My 90 gallon SPS build

[DesertReefBoy]

Hey what is going on. I decided I wanted to start a thread to document and share my journey. My wife is getting sick of me constantly talking to her about the tank so I thought I would share stuff here.

I have a 90 gallon drilled tank with a synergy reef overflow.
Plumbing is all custom done by a friend of mine.
The sump is a 27 gallon crystal reef triton TRS30.
Refugium light kessil H380
Skimmer bubble mag is curve 5
AquaMaxx cTech T-1 CaRx
2 little fishes reborn
ZEOvit ZEOmag
Tunze duel gauge Co2 regulator
Neptune cor-20 return pump
2 maxspect gyre 230 and a hydor Koralia 1500 power head
2 hydra 26 HD w/4 48” T5 supplements
Apex Controller

Here is a video of the sump wet test.



The stand and canopy were built by a local cabinet shop but the craftsmanship was horrible so as of now I don’t have either.

 

[DesertReefBoy]

The salt used is Tropic Marine Pro. I also have a 7 stage RODI unit with booster pump due to low water pressure at our house.

Control panel

The live rock was bought dry from a friend and cured for two months changing the water every two weeks until nutrients tested zero. The rock was then cycled for four months in a brute can adding a cube of frozen mysis every week.

The rock was then aquascaped using E-Marco 400 and put in the tank. The rock is three different pieces.

 

[DesertReefBoy]

The tank was setup on 12/26/19 and here are the notes thus far.


3/26 10 gallon WC

3/22 added 1 ml Po4E

3/19 10 gallon WC

3/16. Blew off rocks with power head.

3/14 added 2 ml Po4E. Added a large squirt of MB7

3/12 10 gallon WC

3/9 added 6 ml Po4E

3/6 added 6 ml Po4E

3/5 10 gallon water change.

3/4 added 5 ml Po4E.

3/2 added three more SPS

3/1 added 12 ml po4E. Added MB7.



2/26. 10 gallon water change

2/24. Added 6 ml of Po4E

2/19. Started using the CaRx.

2/17. Added a few more tester corals from TJ

2/16 Po4 0.03. Added tester sticks and zoas.

2/14. Po4 0.12. Added 6 ml Po4E. Added 7 anthias and rest of CUC. Added 90 mL of Dr Tim’s beneficial bacteria.

2/12. Turned lights back on. Water is clear. Po4 0.28. No3 4. 10 gallon water change.

2/9. Started 2 day black out due to algae bloom/cloudy water.

2/5. Po4 0.03. No3 0. 10 gallon water change. Added 2 peppermint and 1 cleaner shrimp to system.

2/2. Po4 0.07. Added 5 mL Po4E.

2/1. Turned lights up to 100% and added blue eye kole tang.


1/29. 10 gallon water change. No3 4. Po4 0.07. Added 5 mL Po4E.

1/27 noticeably more algae growth on rocks seen. Added a few more Astria snails/hermits.

1/26 added 12 mL Po4E. 1945 Po4 0.05.

1/25 added 12 mL Po4E. 1900 Po4 0.21. Added yellow tang and more coralline.

1/24 added algae to refugium from TJ. Po4 0.57. Added 24 mL of Po4E 0930. Set Apex up. 1945 Po4 0.33. Refugium light on opposite of DT.


1/5 pulled rock out of tank and aquascaped the rock.

1/6 added 20 mL of Dr. Tim Bacteria. Took lid off skimmer

1/8 Ammonia 1.0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 Po4 1.0

Added two clown fish

1/10 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0. Turned skimmer back on and working on fine tuning it.

1/13 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0. No3 0.75. Scraped a little coralline off CUC and added a few hermits/snails with coralline to tank.

1/15 10 gallon water change. Added 20 mL microbacter 7 bacteria. Turned off skimmer.

1/16 added 20 mL MicroBacter7.

1/17 added 20 mL MicroBacter7. Put skimmer back online a few hours after adding MB7.

1/18 added 20 mL of MicroBacter7.

1/19 added 20 mL MicroBacter7. Added LED and T5 lights to the tank 8 hrs a day. Slowly acclimating up.

1/20 added 20 mL of MicroBacter7.

1/21 added 20 mL of MicroBacter7

1/22 10 gallon water change. Added a second T5 light on 12 hr timer with first T5. No3 4 Po4 0.59. Added 8 mL of Po4E.



2019



12/26 filled tank and added LR

12/29 added 5 green/blue chromis, 1 blue damsel and 1 hippo tang

12/30 Ammonia 0 nitrite 0

12/31 No3 0 Po4 0.1

 

[SPR1968]

That’s a very nice system indeed and great detailed write up

Keep the pictures coming!

 

[DesertReefBoy]

That’s a very nice system indeed and great detailed write up

Keep the pictures coming!

Thank you!!!

 

[DesertReefBoy]

Current livestock list

Blue tang
Yellow tang
Blue eye kole tang
Blue damsel
4 blue green chromis
2 bullet hole clownfish
7 lyretail anthias

10 Trochus snails
10 hermits (mix of blue, red and zebra)
2 peppermint shrimp
Cleaner shrimp

 

[DesertReefBoy]

Updated sump shot

Refugium started with a handful of both grape caulerpa and chaeto. The refugium is lit with a kessil h380 6 hrs a night. Both have taken off and the pod population in the tank is exploding.

