New 90 gallon in wall build

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

I have been working on a 90 gallon in wall build for a while now. I would love to make it a saltwater reef tank, but I am not in a place financially to make that a reality right now. I have decided to make this the next best thin, IMO, an african cichlid rift lake system.

The system will consist of a reef ready 90 gallon display tank with a custom 90 gallon sump. I went with the 90 gallon sump, even though it is WAY overkill, because I wnated to have the option of turning this into a refugium down the road if I ever decide to go reef. I would just have to add a couple of baffles and I would have an awesome refugium I plan on using bio balls as my biological filtration, and a canister filter that I have sitting around for some chemical filtration. So far I have the display tank in the wall and just finished most of the plumbing this morning. I also got the stand shimmed to make it level.

Today, I hope to get some loc-line for the return so that I can finish the plumbing and get the tank wet. Hopefully by the end of the day I will have the gravel, water, and driftwood in the tank. All I will need then is the bio balls and the rock for the cichlids to claim their territories. Then I can start stocking the tank.

Here are some pictures of my progress so far. I'm sorry that there are no pictures of the work actually being done, but one I start a project, I typically don't remember to stop to take pictures along the way.

 

[dv3]

nice!

 

[hurrafreak]

Looking good so far!! Shame it can't be a SW tank but Cichilid tanks are pretty sweet. Discus tanks are pretty cool as well, if you're still thinking that is lol.

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

I have considered Discus, but I figure if I'm going to do a Discus tank, I might as well do a SW. Discus can be as difficult and expensive as a SW tank. I would want to do it planted with Discus, which means CO2, better filtration, more supplimentation, etc. I just figured that cichlids were cheap and easy to keep with the proper planning. I have kept and bred cichlids for years in the past.

 

[themooga]

Do a FOWLR tank until the time comes to convert it to a reef. I can't imagine it would be much more expensive than african cichlids.

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

Do a FOWLR tank until the time comes to convert it to a reef. I can't imagine it would be much more expensive than african cichlids.

It probably would not be much more expensive to do a FOWLR system, but I would have to use a lot of salt just to get it started and continue to use it for water changes. It would take a full bucket of salt just to start it up and then nearlt a quarter of a bucket for each water change. With a cichlid tank I can just put clean freshwater in and be good.

I have completed the build and things are running smoothly so far. Now I am just waiting for the water to get up to temp and then I will get a few fish and start the whole process of stocking. Here is a new pic of the completed build. I will be getting some more rock later, I am just completely out of funds right now.

 

[rghering]

Nice, but I think you have a small issue, your fuge there is just a tad on the small side, I think you need a 300 gall on the bottom hehe..

really is that a 90 tank and a 90 fuge?? awesome...

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

Nice, but I think you have a small issue, your fuge there is just a tad on the small side, I think you need a 300 gall on the bottom hehe..

really is that a 90 tank and a 90 fuge?? awesome...

Yeah, It is pretty wild. I bought the tank, that is the fuge now, a few months ago but it got chipped on one of the corners while moving it. So I found another, better, 90 gallon tank and bought it about 2 months ago. I already had the tanks, so why not put them to use?

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

Alright, I got things pretty much done. I have finished the trim completely, and added some additional plants. I still want to get some more rock in it and I am still looking for one last species to add to the mix. Here are a few updated pics.

 

[Off The Deep End]

Ohhh, makes me want an inwall... looking great!

 

[Cherub]

That's hot... good job

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

Well, The cichlids bored me. I guess that I have been doing salt for too long to go back to fresh. I sold the cichlids today and got the tank torn apart. I have the 90 gallon sump cleaned out and plan on getting new baffles in it tomorrow, thereby transforming it into a HUGE FUGE. The fuge alone will be approximately 30 gallons. I bought some sand today and will get some more as soon as I find the right stuff in stock. I hope to have water in it by the end of the week.

This is what the tank and fuge look like right now, I will update as I get things done.

 

[KhensuRa]

Bout time you switched back... Welcome back to the dark side.

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

Making progress on the rebuild. I got all of the new baffles installed into the sump/fuge, re-worked the plumbing, and got the sand in the tank. I am now filling the tank with RO water. I bought a booster pump for my RO unit recently and it is amazing what a difference it makes. I have been filling the tank for about an hour now and it already has about 5 inches of water in it.

I have been looking at sources for rock all day and i think I have finally made a decision. I think that I will be ordering about 100 pounds of "Reef Saver" rock from bulkreefsupply. It is dry rock, but I really like the way it looks. I will get some Live rock to seed the dry rock with. I plan on ordering the rock on Thurs. or Fri. Then for the fun part.... WAITING followed by A LOT MORE WAITING!!!!

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

I have had the RO running for more than 11 hours and I would think that I have another 11 hours to go before the sump is full as well. Here is a pic of the water after 11 hours of filling.

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

It took almost exactly 24 hours running my RO to fill the tank and sump, but it is done. I also have added the salt and ordered rock for it today. I ordered 75 pounds of dry reef saver rock from BRS. Hopefully that will be enough.

Also, I wnat some opinions from everyone on here. I am looking into my options for a additional water flow in the tank. I have pretty well decided to get a Vortec pump, but I don't know which to get. Should I get just 1 MP40w ES, or get 2 MP10w ES. I like the fact that I can set the 2 MP10's in an alternating pattern and get truly random water flow from them, but are they going to provide enough flow? What do you think?

 

[tlsrcs]

what kind of sand are you using??

 

[bsharpe]

The cichlid tank looked awesome, I am sure you will do the same with the saltwater tank. I would call the folks at Vortec and hear what they recommend for flow. When I put my wall system in I will look to you for input, if that's okay. Very nice.

 

[bsharpe]

Oh what lighting did you use?

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

what kind of sand are you using??

I am using a seafloor grade aragonite sand.

Oh what lighting did you use?

For the lights I am working on a custom LED setup that uses two 50w 30,000K LED's. I have everything done for it except the drivers. I should have those next week.