Advice and Ideas for my New 90Gal Tank?

[ChefCoralDan125]

Hi every one, well I was just given a 90Gal tank it came with the tank and stand, the lighting it has a Coralife aqualight flourescent lights 96wats Quad, has an over flow system which is drilled reef ready, it has a 115Gal sump which is missing the return pump. and two power heads. and a gamma uv, which i dont know if i'll use it if i do a reef tank any advice on that aspect please feel free. The person is offering me the live sand that was in the tank but i doudlt thats a good idea, the sane is mist but smells funny should i use it or buy new sand? the power heads are two maxi-jet 400. I'm planning on cycling the tank for a month and a two weeks, with about ten pounds of live rock to start, thats all i can offerd for rock right now till next week. any advice and ideas please let me know. I do have a 12gal aquapod nano reef and its been doing very well since i got it five months ago and fish are happy and corals are growing and happy but i want something bigger so here i am

 

[ChefCoralDan125]

here some pics of the tank as of now

 

[TRe]

and u were given this tank?? very nice and lucky.... a definite no on using the old sand but if you want u can use a few scoops to reseed the new stuff but from my experiance youll just be transfering the nitrates over btw IMO youll need a bit more than 10 lbs of LR to cycle a system with this much volume

 

[Lotus]

Nice score on the tank!

As TRe says, a handfull of live sand might help, but it's not really necessary. It might be better for you to leave the tank until you can save up for enough live rock. If you do a little rock at a time, it will just extend the cycle until it has all been added and it has all cured.

You might want to check a local club to see if anyone is selling rock cheap or giving it away. I know some of the reef club forums on Reef Central have a lot of stuff going free or cheap.

With any tank, you should fill it with freshwater first and run all the plumbing to make sure it's all working well and there are no leaks. Then, if you have to drain it, you're not throwing away saltwater.

 

[Lorna]

Everything has been said......though if going with a reef I would lose the uv sterilizer as it isn't necessary and sometimes kills that which feeds your corals.... I would save up until you get enough rock and then do as Lotus and Tre suggested...r.un it with fw make sure it is working right then after it cycles transfer your stuff from the 12g to this one.....good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Lorna]

Oh and you will probably need stronger pumps than 2 maxi 400s More like a couple of Korallia 4's would do the trick

 

[ChefCoralDan125]

Thanks, yeah I really agree about the maxi's i plan to upgrade when i ahve the money for it not in a ruch for no power heads. The live sand the guy gave me 160pounds free and well i took it but thinking about it, it smells funny and not knowing if he put tap water in there to keep it moist i am going to go but new live sand cuz i dont want to run into problems later on. i still need to get a new return pump for my sump its going to cost me about 149 fr a very good one, and i need new bio balls since i dont have any in the sump. i was thinking of doing a fuge but i was told it doesnt work very well in a 90 with the wet/dry overflow system. I'm in no rush here i still plan to stain the stand and i am saving to get more LR cuz it will take longer for the cycle process anyways on the ten pound of LR i noticed dry worms i scracted one out to see if it comes off and it was red and like went back in the rock i dont know if that is a good sign i was told red worms i gorgot the name for them but was told they are bad news for coral what should i do to take care of this issue before i place them in the main tank?

 

[TRe]

u say $149 for the return pump?? what kind?? best place to buy these kinds of things is online... i just picked up an oceanrunner 2500 for about $50 so shop around.... u dont want bioballs so do worry about buying those... who ever told u a fuge wouldnt work well in a 90g is an idiot and i wouldnt take there advice anymore ... as far as the red worms im not really sure what your talking about and a picture would definitly help in identifying

 

[Lorna]

yes we do need pics as your description isn't very thorough. Also you won't need a wet/dry as your live rock, provided you have enough provide the biological filtration for your tank. Live rock, good water movement at about 25x tank volume/hr turnover, a good decent protein skimmer are all the filtration you should need. You may also want to ensure that copper medications were never used in this tank also....

