Derek's 90 gal. reef build

Phase 1
Jan 5/ 09
I convince my wife to switch from freshwater to salt water, which proved to be a daunting task due to the fact that 3 years ago i had a salt water set up in the same tank and lost about 5k worth of fish to lack of education poor management. However, enough complaining and she seems to think it will shut me up for a while.
Happy wife = happy life.

Phase 2
Jan 9/ 09
I start researching the "how to" and come across this web-site, and with a lot of help already from Shannon, Cookieman, and shayney, I've got the ball rolling. The sump tank, skimmer, and pump have all been bought (second hand though, Im pretty cheap). And the holes are being drilled this weekend into the big tank. I will post all of the from start to completion pics as I go.

ahahahah I am in the same situation Derek with my wife...I am sure this time that you will have success, I just started my 90 gallons 4 weeks ago almost

[img][/img]

here you go, got it all figured out the picture thing

Woohoo Derek, you're well on you way...Lookin good..Keep up the great posts...I am following your build..

Well My 90 gal build just turned into a 120gal build. Glass guy broke my tank while drilling and sold be a new 120 with the holes already drilled and overflow box for 100 bucks. cant complain too much. So I've bought all my plumbing, inclusive of gate valves, have my sump tank built and installed. Plan to have everything plumbed in and ready to go this weekend. I will post a few pics of the construction.

You should make your own tank build topic and show us pics of your tank, filters, plumbing etc.

Looking forward to seeing build Derek!

So here are a few pics of the sump and display tank. She's all plumbed in and glued. Inclusive of gate valves and an overflow box.
Im running a 2" down to the sump and 3/4" return.
Next week the live rock/substrate will go in and the first Nitrogen cycle can begin.





Starting to look like something

woohoo..looking good derek..great pics...this is gonna be an excellent build!!
Tagging along

Nice start! Looking forward to seeing more!

Got all of the live rock, substrate and water in. Powerheads and lights are a buddies. Ordered mine they just haven't come in yet. Im truly dying to do stuff to this tank, tests ect. but am holing off for a couple of weeks or so. Hate the waiting game.

Lookin good Derek, and ya the waiting REALLY, REALLY SUCKS.

Looks good, what do you plan on stocking??

standard reef tank. just trying to learn about everything. What mixes with what. Probably wont begin stocking until march though. had to order my lights and they are not coming in until the last week of feb. Getting very excited. Feel like Homer when he bought his gun and had to wait for the cooling period. Same thing here.

Total of 180 lbs of live rock in here now. Got a good deal on some choice pieces.
Still waiting though............

Wow, thats a lot of rocks, looks nice.

New pics of the 120 gal.
I've added 150 ish lbs of LR, 3 K4's, macro cheato and have ordered the 8 bulb t5 unit. Just waiting for it to arrive. My pH is a little low (7.9) However, I will sort that out this evening. Other tests ( ammonia, Nitrates) are down to 0. The tank has been cycling for about 3 weeks so I decided to pick up my first critters, 2 black clowns.




Thats it for now.

ye sit is a lot of rock but it also depends on what live stock you want to keep in it. if you keep a lot of corals, its setup very nicely for it. its something like my tank but i have a lot of big holes in the center to open it up..

New Lights!
Tek Light 8 bulb T5 Set up. 4 Actinics and 4 11000 k bulbs.
Love them.

Really like your setyp man!

Very nice Derek.

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

Looking good, You obviously aren't messing around. I'm getting excited just following along