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90 Gallon Reef Build

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#1 · (Edited)
Tim's 90 Gallon Reef Build

Hello,

I finally got around to purchasing the tank and stand today. I went with a 90 gallon reef ready tank and a metal stand. I plan to build a wood frame to slide around the stand and a canopy as well. The tank was special order so waiting to get it later next week.

I am still trying to decide what size sump I want and other equipment like skimmer and led lighting and so on. Any suggestions be great!

But first thing first after selecting the wall I wanted the tank to go on I had to move some light switches to another wall. Pictures attached. Just waiting for the spackle to dry sand it down and paint.
 

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#2 ·
WELCOME BACK! Looking forward to seeing the journey come together with the new 90. That is some real planning, and dedication deciding where you want something, and not let an existing obstacle stand in your way. All the best,
Hack
 
#5 ·
Thanks Hack! Yes I can be crazy like that sometimes by doing things extreme like moving the light switches. I love taking pictures so there will be alot of them on this journey. Next time i wont be using my phone and uploading since they came out little blurry after resize.:doh::doh:
 
#7 ·
Doug, I am doing well how about yourself? I have moved a couple times since my last tank almost 10 years ago. Crazy to think it has been that long!:arg:

But now I am in the Nashville, TN area and not planning on moving anytime soon so decided to start a tank again.

If anyone is in the Nashville area and know of some decent LFS please let me know.
 
#8 ·
Oh, and a sociable Cus too....FANTASTIC! We're going to get along just fine around here..:beer:..PLUS you understand the value of pictures!
Hack
 
#9 ·
Already made a change in the plans. I returned that metal stand after doing some measurement. There was only going to be 22.5 in clearance for the sump and skimmer and most skimmers I been looking at are right at that height or slightly taller.

Now I am going to do a nice custom built wood stand. Time to put more of my wood working skills to good use again.

When I get started on it there will be lots of pictures to come.
 
#30 ·
I hear ya Jerry, most of the mass produced cheap stuff Pet stores sell make Sauder look like high end craftsman stuff. If you do find a place that will carry or build stands that really work it costs your 1st born and sign over your 401K :(
 
#14 ·
Skimmers-
I am looking at couple different skimmers. Didn't know which would be the best for the value. I am doing a moderately stocked tank with lots of LPS and some SPS corals.

Reef Octopus 150INT
ASM G3
Bubble Magus Curve 7

Lighting-
The tank is 4 ft long 2 ft deep. I am wanting to do LED lighting. So many choices there. Any recommendations?
 
#17 ·
Skimmers-
I am looking at couple different skimmers. Didn't know which would be the best for the value. I am doing a moderately stocked tank with lots of LPS and some SPS corals.

Reef Octopus 150INT
ASM G3
Bubble Magus Curve 7

Lighting-
The tank is 4 ft long 2 ft deep. I am wanting to do LED lighting. So many choices there. Any recommendations?
The Octopus is the best of that group.

Bubble Magus's pump is weaker. Only puls 540lph of air compared to 720lph of the Octopus. So the Octo give you about 33% more bubble power (filter media) and only uses 2 more watts.

I have not heard someone reference as ASM is a very long while. The G3 uses the Sedra 5000.... RUN! That is by far the worst pump combo possible. Edit, it will pull about 660-700lph.... use up to 40w and break.
 
#15 ·
Morning Tim! No skimmer expert by a long shot, only voice from my own experience. I'd recommend our Bubble Magus Curve 7 to anyone. A quality piece of equipment. Been running ours for going on 4 years.
Hack
 
#20 ·
you should be able to keep it under that price point. if you try and go with lots and lots of channels than it could start getting over that.

you can always give a simple kit a try. this is what my frag tank was for. testing things before going with them on the big tank. you can get a 24LED non dimming light kit for about $90. this was plenty of light for keeping clams in my frag tank. inexpensive enough to give a try and learn what is involved with LED's.

G~
 
#22 ·
The Curve might be pushing its limit (I don't have the water processing numbers) but the Octopus will not have a problem. I am reaching the limit of the Octopus 150 on my 120g with about 20 gallons of water in a 40B sump. Still, I downsized to this skimmer form a 8" Bubbleblaster operated skimmer (Akin to a SRO-3000INT) .

RapidLED. 90g Tank kit.
https://www.rapidled.com/90g-tank/
I have built those kits but it was years ago.

