JCPatella's 90g Reef Build

[jcpatella]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[jcpatella]

Originally posted by Mikeeee
I agree with melev..where do we find these 'reefette's' ? . For me its either one i can enjoy my hobbies with or none! i'd rather not have to lie about where all the money goes hahaha.

My wife has an interest in all things weird. So do I. It just happened to work out well! But I can guarantee you, our first conversation was not about Reefing!

[phenom5]

My wife has an interest in all things weird.

Of course she does...she took an interest in you didn't she? I kid, I kid...seriously though, good luck on the tank. Looks like your off to a good start...now hurry up and fill that sucker up with some corals and fish.

BTW, I got to show this thread to my wife, she's taken a slight interest in my tank, but I've got to get her more involved...that way it'll be easier to get the green light on a bigger tank!

[jcpatella]

Originally posted by phenom5
Of course she does...she took an interest in you didn't she? I kid, I kid...

Nice!

[Reeftanks6]

Sounds good cant wait to see you get some fish and corals in there

[bower23]

I just placed on order for a 90g, so I will be following along!!

[jcpatella]

Well, I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Ours was great. For the fun of it, we took some pics - FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!



My wife and her dog, Leila. She adopted her, I named her Layla (who doesn't love Eric Clapton?) but my wife insists on her name being spelled Leila. That's an Iranian name - that dog is not Iranian!


Me and my buddy, Drake.

[jcpatella]

Needless to say, there wasn't much done with the tank today, so I just took some pictures of my current setup. I'm still horrible at taking fish pics, so hopefully you'll be able to see them in the FTS. For the record, the fish consist of 2 firefish, 2 blue reef chromis, a clown, and a pajama cardinal. I'll eventually get a tang for the 90g, but that's a story for another day - I don't want this thread to turn sour quick! And, of course, there's the cleaner shrimp.

I'm personally not a fan of SPS. I appreciate the delicacy and effort that goes into keeping them, but they just don't do it for me. Maybe one day.

Green striped mushrooms:


Frogspawn:


Bubble:


The controversial xenia. Some people love it, some people hate it. I love it. I'm sure I'll grow to hate it!


Orange & Blue Ricordia. I like this polyp, except for the fact that it moved over to a little hole the day after we got it. It's coming out now, though.


Feather Duster.


Trumpet Coral (I think).


FTS.


I do realize that my corals aren't very different or exotic - I knew I'd be upgrading and I don't want to get anything that has a greater possibility of getting lost in the switch.

Tomorrow (or thursday) I'll post pictures of the sump setup! Later!

[Rustylugnuts]

Lookin good jcpatella especially that ric. I love shrooms ( oh wait wrong website ). I'll be taggin along for sure.

[m1enbo1]

if you isolate that xenia to a single rock away from others, then you'll love it. it wont have a chance to spread

[flyguy7150]

looking good so far, ill subscribe, love 90g threads...well cause i have one . Keep the pics coming

[Reeftanks6]

got a ? what do you have in your whole setup

[jcpatella]

Originally posted by Rustylugnuts
Lookin good jcpatella especially that ric. I love shrooms ( oh wait wrong website ). I'll be taggin along for sure.

Thanks! I've taken a liking to ricordia. They have some of the oddest colors and variations, so I'll be adding plenty of these in the future.

[jcpatella]

Originally posted by flyguy7150
looking good so far, ill subscribe, love 90g threads...well cause i have one . Keep the pics coming

I will - I have a short online attention span. If there aren't enough pictures, I'm out!

[jcpatella]

Originally posted by Reeftanks6
got a ? what do you have in your whole setup

I'm a reefer on a budget, so everything I have is either:

a) Not top-of-the-line
b) Used
c) DIY

Current 55g Setup:

Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro.

Return Pump: Quiet One 2200 pump - Works well, but doesn't live up to it's name. About 450-500 gph @ 4' head.

Flow: Hydor Koralia #3 - the flow is great @ 850gph, but almost too much for my softies. Also, my ric is hiding in a hole in the rock, so I don't think it's too happy with the flow. I added a MJ 1200, but it ticks everything off, so I'll add it every once in a while.

Heater: Run-of-the-mill heater I had from my FW setup.

Overflow: HOB LifeReef overflow. It works GREAT, but...... it's an HOB overflow! It's very reliable, which is why I paid what I did for it. However, the surface skimmer box is larger than I expected. It also has a DIY Stockman Standpipe.

Filtration: Octopus NW-150, unmodded. It works great right now, but I figure I could mod it if I need to in the future. Also, 55-60lbs of live rock - I don't like the look of rock-stacked tanks, so much of my rock will go in my sump when I add more for the upgrade.

