Neverlost 90 Gallon Reef Build Thread

Right now this is the plan (incomplete) for corals and fish. I am also researching clams, but don't have the knowledge yet to make an educated decision.

Coral:
Purple Bonzai Acropora
Sunset/Reverse Sunset Montipora
Atlantis Meteor Shower Monti
Blue Agave Cyphastrea
Cool colored Ricordia
Candycane Coral, the brighter the better (neon or whatever)
Birdsnest of various colors/forms
Some button polyps of different looks/colors
some monti plates for the overflow and to span some of the open spaces, maybe Montipora capricornis
pulsing xenia (I know I know, but it looks cool)
Id like to try a gorgonian
plenty of others!



FISH
Radiant wrasse
Psuedochellinus mysterii - Mystery Wrasse
Yellow Eye Kole Tang - Ctenochaetus strigosus (or other cool algae eater)
Amphiprion polymnus - Saddleback Clownfish or snowflake clown
Pseudanthias pictilis - Pictilis Anthias (maybe a male and a few females)
Gobiodon citrinus - Citron Clown Goby
Gobiosoma oceanops - Neon Blue Goby

I will likely upgrade skimmers soon, maybe a MSX200 or some other reef octopus, suggestions?

NaCl - the lotion comment was a reference to silence of the lambs!

 

Where are my updates? Unacceptable.

 

haha, ok an update (I will try to chase it with some pics tonight)

The tank is CYCLED (or within a few days of being done). Ammonia is barely readable, Nitrites back to 0, nitrates are about 5ppm and hopefully falling. Skimmer is back on, lights are on for just a little while each day, Alk is about 3 meq's, calcium I will test tonight.
pH is much more steady at about 8.06-8.1. Turns out the tank's pH was getting too low with the full hood on due to a lack of gas exchange! As soon as I lifted the hood a few inches off the tank surface and turned the skimmer back on (and ran the skimmers air intake hose out of the fish room) the pH went from 7.8 to 8.1 in a hurry. Very interesting how much off-gassing the tank requires.
To remedy the gas exchange issue, I bought two 120mm 70CFM computer fans and will be installing those in the hood where they will run ALL the time (the current fans are so loud, they only run for two minutes every 6 minutes). Hopefully that will help.

Also, today the tank is getting a dedicated circuit in my house with a 15 amp breaker (I am tired of running extension cords through the basement!)

So in closing, I did a 30 gallon water change last night, and attended the BRASS conference in Boston over the weekend which was phenominal! I even picked up a few frags which are being held in a buddy's tank until mine is ready.

Oh, lastly, I caught a few weird snails in the tank (large-ish, must have come in on the little bit of live rock that I got), I disposed of them since they looked like those cone snails that eat things...

more to come!

 

Now:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - too low to read
Ca - 380
pH 8
SG - 1.023

Here are some shots:


The hood is lifted off the tank until I can get the new hood fans in place to keep it all cool and the air circulating.



Here is the reef devil. It is really not that great a skimmer IMO, I am looking into an MSX or octopus. I dont have much to skim right now, but this design is SUPER finicky and does not create very fine bubbles at all, nor does it suck a lot of air in.



Here is the new outlet I installed along with its own circuit and breaker just for the "plastic fish box" (as my girlfriend calls the fish room).



oh, I know it is not a good shot (I just have a point and shoot camera), but this little mushroom anemone looking bright green guy is quite mobile (has moved several inches in the last few days. He is somewhat transparent, glows green, and has a slightly pinkish mouth. If you know what he is, I am all ears!

 

NeverlosT, I'm going to bring you up to speed on how this works. You keep posting pictures/updates so that I don't have to keep asking ;D

That is all.

 

haha thanks crocodile, I will try to keep up!

here are some updates!!!

Corals:
Kind of ugle brown Acropora (its the test SPS, it looks happy, so it will be replaced shortly by a list of maricultured specimens that I got at the BRASS conference)
Bright orange Mushroom with blue mouth
Zooanthids (green tentacles, yellow mouths)
Montipora frag (bright orange, will hopefully grow to hold two rocks together...

Fish:
Melanurus Wrasse (little guy, only about 1.5") eating tons and loving the tank all to himself
Next fish will be a family of anthias, a tang, and two Picasso clowns

 

Update:
Two more fish, Spotted kole tang and Scopas Tang
Lots more hermits and snails
More corals -
Acro Tri Color, Tyree green polyp leather, various other acro's and monti's, meteor shower, sunset monti, etc.

Tank mods -
The reef devil was not strong enough so I got a used Octopus DNW-200 recirc, this thing kicks butt.


It is fed by the overflow which flows also into the fuge and filter bag. I also hooked up the UV sterilizer fed by the main return pump.
The reactor is working and raising the ALK and CA levels, I need to check Mag and PO4 to figure why alk is rising faster and why I have a bit of a hair algae issue.

Next purchases will be some GFO, a few mexican turbo snails, and some more critters. I do not like the color of my halides at the moment (ushio 14K) and want a bit more blue, so I might switch to Ushio 20K or phoenix 14K. Decreasing my PAR a bit will not be an issue since at the moment, none of my corals want the full light levels, I keep having to find shade and hiding spots for them. Never thought my biggest problem would be too MUCH light!

I am feeding Rod's Reef soaked in Amino Acids and Garlic. Also dosing the tank with amino acids. Incoming corals get a Lugols/Interceptor dip and all is well so far, the only coral not super happy is a pink birdsnest frag I got, but it looked a little hurting from the beginning (was free).

Other than that I added a Vortech MP10 to supplement flow and the tank is now a veritable hurricane, oh and I replaced the crappy AGA drain in the overflow with a homemade durso that is working great!

Until next post....

ps. check out my album for more pics if interested

 

astonishing tank, really. Equiptment, aquascape, every aspect. Great job, k+

 

that's purdy.

 

Very cool set up and thread, thanks for sharing , nice shots too, keep taking lots of them makes a thread less dry.