Zum14's 90Gal-As reef as I can get it.

[zum14]

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?)

[kien]

Looking good! That's some serious cabinetry and nice touch with the starfish knobs :-)

[zum14]

Originally Posted by kien

Looking good! That's some serious cabinetry and nice touch with the starfish knobs :-)

You want them? haha. Wife said they gotta go.

[kien]

Originally Posted by zum14

You want them? haha. Wife said they gotta go.

Doh! I actually do like them :-). I have the same ones on my kids closet doors.

[whatcaneyedo]

I tried 45 degree elbows for the outputs of my returns initially as well but I found they just shot water right to the bottom which blew sand around and 90 degree looked like the wake behind a boat. So I cut an angle at the end of the 90 and that worked best. With your smaller return pump you might be alright though.

No time for a longer post right now.

[FishyFishy!]

What kind of overflow are you going to run? Are you planning on an internal wier? Or just leaving the holes as overflows?

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

What kind of overflow are you going to run? Are you planning on an internal wier? Or just leaving the holes as overflows?

Yea what this guy is asking^^^

I'd like to rip my tank apart and take my overflows out and do that very thing with the holes.
Good to see your setting up again and off to a nice start. We need more tanks in town.

[zum14]

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

I tried 45 degree elbows for the outputs of my returns initially as well but I found they just shot water right to the bottom which blew sand around and 90 degree looked like the wake behind a boat. So I cut an angle at the end of the 90 and that worked best. With your smaller return pump you might be alright though.

No time for a longer post right now.

Hey, Thanks. Ill have to watch for that. Im kind of going for the lower turnover through the sump and using the main flow from the vortechs. (ideally closed loop could provide the high flow but im very uneasy drilling all them holes in a tank that im not sure is designed for it )

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

What kind of overflow are you going to run? Are you planning on an internal wier? Or just leaving the holes as overflows?

Take a bean animal and instead of the 2 main elbows turning down they will all be turned up. Ideally I was going to do an internal overflow box and have a bean animal overflow but due to the tank only being 18" front to back it would have closed off way too much of the tank. So its just going to be ugly elbows in the tank but oh well. It will work. Ill take some pics when the waters flowing to give you an idea.

Originally Posted by Madreefer

Yea what this guy is asking^^^

I'd like to rip my tank apart and take my overflows out and do that very thing with the holes.
Good to see your setting up again and off to a nice start. We need more tanks in town.

Hey. See above. Do you want an internal overflow box? If your ripping your tank apart id look into doing an external box, all the surface skimming and nothing to see. I find it quite amazing that other towns around our size have 2 or 3 nice stores but not us. Oh well. Just have to wait a bit longer. Havent seen an updated pic on your tank lately. Hows it doing?

[Madreefer]

Hey Tyler, I have 2 internal overflows but I want to take them out to free up some more tank room. I'd like to use the four holes in the bottom of the tank just for return lines and drill a couple of holesi n the back upper corners of my tank and use them to drain to my sump. Not sure what the method is called but just a gravity drain. Its how I have my fuge plumbed. Last I seen my tank it was looking pretty good. My wife says everything looks good. I'm working out of province so no idea. I'm home for a week at the begining of March and going to be throwing some fluke tabs in it to kill off my clove polyps. You'll have to come over for a pop and have a bullchit.

[zum14]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

Hey Tyler, I have 2 internal overflows but I want to take them out to free up some more tank room. I'd like to use the four holes in the bottom of the tank just for return lines and drill a couple of holesi n the back upper corners of my tank and use them to drain to my sump. Not sure what the method is called but just a gravity drain. Its how I have my fuge plumbed. Last I seen my tank it was looking pretty good. My wife says everything looks good. I'm working out of province so no idea. I'm home for a week at the begining of March and going to be throwing some fluke tabs in it to kill off my clove polyps. You'll have to come over for a pop and have a bullchit.

Sounds good. I think I understand what you want to do but that may cause some interesting problems. Im sure you will come up with something.