High Tide Aquatics

My 90 gallon tank: video update! (with narration this time!)

Kmooresf said:
Looks good Brandie. New tanks are always so CLEAN!! ;)


Thanks Kris! Oh, but I am so ready for it to look dirty. I want to see all that bright purple in my 'fuge in the rest of the tank! Think with the lighting that will start to happen soon?

Also, any tips for lighting? Is running 2 m.h. bulbs too much light? Oh em gee, the shimmers, it's so awesome! But the damn thing lights up my little apartment like crazy. It's going to be an awesome night light ^.^
 
nice.....what happened to the PC bulbs? they were working when you were here. FYI - I only have tank lights to light up my condo now. No need for other lights in the living room :) yes 2 MH lights is not needed for fish only tank :) but you will like it when you start adding corals....so maybe run only 1 for now.
 
Apon said:
nice.....what happened to the PC bulbs? they were working when you were here. FYI - I only have tank lights to light up my condo now. No need for other lights in the living room :) yes 2 MH lights is not needed for fish only tank :) but you will like it when you start adding corals....so maybe run only 1 for now.


They were both working. LoL, but the spaces fell out of one and I didn't realize it, until it cracked when I grabbed to take it out of the socket when we started to work on the canopy, and the other one, I am not sure what happened. We plugged it back in, fully expecting it to turn on, and it didn't. Oh well, I guess if I have to buy bulbs, it's probably better to buy them at the same time. The m.hs work great! Can't wait to start adding coral into the tank! I know Denzil is really excited too. Here are a few pics:

The board that Denzil made for the 4 new fans. We are going to TAPs plastic to get a small plexiglass box made for it to protect it from the water.
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The "intake" end of the canopy. After some thought and research, Denzil went out and got 4, 140mm aerocool shark fans. Big fans, but he said because they are bigger, they will have to work less, therefore less noise. He's being super picky about noise. He absolutely hates the current set up because of the noise that the HOB skimmer makes. The extra semicircle cuts are from the previous holes that were there. We took out the two small fans and the smaller circular vents. We thought it would help make the bulbs last longer if we had fans pushing air in as well as pulling air out. We got pc case mesh, with the biggest holes to allow maximum air flow, to put on the ends of the canopy to cover up some of the cuts, and to hopefully keep the majority of dust out. As soon as we get that on, I will take more pictures.
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What the canopy looks like inside now, new paint, some clear to make wiping down easier, and cable management, because Denzil's picky like that. Not that I mind, it helps in the long run. =)
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Looks awesome. I really like the fan setup.

Get some type of barrier below that power supply though! Even a cut off plastic milk jug stapled in below it to prevent any splash or splatter will extend it's life (and possibly whatever's in the tank) significantly!

Mike
 
Kensington Reefer said:
Too clean!
Get some life in there!
:)


It's going to be another two months before there is life in there =O =( there is no way I want to have crypt in my tank after I have spent so much time and money on it. Going to go try to find the yellow and green gobies this weekend, along with 3 fire fish to start the QT process on my first group. Once I get these guys in, it's game on! Then I can get the wrasse, anthias and clowns and QT them!
 
Is there anything wrong with getting a few hardy corals to start in the tank? Add them before the fish? I would love to put something in there while I am QT'ing the fish, but I am not sure what the thoughts or feelings on that are....?

Hopefully getting the new additions this weekend. I would have had them sooner, but damn if I can't find them all at once! Ugh.
 
You could always start with mushrooms, kenya tree, a largeish leather, some type of euphyllia (hammer, frogspawn, torch) and a chunk or two of monitpora. I can provide some of these and I am sure others have lots laying around. It will be easy to get any of these at the September frag swap if you can wait that long.
 
gimmito said:
What kind of corals are you thinking of ?


LoL, hardy ones, maybe some mushrooms? I am not sure how to double quote in one post yet, but I know bondolo mentioned a few, but mushrooms are the only ones I am relatively familiar with. I was just hoping to get some life in there, so that the fish are more comfortable when they finally move in to the tank. Not sure if I am making sense, hope I am though.

*Edit* I like the hammer, mushrooms and kenya tree. I would love to do red and blue mushrooms
 
Make sure that what you get is something you really like, and wouldn't mind spreading. I had some mushrooms that came in on my liverock (bought from another reefer) they ended up spreading all over and I didn't care much for them. I think they are like the terminator, you can't stop them, I had a piece of live rock in my sump with no light for a few months, they were transparent but still alive and spreading on the rock lol.

I added some pumping xenia early on as well, but I had planned for it to take over the area I placed it, they have been good about not showing up in weird places.

I have a colt coral that is a nice shade of green, it grew nicely, but all of a sudden, I was noticing there were stalks showing up all over the place. I was trying to figure how it was happening. I figured out a little later. I see it puffing up a branch now and then, the branch drops off and floats around till it finds a place to settle. It's a self fragging coral lol.
 
Erick said:
I have a colt coral that is a nice shade of green, it grew nicely, but all of a sudden, I was noticing there were stalks showing up all over the place. I was trying to figure how it was happening. I figured out a little later. I see it puffing up a branch now and then, the branch drops off and floats around till it finds a place to settle. It's a self fragging coral lol.

This "obligatory self-fragging" is also true for kenya tree. I removed the mother colony from my main tank more than 6 months ago and I am still finding little trees popping up at random spots in the tank. It is worse than bryopis to eradicate.
 
gimmito said:
Atleast Brandie didn't say she liked green star polyps...that would have been a tri-fecta !


That looks really nice too although that looks like grass, and I am going to assume it's going to act like grass; ie take over the whole tank. ;) LOL

I guess I should ask about lighting before I jump into corals. So, I think the m.h. bulbs will be sufficient for daylight, but do I need the blue "moon lighting" and the actinics? I plan on getting new actinic bulbs, just not until right before I add my first round of fish (i.e. ~September). I do plan on getting a Kessil for moonlighting, but, that's still a bit further on down the line. Based on my plans, will my lighting be sufficient? I planned on running the actinics as sunrise/sunset, m.hs as daylight, then the kessil blues as moon light. But again, these are all still a ways away.
 
Fish don't need actinics. Blue light favours corals, white/yellow light favours algae. (All benefit from both types of light, its only a question of which derives the most benefit). The rest is just aesthetics.
 
You have plenty of light with two MH for a 90 gal. If you use Radium 20k, you won't even need atinics IMHO. Kessils will be overkill for moonlights, save some money and use some led strips (eg. Ecoxotics) for moon lights.
 
gimmito said:
You have plenty of light with two MH for a 90 gal. If you use Radium 20k, you won't even need atinics IMHO. Kessils will be overkill for moonlights, save some money and use some led strips (eg. Ecoxotics) for moon lights.


So instead of getting two CF actinic bulbs, just get one Radium 20k?

And Bondolo, what do you mean by "good for?" Good as in health, or blue is better as apposed to yellow? Hope I asked that right, LoL. I know what I mean, but sometimes it's hard to convey just through words on a screen.

And thank you for the tip about the moonlighting. I really thought that it had some kind of function. Since it sounds like it doesn't, LED light strips, here I come! LoL =)

Hoping to get fish today!!!! =D Then I can set up the QT process!
 
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