 

[ChefCoralDan125]

the red worms are bristo warms, i was just asking around today at my lfs and they told me a fuge would be great for my wet dry as it was already converted into one already. the return pump i found one for 75 dallers that turnd over water about 12 times an hour and i forgot the brand but i have two maxie jets 500's that i will convert that will give me good water movement, i just found out they never had copper neather did they ever use copper meds for the tank so its coming to a good start and i will post morepics when i ge them. keep you posted

 

[ChefCoralDan125]

I just put up my tank today sand and water with live rock, and i also picked up to maxi jets one 400 and one 600 and added the new mods to them which add 10 more horse power to it, i got a new return pup a viaaquea for 80 bucks works great with the 90gal. today i was working on the wet dry system i was anable to get it working today but tomorrow first thing sopping at lows to get some plastic tubbing to connet my wet dry to my ove slow system. I was thinking not having so much bio balls and add diff layers or things like one layer of a suck filled with carbern and one layer of a amenia rmover with the bio balls at the bottom like a three stage filter in a sum would that be a good idea? I will try to get pictures as soon as possable. Let me know

 

[ChefCoralDan125]

Hey guys been a while since my last post. Well I got done today with putting 60 pounds of live fiji select live rock. and i got my power heads working as well good flow over the tank with a nice little wave affect that will make my sand wavy look. I plan to get a pic soon for i can go and post it and let you see my progress. its week two in my cycle process and no ruch now that u got my rock in. I'm leaving my lights on for two hours a day now jus for the rock to gain its color and get the bacteria in the rock to grow. so far my water is Ph 8.3 Ni 0 Ne 0 Alk 3.4 Amo 0. I was thinking is it a good idea to start dozing my tank with Alk and Cu for my corals later on, since its going to be a reef tank?

 

[Lotus]

Good to hear the cycle is going well

I hope when you say you want to add Cu that you don't mean copper! Definitely never add that to a reef tank.

Before you start adding either calcium or anything for alkalinity, test first. You don't need to build it up, but if your corals are using it up, you will need to add it. So, there's probably no need to add it yet. A good rule of thumb is never to add anything you don't test for.

 

[Lorna]

exactly as Lotus stated. Also, until you have a decrease in your CA and ALk due to usage by corals regular water changes will keep these levels where they need to be. Don't be in a rush it will come together on it's own. Your levels look good.....you probably only had a small cycle due to adding cured rock as you ammonia is zero as are your nitrites......just be sure to add livestock gradually so you won't have any spike and the parameters adjust themselves for the increased demand slowly

 

[ChefCoralDan125]

Yeah its very true what you said lotus, i was thinking about that last night. I added pre Cured live rock in the tank its still curing with the cycle process its still week week two in the process and there is no ruch as i said before. and yes i didnt mean cu= copper thats a no no i was meaning Cacium. i check my water everyday and well its been doing good Alk 3.4 Ca 452 Ni 0 Na 0 Amo 0 Ph 8.3 looking good to me. I plan to get a pic up some time today so i'll keep you guys up t date as soon as i can

 

[ChefCoralDan125]

I've been having issues in setting my flow in my tank. i have two power heads one maxie jet 400 with the mod and a marineland 550. my return pump is a resun king-4 does 1270GPH which has a strong flow shooting out. I'm trying to figure out the best way to set them up and not have a world pool. What should i do?

 

[Lorna]

Usually a good placement is in the back corners facing toward front center. that way the flow collides with each other creating turbulence. The idea is to have the water surface ripple to create good oxygen exchange and to create random flow in the water creating a flow and sway kind of thing.....simulating ocean wave action under water

 

[Lotus]

Lorna is right about the usual placement. It does take some time and fiddling to get it right. You want flow around the rocks, on the sand and on the surface, but you don't want it moving your sand around. Flow is what helps keep the tank clean and healthy. A few areas of low flow are good for some corals, but you'll usually get that with rock formations and where the powerheads' flow doesn't quite reach.

Don't be worried that it seems like it's too much flow -- the flow in your tank will probably never be equal to how strong the oceans' currents are.

 

[ChefCoralDan125]

thanks thats very helpful i went to my lfs today and asked about placement for my powerheads and he told me the same so i'm working on that. as i may not have said before i am curing my life rock and cycling the tank at the same time and the good new is that this is week two and at least for now my PH is 8.2 Alk 3.3 and Amo 0 Na1 15 amd Na2 20 which is pritty good for now my Amo was very high four days ago did a 50% water change two days ago so at least the amo became Na thats good news first time i cure rock its a very stressful process with so maney water changes. I harly turn the light on in the tank i keep he moon lights on just to have some light to see in the tank to preven an algea bloom that happen to early on in my nano 12gal so its going great i hope to have my hirmet crabs in about two weeks to have my cleaning started when my Na drops lower then it is now no rush as i said before i want to do things right. I'll keep you posted and so far with pics i need a new dig cam my old one does not have a usb its old back from 1998 very old. lol well keep you posted

 

[TRe]

just so u know u dont really wanna do the first water change till the cycle is over and the algae bloom will happen anyways thats just how it goes in a new tank