90 gallon slow and steady build

Dr.DiSilicate

Great White Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#82
Great discussion here! Keep us posted on the development for sure! I run three halides over my tank and have for years... decades with little change on the lighting. Recently I’ve gone to running them for 4 hours and then led supplements for 12 hours. I run them longer in the winter to help keep the tank temp up rather than paying for heaters to run. Those aqua medic lights were solid!


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neil82

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#83
Great discussion here! Keep us posted on the development for sure! I run three halides over my tank and have for years... decades with little change on the lighting. Recently I’ve gone to running them for 4 hours and then led supplements for 12 hours. I run them longer in the winter to help keep the tank temp up rather than paying for heaters to run. Those aqua medic lights were solid!


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
Thanks for following along! I like the idea of running the lights more in winter and less in summer. I was surprised to find out that Aqua Medic still sells replacement parts for the fixture I picked up. Pretty cool!
 

neil82

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#84
Still working toward goal of getting a clam. Now that I have the metal halide lights I am hoping to go with a maxima because I love the electric blue color. Water params have been stable since starting two part dosing. I'll run water tests again tonight and post results.
One concern I have is related to substrate. I have fine sugar sand and between the clownfish and the watchman goby, there is constantly grains of sand in the water column. I'm thinking that will be an issue for a clam. I've considered adding a layer of larger grain substrate. I don't want to remove any fish.
Suggestions about dealing with subrate and feedback about adding a clam? Thanks in advance.
 

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#85
Still working toward goal of getting a clam. Now that I have the metal halide lights I am hoping to go with a maxima because I love the electric blue color. Water params have been stable since starting two part dosing. I'll run water tests again tonight and post results.
One concern I have is related to substrate. I have fine sugar sand and between the clownfish and the watchman goby, there is constantly grains of sand in the water column. I'm thinking that will be an issue for a clam. I've considered adding a layer of larger grain substrate. I don't want to remove any fish.
Suggestions about dealing with subrate and feedback about adding a clam? Thanks in advance.
I had a similar issue with substrate and I just added a bag of medium grain aragonite over the top. Didn't cause a mini cycle.

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SynDen

Administrator
Staff member
M.A.S.C Club Member
M.A.S.C. B.O.D.
M.A.S.C President
M.A.S.C Webmaster
#89
Nice work on the doors. Clean and simple.
Looks like tank starting to really grow in now. Looks good
 

geekengineer

Cleaner Shrimp
#92
By the way to you think you have better growthe with MH vs the LEDs? I had LEDs on my old 29G reef tank and didn't really like the results and I also had gotten LEDs for growing hydroponic plants and didn't like the results either. That's why I was going to go with T5s originally but then @jda123 nudged me to MH and seems like a lot of folks here locally are moving back that way.
 

neil82

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#93
Nice work on the doors. Clean and simple.
Looks like tank starting to really grow in now. Looks good
The doors look great, nice work!


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looking really sweet. I tried ot use magnets but the ones I got were too small Anyways you did your's really well.
Thanks for following! I am happy with how the doors came out. I had them made through this company:https://www.rawdoors.net
And a couple door handles from IKEA. Magnets from Amazon.
 

neil82

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#94
By the way to you think you have better growthe with MH vs the LEDs? I had LEDs on my old 29G reef tank and didn't really like the results and I also had gotten LEDs for growing hydroponic plants and didn't like the results either. That's why I was going to go with T5s originally but then @jda123 nudged me to MH and seems like a lot of folks here locally are moving back that way.
I think things are still adjusting to the new light source. But it does appear that the sps growth has accelerated a bit. I had a few pieces under the black box LEDs for a couple years and they grew, but it was slow growth. That was in my previous 55 gallon setup and my new 90 gallon setup has some other improvements beyond the lights. Better flow, bigger skimmer, temp is more stable with a controller running the heaters, more reliable dosing system. I'm hoping that I can get some decent sized colonies to grow out in this tank. I know the MH lights will play their part to help with the overall success.
 
#95
I guess I missed your answer I been stewing over my tank build problems I guess too much.. hehe.. But yeah I hope the MH works out better for you since that is what I am trying too. :) . It sounds like its a easier light source to get consistent results with.
 

neil82

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#97
Lemonpeel angelfish was new addition last month. Took him home from the MASC auction at the last event. The yellow tang was a jerk to him at first. I had concerns about it because of similar color and body shape. After a week everyone was getting along with no issues.
 

neil82

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#99
Trouble in paradise. Yesterday I noticed my sump (20 gallon long DIY) has a crack in the back panel. I had a 10 gallon on hand to use as a temporary sump. Ran to one of those big box pet stores that I usually try to avoid and purchased another 20 gallon long (not even dollar per gallon so I paid $40 grrrr). Cut out the acrylic dividers from the old sump and scraped all the old silicone so I could reuse them. Next step is to silicone in dividers in new sump tank.
Operating in gimp mode with the 10 gallon temporary sump for now... good time to deep clean the skimmer with running water and vinegar
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Andrew_bram

Tiger Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
Trouble in paradise. Yesterday I noticed my sump (20 gallon long DIY) has a crack in the back panel. I had a 10 gallon on hand to use as a temporary sump. Ran to one of those big box pet stores that I usually try to avoid and purchased another 20 gallon long (not even dollar per gallon so I paid $40 grrrr). Cut out the acrylic dividers from the old sump and scraped all the old silicone so I could reuse them. Next step is to silicone in dividers in new sump tank.
Operating in gimp mode with the 10 gallon temporary sump for now... good time to deep clean the skimmer with running water and vinegar
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If you need another one I have 3 sitting in my basement.

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