AJ's Acro Adventure "The Redo" - RSR750

AJsReef

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Hi fellow Reefers,

After a few years of ups and downs with my tank a recent move couldn't have come at a better time. My tank was overran (again) by some weird turf like algae that wouldn't respond to any treatment I tried. To make matters worse, it was ridiculously good at nutrient export as well out competing my corals. While I have a hypothesis that Caribsea rock may have played a factor in binding nutrients as well I decided to put the tank "behind me" and start fresh. My initial intent was to sell my RSR750 and go a touch larger. With the wait times on new systems I put that idea off and will be setting up my RSR750 again. In the spirit of stating fresh, welcome to my new build thread :)

Currently all my fish are split in some small holding tanks at my parents house which enabled us to remodel our new home. A little bit of a time crunch to get the tank wet and cycling again but working through all the fun stuff now. The first being, the new location of the tank is right along a staircase. Naturally, that means the space under the stairs will become a "fish room"! The plan is to have the sump under the stairs in an attempt to have a mostly "silent" tank. For the sump I ordered a Trigger Systems 44 system with the black Friday offers. It should work great for the space and allow me some more useable sections vs the RS stock layout. The fun part was converting the RS32mm piping to standard pipe

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The rear wall of the fish room backs onto garage where my mixing station will be. I found a 105 gallon norwesco tank from a somewhat local vendor that had fair shipping prices which will contain SW. With so much NSW available I should be able to run ~50 days of automated water changes without making a new batch. The extra volume will come in handy as I got my dad back into the hobby as well so will be providing him with NSW.

Slowly working on the scape as well :) All new rocks in an attempt to keep my kryptonite algae out!
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KrisReef

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MM pipe should never have been invented, imo. :) Looks good so far!
 
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AJsReef

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Made some good progress over the past week or so;

Sump is all plumbed in with PVC sheet under/behind in an attempt to keep things clean. My Pentair UV is a little large so finding a good space for it was a challenge. The old flow sensor was plumbed inline with my chiller forcing me to buy a new one. Optimistic that my Varios8 will provide enough flow. I even plumbed a bypass incase I had too much flow. We shall see, if not its Royal Exclusive or Abyzz :/.
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Decided to mount my RO set up in the garage on PVC as well, rushed through it to get the tank filling. Will need to clean up the lines in the future.

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Finally, finished the scape and cemented it together with Marco Mortar. Planned on hiding the mortar with sand/super glue but didn't end up doing it. Hopefully the coralline will cover it soon enough. I did take time to drill the rock for arcylic rods for easy frag mounting. Something I wish I had done on my last build. Hopefully it will make mounting and moving sticks that much easier :) Note, drilling rocks burns through drill bits ha
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And most importantly, it's filling! 24 hours in and about 65% of the way there!
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AJsReef

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Slow but steady progress...

Tank is filled and remained nice and level which is terrific!

My new house electrical is a little hard to determine what is on which outlet in the great room and the under stairs outlet was in a location that wasn't great. I decided to run two dedicated circuits for the tank. 1 under the tank and the other under the stairs. To allow future expansion I made both 20 amp circuits complete with GFCI. What I figured would be a super easy wire pull was complicated by the stair framing which I didn't account for. My auger bit bounced off and blew through the drywall. Luckily, I was able to just expand the hole and notch the frame to get the wire pulled. Just have to fix some drywall now, oh well.


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I would have the tank circulating and cycling but decided to pick up a Royal Exclusiv Speedy 100w pump on the black Friday sales from Aquarium Specialty (BRS was sold out). Unfortunately, they don't seem to be the quickest company to ship out and their customer service hasn't even provided an expected ship date so I am in a holding pattern. Really hoping the speedy allows me to max out my turnover through the display. The Varios8 is a solid pump but when pushing through the UV it maxes out around 500 GPH. Would love to be able to hit 1000GPH or more.

In the meantime, planning on adding more PVC sheets to cover the wall behind the sump as well as a small board for mounting the APEX/Royal Exclusiv controllers. Not too sure on wire management though :/
 
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AJsReef

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Quick update -

Red Dragon pump arrived and installed. It’s definitely impressive quality a little disappointed by the output. Based on flow charts went with the flow model but hindsight I should’ve gone with the pressure model. I get similar flow output as the Varios and expected quite a bit more. Noise is less but there is definitely some vibration/noise. Perhaps my expectations were unrealistic. For now I have it set at 82w/480 GPH which is 3x turnover. At 99W I max out somewhere in the high 500GPH range… I may have to switch it up and go pressure or larger in the future.

Added salt and got the Vortechs running to get the cycle clock going :)
 

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AJsReef

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Dumped in a bunch of bacteria to get the party started on Friday 12/10 (Turbo Start + PNS) and Algae Barns Nitro start. Will continue throwing in some food and different bacterial strains in an attempt to create biodiversity. Now the patience game really starts...

Red Dragon pump did gain a few GPH and become incrementally quieter. I am still seriously considering a larger pump for the return either a Speedy 150w or Abyzz A200 but will ride the 3x turnover for now.

Switched out my probes and recalibrated as well as did some cable management, it never ends. Next project on the list is the salt mixing/RO storage.

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AJsReef

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Few weeks between updates as I patiently let the tank do its thing. Happy to say it's officially wet and the fish family are moved back in. Post cycle nitrates hit ~75 / Phosphates 43ppb. Decided to just slowly bring down levels with my automated water change. Versas are doing a great job at 10GPD, down to sub 40 nitrate atm.
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A tad concerned that my Blue Tang, who has always been a nervous fish, seems to have some kind of bacterial infection post move. Decided to treat with some focus/metro food as a precaution. Outside of that, I also added sand for the first time in years. As much as I love the low maintenance of barebottom I had constant low nutrient issues. Wife and guest generally disliked the barebottom. So decided to give sand a go. I went with Tropic Eden Reefflakes which I've been impressed with. With the high flow there are some bare areas I am looking to solve. It seems some crushed coral may work nicely, if not I may look at crushing some calcium reactor media.


