Eric's 90g AGA Build.

[Eric Noa]

Well Im back once again lol. In the past I've started a few builds and due to time and money I was unable to finish and ended up selling everything but here I am again and I think this time around I'll get this done.

My first tank was a 65g that I purchased from a local club member from where I live and I had that for a year till the power went off and I was out of town and when I came back everything was dead so I was so disappointed that I decided to sell the tank and equipment because I didn't feel like starting all over again. After that I got a good deal on a 220g tank but I soon realized I was way out of my league so I sold it. So now I decided to with with a standard 90g which I think is perfect for me (at least for now lol) I got on craigslist and started my search and I went to see a few semi complete setups but all the tanks well scratched and the glass was foggy so I didn't get any of them. Then I came across an ad for a 90g AGA driller with stand, canopy, sump and 48" 4 bulb T5 light retrofitted in the canopy. In the pictures the tank look to be really nice and well taken care off. The funny thing is that there was no price on the ad but on the title it said "FREE" I though to myself this has to be scam so I call the number and a really nice elderly lady answer the phone and I asked her a few questions about the tank and stuff then I asked her much she was asking because I didn't see a price listed on the ad and on the title it said "FREE" but I didn't think she was giving it away for free and she said she just wanted it out of her house because she had another tank, two cats and a dog and it was too much for her so I said yea I'll take it and I drove to naples which is where she lives. When I got there and inspected the tank I didn't find anything wrong with it other than it needed some cleaning specially along the edges where the silicone is but heck it was free it can't be perfect lol.

Well I ended up bring the tank home and now I have it filled with water testing for leaks which so far it has none like the lady told me.

Now I have thought about anything yet as far as equipment since Im going to take my time with this and build it right but I do have a few questions.

This tank is 7 years old and it has no leaks, would it be a good idea to redo all the silicone (never done this before) or should I just leave it alone since it has no leaks?


Now I'll probably start off buy building a new stand and canopy since these are 7 years old and I want a bigger sump area for a bigger sump and just to have room and I'll probably build by own sump out of a 40g breeder. I wont be using the T-5 lighting either since I want to go with LED's but who knows maybe I'll use both the T-5's and LED's not sure yet.

Any ideas, comments or concerns are welcome.

Now some pictures which we all like lol

Here is everything in the back of the girlfriend's dad's pickup (I couldn't fit all of that in my Nissan Altima Coupe lol)

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/4009C598-6741-48D4-AB4C-9BB9A66AD759-6197-000002CF7DB9DBC6.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/9FC8E51F-5BBF-4993-9C46-A70890429457-6197-000002CF7FFBD333.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/87A0F2A5-887A-49A3-AB69-B54B9C49DF77-6197-000002CF8218454D.jpg


Now in my garage waiting to be filled for leak testing. This stains in the back glass is just dry saltwater from when I laid it on its back in the pick up.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/98797C0A-694E-4324-8616-C99C8A5144A9-6197-000002CF84101159.jpg


Megaflow Model 3 Sump

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/6E0DB000-0F83-41EA-8245-5A54DC924E62-6197-000002CF87E6635C.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/BE7AE1FA-6330-40FB-9FCD-1328E9A4B21C-6197-000002CF8AAACF70.jpg

[james30ct]

Cant beat free. Whats all over the back glass? As far as resealing the tank, if you go that route I think your supposed to actually seperate the panes of glass fully and basically start from scratch.

[Eric Noa]

Cant beat free. Whats all over the back glass? As far as resealing the tank, if you go that route I think your supposed to actually seperate the panes of glass fully and basically start from scratch.

Thats just dried up saltwater from when I laid the tank on its back in the pick up to transport.

I think I will just leave the silicone alone since I've never done it before and the tank has no leaks.

[Reef or Die]

Wow. Nice score. Good luck with your new build

[Reeftanks6]

Subscribed best of luck witht he build!

