MD’s 90 Gallon Shallow Reef

[Reefer Madness]

I ordered a 15 Gallon ATO Reservoir from Innovative Marine because while the 5 gallon jugs works and is cost effective, it will need to be replaced a lot more often on a 120 gallon system. Unfortunately, the package got delivered yesterday and I barely got the chance to open it up today and it’s broken Hopefully IM isn’t a headache to work with about this stuff

Samn i wish I would have know you were ordering this i would have advised against it.

 

[MarcosD]

Samn i wish I would have know you were ordering this i would have advised against it.

Did you have this issue before?

 

[Reefer Madness]

Did you have this issue before?

I have a 15g ato from them and will take some pictures tomorrow or maybe tonight when I get home from work. It would be explained eas with pictures.

 

[MarcosD]

I opened the reservoir out of the bag as directed by IM to take better pictures. After inspecting, it’s just the drawer that broke. Everything else looks ok. They’ll be sending me out a replacement drawer. Technically it’s still functional as is but it would bother me looking at it

 

[MarcosD]

Santa was a little late this year

 

[MarcosD]

Picked up my custom rockscape from Michael at Reef Rock Oasis today… WOW. He killed it. Super good guy and very easy to work with. The black board underneath is the footprint of my tank so it should fit perfect leaving me a few inches around for maintenance.

 

[ReyDeFarts]

Picked up my custom rockscape from Michael at Reef Rock Oasis today… WOW. He killed it. Super good guy and very easy to work with. The black board underneath is the footprint of my tank so it should fit perfect leaving me a few inches around for maintenance.

That's awesome! Great design and vision.

 

[Alexander1312]

Picked up my custom rockscape from Michael at Reef Rock Oasis today… WOW. He killed it. Super good guy and very easy to work with. The black board underneath is the footprint of my tank so it should fit perfect leaving me a few inches around for maintenance.

I am counting easily 40 slots for corals; which makes it very convenient to add them. What was your thought again about adding some live rock to the dry rock?

 

[MarcosD]

I am counting easily 40 slots for corals; which makes it very convenient to add them. What was your thought again about adding some live rock to the dry rock?

My plan is to stuff the sump with live rock. I’ll also strategically place some pieces in the display to try to create more hiding places for fish

 

[ReeferRey]

That rock scape looks amazing, I’m excited for you brotha

 

[PizzaOven]

Picked up my custom rockscape from Michael at Reef Rock Oasis today… WOW. He killed it. Super good guy and very easy to work with. The black board underneath is the footprint of my tank so it should fit perfect leaving me a few inches around for maintenance.

Looks amazing!! Lots of open space to push flow through.

 

[MarcosD]

Finally filled it up and leak tested the plumbing and no leaks!! Now to drain it and put the rock scapes and sand in. Bad idea if I fill the tank up with RODI and just mix the salt in there since they’ll be no live stock? I only have one 32 gallon brute free so I’d have to mix 4 different batches in order to fill it up otherwise…

 

[Darkxerox]

Totally fine to mix in tank. I'd just bypass the filter roller so you don't waste any of it.

 

[MarcosD]

Totally fine to mix in tank. I'd just bypass the filter roller so you don't waste any of it.

Oh yeah I’ll definitely remove that beforehand. Those replacements are pricey!

 

[PizzaOven]

Congrats on getting the tank wet!! Your sump/plumbing looks clean. I want to replace my Red Sea valve with a gate valve like you have.

What are you planning for the empty chamber after the skimmer? Where are you planning to put your heaters?

 

[MichaelB]

Finally filled it up and leak tested the plumbing and no leaks!! Now to drain it and put the rock scapes and sand in. Bad idea if I fill the tank up with RODI and just mix the salt in there since they’ll be no live stock? I only have one 32 gallon brute free so I’d have to mix 4 different batches in order to fill it up otherwise…

Easier to mix it in the tank while it doesn’t corals or livestock. Nothing you would do once things are living in the tank.

 

[MarcosD]

Congrats on getting the tank wet!! Your sump/plumbing looks clean. I want to replace my Red Sea valve with a gate valve like you have.

What are you planning for the empty chamber after the skimmer? Where are you planning to put your heaters?

The heaters will go into that empty chamber along with some live rock, I’ll be using dual IM helio 200W heaters because the elements are only like 7” so they should fit good. The last time I used this sump I had Eheim Jager heaters and they were super long so I had to put them diagonally in that same chamber. Now it should fit mounted to the sumps rear acrylic panel

 

[ReyDeFarts]

Sump looks clean and fresh! Love it.

 

[MarcosD]

I’ve been playing around with the 4 structures and I think this is my final placement. Leaves me a perimeter around scale to clean panels. Some space in the back to fill in with live rock. Space in the front to put some sand corals. Definitely want a Zoa rock on the front right side of the tank. If there’s anything I could change about this scape is I would’ve made the tree structure on the right a couple inches shorter. It’s too close to the RFG nozzle and probably going to get some pretty high PAR there. Maybe I’ll end up starting some SPS and placing it there.

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

Looking good! Rockscape has lots of flat surfaces for coral placement. Are you going BB or sand?