal Blues independent of the other accent colors, which are expected to be more minor contributors to the overall color). I should mention... the lighting frame will be 36" long (leaving ~6" on each end) and 12" wide (leaving ~3" on each side). The above has Crees that are out of scale for easier viewing.

 

Alright, some more updates...
To go with the fan soldering I did yesterday, I now have cut and mounted the back wall of the canopy. I haven't mounted the fans yet as I want to stain it first and I'm trying to decide what sort of mounting hardware I want to use. I'm thinking bolts instead of screws.

The observant will notice that this plywood is not oak. It's on the backside so not seen and much cheaper than oak so I decided to save more than half the cost of a sheet of oak plywood. The entire back will have it.



This also shows my other component I've discussed with my lights... the quick connects/disconnects that should allow me to remove my entire lighting system in seconds if I need to.

 

RO/DI is all hooked up and running. About 45 minutes into the first full flush.