Octo Lux T90 48gallon, my first reef

[avocadoman]

Decided on this tank because it's only 18" deep which works much better for my space than the 20" deep models from the other brands. Really wanted something with a sump. I initially thought I would get a 40 breeder and drill holes in the bottom, but ended up opting for this tank instead.

(Gear and livestock updates 6/24/24)

GEAR:
Tank: Reef Octo Lux T90
Sump: Reef Octo OS-30B
Refugium: Added black baffles for chaeto, pod hotel, rocks
Return pump: Jebao DCP-3500
Wave pumps: 2x Jebao MLW-10
Skimmer: Deltec 400i
Heater controller: Ink Bird ITC-306A
Heaters: 2x BRS Titanium 100W
Doser: Jebao 3.4
Cycle monitor/PAR Meter: Seneye Reef
ATO: 7-gallon jug gravity fed to float valve
Rock: CaribSea Life Rock
Substrate: CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade
Bio media: 1L Seachem Matrix and some sponges, plus a love rock I got from the LFS

LIVESTOCK:
Ophelia the Purple Firefish
Ramius the Diamond Goby
Jammer the Carpenter's Wrasse
Euphilia x3 (green hammer coral)
Favites (ring of fire)
Ricordea yuma (orange mushroom)

CUC (numbers approximate lol)
Trochus snails xu
Astrea snails x5
Nassarius snails x5
Florida ceriths x3
Dwarf ceriths x20
Small hermits x5
Small conch x1

Initial thoughts: the tank and stand are really high quality and look great. The included AC return pump was fairly noisy, and since this is in our living room noise is a top priority. I replaced it with a Jebao DCP-3500 that's inaudible. The return valve is hard to tune just right so there's no overflow splashing noise, but the adjustable DC pump makes that much much easier. I went and lined the whole inside of the cabinet with sound-deadening mat intended for car use, which helped a pretty decent bit. The tank includes about a 1.4 gallon section in the back meant for ATO, but we leave for up to a week at a time so that's not big enough. I rigged up some aluminum straps inside the cabinet to hold a 7-gallon water jug that's plumbed into the sump via a float valve. Gravity fed.

The sump is really pretty nice. Very well constructed. I kinda wish they had added an extra baffle to the large center section, so I could maybe use it as a refugium as well. There's plenty of space in there. I can add it later if I decide I want that. There is some water noise on the return lines that I can't quite figure out yet.

As of today (2/23) I'm on day 2 of cycling with the Red Sea Reef Mature kit and it seems to be going fine. I have an Inkbird temp controller and a second heater coming in today. Also ordered a Seneye to keep an eye on ammonia levels, and will also be able to use it as a PAR meter.

Also including some photos of my mixing station, which uses another DCP-3500 pump. I plumbed the BRS 4-stage 150 gpd RODI system into it from the nearby utility sink.

Will be working on aquascaping with CaribSea Liferock this weekend. I'm placing a sheet of acrylic underneath the rock, and will then put in some Special Grade sand once that's in place.

Hopefully will be ready for some inhabitants in about 2 weeks or so. Going to start with a couple of cleanup critters and maybe a pair of small fish, maybe clowns or fire fish. Not sure whether I should add copepods or anything.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[alpenreef]

Following along!

Also following, was snooping if you indeed tried to drill the bottom of a petsmart tank (answer is that bottoms are tempered, sides are not). Glad you found a nice system.

 

[avocadoman]

Aquascaping done, and updated pic of the sump area. Day 7 of cycling with Reef Mature. I have a cheapo Amazon on-tank light coming Thursday just to get things going. Heading to LFS this weekend for a few snails and a shrimp, maybe a couple of hermits.

Radion XR15s are on the way, and I will be hacking them into some pendant lights.

 

[avocadoman]

Updates! Got a 25 gallon cleaner crew from Reef Cleaners (Florida ceriths, dwarf ceriths, nassarius, and a few hermits, plus one small conch) on Wednesday. Installed the Jebao MLW-10 wave pumps and Deltec 400i skimmer on Thursday. The MLW-10s were difficult to get set up in the app but they seem to work great. The 400i is dramatically quieter than the Classic 150-INT that came with the tank.