 

[DesertReefBoy]

Current coral list (pics to follow)

SPS mini colony
No name green/blue acro

SPS frags
Walt Disney
RR Orange Passion
RR Pink Cadillac
CB malificent
CB atomic fireball
OR tort
ASD Rainbow Milli
Uchins pacific wave
Sunset milli
Pc Rainbow
Pink lemonade
ORA Joe the coral
Red Planet
Bubblegum digi

Sunset Montipora
Superman Montipora
Skittles cyphastria

And a whole bunch of different zoas

 

[DesertReefBoy]

Current Gyre flow settings

 

[GodfathR]

A calcium reactor with no corals? Dont think you are going to need that for quite some time.

 

[DesertReefBoy]

A calcium reactor with no corals? Dont think you are going to need that for quite some time.

I am currently doing 10% water changes every Tuesday using tropic Marin pro salt. My Alk and Ca were dropping so I decided to fire up the CaRx. I think it was premature due to me getting excited about setting it up. I have never had one before and run the pH at 7. I left it at 7 for awhile and my Alk continued to drop from 8 down to 6.8 over the course of a week. I lowered the pH to 6.8 and things were stable for almost a month. The CaRx has a chamber in it to filter out detritus and I forgot to change out the filter floss. The flow slowed down and my pH slowly dropped to 6.65. I got busy with life for a few weeks and tested my Alk and it was up to 11 (palm on face)! I am in the process of bringing it slowly back down and I now change the filter floss every Tuesday when doing water changes. All the SPS frags are polyped out and starting to encrust.

That brings up a question for you guys. How many people clean the water before it goes into the CaRx? The water that feeds my CaRx is connected to my manifold.

 

[GodfathR]

I would imagine just doing some water changes would keep all your parameters where you want them. If need be to add calcium and ALK, maybe add a kalk dripper. I wouldn't use a reactor unless your demands where that high and 2 part waswexcessive or kalk wasn't keeping up.

 

[DesertReefBoy]

I would imagine just doing some water changes would keep all your parameters where you want them. If need be to add calcium and ALK, maybe add a kalk dripper. I wouldn't use a reactor unless your demands where that high and 2 part waswexcessive or kalk wasn't keeping up.

I’ll be honest I don’t know much about kalk drips. I have tried manual dosing in the past and it wasn’t a good experience. I’m a paramedic and work 24 hr shifts so there are days I can’t dose. Sometimes I pull a OT shift and won’t be home for 48 hrs. The swings in my old tank killed a bunch of sticks.

 

[GodfathR]

I’ll be honest I don’t know much about kalk drips. I have tried manual dosing in the past and it wasn’t a good experience. I’m a paramedic and work 24 hr shifts so there are days I can’t dose. Sometimes I pull a OT shift and won’t be home for 48 hrs. The swings in my old tank killed a bunch of sticks.

Just stick with water changes for now to replinish your levels. With little demand your ALK and calcium will barely drop. At this point you don't have any Coraline either that will be consuming calcium. Once things start growing, then either get yourself an automatic doser and dose ALK and calcium or add kalk directly into your ato resevoir. Using kalk is probably the simplest and easiest way of maintaining levels plus it helps with pH. Save your reactor when your demands are high as your going to have nothing but issues using that now.

 

[DesertReefBoy]

Did a 10 gallon water change this morning and still dealing with some hair algae and cyano. The cyano is starting to slow down a little. I think changing the flow in the tank is helping cut back on dead spots. I am right at 60x turn over when the gyres are at max. A few weeks ago I started blowing off the rocks and couldn’t believe how cloudy the water got. I have also been sucking the cyano out on every water change.

The cyano definitely seems to get worse as the day goes on. I have never had cyano before so it is something new for me. It hasn’t been bothering any of my corals so far but I definitely don’t want to let it get out of hand.
I sent off a triton ICP test last week and should receive the results within the next few days.
I picked up some more CUC today to help with the hair algae. I added 8 trochus snails, 15 red and blue leg hermits and 2 emerald crabs.

Tank Parameters
No3 2ppm
Po4 0.03 ppm

 

[DesertReefBoy]

I also added a three new fish. They are in hiding at the moment but hopefully I will be able to snap some pics soon. I added a royal gramma, yellow choris and yellow and white coris wrasse.

 

[DesertReefBoy]

Sticks are looking really good. Sorry for the crappy iPhone photos. Still trying to learn the ropes.

WD

RR OP

CB maleficent

Red Planet

Uchins pacific wave

 

[GodfathR]

What are your means of nutrient export? I personally try to keep higher nutrients but contain the algae in my scrubber located in my sump instead of the display tank.

 

[DesertReefBoy]

What are your means of nutrient export? I personally try to keep higher nutrients but contain the algae in my scrubber located in my sump instead of the display tank.

I have been doing weekly 10% water changes and I have a large refugium powered by a kessil H380. The refugium is lit 6 hours a night opposite of the DT.

 

[DesertReefBoy]

Here is a full tank shot. The frags are looking really good but the cyano is really starting to bother me!!