90 Gal Predator & Macro Tank

[Goodair]

-Had pump running for a day with no leaks, but had to close up the old return hole at the overflow box. The deadrock has another 2 weeks in the bins before the rockscape begins, pretty excited about it.

You should try to find or make intake guard for the primary drain just in case anything makes it in to the overflow. I zip tied knitting screen around mine.

How often do you end up cleaning it, its a pain to reach in there so looking to get the strainer from BRS and not pushing it in all the way for easier cleanup.

-I'm currently using a spare surge protector since its only the return pump running. Since im not looking to keep high end corals in this tank, I was looking at controllers. The Neptune is all the rage but I doubt I will use half the features on it.
Can anyone recommend a cheaper controller for features like power usage, temp, ph etc, the more basic parameters to keep an eye on?

 

[welsher7]

It has been in use since Last June and I have never had to clean the screen, but I have piece of mind that if a snail were to get in the overflow it wouldn’t clog my drain.

I don’t see a need to monitor anything other than temperature. Ranco makes a temp controller and a lot of people have started using ones made by inkbird. If you wanted to monitor power consumption I think there are some surge protectors out there that have some kind of monitoring built in. I don’t think it would track usage. It would be more for spot checking.

 

[Goodair]

The power consumption one is if one of the two heater goes down, I'd know to replace the primary one as its not using power while the secondary holds the tank until then. I'll take a look into those 2 temp monitors.

 

[Goodair]

Hanging canopy is finally built and stained.
Waiting on to the rocks to cure feels like ages but doesn't matter much since the weather hasn't been good to finish the last layer on the main cabinet so fish will be delayed more until I can leave the windows open to vent out the fumes.
Led bar gonna be strapped under the 2x4s and will have plenty of room if I ever decide to upgrade to a led/t5 hybrid now!

 

[Goodair]

First cycle finished in my bin (took about a month while building and buying material/equipment), gonna let it cycle in my tank for a bit. Getting so close to finally stocking the tank!! I was going to use rods and drill into the rock but as I went to try on the first one, I figured that it would be much less painful to use some kind of epoxy. The rods would of been much easier with a dry tank. ;Facepalm Will pick some up tomorrow and pick up a screen kit for the lids.
I still have to set up all the electrical, the heaters and wavemaker just got transferred from the bin to the tank to keep the water warm until tomorrow.

 

[welsher7]

Nice aquascape. The left side is killer.

Pick up some superglue gel to use with the epoxy. The superglue gel makes working with epoxy much easier and holds everything thing in place while the epoxy cures. A little dab of superglue on the rock then put the epoxy on top of the gel. then a little superglue on top of the epoxy where the other rock will contact it.

Also I would ghost feeding the tank until you get fish in it to keep the beneficial bacteria population stable.

 

[Goodair]

Nice aquascape. The left side is killer.

Pick up some superglue gel to use with the epoxy. The superglue gel makes working with epoxy much easier and holds everything thing in place while the epoxy cures. A little dab of superglue on the rock then put the epoxy on top of the gel. then a little superglue on top of the epoxy where the other rock will contact it.

I haven't been too satisfied with the right so that will get adjusted a bit, the rightside took a few hours to figure lol, rockscaping is such a pain!
Is there a certain brand you recomend for the glue? Not sure if some arenr safe for reefs.

 

[welsher7]

I use gorilla glue superglue gel, but a lot of people use the dollar store brand superglue gel. Make sure you get the superglue gel not regular superglue.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I like the aquascape a lot on both sides, but personally the protrusion on the right seems unnatural.

 

[Goodair]

Think imma settle on this, the one before did look unnatural on the right lol.

 

[Goodair]

$10 ATO reservoir. Easy to see when it needs to get filled. Also good if I ever get thirsty. Siphon breaker is under the lid and sump can hold the 5 gals incase something goes wrong.
Also saw a grouper that was following me at the lfs so he gonna replace the puffer on the stocking list, haha!

 

[geekengineer]

Hello finally stopping by your build thread. your tank and stand looks nice. I like how you put the doors flush inside instead of what I did.

 

[welsher7]

Aquascape looks good.

I’d advise against the panther grouper they get 20” and grow pretty quick. In my opinion the bigger they get the less attractive they get, but it will be way to big for your 90. If you want something grouper like I would checkout hamlets.

 

[geekengineer]

How's your tank doing so far? Hope your making more progress than I am at this point. lol

 

[Goodair]

Aquascape looks good.

I’d advise against the panther grouper they get 20” and grow pretty quick. In my opinion the bigger they get the less attractive they get, but it will be way to big for your 90. If you want something grouper like I would checkout hamlets.

My friend will be taking the grouper after a few years so the size isn't going to be a issue. The LFS said they would take him in for trade once he is bigger too, incase friend changes his mind. As for the foxface I planned for, I been looking at smaller tangs that wouldn't outgrow the tank but unsure which one to get. Really just need a grazer that can get along with the predators.

How's your tank doing so far? Hope your making more progress than I am at this point. lol

Weather here has been shifting too much to order any fish so I'm basically just staring at an empty tank and rereading posts for things I might have to adjust/change before fish go in. Also need to finish the stain on the cabinet but need a few warm days to leave the windows open overnight to help with the fumes.

 

[welsher7]

For grazers it is hard to beat bristle tooth tangs like the kole tang. Or you could always get yellow or purple tang

 

[Goodair]

Is getting both a yellow eye kole tang/two spot bristle tang with an one spot rabbit/yellow tang/purple tang ok, or is the tank space already going to be tight? It would be nice to have a color variation with the different fish in the DP.

 

[welsher7]

I think you would be ok with one bristle tooth tang and the yellow/purple/rabbit fish. I would do a yellow eye kole tang and fax face lo or one spot. The purple of the kole and yellow of rabbit will look good together and the different shapes will be interesting too

 

[geekengineer]

How's your tank been doing lately?

 

[Goodair]

LFS is seeing if they can get a Radiata Lionfish. Hopefully they can and I can put it in by next week with a panther grouper! The last coat of the stain came out good, I'll get a pic of it tomorrow.
They always have foxfaces coming in and kole tangs are pretty common so they can order one a few weeks after the first 2 fish, I don't want to dump 4 fish at one go. As for invertebrates, I have some algae, not really alot so they will come in later too.