On the note of flow, picked up two MP60s for the sides of the tanks. Decided despite trying many orientations the MP40s just aren't great at pushing water in a 6' display. I've installed 1 MP60 so far but will have one on each end slightly ahead of rock work. They will follow Coral Labs running opposing reef crest/constant likely in 4 hour intervals. I'm undecided on keeping 4 or just 2 of the MP40s. I currently have 2 MP40s towards the overflow nearer the surface and am enjoying the surface agitation. The other two are on the back ends pointing forward at a very flow flow %. I may try these of the side panels blasting behind the rock.

Bonus cat picture
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AJsReef

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Following along. Do you notice any shadowing with multiple radio stations mounted that way?

There's definitely some shadowing but it is much less. It's the way to go with 24"+ depth tanks for sure. Long term if the frags I add really take off I could see adding a 5th for denser light and/or some T5s/Reefbrites towards the edge.

I really want to build some kind of floating canopy in the future to hide the lights all together.
 
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AJsReef

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Fully embracing the ugly side of my tank maturing currently, nitrate/phosphates "in check" but algae rearing its head. Decided to just let it run its course for now. Hard to do, but plenty of projects around the new house to keep me busy.
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A few small changes, implemented an Ozone generator. I found having the tank under the stairs with minimal airflow made it a tad stinky. Instead of resorting to carbon as I typically would I decided to try something new. Enjoying it so far, running a few hours a night. Odorless tank and even clearer than I've ever seen. The second change, I managed to find an Abyzz A200 on the forums for a steal. While I had just purchased the Red Dragon I decided to give it a go to see if I could get better flow rates. Pump came pretty clean but a night in a citric acid bath and it was brand new. Bought a new head so I could plumb it to my set up easier. Went w/ the clear head just to be different with an immediate 32mm to 1 1/4" adapter. When setting to the same GPH as the RD I was around 58-60% and noise was slightly less. I haven't pushed the pump to 100% yet, settled for 80% for now which got me up to ~730 GPH which should be right at 5x display turn over. Noise at 80% is the same as the RD at 82w. The only small issue is the water flowing through the piping. It definitely seems to resonate more through the wall. Likely going to cut the holes a little larger to make sure they aren't touching. I am also thinking about converting all my return line over to 1 1/4 in the near future with over the top return lines to see if I can hit the same GPH and drop the speed down some. Very impressed with the pump overall.
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Projects with Sam

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I'm having luck with this paint:
 
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AJsReef

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Long overdue update - although there aren't many changes. I guess an advantage of remodeling is that it forces me to use my time/energy elsewhere in turn allowing me to be "patient" as the tank matures.

Additions since last update;

+ Plumbed in chiller loop, currently using Varios-8. Decided to install in the garage given the ease of access. Allows me to dump heat without hearing the noise of the unit. Interested to see how the summer time plays out. I installed a hybrid water heater which should theoretically keep my garage cooler than my last house. Long term, I am considering using the 55g I purchased as a temporary home for my livestock during the move as a large fuge in the garage plumbed into the same loop

+ Created an automated "frozen" food feezer. I just got back from a 12 day vacation. Previously, I just opted to not feed my tank. While I never had issues directly from vacations I decided this time around I want to maintain my nutrient input. While I could've asked a neighbor to feed them an auto feeder removes that variability. As a side effect, it also fully automates my phyto mixing and dosing. A part of my routine I all too often forget.
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To accomplish the auto feeder I picked up a 1.7 cu/ft mini fridge and a pair of mixing plates to take care of food storage and mixing. With some reading I am comfortable leaving the thawed mixture for ~5 days. To feed I used a spare DOS pump. Using profiles w/in Fusion the pumps can dose and then reverse flow to clear the lines. In an abundance of caution I cut the lines short of the display water as to not reverse syphon. Rather, the reverse flow just pulls air through the tubing. It worked great for the past 14 days w/ my dad helping to refill the beaker 2x while away.

+ Coralline has started to slowly spread through the tank. Allowing me to reinstall my DOS for 2-part. I still would like to make use of my Kalk stirrer but build out my garage and add an ATO reservoir before that happens.
 
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AJsReef

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Overdue update;

What's new:
- Finally added a ATO reservoir in my garage instead of having my RODI connected directly to the sump
- Kalk reactor installed. Daily pH range is now 8.1-8.5
- MP40s moved to side panels toward the back (high and low) each side
- Initially added a few test Acros last July or so, quickly were decimated by a Heniochus (woops)
- Readded Acros in February!
- Dosing Red Sea Trace Colors from mid-April

Funny enough, my NO3 levels have stabilized around 20ppm and everything is looking and growing great. While my PO4 is perpetually near 0. Due to my battles with Dinos in the past I am actively dosing around .1ppm PO4 daily.

Coral stocking;
A Fire Engine
Acro Berry
Blood Bank
Bohemia
Bubblebath Unicorn
CC Voodoo Majick
Green Room Table
Hawaii
Honeycomb
Miss Scarlet
Miyagi Tort
Rainbow Stylo
RR Rainbow Loom
RRC Pink Cadillac
Setosa
TSA Billy Murray
TSA Dan Aykroyd
TSA Death Spiral Monti
TSA Fruity Splice
TSA Optimus Prime
TSA Rainbow Sherbet
TSA Red Robin
TSA The Banger
WWC Sunfire Monti Cap
WWC Yellow Tips
 

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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 69 37.5%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 62 33.7%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.6%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 15.2%
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