If you were to start a 90 g reef tank what equipment/setup would you use

[Reef_puck]

If you were to start a 90 g reef tank what equipment would you use?



Equipment:



Ro/di type 4-8 stage?

Sump?

Pumps? Return and in tank?

Lighting?

What kind of rock? Dried or wet? How much?

Sand? Type?

Salt brand?

Test kits?

Other?





Setting up the tank:



Would this be correct? Filling/stacking the rock and cycling with a frozen cocktail shrimp and letting the tank cycle.



Once the Ammon/nitrate cycle is complete, when would you add any livestock? Fish first, coral and type, clean ups?



Frequency to add additional? Months?



Lighting times?





Maintenance:



Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly water changes and how much?



Cleaning glass,



How often testing?



Other?



Dosing all/ca/mag if needed?



Other tank feeding/supplements?





What other basic steps would be needed for a good start and thriving reef tank? Let’s say LPS and soft corals.

 

[X-37B]

Rodi brs 4 stage

Sump 40 breeder no baffles

Tunze 1073.040 return

Powerheads Jebao/Tunze

I personaly prefer Sea Sweeps with Tunze powerhead for random flow.

Lighting Reefbreeder photon 48-50

Skimmer Tunze 9410dc

Rock- Live Rock: minimum 50% Live/Dead. 100% Live is my preference.

Sand- your choice. I run caribsea special grade in one and Bare Bottom in another

Salt Red Sea blue bucket

Test kits Hanna, Salifert, Nyos

With live rock no start is needed.
Drop in the rock. When nitrate is present you can add coral/fish.

Lighting: 7-8 hours max with 1hr ramp up/down

Water change 5-10% a month

Esv 2 part for dosing alk and cal
I use Lamoer dosing pumps

Dsr ez trace daily

Testing daily to determine alk useage, then weekly.

This is my 4 month old ext 170.
Started with 150lbs of GLR.
Currently 30+ hard corals, 9 fish, 3 shrimp, numerouse snails-30ish, 2 urchins.

This system runs a carx. My other systems run esv 2 part.

Best advice is have a plan from day one. Pic your parameters and focus on keeping them in range.

The hardest part is keeping it simple with all the advice, good/bad, you will get from everyone.

Take a look at some of my build threads and others to make sure people have the experience to backup their words.
You can pm me anytime if interested.
A couple pics!

 

[Reef_puck]

nice setup

 

[Reef_puck]

Anyone else

 

[madlos123]

My 90 gallon aqueon
I am keeping my system as simple as it can be.
No fancy controllers, just timers and diy controllers.

Equipment:
Bubble Magus Curve 5
Finnex 150 W HMO heater

Ro/di type 4-8 stage?
I started with 4 stage and added an extra overtime.

Sump?
40 gallon breeder aqueon with Baftle kit from ebay

Pumps? Return and in tank?
Sicce ADV 7 Return Pump
2x Sicce Xstream Wave Pump 2120 gph AC

You can get those jebao pumps if you dont need a lot of flow.

Lighting?
Reefbrite Metal Halide 250 W Single End Bulb 10,000K 6 hours per day
2 T5 Actinic 2 hours per day

What kind of rock? Dried or wet? How much?
back in the day I Started with Dry rock, but used a small piece of wet rock from Petco. but when I upgraded to my 90, i used as much of my wet rock, but majority was dry due to the new aquascape.

Sand? Type?
Carib Sea special grade dry sand.

Salt brand?
Reef crystals

Test kits?
Salifert Alkalinty Test Kit
Refractometer with calibration fluid

Other?
Avast Marine ATO
Avast Marine K2 Kalk Stirrer
Exotic Marine Overflow



Setting up the tank:
DIY Stand and Canopy
DIY Cabinet

Definitely build or have another cabinet for your electronics. Do not put it under your stand as it will rust and corrode.

Would this be correct? Filling/stacking the rock and cycling with a frozen cocktail shrimp and letting the tank cycle.

Can work, back in the day, i just let the tank sit for a month with a piece of wet live rock and Bio Spira from Petco then added a couple small fish.
Then slowly added more fish and corals.

Multiple ways to cycle a reef tank.



Frequency to add additional? Months?
Idealy If you have the time and resources, definitely quarantine first then add once a month.

If not you can order on fish website that quarantine their fish. But you have to spend a large amount money to get free shipping or group buy to save shipping cost.

Lighting times?
6 hours

Maintenance:
Clean the glass once a week, skimmer, algae


Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly water changes and how much?
Water change i do 40 - 50 gallon once every 2 - 3 months due to budget constraints, ideally should be once a month.

Cleaning glass,
Once a week

How often testing?
Once a week mainly Alkalinty
Salinty once a month

I used to have all the different test kit, but i haven't done them anymore.

Dosing all/ca/mag if needed?
Only been dosing Kalkwasser on a kalk stir
Diy magnesium 30 ml a week


Other tank feeding/supplements?
I have stopped dosing frozen
Only used generic pellets


What other basic steps would be needed for a good start and thriving reef tank? Let’s say LPS and soft corals.

Quarantine your corals of possible in a separate tank before going in the main tank, that will save lots of headache.

Get locally grown corals if possible from other reefkeeper not from vendors. As most of the time they will be cheaper and healthier. Less shipping stress also.

Depending on the set up, definitely wait a few months to add those expensive lps first such as torches etc. Add easy cheap hardy soft corals first to establish the tank. Those fleshy LPS tend to get shocked if added to a newly set up tank such as different lighting, lower bioload, different flow etc and perish. Once you get an experience, then you can move to the next level.

If i have to change something, i would have gone to 120 as its a little wider but my local petco doesnt sell or have a sale discount of those tank sizes. Plus the good thing i didnt go that big as they can get heavy. Even the 90 gallon was heavy.

Heres my Youtube Channel,
You can scroll all through my videos on my journey on how i built my 90 gallon.

JJ's Fish Channel

Hi fish loversss! Welcome to JJ's Fish Channel ð (John Paul & Jeanipher's Fish Journey) We are just a keeper of 75 gallon fresh water and 90 gallon salt water tank. Here you can watch DIY building, fish tips, aquarium tips, kayak adventures ðð ððð³ð¬ ð£ and our slice of life ðð« Happy reef...

youtube.com

Heres some pictures
3 years ago

Recently last week

Theres probably a lot more little stuff I do to the reef tank that you will develop overtime.

There are multiple ways to do a reef tank.
Do what works for you and have fun.