Hi Everyone.
It's been 7 months since we first put water in our tank (July 2022). The journey started in 2020 when my wife found a used 90 gallon tank with stand on FB Marketplace literally down the street from our house. She has always wanted a marine tank since being a little girl and of course I had to make her dream come true. To be selfish a little, I'm enjoying the adventure with the equipment, the chemistry and the DIY stuff I can do. It's so much fun and interesting to learn.
So the tank actually sat empty for 2 years before I did any rehab and repair work. So we had to get creative at times to spice it up. Halloween was always the best time to decorate.
The rehab took some time. Resealed the tank to just make sure there was no leaking. Replace the upper rim as the old was broken. The stand was falling apart and rotting out. Rebuild, re-inforced, and painted it.
The location was chosen for multiple reasons. It's in the main leaving area and right next to the kitchen - always distracting to watch. It barely sticks out past the wall (I know it's pushed all the way against the back wall and side wall, but it works for us). We have a basement and I was concerned about the weight, so it's also at the junction of the cinderblock wall and sits on the floor joists (perpendicular) supported by the cinderblocks. Finally, I didn't want to have to have all the equipment in the stand, so right below is an unfinished part of the basement and three holes (one for return, one for drain, and one for electrical) later, it's all connected.
Equipment to date:
Pets in the Display Tank:
Pets in the Sump
We have lost only two lives from the DT (lost some while in QT before moving up) - a bubble tip anemone that did a late-night swim into a wave maker fan and a diamond goby who found the smallest hole in our lid (used for self-feeding when away) to jump out of. To be fair the diamond goby was a jumper as we had to get the fish out of the overflow at least 3 times.
We do have another 6 Dot Goby in QT ready to go into the DT this weekend.
It's been a really fun adventure so far. All the equipment has been purchased over the 7 months not all at once and it's been fun re-wiring and optimizing the basement equipment as we go. I had a Neptune 1/4 valve on the RO system to stop filling the reservoir, but it started leaking. I cut the wire off the valve and wired it up to a relay to control the RO Buddie directly using the APEX controller. Pretty easy to do as the valve was 24v DC and using a typical HVAC relay, I hard-wired the RO Buddie (Gray box above the blue milk crate).
Only minor equipment failure at this point. The APEX Controller has to be replaced under warranty as a chip malfunctioned. One MP40 motor also had to be replaced for a malfunctioning chip too.
Since I have 58 gallons of RO water in the basement, I purchased a Demand & Deliver pump to also pump the water to the refrigerator using excess tubing (we have a local Habitat for Humanity re-store with super cheap building material).
The final build on the DT was the upper "cabinets". We had leftover kitchen cabinets and supplies from our kitchen remodel and using that equipment built an upper "cabinet" that comes off really easily should we need to do any deep cleaning on the tank.
And now for the best part. Pictures of the Pets!
Since the beginning our water has remained stable. No massive changes in water chemistry. We use Tropic Marin Pro-reef salt ESV Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium (this is the only dosing we are doing at the moment). We test weekly for everything and use this test results to challenge the Trident (typically not too far off). We've seen massive growth in our first corals we put in back in November.
The next equipment adventure is investigating if a roller filter is better and if it will be easy to modify the sump to fit. Once we get the 6 Spot Goby in, we are letting the tank grow for a bit. Will look at more coral and of course eventually get a mandarin too. Would like a good tang, but have had difficulty keeping them in QT. Lost 2 so far.
It's been 7 months since we first put water in our tank (July 2022). The journey started in 2020 when my wife found a used 90 gallon tank with stand on FB Marketplace literally down the street from our house. She has always wanted a marine tank since being a little girl and of course I had to make her dream come true. To be selfish a little, I'm enjoying the adventure with the equipment, the chemistry and the DIY stuff I can do. It's so much fun and interesting to learn.
So the tank actually sat empty for 2 years before I did any rehab and repair work. So we had to get creative at times to spice it up. Halloween was always the best time to decorate.
The rehab took some time. Resealed the tank to just make sure there was no leaking. Replace the upper rim as the old was broken. The stand was falling apart and rotting out. Rebuild, re-inforced, and painted it.
