First off, sorry for the book of a post. Lot of ideas that I wanted to get down…
I’ve been in the market for a 90 gallon for some time now. Lucky for me I put off buying one because I’ve been busy with school and work. Then while browsing through a local saltwater forum I found a used 90 gallon for sale. The price was so good I couldn’t pass it up.
The tank was mine for $40!!!!! :headbang2:
Holds water and everything. The only down side is that it has the oak trim but I can always paint that black.
Now the original plan was to upgrade my 55gal reef to the 90 but I’ll be moving out soon so the expenses of up keeping a large reef tank along with the upgrade in equipment didn’t seem so nice.
The plan as of right now is to turn the 90gal into a planted community tank.
I’m going to make a stacked slate background, with a sand “river” going through the middle possibly with a sand waterfall built into the background.
The slate background will hide the input and output of a diy 5gallon canister filter and also possibly some power heads for water movement.
The lighting will come from 4x 32w t8s: 2x6.5k 1xAGA8k and 1x actinic (I like the color of this combo). I will start with 1.42 wpg so I won’t have to prune all the time. If I’m not happy with this amount of light I can overdrive the bulbs to get around 2~2.5 wpg and I also have a CO2 cylinder and regulator which I can get a few other pieces of equipment and do the pressurized CO2 rout but would like to keep it as simple as possible.
Still deciding on the stock but I have a general idea of it’s composition, but suggestions are always welcome.
General:
2 different shoals of mid water tetras.
1 shoal of cories (possibly mix of two species)
Shrimp
A few centerpiece fishes.
One possible inexpensive stock list could be as follows
40x neon tetra
20x harlequin rasporas
12x false Julii cories
6x otos or 1x bushy nose pleco
cherry shrimp
2-6x angel fish (2x if/when a couple pairs off) or a pair of Bolivian rams
Another possible but more expensive stock list could be
20x cardnal tetra
20x rummy nose tetra
12x Corydoras sterbai
6xoto and/or 1-2xRoyal Farlowella Cat
crystal red shrimp
4-6x german blue and/or yellow rams or a pair of double red cockatoo Apisto
On thing is that shrimp will most likely end up on the dinner menu for some fish so I will have a dedicated shrimp 10gal under the tank for them to breed and I will periodically reintroduce more shrimp into the main tank.
Also since a lot of the fish I’m looking at prefer softer water and the water out of the tap here in Az is rock hard I’ll probably invest in an RO unit and do water changes with a combo of RO and tap.
If anyone has any suggestion, comments or constructive criticism don’t be shy!
I’ve been in the market for a 90 gallon for some time now. Lucky for me I put off buying one because I’ve been busy with school and work. Then while browsing through a local saltwater forum I found a used 90 gallon for sale. The price was so good I couldn’t pass it up.
The tank was mine for $40!!!!! :headbang2:
Holds water and everything. The only down side is that it has the oak trim but I can always paint that black.
Now the original plan was to upgrade my 55gal reef to the 90 but I’ll be moving out soon so the expenses of up keeping a large reef tank along with the upgrade in equipment didn’t seem so nice.
The plan as of right now is to turn the 90gal into a planted community tank.
I’m going to make a stacked slate background, with a sand “river” going through the middle possibly with a sand waterfall built into the background.
The slate background will hide the input and output of a diy 5gallon canister filter and also possibly some power heads for water movement.
The lighting will come from 4x 32w t8s: 2x6.5k 1xAGA8k and 1x actinic (I like the color of this combo). I will start with 1.42 wpg so I won’t have to prune all the time. If I’m not happy with this amount of light I can overdrive the bulbs to get around 2~2.5 wpg and I also have a CO2 cylinder and regulator which I can get a few other pieces of equipment and do the pressurized CO2 rout but would like to keep it as simple as possible.
Still deciding on the stock but I have a general idea of it’s composition, but suggestions are always welcome.
General:
2 different shoals of mid water tetras.
1 shoal of cories (possibly mix of two species)
Shrimp
A few centerpiece fishes.
One possible inexpensive stock list could be as follows
40x neon tetra
20x harlequin rasporas
12x false Julii cories
6x otos or 1x bushy nose pleco
cherry shrimp
2-6x angel fish (2x if/when a couple pairs off) or a pair of Bolivian rams
Another possible but more expensive stock list could be
20x cardnal tetra
20x rummy nose tetra
12x Corydoras sterbai
6xoto and/or 1-2xRoyal Farlowella Cat
crystal red shrimp
4-6x german blue and/or yellow rams or a pair of double red cockatoo Apisto
On thing is that shrimp will most likely end up on the dinner menu for some fish so I will have a dedicated shrimp 10gal under the tank for them to breed and I will periodically reintroduce more shrimp into the main tank.
Also since a lot of the fish I’m looking at prefer softer water and the water out of the tap here in Az is rock hard I’ll probably invest in an RO unit and do water changes with a combo of RO and tap.
If anyone has any suggestion, comments or constructive criticism don’t be shy!
