New guy, 90G w/pics!

[jetlink82]

Hey Everyone, I just joined this club last week. I wanted to introduce myself and my 90 gallon tank. I set the tank up about 6 or 7 weeks ago, so far so good. I built the stand and canopy myself (first wood project ever, it was fun), which is made out of Hickory with a walnut stain.

I have about 110lbs of base rock mixed with a few nice pieces of live rock that have some good coralline on them, hopefully this will help spread it. Here is a list of the stuff I have in the tank at the moment:

<u>Livestock:</u>
Hippo tang
Flame hawk
Pair of percula clowns
Yellow tail damsel
Cleaner shrimp
About 50 blue leg and zebra hermits
20 nassarius snails
12 Atrea snails
24 nerite snails
also a bunch of small snails that appeared in the tank after I added the live rock.

<u>Equiptment:</u>

For lighting I am using a TruLumen Pro 12,000K/453nm LED strip at the moment- planning on getting some real LED's to start putting some coral in the tank as I want to make it a reef of course. I am planning on going with the Tao Tronics chinese lights as they are in my budget and my local fish store uses them on their reef tanks. I also have 2 LED moon lights.

For the sump, I built a DIY sump out of a 29 gallon tank and hard plumbed it. I have a filter sock, a Reef Octopus 150 skimmer, and an Aqua Ultraviolet 25W UV sterilizer in my fish chamber. After going through a bubble trap it flows through my little refugium which has about 2 inches of live sand, live rock and calurpa for added biological filtration. Then it goes through another bubble trap and back up the return powered by my Sicce Syncra 4.0 pump. Inside the tank I have two maxijet 1200 pumps for circulation for now.

All parameters are good except for my nitrates and phosphates. My nitrates are 20ppm and phosphate is at .5-1.0. I am using API test kits (I know, they are not the best), I will be getting some salifert kits or red sea next week to replace them. I am not running any carbon or GFO or anything like that yet, I want to put something in there but not sure exactly what. I was thinking chemi-pure elite or phosban or something and putting it into a PhosBan reactor 150. I just did my first water change last week, about 20% or so and will do another one tomorrow to see if i can get those levels down at all.

All comments, suggestions, and concerns are welcome to help me get on my way to having a successful reef tank. Here are some pics:
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[jetlink82]

Couple more pics:

Edit: Also, are these aptasia's? I'm guessing they are. Planning on getting a few peppermint shrimp.

Edit:

Edit: Last pic is the aptasia's I questioned about
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[kf2008]

Looks good and welcome. That's a really nice stand/canopy for first wood working project.


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[jetlink82]

Thank you! I want to build another, but then I would be wanting to set up another tank :thumbs:

 

[kf2008]

Btw, yes the last pic is aptasia. Be careful with p'mint shrimps....from personal experience, they will eventually go after your corals.


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[bycjoe]

Jetlink82;851647 wrote: Thank you! I want to build another, but then I would be wanting to set up another tank :thumbs:

You can build mine! I like your scape!

 

[curtismaximus]

Welcome, looks great man. If I were you I would take out the rock with the aiptasia if you can. It can spread to the rest of your rock quickly!

 

[raz0945]

Welcome to the ARC! Thanks for sharing your tank with us, we like pictures.

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

Welcome and a nice looking setup you have there!

 

[rdnelson]

Very nice stand and canopy. Good job. I love the rock work too. You are off to a good start for sure. Get some Aptasia-X and knock out those little buggers ASAP. You will be glad you did trust me.

Work on getting those nitrates down before you add any corals. Are you doing weekly water changes? At least 10% per week will help keep those levels down.

And last, welcome. We are glad to have you here with us.


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[jetlink82]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the kind words. Any recommendations on the phosphates and nitrates? Going to do a 25ish% water change tomorrow but think I need to add some media of some sort to eliminate the phosphate problem.

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

GFO in a reactor will help eliminate that issue.

 

[darth reefer]

Welcome to ARC! Nice job on the build!

 

[jetlink82]

Very nice stand and canopy. Good job. I love the rock work too. You are off to a good start for sure. Get some Aptasia-X and knock out those little buggers ASAP. You will be glad you did trust me.

Work on getting those nitrates down before you add any corals. Are you doing weekly water changes? At least 10% per week will help keep those levels down.

And last, welcome. We are glad to have you here with us.


Aptasia-X, I will go look for it at my lfs, so are peppermint shrimp not a good idea then? the guys at two of my lfs say to put a couple in the tank, but I see here that they can possibly go after corals after a while.

I appreciate al the comments and help guys.

 

[jetlink82]

Something I forgot to mention, I am using an old Spectra Pure Elim RO unit, no DI, that I have had for probably 14 years. It has been sitting in my basement for atleast 8 years not in use. I changed out the carbon and micron filter but the membrane is still the same. I tested my RO water with my API kit and it showed no phosphates. I dont have a TDS meter yet so I'm not sure the quality of the RO. I am looking at the 5 stage RO/DI setup from bulk reef supply. Not sure if I should buy a whole new setup or just add the DI canister that BRS sells.

 

[rdnelson]

Never heard of peppermint shrimp hurting corals but they may be right. Some do eat aptasia but some don't. With the little bit of aptasia you have and the fact you can easily move rocks to get at it (that will change before long) I would go the quick route with the aptasia X.


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[outdrsyguy1]

be careful with that old membrane. I bought a used one that was a few years old and replaced everything but the membrane (the LFS didn't have it in stock). when I did get my tDS meter I found that I was getting 70 TDS. I thought an old membrane would just not let much through like a clogged filter but it's not true, it actually lets more water through. In fact, once I got my new membrane, I found that my DI resin was actually INCREASING my TDS from 3 to about 10. My DI was so chocked full of crap that it was releasing back into the stream once the incoming was cleaner.
At least get a tDS meter, they are cheap. Then you'll know what to do about the membrane. I'm pretty sure it's toast though but wanted to share my experience.

 

[jetlink82]

I definitely need a TDS meter, atleast then I would know where I'm at.