Got my first fish today! One purple fire fish (Ophelia) and one diamond goby (Ramius). I was thinking about a royal Gramma or two but the LFS only had some pretty pricey ORA grammas which seemed excessive for my first ever saltwater fish.

The fire fish was in a tank with a pair of (really beautiful) clowns that I think had nipped at his fins a bit. I felt like he needed someone to rescue him lol. I just put him in the tank a couple of hours ago and he's already eating so I feel like that's a good sign. My wife was unimpressed with the goby at first, but kinda fell in love after watching it sift through the sand and dart around a bit. Of course he's hiding under the rocks so I can't get a good picture of him. Dunno if I ever will lol.

 

[avocadoman]

Mounted my XR15s inside some pendant lamps, hanging by the power cord. The cord is secured in the bulb base, leaving some slack and no tension where it meets the body. Will be hanging them from a shelf above the tank, using an outlet I'll be installing up there. So no visible light cords.

 

[avocadoman]

Added a refugium. Instead of taking the sump out for a day+ and installing a baffle, or hacking a baffle into a running sump, I got this polycarbonate food bin from Amazon and drilled some holes in it!

I drilled a series of 5/16" inflow holes near the bottom facing the back of the sump, and a large outflow hole at the skimmer compartment outlet. Most of the sump flow seems to move through it. I put a pod hotel and pile of rock at the bottom.

Chaeto and pods are on their way. I also have a Lominie F20 18w gooseneck LED grow light coming which I hope will be good enough to grow the chaeto.

 

[PR_nano]

Following along, I’m starting the same tank.
I like your refugium implementation. It gives me some ideas to place the TBS rock and keep my sump clean/organized.

 

[avocadoman]

Finally got the outlet installed above the shelf, and some chaeto in the fuge.

 

[avocadoman]

Got the dosing sorted out and have been dosing soda ash to maintain alk for the past week or two. Today decided to go and get my first corals. I'm lucky enough to have a pretty incredible coral research/retail facility right here in town, and the researcher who owns it helped me pick out a couple of LPS frags to get started. Finished mounting them an hour or two ago. Shout out to Capital Corals Research & Restoration in Albany.

So here are the new residents: a green hammer coral, and what he called a "ring of fire" favites. I adjusted the lights to get me about 130-140 par at the mounting locations, which gives me room to increase the intensity a bit later if I want to, but also gives me 200-250 at the high spots so I can get some SPS in there if I want to.

They look so tiny in the tank, but I suppose it's just the beginning. Will spend another two months or so getting things more settled down before adding some more.

 

[kevgib67]

Wow, very nice! Following and can’t wait to see it full of life!

 

[avocadoman]

Things are going well! Just over 4 months in now.

Got a couple more green hammers and a new orange mushroom. Everything is growing well. Dosing All For Reef which seems to be keeping all and Ca well controlled. I fought with high phos and low nitrates for a bit . A few doses of nitrate fixed the nitrate problem, and now I'm dosing a little bit of Phosphat-E every few days to keep them around 0.1.

I got a few more Trochus snails and the green hair algae is basically gone. Found a spot of bubble algae a couple of times, but I think it's gone now. The diatoms are almost 100% gone.

Going to put a couple of zoas on the bottom right rock, then a few weeks after that get a royal Gramma. Might get a clown later this year too, we'll see. My diamond goby is kind of a big pain with how much he moves the sand around but it's fun to keep track of his little engineering projects. I feel bad for the poor snails and hermits as he moves them around.

During the week, I've got the auto feeder giving one round of TDS and then I'll give some frozen mysis, brine, or calanus in the evening. Everyone seems to like it. On the weekends they get frozen food 2-3 times a day. I give a little reef roids to the favites once a week, and a couple of mysis to the mushroom and hammers once a week also. Putting in about 10 mL of phyto every day. Have a chunk of chaeto in the fuge.

Speaking of the fuge, I siliconed in some black acrylic baffles because algae was growing EVERYWHERE down there without it. Now it's confined to the small chaeto compartment.

Very happy with how it's all coming together.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I'm glad to see your tank is going strong! I love the new coral additions!