Free fish = NEW BUILD 90 reef ready

[Angelajean]

When I was at House of Tropicals today, looking for a new tank because a FREE wrasse turned into the need for a new tank, the guy told me there is never any such thing as a free fish. LOL

No we were extremely blessed by OceanCrazy with a beautiful 6 line wrasse, sea cucumber, snails and more snails, coral, live rock, and a couple of shrimp. After bringing home all the stuff, which we knew before we left his house that we would need to go ahead and upgrade so today we did. We got a 90 gallon reef ready tank and tomorrow we will be setting it all up.

We have learned alot over the last few months and I think we will be learning alot more over the next few days. I'll let you know how it goes. We will have a 90 gallon DT with a 40 sump although not really 40 because I know you don't fill it all up.

Angie

 

[wontonflip]

Woohoo congrats! Pics!

 

[Angelajean]

Tomorrow when we start. The plan is to go to lunch for my son's birthday with friends and then come home and put the tank together after taking the other one down. They have to go in the same space. Can I do that?

 

[wontonflip]

Um, no? :shock:

 

[FishyReef]

Put all of your live stock into buckets, empty out the water, move the old tank, put the new tank in the same space, and then fill her back up!

 

[Angelajean]

Wait I did not state all that correctly. Lunch is first then we will come home and do what Fishy Reef said. Then I will take and post pictures.

 

[wontonflip]

No, it should be pics first, then everything else :mrgreen:

 

[Angelajean]

Okay Won Ton so here is picture of my cramped tank, plus keep in mind my buckets of live rock with pumps on it in the middle of my living room floor.

 

[Angelajean]

This new build is creating lots of new questions. Since we got the reef ready tank and we got a return pump, plumbing etc, can we for the time being just filter water thru our 40 gallon tank over live rock rubble and sand as well as put our chaeto below and then do a divided refugi in the next few weeks as we get a new protein skimmer, etc?

 

[Angelajean]

Build is coming along. 90 gallon is up with heaters, pumps, coral, inverts and fish moved over. We will finish the plumbing tomorrow to the sump. Looking for a new skimmer on craigslist or ebay.

 

[Ted]

Looking good, of course you can just run the sump as one big compartment if you want. even have the skimmer as a hob to that if that works for you. There isnt any method that you "have" to do. If I had the space my refugium would be separate from my sump but since I dont I have them combined.

 

[FishyReef]

My sump/refugium is combined too because its really too small to add baffles and would be virtually impossible to do now that its running (can't get mine out of the stand unless I take the whole thing apart). Last weekend I added some egg crate in to compartmentalize the chaeto and keep it out of the pumps - its working much better so far! Ted's right, there's no right way to do it, whatever works for you!

 

[Bifferwine]

You don't have to get the skimmer right away (I think that's what you were asking). It's fine if you wait a little bit to get it. As long as you are doing water changes, everything will be okay.

 

[Angelajean]

We have a small HOB Prism skimmer and are going to run the 40 gallon with live rock and a sand bed as well as our charro until we get a better skimmer that can be in the divided refuge.

What water change schedule do u recommend? Thanks for all the help.
Angie

 

[Bifferwine]

10% to 20% once a week or every two weeks is standard.

 

[Angelajean]

Here are some pictures of new tank. I am waiting for the power supply for our LED lighting to be finished.

Also waiting for our sump pump to come in since we so underestimated the size pump we needed.

 

[Ted]

Looking good. What size pump did you get and what one are you waiting for?

 

[Angelajean]

Got a Laguna 400 and it isn't doing well so I went on reef.org. It is a little too sluggish. I am waiting on a mag drive 7, 700 gph, which should net 538 gph after head loss.

 

[Angelajean]

My fish look so tiny.

 

[Ted]

My return pump on my 45 is rated 712 I figure with headloss I am pushing just under 600..It doesnt feel that I am over powering my system at all. I still have three korilas and a powerfilter pushing water. Two of the korillas are on a wave maker so they alternate. Any idea what the overflows are rated at?