I got a great deal on a 90 gal setup that was a reef! The previous owner went to a 90 bow. The tank has been neglected so I am going to do an extreme makeover and turn it into my dream reef.
The fish/stars in it:
Adult Engineer Goby (8" long)
8" Black Brittle
16" Green Brittle (yeah, it's a monster)
This is a pic at the sellers house. It took us about 2.5 hours to tear it down & pack it up.
The Goby & Stars went to the LFS. They are too big & destructive for the reef I want to create. In a couple of months, I will move my Coral Beauty, Hippo Tang, Lawnmower, Purple Reef Lobster along with misc corals, BTA, Tube anemone to the 90. I'll trade the Tomato Clown & get a "pair" of clowns. This is a pic of my 30 gallon that 10 months old:
The LR is beautiful, big pieces. The Goby had most of it buried. Since I love LR, will probably buy another 20lbs, plus the 50lbs from my 30g. Unfortunately the new tank LR is infested with Aiptasia. So, this will have to be addressed before I put anything in the tank. My LFS told me to get a Copperband or Remora, let it eat all the AIP & trade it back. Joe's Juice will help while I get the tank set up again & its cycling, but won't be effective because there is so much. A lot of the AIP is too big for Peppermints, who in turn would be eaten by the Lobster.
After work today, I cleaned the tank so the back can be painted black tomorrow. Will give the paint a couple of days to dry before we move it in the house.
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
Once I got the tank home the first thing was to clean it. There was Aip everywhere. (sump, refugium, overflow, plumbing.) I spray painted the back using Kylon Semi-Flat Black. Then, I had to spend an agnozing 2 days looking at it in the garage, with no one around to help me bring in it. Put about half the LR in, this has been in a tub & will have some die-off. The rest is in another tub that I have heat/light/air on, due to mustrooms & a Hawaiian Feather Duster. Once the tank clears & make sure everything is working properly, I'll do the rock-scaping.
It took a couple hours + to get all the equipment going. No instruction manual for the skimmer, but a bit of search found it on the net so I could understand how it works. It's got good flow, can tell from how quickly the tank is clearing! I added about 30 lbs new LS in the main tank, 10lbs in the refugium. One of the cool things about this stand is that is has cupboards at each end. One side houses electrical, and the other for chemicals (locked.) By the time I wake up, the tank should be all clear!
This is a "water-logged" poster tonight! All the LR is in the tank (yeah, hated putting the feather duster in, its attached to the rock, which is huge & a keystone in the current design, my LFS is moving the store so couldn't trade it.)
Now, the waiting on the cycle. Think this should go pretty quickly. I kept all the original LS & LR on air/heat/light. There's a ton of blue & green hairy mushroom babies on all the LR, and it's covered with tiny red feather dusters. Lots of pods crawling around the LR & saw a couple bristle worms today.
There will be another 50lbs of LR going in when I move the 30 into the 90. My Coral Beauty and Hippo Tang are both very interested in the "sea" next door. Both are swimming out-of-habit & hanging close to the end near the 90.
Oh, and that's my pal "Sam" in the 3rd pic. He's a mix of several possibilities: Leonberger, Caucasian Mountain Dog, German Shepherd, NewFoundland. He was a rescue headed for a Washington Sanctuary to live out his life. He had a "24hr lay-over" at my house. Took all of 2 minutes before calling WA, this dog's journey was at it's end.
Teehee, yeah I moved the rock around. On the 6th, I only dumped in the LR that didn't have any mushrooms on it. Once the tank cleared I spread it all out and spent that day and the next two killing all the Aip while I still had the opportunity to turn the LR over to find all those little buggers! Love Joe's Juice!
On Saturday, the 3 biggest pieces of LR went in, they were not in the pic on the 6th.
In about 6 weeks, we'll have another new look after I add the 50+ lbs from my 30.
Just like the ocean, my reef will go through several rock formations before I am satisfied. Every time I look at the tank, I think hmmm, that piece should go there and that one here! LOL!
Coming home from work yesterday was exciting! My anemone split (30g) and my 90g had brown stuff all over it! Yay, Diatom bloom! After that runs its course, the tank should be cycled. I'll let the glass go on my 30g now so I can get a good growth of the brown & green algaes, then seed the 90 with this and coraline (pink, red.) The brown/green is for my LMB. I have 2 qt bags of chaeto coming for the refuge & will also order a bottle of live pods for the main tank.
Anemones
Frogspawn
Toadstool (this one is splitting)
My "unknown" coral
So far the Feather Duster is looking good & not showing signs of distress & the mushrooms are doing okay too. Maybe, they survive this cycle!
icon under their name to add to their reputation. 
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Hmmmmm 
V-series Productions 
& your set!
