Hello. Wasn't sure about doing one of these this round with this tank, but if it wasn't for people doing tank journals I would run out of things to search on forums. So here we go. Started with my wife telling me that she did not want me to upgrade. She said I should figure out what my end goal is and go for it. So, I started pricing and figuring out tanks, skimmers, lights, etc, etc. Quite simply the budget got to 6k and she stopped. So that leads me to a 90Gal tank I came across from a guy that happend to be moving the day I called him and told me half of his asking price and he would deliver.
Sweet. Its not perfect. But it is a full stand which is a first for me and tanks. Never got the stand finished. Again, not perfect. The tank was already drilled. One 2 1/2" hole and one 2" hole. This led me to cutting the 2 inch hole to 2 1/2 and drilled one more 2 1/2" hole for an internal overflow box and a bean animal overflow. Well once I got the fittings and started measuring the box I quickly realized how narrow a 90Gal tank is. Oh well I will work around it. No overflow box. not a huge deal just wont have quite the surface skimming as with the box. I will also be flipping the elbows so they at least grab some surface water. So after a bunch of cleaning, some minor mods to the stand were left with this.
I have finished all the plumbing for the return and the ocean motion so far. I will be running an eheim 1262 for a return for now. Eventually I will move up to a waveline or something down the road. I know people are probably thinking hey he didnt put any unions in his pipes, what if he needs to do a repair. Well there are perfect spots for unions but I figure when I have to cut the pipe to do a repair then I will put a union in. Why spend the $10 each for now. Plus the ones Ive seen have been very restricting. I decided to go with filter socks on this sump as you can see. Im little worried I have my baffles a little high and maybe have some trouble with the water level when the socks are a little full. I can always add a wall ontop of the acrylic to get some more head pressure on top of the socks. Im still trying to decide on a skimmer. Either bubble magus nac 5 or 7 or a vertex omega 150. (used market isnt too hot ) I have also decided to try some vortechs on this tank. Still saving for them. Waiting for a good used deal that will ship. (tough cause these sell fast ) Got some nice Lumenmax 3 reflectors and vertex ballasts from a fellow canreefer. Very nice. Anyways, working on a rock structure as got all my rock from eli today. Very nice stuff. He was quick with shipping too. Very good experiance. Will tie or epoxy the rocks when I get happy but Im still struggleing.
I like the rh side of the picture and my wife told me not to mess with the bridge but Im having a bit of trouble with the LH side. I have thought of putting a nice LPS coral there and having a tableing acro off the top rock on the LH side. It will be in direct path of the vortech so should be good for flow. So ya thats pretty much it for now. Any comments on rock positioning would be appreciated. The structure currently is 4" from each end and 2-4" from the tank walls front to back. The tallest is 18" in a 22" tank. (too tall?)