Reef nutrition

Cruz Mc5’s family reef tank

Call me old school, but a good old rock wall that’s done properly can give you lots of real estate and look good. Plus most reef I’ve ever dove or snorkeled at have large structures like the typical rock wall looks like.

You just gotta get creative to make overhangs and caves for fish to hide in but also keep flow going through them. It’s very time consuming.
 
Flow can be tough with a rock wall. I'm not a fan if it leans against the back or side walls. Free standing with room behind Is cool with me tho.
 
Agreed. I like mine leaning on the glass a bit because it’s a lot more secure. But I get why people don’t like that.

I also have 3 mp10’s and a grye in my Reefer 250. That’s mainly to get flow through the whole rock wall
 
Agreed. I like mine leaning on the glass a bit because it’s a lot more secure. But I get why people don’t like that.

I also have 3 mp10’s and a grye in my Reefer 250. That’s mainly to get flow through the whole rock wall
I recommend emarco or nyos cement to make rock structures stable.
 
Find that aquascaping is like a steak, everyone has a way they like and most think that you're doing a disservice if you do it any other way. So do what you think you'll like.

That said some things I like

-I actually like more negative space than filled space, having separate structures can give fish the feeling that they have a "region" which is their's to hang out around, negative space doesn't always have to be lack of any rock structures, having lots of caves or arches does a similar thing. I understand smaller tanks do have more restrictions (one reason I don't like smaller tanks :D)
-Depending upon the corals you plan on having you may not want to go too high, if you have sticks take into account how high you want them to grow it may take years and years but it might be nicer than having a minicolony that gets no bigger due to pruning, if you have encrusting or plating corals in mind this is less of an issue. So having a tall pillar could be fine if you plan on only having monti caps on them or something, where as your acropora hangout you want to make sure you allow room to grow vertically which is really hard to do when setting up a tank because that takes time
-I also like to make sure I can get a hand with a scrubby pad between the glass and the rocks without touching ideally being no where close to touching, cleaning the tank is essentially and I have experienced with getting punctured by stuff on rockwork, it ain't fun.
-Also while I like the idea of using products to secure rocks, emarco stuff, etc, (and in some cases it's absolutely necessary if you're doing gravity defying maneuvers) having stacked rocks give you the option to pull a single rock out if you find things are getting out of hand, whether it's coral height, pests, etc. Mind you you have to be more careful about stacking securely in this way.
 
Nice tips @sfsuphysics. Thanks! My plan is to secure some of the rocks together, but not the entire structures to allow for easier removal. And at least for me (not sure about my wife, she’s been doing the bulk of the aquascaping and coral research), it’s really hard to envision it filled in with coral.
 
Am I going WAY overboard getting a 125 gallon ro/di and 125 gallon salt water mixing tank? It seems like my options are essentially 55 gallons or 125 gallons. Our system should be about 150 gallons between the sump and display tank.
I think two 125g storage tanks for a mixing station is way too big for a 90g tank. If you get one or two 32g brutes with caster wheels it will make your life much easier for cleaning and flexibility in my opinion. You can mix 25g without getting too close to the top, which should be more than you will ever be water-changing at one time.
 
I think two 125g storage tanks for a mixing station is way too big for a 90g tank. If you get one or two 32g brutes with caster wheels it will make your life much easier for cleaning and flexibility in my opinion. You can mix 25g without getting too close to the top, which should be more than you will ever be water-changing at one time.

Agreed 100%
 
I think two 125g storage tanks for a mixing station is way too big for a 90g tank. If you get one or two 32g brutes with caster wheels it will make your life much easier for cleaning and flexibility in my opinion. You can mix 25g without getting too close to the top, which should be more than you will ever be water-changing at one time.
Yeah. That’s what I ended up deciding too. I found 2 65 gallon water storage tanks that I ended up getting. Still probably more than I need, not super excessive. It will all be plumbed in, but I’ll have multiple unions so I should be able to pull them out and clean them as needed. For transferring water, I got an external pump that can be used to transfer ro/di water to the mixing tank, can circulate the mixing tank, and will pump the new salt water over to the sump. I’m also going to include a spigot so I can fill up a bucket from either tank as well.

The hope is that mixing/doing water changes will be relatively easy, and that I’ll have enough water on hand to do close to a 50% water change of needed. Between the sump and DT, I’ll have about 150 gallons of water, so I’ll be close enough and can get creative if I end up needing to do a big water change. Who knows, I’ll probably regret not just using brute garbage cans, but my wife wasn’t a huge fan of using them.

Edit: The main goal is easy water changes after going through about a month of daily water changes in our freshwater cichlid tank.
 
I really hate return lines. Like, seriously despise them. My tank has 3 holes drilled into the overflow box for return lines, and it is a serious pain to get them plumbed in. My latest idea is to use braided lines with barb fittings. And barbed fittings are absolutely horrible to put together.

That’s all. Just venting about return lines. And my deep hatred for them right now.
 
Should’ve been more specific. I have 4 holes in the bottom of the overflow box (3 drain, 1 return). On the side of the overflow box there are 3 7/8’s inch holes where the return lines are supposed to go through (just below the teeth of the box). My overflow is an internal overflow that drains through the bottom of the tank.

I would do regular pvc, but I don’t have the room. I have pvc through the bulkhead, then a threaded reducer to 1/2 inch, and now I need to run the line into the tank. That’s the part that sucks.
 
I’m probably just not explaining it right. Here are some pictures.

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