Cali Kid Corals

Jorahx 90g

Hello friends!

So, I’ve been a bit busy recently but finally getting a few minutes to start my tank journal. I’ll start off with my past few months of chaos.

Two months ago I got engaged to my girl friend. One month ago we bought a house in Fairfield. (Sorry Bay Area I cant afford you) but none the less I still love the BAR club :). Over the past couple months I have been collecting equipment for my dream bigger tank. My goal was to get some of the bigger fish that I could not justify putting into my nuvo 20. After many months of searching products, and sell threads, and lots of help from BAR members on equipment, set ups, fish, coral, and rodi system (ugh) I finally have everything set up.

When we first got the house it had no over head lighting and terrible color paint inside. So we had to get all the dusty, chemical stuff finished before bringing over my reef tank.

Had a painter friend paint the insides while we were at work all week. Removed all the popcorn ceiling. And now it looks really good! I installed 30 recessed led lights. 4 in every room, 4 in hall way, and 6 in living room with the front two over the fire place on a dimmer.

Finally I could move over the nuvo 20. It was terrible. I never want to break down and build a tank with in one day. But none the less. I did it. And only lost a couple sps frags.

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While installing lights I decided I wanted to put my future fish tank room on its own breaker so I would not have to worry about anything else in the house tripping it. So I updated all the electrical wiring, outlets, switches, breakers and was ready to start bringing in the tank.

It is a 90g with stand and 40g breeder as sump. Found it off forums for reasonably cheap, down side is it was filthy. He cut the price so he didn’t have to clean it. Well I got the tank about three months ago and have had it sitting out side ever since. Killing off the wall of worms. The smell they came off was enough to make me hurl. I got rock off Craigslist. Really cheap and full of nuisance algae / pest but that’s nothing a tub of bleach can’t handle. So while I was working on my house I had the rocks and tank getting cleaned and prepared.

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Ran into a few hiccups while starting to fill the tank.

First, I decided to mix the salt into the water as the rodi was filling the tank. Quickly learned that if I turn off my rodi while the hose is still in the tank. It can siphon back the salt water into the cartridges and ruin them. Aquatic life has one of the best customer services I’ve ever talked to. After discussing my set up and my issue he helped me to the decision that I ended up siphoning salt water back in. And he mailed me new media for the cartridge for free. My mistake and he still replaces it. Great guy. Thank you.

Oh, also I flooded my garage three times due to forgetting my rodi was on filling a 5g jug. But we keep the garage clean and nothing was damaged.

Second, don’t trust people off Craigslist. Found a guy selling an older mp40 so I went to his house and had him show me it works. Cool brought it home threw it into my freshly filled tank. Ugh the wet side doesn’t stay attached. It spins in place for about 30 seconds before it finally is flung across the fish tank. Well I contacted ecotech marine and he simply said I need a new wet side. $75. Thanks Craigslist guy for selling me a broken mp40.


Finally got the sand and rock in, now to figure out the stupid durso over flow. This thing is beyond loud. After many videos and guides online. After talking to lots of reefers, I could not get it figured it. Many people suggest I just add another pvc and change to Herbie. Well I became a frequent flyer at the best by ace hardware. Got it set up and looks pretty ugly but it is dead silent. Not a single regret. I love how quiet it is!

Ended up deciding to go with a hanging kit for the 2x radion lights. But I didn’t want them to be on two separate hanging kits and didn’t want to spend the wild amount for the RMS rails or mounts. I finally decided on a little bit of DIY with the lights hanging off arms about a foot from the ceiling. I love the look and it lets me move the lights when I need to get into the tank.

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Knowing I want to get larger and beautiful fish. I have decided on most wrasse tank. It’s not an uncommon idea. Everybody has lots of wrasse because they are the most beautiful and active fish! But some of the fish I want are not reef safe. So while building my fish list and planning out the live stock I have decided on a no CUC tank. It will require more manual maintenance and proper selection of fish. We shall see how it turns out.

Dream Fish List-
Diamond watchman goby
Algae blenny
Magnificent foxface
Black leopard wrasse
Melanarus wrasse
Pinkface wrasse
Yellow coris wrasse
Rainbow wrasse
Lyretail wrasse

Equipment List -
2x xr30 radion g3 pro
M1 return pump
Bubble magus curve 5
2x max spec 150 gyre
Hydor smart ATO
Neotherm 300w heater
Rodi buddy stage 4 + KDF

Well. Thanks for reading, I’ll try to get more photos when ever I add or modify stuff. Happy feeding.



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Thanks for sharing!

I’m sure you know, but you’ll need a good tank cover with those wrasse.

Also that looks like a really deep sand bed to have without a CUC, it will be difficult to keep clean.
 
Thanks for sharing!

I’m sure you know, but you’ll need a good tank cover with those wrasse.

Also that looks like a really deep sand bed to have without a CUC, it will be difficult to keep clean.

Yep! Build a screen for both sides. Was a pain to cut out section for the return. But did it :)

And the sand bed is about two inches. In the photo I don’t think I spread it out yet. But when I filled in all the holes behind the rocks it leveled it out.

Thanks for viewing. It’s an exciting process to build a big tank.


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I would reconsider the no cuc since your fish selection does not preclude you from having them. Some of the best looking wrasses are fairies and flashers which are cuc safe. There are some others that aren't which are beautiful looking and are aggressive, meaning that you wouldn't want them among the community of other wrasses.
 
