Alex's 90 gallon

Alex

Non-member
A little more than a year ago I had a basement flood (not reef related) that ruined the floor in our finished basement. Unfortunately my 180 sits on said floor so I was going to have to break it down. After stalling and neglecting the tank over that time i am finally getting around to it.

After talking with the wife I decided I couldn't go cold Turkey on reefing so she agreed I should set up a smaller tank upstairs in our girls playroom. I bought a used 90 gallon and figured I would paint the stand.
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When I got the tank I ripped some plastic covering off the bottom of the stand and found it to be completely rotted out. So I ripped it out with plans of replacing it. Also started the painting process. Killz to cover the black, an off white for the outside and a white enamel for inside the canopy and stand.
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Since I'm so smart I finished the bottom and finished all the painting before I realized that I hadn't left myself enough headroom to get my skimmer in and out of the front of the stand so I had to rip the floor out a second time and rebuild it all over. Took a couple scotches to take the sting out of that mistake. Finally I finished up the stand cleaned up the tank and was ready for some water.
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Looking good so far and sorry to hear about the flood and break down of your 180.
 
I used the new tank as an excuse to get some new equipment. I had been dosing 2 part with some BRS dosing pump and I decided I wanted to try the Triton method. I got a seabash sump with adjustable chambers that let's you switch the compartments around. Since I was going to be dosing four parts now and I already had an apex I bought two DOS units.

I had an eshopps s-300 on the 180 that I have been really happy with. Given that Triton recommends a strong skimmer and my penchant for over stocking/over feeding I decided to use it on the 90.

For the fuge section I transferred over some cheato and lit it with a kessil h380.

I decided to do a Herbie overflow and plumb the return up over the back of the tank.

With this tank upstairs and having ruined a perfect hardwood floor in the past I wanted to make my topoff as bullet proof as possible. I ran unglued 1/2 inch PVC up from the basement where my rodi is and ran my ro line through that. That way if I have a leak in the ro line it will run down to the basement limiting water damage. That line then goes through a solenoid into a small water container that has a float valve and a float switch. I will also have a high water float switch on the sump. From the container I use a tunze 3155 to keep the water level stable. The switches will turn off both the tunze and the solenoid should levels get to high. I also have the apex programmed to open up the solenoid for 30 minutes a day which is enough to fill the container. This also allows the rodi to run for a bit instead of always switching on and off.

I quickly realized how spoiled I was with the space I had with the 180. Trying to fit all this under my stand was a nightmare but I some how shoe horned it all in along with a BRS reactor on a gate valve.

I moved a good amount of my rock, sand that I had and the corals and fish that had survived my neglect over and had a new reef set up.
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I currently have 2 radion gen3s over the tank and will be adding an third shortly. The 3rd will give me better spread with wide angle lenses and allow me to add diffusers in the future. I'll be able to run the lights at a much lower power which should extend their life.

Flow is two gyre 350s. I had always wanted to try the gyres and the 350s had just come out. The 330s would have been more appropriate but for another 50 bucks I'll be able to use them if I upgrade in the future. So far I have them maxing out at 30%.

So far the tank inhabitants seem pleased with the new set up.
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