[Eric Noa]

Well I managed to do the frame for the stand and canopy. Here are some pictures for those that like pictures lol. I didn't take very detailed pictures of the building process of the stand and canopy since almost everyone knows the basics on how to build one and there are millions of pictures out there showing how so enjoy.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/65679A01-4255-4508-8747-932879F1183F-7523-0000030684EE8565.jpg

All the the wood for the stand cut

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/66DAC222-C1D6-4973-B22F-D8B9A0DAE953-7523-00000306885741F7.jpg


Wood for canopy

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/5BFE4097-06A5-41CA-BD7F-A94706033062-7523-000003068C02C1CA.jpg


Drilled some holes to not crack the wood lol

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/566AC4B2-BB5C-4954-80FD-966897DB0536-7523-000003068E4139F0.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/26120071-478A-407B-B322-974D0720F742-7523-00000306936833EB.jpg

[Eric Noa]

More pics

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/6EBA7B42-55B2-4075-9F1A-F03C95D6B439-7523-000003069937FCFA.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/E5D7DF67-8F8B-4061-8933-262D4CEA18BE-7523-00000306A3570596.jpg


All done. Well the frame

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/68F18FEA-37EC-4DAE-91B5-AD2FDE0C1E88-7523-00000306A9EF36A0.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/0D455818-B7A3-4DCB-990B-B9E39FA87CD4-7523-00000306ACB8E667.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/469AB4E4-7763-4E9C-9730-9DE18F6525DA-7523-00000306B0DD7F7E.jpg


Canopy

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/395CD091-1364-435E-A332-3FA9CB24A502-7523-00000306B48696D4.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/537A973F-6E43-4587-91E1-05E76C5B4F18-7523-00000306B8BFD590.jpg


Making sure everything fits lol

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/D9BA9983-2306-4E23-8CD8-E40897624E22-7523-00000306BE819604.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/0CF7B31B-5BFC-421A-AC46-38C14C4CF33F-7523-00000306C262AB6E.jpg

That's it for today!

[GTboosted]

Looking good. The canopy is a bit big don't you think.

[Eric Noa]

Looking good. The canopy is a bit big don't you think.

It's 18" tall. I think it looks taller in the pictures than what it actually is.

[Eric Noa]

Another update. I just put the front panel of the canopy and cut the holes for the doors and painted the back glass of the tank.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/9EC606B6-244B-4A08-B3AF-1A11703D3AE1-228-0000000FC9C31287.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/3624AB7B-2857-4801-B97D-1D1A8F5775BE-228-0000000FCBC72423.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/68A80BC3-C7AB-4260-81F9-F990174A91A5-228-0000000FCDB7DEE6.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/9FB61299-918E-4A1C-8136-FFB3DAAEA125-228-0000000FD2189ADE.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/C08733FD-CB0C-442A-B50C-9417119CB53D-228-0000000FD40F363A.jpg


I left the portion of the glass where the overflow box is so that if I ever have to look back there for whatever reason I can see in there.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/2B04BE48-A094-43A9-AD8E-14E40D5C9FD4-228-0000000FD60199AD.jpg

[Eric Noa]

More pictures

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/C6784956-BDB7-450D-BAF0-E9A060EA80DE-480-00000025DC9991DB.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/7323A427-B85C-4503-AED0-021ECB19A7DA-480-00000025DE7BA2DE.jpg

Painting the inside of the canopy

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/43D7F939-61EE-443F-868B-435534A092E4-1680-0000007E18BD0D4C.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/E346EBBE-CB34-4EC8-B6E9-2E9D6FB743F5-1680-0000007E1B75E949.jpg


Did some more work on the stand... I'll that is left to do is finish installing the doors, painting the inside of the stand and canopy and staining the outside of the stand and canopy.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/B9219FB2-3B7F-4F14-90A8-F3122052545D-1265-000000749E48590F.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/D8429A1D-91D3-4A8D-9B6E-22D992205BA6-1265-00000074A08C03DD.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/55D488F9-1E97-4648-AB6D-518D6474DC62-1265-00000074A44A2193.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/40984184-1B78-4293-9563-07E484BFB7E8-1265-00000074A784D4AB.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/1A963201-1A82-4285-B68E-79DFC0E5CDC1-1265-00000074A9F11BED.jpg

