Fishy's First Ever 90g Aquarium!!

FishyReef

Broke Reefer!
Finally starting my build thread, yay!! This is my very first time owning an aquarium and I am super excited! I've decided to put it at my office instead of my house, mostly because I need some color to liven up my little room in the basement of the hospital I work at, but also because then I can enjoy it all day long and I think its a little better place for it than my apartment :)

So far, my tank is in place (in my office), dry rocks are slowly being aquascaped, live rock is curing in a bucket at home, lights are on order, and I'm hoping to start moving 5g buckets of water to my office some time this week. It's gonna take a while to fill it, but if all goes well then I can start my cycle next week some time! Bring on the fun ;)

Here's some pics to get it started :)

Starting my first aquascaping attempt

FTS

My humble basement office

25lbs of Pukani dry rock


These rocks are huge!



The new pukani arch I made today (and am quite happy with!)





Inside the arch / cave






 
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Okay, here's the rest of the photos, now that I've got it figured out! ;)


A little overhang at the base of the arch that I am sure some critter will love!


My 45g Hexagonal tank that will likely be used as a hospital/qt tank, but may later turn into a seahorse tank


Branching coral I got from CL (currently in the 45g while I'm aquascaping the 90)




My very green rock, post-bleaching!


 
Oh yeah, definitely going to super epoxy the whole structure before anything goes in the tank! I already have nightmares of a rockslide, so that thing won't be going anywhere when I'm done with it!
 
Ugh, I want to kill my rocks right now! I had everything fitting just perfectly, then went to glue and epoxy them tonight, had to move them around to get to the bottom ones, and now I can't get my arch to fit together right again! Taking a break for now, and will pick it back up on Sunday. Used an entire stick and a half of epoxy putty plus a full bottle of glue (the glue was just for one rock). I'll have to make another home depot run before Sunday. Hoping to finish the 'scape on Sunday so I can start adding water, wish me luck! I'll post new pics when I'm done. In other news, my AI Sol lights came - yay! Can't wait to set them up and get this thing rockin' :D
 
this is really neat - i'm subscribed!

how will you do water changes and where is the RO/DI going or are you gonna drag 5g buckets into the hospital office every time of purchased water?
 
Yep you will have to use LOTS of superglue lol and epoxy. That is a good question monki...now I'm curious about water changes also. Don't worry, you'll get the rocks just right.
 
Great question!! The RO/DI unit is at home and I'm making the water there and hauling it in. I've purchased 4 5g buckets with cool seal-able lids from home depot and plan to haul in 20g at a time, filling the tank after work. I figure it will take me a week to fill it, then I'm going to set up the sump and refugium below the stand, with a big 'ole ball-o-chaeto to hopefully minimize water changes over the long term. In the short term, 20g at a time will have to do! I bought the water changing kit that you can hook right up to the sink and creates a vacuum to suck out the water (tried this with my bucket of live rocks at home when I did the water change last week and it worked great!). Gotta get an extension for it, but with the extension I think I can hook it up to the kitchen sink that is down the hall from my office to get water out during water changes, and I'll be prepared to dump more water in from buckets. Fortunately I work in the research part of the hospital, so I can go in and do water changes on the weekends w/o causing a scene for anyone! It will definitely be an experience. I'm thinking I'll have to put a donation cup out for all the visitors I get LOL
 
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Tank is cycling, woohoo!! Updated pics coming soon :D (I got my arch rebuilt and stabilized and I absolutely love it, which is a very good things since my entire tank is now one solid piece of epoxied rock LOL)!
 
That's one thing that stinks about epoxy. You better like it bc its a pain to take apart and re-epoxy again. Cant wait to see more pics! Cycling is the worst if you're like me and impatient lol. I like to see colors and action.
 
First tank inhabitants arrived yesterday!! I thought they'd hide in the rocks, but they've been out happily exploring since I put them in, I seen tentacles out on the australamussa coral, and my 15 snails have been having a grand old time moving all over my rocks and glass! All seem happy and my levels remain decent. There's a bit of gunk floating around in the water column which I can't do much about since my sump and skimmer are on hold for right now, but as long as everyone seems happy and chemistry is good I'm not going to worry about it too much :) Here's some pics - enjoy!

Acclimating the new arrivals!



3 Black Axil Chromis (they really do look this blue/green!)












Exploring the cave





Plating Monti




Australamussa (still getting its color back after shipping)






Left Side of the Tank



Semi-FTS



Happy (albeit out of focus) Nassarius Snail!

 
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