Wow, one day to switch/upgrade tanks? I just spent the last four days doing the same thing and I’m STILL not done lol. Props to you my friend.. you are probably infinitely better prepared and organized than I was.

Also, good to know that I’m not the only one who gave up trying to scrape off coralline off the overflow. I hope this decision doesn’t bite us in the butt later on. [emoji1360]


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I would reconsider the no cuc since your fish selection does not preclude you from having them. Some of the best looking wrasses are fairies and flashers which are cuc safe. There are some others that aren't which are beautiful looking and are aggressive, meaning that you wouldn't want them among the community of other wrasses.

The big wrasse I want to get are not reef safe. Eat inverts not coral. And they can be aggressive. So plan to introduce the big ones last. Not really a fan of the fairy wrasse personally.


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Wow, one day to switch/upgrade tanks? I just spent the last four days doing the same thing and I’m STILL not done lol. Props to you my friend.. you are probably infinitely better prepared and organized than I was.

Also, good to know that I’m not the only one who gave up trying to scrape off coralline off the overflow. I hope this decision doesn’t bite us in the butt later on. [emoji1360]


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When I first got the tank it was covered in the worms on the over flow. I put on a mask and a scraper and went to town on them. Hiding off and scraping. After awhile I figured it was good enough. I tried to pile rocks to make caves/ holes and also covers the over flow.




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The non-reef safe ones are also some of the more aggressive fish as well, so take that into consideration. They'll be going at each other and other fish instead of the cuc, regardless of when you add them.
 
The non-reef safe ones are also some of the more aggressive fish as well, so take that into consideration. They'll be going at each other and other fish instead of the cuc, regardless of when you add them.

Yep. That is true.


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FYI the issue with the wetside might be a bit of a simpler fix. If it's flinging off the wall means there is some friction involved, see if it spins freely without being in the aquarium, if it doesn't check to see if the plastic post didn't pull through the wetside in which case that would explain why. That said I know Ecotech loves to just tell you the solution is to buy a new one if it's not something that is within their warranty period (or you mentioned you bought it used)
 
FYI the issue with the wetside might be a bit of a simpler fix. If it's flinging off the wall means there is some friction involved, see if it spins freely without being in the aquarium, if it doesn't check to see if the plastic post didn't pull through the wetside in which case that would explain why. That said I know Ecotech loves to just tell you the solution is to buy a new one if it's not something that is within their warranty period (or you mentioned you bought it used)

He asked for receipt but I simply said it is an older model and don’t have the receipt anymore.

I still have the mp40. Don’t know what to do with it. If I try to resell I won’t lie to the buyer I’d inform them there is an issue and show them and take the $ loss compared to what I bought it for. Maybe I’ll check out the stuff you mentioned. See if I can pinpoint down the issue.


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The wetside falling off has always been an issue with the Ecotech pumps. What you want to do is switch it to constant mode (green setting) and crank it all the way up to 100%. Hold the wet side against the dry side as you power it up.
 
Wow, one day to switch/upgrade tanks? I just spent the last four days doing the same thing and I’m STILL not done lol. Props to you my friend.. you are probably infinitely better prepared and organized than I was.

Also, good to know that I’m not the only one who gave up trying to scrape off coralline off the overflow. I hope this decision doesn’t bite us in the butt later on. [emoji1360]


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Vinegar was my best friend for cleaning coralline off the walls and overflow when I cleaned a tank I bought used
 
The wetside falling off has always been an issue with the Ecotech pumps. What you want to do is switch it to constant mode (green setting) and crank it all the way up to 100%. Hold the wet side against the dry side as you power it up.

Also make sure you are using the right spacer for the thickness of your tank glass on the dry side, if you're using too thick of spacer, might be causing it to fling off.
 
Vinegar was my best friend for cleaning coralline off the walls and overflow when I cleaned a tank I bought used
I used vinegar as well, worked wonders with all the stuff on the glass. The coralline on the plastic overflow was something else though. I must’ve sprayed vinegar on those things at least 10 times and they stayed hard as cement.


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Hi friends!

After searching and searching finally got a harlequin tusk juvenile. And seems all the fish are getting along good!

Current fish list is-
HT
Black leopard wrasse
Five stripe wrasse
Magnificent foxface
Melanurus wrasse
3 chromis

When I first got the HT I put it into an acclimate box so no aggression would come from the bigger wrasses. I noticed the flow would open up the lid about a 1/4 - 1/2 inch so I placed some frag plugs on it to keep it closed. Fish seemed to be doing good and eating but when I got home from my Yosemite trip the HT was no longer in the box.
Some how the frag plugs were moved off the box and the water lifted the lid again. And the fishie was freed into the display. I feel it was a joint effort from the other fish to free him. But In the end they are all getting along and eating wonderfully.

The black leopard wrasse I have had for a few months and was tiny when I first got him. Had him in the nuvo 20 and he is active and fun. When I first got the 90 set up he hidin the sand for about two weeks. In the end he is back out swimming around and super happy to be with his fish friends. The HT and the leopard are about the same size now. Just under 3”.

Some updated photos.

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Pay attention to your Tusk as it gets older. Needs a larger tank and will become aggressive. Had mine in a 180 and had to get rid of him
 
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