[Eric Noa]

Had family over today so didn't have much time to work on the stand but I managed to installed the doors on the canopy with magnets instead of hinges for a cleaner finish lol

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/8442C6E4-4395-4EFB-A53C-3E234CA844E8-2113-000000C962CCFDE8.jpg


This is what I had to do to install the magnets. Now I just gotta paint everything.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/F1A6FE87-1FB9-482D-858C-49FF39B0BB5F-2113-000000C9650C59E5.jpg

[Unome]

EXCELLENT IDEA about the magnets to hold the doors on. You can pull them off, set them aside & work in canopy if needed.

What are you going to do for doors on the stand?

And why can't I ever run across these "free" things? I was in the LFS about 3 mos. ago & talking to a guy about his tank. He had just gotten started when a friend gave him a 220 Oceanic bow front tank, stand & setup. I don't have friends like that!

[Eric Noa]

EXCELLENT IDEA about the magnets to hold the doors on. You can pull them off, set them aside & work in canopy if needed.

What are you going to do for doors on the stand?

And why can't I ever run across these "free" things? I was in the LFS about 3 mos. ago & talking to a guy about his tank. He had just gotten started when a friend gave him a 220 Oceanic bow front tank, stand & setup. I don't have friends like that!

For the doors in the stand I'm probably just going to put them up with hinges since they are bigger and heavier and about the "Free" I guess you just have to look and look lol I was looking for a tank for about a month and when I saw this I jumped on it lol

[Eric Noa]

Time for another update. I got most of the stand finished today. Just need to stain it and move it to its final resting place (my living room).

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/75DDA9DC-97FE-480E-87AC-DF672AA2CD4D-3097-00000145B24753AB.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/DA1D9895-819D-401D-9DE5-4DC92853DD1B-3097-00000145BB1B0516.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/2D26508D-D73E-4A75-82A2-41D5B6FA48FD-3097-00000145B53667B6.jpg

This is what I did to secured the doors so they are fully closed.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/E36BE5C3-DCC4-4A7B-AE02-A34C1699D428-3097-00000145B83158D2.jpg

[Eric Noa]

Here is a preview of how it's coming out. This is just with the first coat.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/782DA83D-7215-42AE-B816-FB7A254111B0-792-0000003CBADD4E97.jpg

[Zack_Man777]

wow really good job on the stand! Keep the updates coming im excited to see how this turns out.

What are your plans as far as lighting goes?

[Eric Noa]

wow really good job on the stand! Keep the updates coming im excited to see how this turns out.

What are your plans as far as lighting goes?

Thanks Zack and sorry for the late reply but this thread hasn't gotten much interest so I don't check it often, anyways the stand is now done and the lights I went with are the Evergrow IT2040 or Reef Breeders Phonton16 with 90 degree lenses.

Here is the finished stand.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/6A7C685C-1797-4AA8-BE2B-0EAD84E5498A-1405-0000007A9B702D1F.jpg


And here are the lights that I just finished getting the lights installed. As of now they are about 6-7 inches of the top surface but not sure if it'll stay like that or not. I took these pictures with my phone so they are not the best. The lights were on "Cloudy" Mode.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/790F1C10-E5A7-4B12-927E-AE7C7AC8C965-6292-0000024B80A2B9C5.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/E9C9D4A7-309B-4B62-BCDE-C2EAAF1FF702-6292-0000024B88076E1E.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/774F0A68-7983-4CD6-9F64-FB4A7981FDDB-6292-0000024B8DD7C975.jpg

[sawcreatives]

Very well done. I love how much detail you gave on the build process. Makes me want to pick up wood working!

[Eric Noa]

Very well done. I love how much detail you gave on the build process. Makes me want to pick up wood working!