The location was chosen for multiple reasons. It's in the main leaving area and right next to the kitchen - always distracting to watch. It barely sticks out past the wall (I know it's pushed all the way against the back wall and side wall, but it works for us). We have a basement and I was concerned about the weight, so it's also at the junction of the cinderblock wall and sits on the floor joists (perpendicular) supported by the cinderblocks. Finally, I didn't want to have to have all the equipment in the stand, so right below is an unfinished part of the basement and three holes (one for return, one for drain, and one for electrical) later, it's all connected.
Equipment to date:
| Ecotech Marine | Neptune System | RedSea | Aquatop | Other |
| 2 - MP40s | Apex Controller | 2 - LED 90s | 2 - 400W Titanium Heaters | Kissel H80 Light for Refugium |
| Vectra M2 Pump | Energy Bar | RSK 300 Skimmer | 2 - Heater Controllers | Pentair 25W UV Light |
| 2 - DOS Systems | Max Flow DC pump for UV Light | Aquatic Life RO/DI | ||
| Trident | Aquatic Life RO Buddy | |||
| ATO Kit | Reeflo Hammerhead for the mixing station | |||
| 2 - FMM Modules for ATO and other water reservoirs |
Pets in the Display Tank:
| Fish | Coral | Invertebrates |
| 4 - Pajama Cardinals (7/8/2022) | Large Hammer (11/13/2022) | 2 - Pincushion Sea Urchins (8/27/2022 & 10/20/2022) |
| 2 - Saddleback Clown Fish (7/24/2022) | Green Toadstool (11/13/2022) | Electric Blue Halloween Hermit Crab (7/30/2022) |
| Foxface Rabbitfish (12/13/2022) | Green Pipe Organ (11/13/2022) | Halloween Hermit Crab (8/27/2022) |
| Solorensis Wrasses (12/04/2022) | Small Hammer (12/14/2022) | Cleaner Shrimp (7/24/2022) |
| Yasha Haze Goby (9/11/2022) paired with Pistol Shrimp | Candy Cane (12/14/2022) | Sand Sifting Starfish (12/22/2022) |
| Favia coral (12/14/2022) | ||
| Not 100% positive on the Pipe and Favia - please let me know if not correct identification. |
Pets in the Sump
| Fish | Invertebrates |
| Damsel (07/08/2022) - she's also used to cycle any Quarantine tank when needed | 2 - Mexican Turbo Snails - tried the DT but the blue hermit crab kept trying to eat them |
We have lost only two lives from the DT (lost some while in QT before moving up) - a bubble tip anemone that did a late-night swim into a wave maker fan and a diamond goby who found the smallest hole in our lid (used for self-feeding when away) to jump out of. To be fair the diamond goby was a jumper as we had to get the fish out of the overflow at least 3 times.
We do have another 6 Dot Goby in QT ready to go into the DT this weekend.
It's been a really fun adventure so far. All the equipment has been purchased over the 7 months not all at once and it's been fun re-wiring and optimizing the basement equipment as we go. I had a Neptune 1/4 valve on the RO system to stop filling the reservoir, but it started leaking. I cut the wire off the valve and wired it up to a relay to control the RO Buddie directly using the APEX controller. Pretty easy to do as the valve was 24v DC and using a typical HVAC relay, I hard-wired the RO Buddie (Gray box above the blue milk crate).
Only minor equipment failure at this point. The APEX Controller has to be replaced under warranty as a chip malfunctioned. One MP40 motor also had to be replaced for a malfunctioning chip too.
Since I have 58 gallons of RO water in the basement, I purchased a Demand & Deliver pump to also pump the water to the refrigerator using excess tubing (we have a local Habitat for Humanity re-store with super cheap building material).
The final build on the DT was the upper "cabinets". We had leftover kitchen cabinets and supplies from our kitchen remodel and using that equipment built an upper "cabinet" that comes off really easily should we need to do any deep cleaning on the tank.
And now for the best part. Pictures of the Pets!
Since the beginning our water has remained stable. No massive changes in water chemistry. We use Tropic Marin Pro-reef salt ESV Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium (this is the only dosing we are doing at the moment). We test weekly for everything and use this test results to challenge the Trident (typically not too far off). We've seen massive growth in our first corals we put in back in November.
The next equipment adventure is investigating if a roller filter is better and if it will be easy to modify the sump to fit. Once we get the 6 Spot Goby in, we are letting the tank grow for a bit. Will look at more coral and of course eventually get a mandarin too. Would like a good tang, but have had difficulty keeping them in QT. Lost 2 so far.
