New 90 gallon tank start up, WeLcOmE me please.

red^gun

red^gun

Member
Hello,
I New to this forum, so I hope I will receive a very warm welcome from all of u

I just bought a 90 gallon see-through "Partition type" tank (as first pice of furniture).
I finished the leak test, and I will start the cycle soon.
It is my first time to have saltwater fish, so I need you kind advice:
1. For this size of tank, do I really need a Skimmer? if I do, then I have to make some holes in the tank and some modifications to fix the sump. ( the tank has built in overhead filter & bio balls).
2.OR; The external filter along with the overhead filtration are enough?
3. What is the suitable size of the sump for my 90 gallon tank?
4. Any other concerns I should put in mind to start the saltwater aquarium?
Thanks in advance, looking forward to your sweet replies.
 
pepito113

pepito113

Member
I wasnt a big believer of a protein skimmer until I saw what is was removing. It was brown and it was smelly. I would Highly recommend one...If you dont want to drill the tank They sell hang on over flow kits. Like they sound they hang off the back and move water to your sump. It maybe be harder for your tank since it really doesnt have a back and will be visible. If you dont use a sump filter then I would use a canister filter. But you need to check what you can do and afford with your tank.
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
First of all, I like the room you have it in!!
1. I believe in protein skimmers so I will say that you need one.
2. Are you saying that you want a sump and need to drill holes? I don't like bio-balls so I would toss them because they can collect junk and release nitrates in later. If the tank isn't pre-drilled, I would go another route like using canister filters or some sort HOB fuge.
3. I forget the size I have ... I will have to look it up. It's pretty bit though.
4. Be patient!!
 
red^gun

red^gun

Member
Thanks for your replies first of all,
pepito113: I reviewed the overflow boxes and how they work, but I really don’t feel safe using them, I feel that it will stop working suddenly, or it will overflow my sump in case of electricity outage, moreover, I need to keep a quite a big gab at the back of the tank.
mrdc: I’m already planning to have canister filters, but I really want to use the sump/skimmer as an extra filtration, but still don’t know how to drill the tank, and how big the sump should be.
BTW, what is the HOB fuge?
Thank you guys
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
HOB = "Hang on Back" but it wouldn't probably work on your tank since yours is more of a center piece tank visible on both sides. You can still put a fuge under the tank and into your sump. A fuge is a refugium. It's basically the natural way of keeping your ammonia, trites, trates, excess nutrients, in check. It bascially consists of some sand and macro algae and light. The algae sucks out the junk and grows from it and the light. You have to to cut out some of the algae when it gets too big. Even though I don't have one, I do believe refugiums to be the best way to filter a tank.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

WELCOME to the site!!!! ….LOL. It all depends on the time of day.
I have a 90g reef. I use two canister filters, no drilling and no noise…I clean one canister once each month alternating so my good bacteria stays intact.
HOB means Hang On the Back..a (fuge) refugium is also a quiet place for little critters like copepods to grow and breed undisturbed, the same water flows from your tank to the refugium and back again, these the fish feed on when they venture out of the refugium into the main tank. Very nice to have, it is on my wish list but not a MUST have to keep a tank.
As for anything else you need to know to start…You need a really good Saltwater aquarium book, I don’t care how much you think you know…we always can learn more. There is a section at the top of the new Hobbyist threads called 101 things to start up a saltwater tank. VERY helpful indeed!
Next.. I always used a skimmer. They pull yucky stuff out that you can’t even test for.
Very important…Marine Test Kits.
 
speg

speg

Active Member
wow.. for being new to the forum you sure do know your way around better than I do... I didn't even know you could change the color of the text :p
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by Speg
http:///forum/post/3268221
wow.. for being new to the forum you sure do know your way around better than I do... I didn't even know you could change the color of the text :p

Speg ...go to Go Advanced you can change size and colors...I have more posts than you..LOL..I'm not new.
 
red^gun

red^gun

Member
Thanks mrdc for your helpful explanation and tips.
So, normally the fuge is part of the sump right? so both of us should think to upgrade our tanks to have fuge system. how big is your tank anyway.
Flower; THANK YOU FOR UR WORM WELCOME, I have seen your 90 gallon tank in your profile pics and it is AMAZING, I hope that I will be at least 50% close to you.
about the books, I already have about 10 books, but believe me, I found the information on this forum is more valuable than the books.
Speg; LOOOL, so I'm the expert after all
 
speg

speg

Active Member
Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/3268223

Speg ...go to Go Advanced you can change size and colors...I have more posts than you..LOL..I'm not new.
I was talking about the post starter... he used colors too...
I'm not a colorful guy so I guess I'll just avoid the knowledge you've provided ;) thanks though.
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
I have a 120g and I have thought about the fuge many times but still do not have one. I do have a sump and a canister filter.
I just had to add some color before Speg!!
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
I started with the sump and remora in early 2005. My tank crashed 4 years later for some reason and I went out of the hobby for about a year. I decided to try it one more time but with several changes. My rock work is more open, I added the fluval and canister filter and I added more waterflow (especially in the back part of the tank). I still need some more sand but I have just been lazy to add the bag that has been sitting at the house for 3 months! I also bought another RO/DI unit and plan to test my water more frequently than I did the first time around. Oh and I am also using a lot of poly-fill in my wet dry just for extra filtering. So far so good but the tank crash is still in the back of my mind.
 
red^gun

red^gun

Member
ohh,sorry for your old tank, but at least now u have much better tank and more experince.
you have posted any photos for your tank?
And what causd ur old tank to crash? (if you dont mind) so we can prevent that.
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
I only have pictures of my old setup. Not sure what happened and I tried a lot of remedies!!! I do think I had a lot of dead areas (no water flow) that didn't help but I don't think that was my only problem. I also had gotten complacent with doing no water changes and not checking my water parameters very often. The tank was doing great and I was just letting go on cruise control. I thought if anything started to look bad, I would then be viligent in trying to remedy any problems. Apparantely something did go wrong and I wasn't able to fix it.
My old tank ...
 
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