Going 90! Help me Plan!

[asonitez]

Well.. Its Official I'm moving into a 90Gallon Tank

I've been on the market for a while looking at different tanks and such. Finally a local guy here is offering me a 90 Gallon AGA Tank W/ Built in overflows Stand and Canopy for 400 bucks. I think Its a good deal but I don't know about such things as the most I ever spent on a tank was 200 bucks for my 54 Gallon Corner + Stand.

Here is my Existing System now.

View the Entire gallery here.

http://machinax.com/lucky/index.php?pat ... ember+2007


I have to plan this extremely well. I ahve 3 Tanks

29 Gallon Cichlid tank
10 Gallon Quarantine Tank
54 Gallon Corner Tank
25 Gallon Rubbermaid Container

54 Gallon Tank Inhabitants.

1 Small colony of Zoos
1 3 head colony of zoo's on a tiny piece of LR
1 Head of Hammer Coral
1 Small patch of Star polyp coral.

all these corals I got from LR for free or frags from my LFS for free with large orders of Dry Items

Fish

1 OC clown
1 Sailfin Scooter Blenny
1 Bullet Wrasse
1 Fairy Wrasse
1 6 Line Wrasse
1 Juvi 1.5inch Yellow Tang
1 Dragon Wrasse
6 Small Chromis


I will be turning a 29 Gallon AGA tank into a Sump w/ Refugium After Emptying it.


Phase #1 -

Pickup 90 Gallon Stand, Canopy, and Tank. Clean it up and install my Powerheads from Existing 54 Gallon Tank to get the Flow going in there. Fill it with RO/DI water and Test for leaks. I Will remove the SUMP System from my Existing tank and put it on the NEW tank while this is Transitioning.

Toss in the Salt and let that cycle over night with the heads running to mix the salt throughly.

Remove my Live Rock Shaking off my Critters into a bucket full of salt water and place them in Other Buckets.

Drain about 25 gallons of Salt Water from the 90 Gallon tank and add my Live Sand from the 54 Gallon Tank. I'll loose approx 1/2 inch of live sand depth I think. Right now my depth of live sand on the 54 Gallon is about 3.5/4 inches, and under that a Argonite Gravel Depth of less than half a inch. After I add My live Sand I will Place my Live Rock into the Tank and Assemble it. I will use a fish net and bucket to scoop up my live sand. While the sump is gone a CANISTER FILTER will help out with the flow issue inside of the 54 Gallon tank full of critters.

When all of the sand is out and settled into the new tank with the Flow going and the water/salinity evened out I will capture and transfer all of the critters. With the Critters in the 90 Gallon tank I will then Clean out the 54 Gallon Tank Setup the Canister Filter to Mimic that of the 29 Gallon Cichlid tank and Transfer the Cichlids into the 54 Gallon Tank Substrate and All. I Will use BIO-SPIRA to make the new tank get over the shock of transfer quickly.

I will then DRY and Make the 29 Gallon into a SUMP for the 90 Gallon Tank.




My Questions.

What can I use to CUT Acrylic.
Does anyone have a Link to making a 29 Gallon into a Sump?
Must have space for Bubble Reduction, Skimmer Insump or HOB of the Sump, Refugium IF at all possible.
Is Plumbing a 90 Gallon Tank Easy? I have never plumbed a Built In skimmer Box.

My Return Pump ATM is a RIO 1700 I was using Gravity and Continous Siphon to get water into an overflow box and down to my Sump. I think my Max GPH was 300 going into sump and the RIO 1700 pushed somewheres around 600gph back.

I think I probably need a better return pump.

This is the biggest tank evur. Any help is appreciated.

Lighting btw..

Since I have like... NO Corals... or the FUNDs to purchase a brand new MH system. I will work on Selling my existing MH system its not even 3 weeks old, and purchasing a 48" MH System. In the Mean Time I will use my MH System to Light it up Over one section to avoid that Melting the center brace issue. My Corals in the mean time will become residents of my 10 Gallon QT tank with a 96 watt 50/50 Acitinic over them.

What you guys think?

 

[Len]

Wow. That was an impressive write-up

To cut acrylic, you need an electric saw and a saw blade with side-set teeth. If the acrylic is thin enough, you can score (they sell acrylic scoring "knives") the acrylic and break the acrylic at the score line. This method is labor-intensive and sometimes not accurate (it might not break cleanly at the score). The most precise way to do it if you don't have the proper saw equipment is to ask someone who does to do it for you at a nominal cost. With the right gear, the cuts are very fast and accurate.

There are a lot of DIY sump plans. In actuality, it's really simple. You just need a series of baffles between one side (skimmer, overflow drain area) to the other side (return pump side). Baffles can be arranged in many ways. Here's some ideas:
http://ozreef.org/diy_plans/tank/sump.html
http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AS6X67cWVM
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=73074

The longer the distance water has to travel to get to the return pump, the less chance there will be microbubbles getting back into the tank. This means the more baffles, the better. You can alter the baffle placement any way you'd like in order to accommodate the skimmer and whatever else needs to go into the sump.

Plumbing a reef-ready tank is very very easy. It's not really any different then an external overflow box. Use a bulkhead in the overflow drain. Plumb the overflow to the drain area of your sump. I recommend putting a gate or ball valve in between so you can restrict the flow. Your return plumbing just needs to go from the return pump back into the tank. Gravity takes care of everything else. Just make sure to use proper gluing techniques or the right amount of teflon tape for threads.