You can piece it together a bit cheaper or use cheaper diodes but I found these to be solid.
 
#23 ·
Oh, when skimmer shopping:

Not all manufacturers/retailers make this readily available but if you can find it, yay!

Water processing (after conversion - caution, they like to give you pre-conversion numbers) determines the volume the skimmer can accommodate. Normally, you want at least 2X that actual system volume. A hair under will not hurt to much. For example the Octopus processes 196gph so it handles up to about 98g of actual water volume. I am sitting at about 90-100g of actual water volume for my system after rock/sand volume loss. However, having 1.75X is not the end of the world and if meeting a specific hard budget it can work. The absolute minimum would be 1-1.5X as most skimmer-available organics are assimilated into the biomass in an hour.

Some hobbyist put a bigger emphasis on water processing rates (like Geoff). They sacrifice dwell time, air draw and a heck-load of electricity to get more passes through a skimmer. Personally, I find that pushing higher numbers kinda hits a limit. 2X processing rate is contact about every 30minutes. 4X is ever 15 minutes, 6X is every 10minutes. Pushing past this (for me) just is not worth it as a 50% gain only gives you 3 minute difference often at 100w interval jumps the electrical consumption. However, "splurging" from 2X to 3X or 4X is 10-15 minutes with often using 20-50w. Me, I personally try to get the most air/water efficiency while using the least amount of energy.

Air draw/flow determines how much of the "filter media" is pushed into the skimmer. Kinda sets the efficiency of the skimmer. The more air, the better (but there is a limiting return as the air makes other design changes needed). Still, you can have billions of liters per hour of air and if it lack the water processing ability, then it will be undersized. I always want the most air for the given processing as long as the processing meets my needs.
 
#24 ·
RapidLED is good. i have used them for ballasts.

i have also used aquastyleonline.com. they have inexpensive kits. so far they have been fine. they tend to piece their kits together in parallel instead of series, that is why they are cheaper. only a problem if one of the LED's go out. it can cause problems with cascading. in series is better, but this is just for learning and seeing what is involved. when done the "test" light can be used for a frag tank or something else.

doing 2X tank volume for skimmer is great and is possible with smaller tanks. it is when tanks get bigger that scale gets messed up with todays skimmers. it is easy to get a skimmer today that can move 4-500gph. but to get above that is difficult.

when you have to go to skimmers that can really move water, processing more than 2X is almost accidental. if you look at the Reef Octopus elite 220SSS which is rated to about 300g heavy can only process 344gph! this is a $1000 skimmer. this is not much different than the others. yes, the dwell times are great, but only 1X is not going to cut it. running 2 skimmers does not work well either.

G~
 
#25 ·
The VarioS-6S says it can handle 528gph. I would be about 250g. I see them stretching to 300... but not for heavy bioload. Octopus kinda does that 2X is "heavy" for them and 1X is "light". Granted, pulling 70scfh of air is beckett-level air draw. Still, when I see "space saver" I know it will be handicapped.


I have only seen two skimmer working ONCE. It was a 600-800ish gallon LFS system. They had H&S skimmers too (awesome old Eheim powered recirc skimmers) with two in their "pool/sump" (A 300g rubbermade tub). They just kept both skimmer running as they were only really about 300g system skimmers. When the fish shipments came in, both would spool up and work. When they sold stock and were nearing empty, one would completely stop producing and the upstream one did its thing.
 
#27 ·
Thank you Geoff and FutureDoc for the info.

Looking at rapidled it looks like their 90 gallon reef kits are 48 leds. Would that be adequate for an LPS and softie tank with a few SPS corals
Oh yes. Plenty. LED will grow the SPS like a charm.

My only real knock against the LED was the look/color balance. You *can* spend a lot of diode/watts/time chasing spectrum/color look. I always ended up supplementing with additional colors or T5. By that time, I was running within a few watts of Metal Halide. Thus I kept going back to halides.
 
#29 ·
i would use soldered if you are used to soldering at all.

i would also use a liberal amount of conforming fluid after you are done soldering. somebody here told me about this stuff and it is a must for our SW environments. i used the brush on stuff, but most prefer the spray on.

swapping out LED's is not that bad if you decide to change the spectrum a little. having multiple channels will also allow you to adjust the spectrum some, but this adds more complexity to the build.

G~
 
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