Thank you. I like to look at pictures of builds so I took a lot of pictures for those people like me lol

[Eric Noa]

Finally filling up the tank..... Just waiting on the RO/DI unit to make more water.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/null-1.jpg (http://s42.photobucket.com/user/Eric032990/media/null-1.jpg.html)

[ingtar_shinowa]

Looks great

[Ron Reefman]

Looks like really nice base rock Eric. It all looks really good. I especially like the lights... :thumbsup:

[Eric Noa]

Looks like really nice base rock Eric. It all looks really good. I especially like the lights... :thumbsup:

Thanks Ron. The rock is the reef saver dry rock from BRS and the lights I got from a good friend. I think you know him lol.

I still gotta add some live rock to seed the dry rock. Any suggestion where I could get some good quality live rock locally? Have you ever gotten any from boardroom aquatics or aquarium and reef center?

[insaneDynamix]

Thats a pretty cool build man ... Nice work on the cabinets ...

[Eric Noa]

Thats a pretty cool build man ... Nice work on the cabinets ...

Thanks man. Here is a picture with the tank filled waiting for it to cycle.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/null.jpg

[Eric Noa]

Hey guys just wanted to upload a few pictures I got this morning (iPhone Camera) with the water all cleared up. The tank has been running with salt water since 23rd so 6 days lol Hopefully the cycle doesn't take tooooooo long and everything goes smoothly. I have about 60 pounds of BRS Reef Saver rock and about 20 pounds of "Real Reef" rock. This rock is man made but it had been curing for a few months so it should have some of the beneficial bacteria and it looks amazing IMOO.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/null-1.jpg (http://s42.photobucket.com/user/Eric032990/media/90%20AGA%20Reef/null-1.jpg.html)

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/null-2.jpg (http://s42.photobucket.com/user/Eric032990/media/90%20AGA%20Reef/null-2.jpg.html)

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/null-3.jpg (http://s42.photobucket.com/user/Eric032990/media/90%20AGA%20Reef/null-3.jpg.html)

[goma]

Great stand build!

[Eric Noa]

Great stand build!

Thank you.... this was my first stand and Im pretty happy with how it came out.

[Eric Noa]

Okay so here's a bit of an update to how things are doing since I haven't updated this thread in a long time. To start of I bought 22 SPS frags from Reef Pets on eBay in the last few months and almost 90% of them are gone. Most have bleached from the base up and I'm clueless as to why this is happening, I have a theory but I might be wrong. I think I might be over skimming and starving my corals. I do not feed the corals so that's why I think I'm starving them. I came to that conclusion after watching this video.

1 Year Update of reef tanks w/ Different filtration systems - YouTube (http://youtu.be/4iSW_GPP9ac)

My nitrates are undetectable and I feed my fish at least 2 or 3 times a day but I also don't have a lot of fish. I have 2x Percula Clownfish, 1x Royal Gramma 3x Green Chromis 1x Engineering Goby.

My lights are at 40% so I don't believe I'm bleaching them from too much light. I have a pocillopora that's up high in the rocks and its doing great and shows no signs of it being unhappy so I'm really not sure what's going on so if anybody has any idea please share it with me.

I've also decided to change my sump/fuge setup. I currently have two tanks connected together as my sump/fuge and it takes almost all the room on my 5 foot stand so I've decided to switch it out for one single 30 gallon tank that's 36" long. I will still have the same water volum I have now in my sump/fuge but I will be saving a lot of room for other components that I might add down the road.

Current setup:

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/null-4.jpg


Basic design of my new sump/fuge

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e311/Eric032990/90%20AGA%20Reef/30GallonSump.jpg

[sahin]

How is this tank doing? Would be nice to see updated shots of the corals etc. Thanks.

[Eric Noa]

How is this tank doing? Would be nice to see updated shots of the corals etc. Thanks.

Not much of an update... All the sps frags I bought eventually die off one by one. All my parameters where in the rage most people have them so not sure what happen. I will try to get a few new pics of the tank, I've just added a few fish.