Sump: DIY - 10g glass tank with acrylic baffles.

If you could see my current setup, you'd get a laugh or two out of it. I was definitely going after function, not so much form!!! This time around, however, I'm trying to keep this as clean as possible and fail-safe as possible.

In the 90g:
Everything from the above, minus the Lifereef Overflow plus:

Hydor Koralia #4, new Jager heater, 29g DIY sump & Refugium, 30 more lbs live rock. Also, a new Filterguys RO/DI unit, refractometer,

Any suggestions?

[Reeftanks6]

lol your tank looks great cant wait to see the finished product and what kind of tang are you going to put in there

[qfrisco]

Looks great, and you got a great deal on that tank! I got a similar deal 3 weeks ago, and looks like it's the same tank. In my case though, the wife (I don't think she qualifies as a reefette :-) ) wouldn't allow the black finish on it (doesn't match, and she's right), so I had to spend a week stripping and refinishing the stand and canopy.

Here are before and after pics:





My deal was $600 for the pre-drilled tank, stand, 4x65 PC lights, canopy, sump, skimmer, and all pumps. I just had to jump on it!

Good luck, and I'll be going along for the ride!

[96vette]

Looks good Josh, nice to see another local reefer although I'm not sure I would qualify as a reefer just yet. We just bought a complete 72 gal. bowfront Oceanic setup including corals and fish, inverts & etc.. I hope to pick it up this weekend with the help of the Coral Connection.

I'm probably getting in way over my head but it seemed to be a pretty good deal for $570



Greg

[jcpatella]

Originally posted by Reeftanks6
lol your tank looks great cant wait to see the finished product and what kind of tang are you going to put in there

Reeftanks6 - I've seen how all tang threads end! Innocently asking about a particular tang and then getting bashed by reef-nazis until all of the fun of the hobby is gone. I enjoy this hobby and provide the best care I can for the fish I plan to keep, but I purposefully avoid conversation that leads down and endless, bitter road.

Tang-talk is almost as fun as discussion religion and politics with strangers!

The tank won't be ready for a tang for a little while, so we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I'll be open to suggestions, though!

[jcpatella]

qfrisco - That's a nice tank. I'd love to know the kind of work that went into sanding it down, though!

[jcpatella]

qfrisco - That's a nice tank. I'd love to know the kind of work that went into sanding it down, though!

96vette - A complete 72 gallon setup for $570 is a steal, believe it or not. And yes, you are getting in over your head - who isn't?

[96vette]

Originally posted by jcpatella
And yes, you are getting in over your head - who isn't?

Thanks for the words of encouragement


I'm glad I found this site, lots of information


GEAUX TIGERS!

[Reeftanks6]

JCPATELLA i hear ya look what happened to my tang thread

[jcpatella]

I'm waiting for two orders right now.

1) RO/DI unit
2) Red Sea Coral Pro Salt, Refractometer, Thermometer

The RO/DI unit should be in tomorrow, so I'll take pictures of it and how I set it up. The other stuff says it should be delivered by January 3rd - I 'm impatient and I hope it doesn't take that long!

I do have two questions, though.

1) I might have to level the stand when I put it in it's final spot. How should I go about doing this? The bottom of the stand is solid wood, so I can't hammer shims from the inside.

2) Should I put a mat between the tank and the stand? I've read about this before, but I don't know if it serves a purpose for a 90g tank.

Thanks!

[melev]

Originally posted by jcpatella
Reeftanks6 - I've seen how all tang threads end! Innocently asking about a particular tang and then getting bashed by reef-nazis until all of the fun of the hobby is gone. I enjoy this hobby and provide the best care I can for the fish I plan to keep, but I purposefully avoid conversation that leads down and endless, bitter road.

Tang-talk is almost as fun as discussion religion and politics with strangers!

The tank won't be ready for a tang for a little while, so we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I'll be open to suggestions, though!

Just buy one of these. Apparently tank size isn't an issue.

If you need to shim the stand to level the tank, you shim between the floor and the stand. Whatever shows after it is tapped in would be cut away with a hammer and chisel. Take the chisel, and place the blade on the shim while resting against the stand. One or two sharp whacks will either score it well or cut through it. Now take the excess piece that you cut away, align it with the shim again, and tap the end of it to drive the shim under the stand another 1/8" / out of sight. Done.

If the maker of that tank recommends some type of padding between the tank and stand, do it. If they don't, find out if you void the warranty by inserting one. If there is no warranty and you feel the tank needs to be better supported, let's discuss why.