AstroReefer's 425XL build

[MikeYasin]

P.S. thank you for the front line support during this pandemic!

 

[CDavmd]

P.S. thank you for the front line support during this pandemic!

Thanks Mike! I appreciate that....sorry just saw this....I was off the grid back at work for a few days.

 

[CDavmd]

....things continue to recover....a few new shots:

 

[drawman]

Things look great!

 

[CDavmd]

So things continue to improve- to recap after the Ostreopsis/small cell amphidinium decimated my SPS came green cyano. UV and a bunch of other Voodoo employed and finally beat them only to get large cell amphidinium. After a few moments of rage and venting on the Large cell amphidinium thread I regrouped and got back to battling.

I took the approach of allowing things to balance out without too much interference:

- I stopped siphoning the sand through the 1 micron filter
- I stopped dosing peroxide
- I stopped dosing MB7, MB clean, waste away and refresh as I noticed they would significantly drop the nitrate and phosphate levels.
-I stopped water changes
- I stopped reef roids, amino's, and all the coral "foods"

What I did do:
-Increased my Temps to 82
-Dose sponge excel until my silicate levels reach 2.6 or 1:1 with my Nitrogen Nitrate
-Dosed Nitrate for a few days to get it from 5 to the 15-25 range
-Set my skimmer to a very very dry skim
-Set my Wav pumps to run full blast 4 sec alternating side to side for 5 minutes every 3 hours
-Ran mostly blue lights for a week ( I was acclimating some new corals)
-Purchased an ungodly number of amphipods/Isopods ~ 10,000! Mixed the with some sand removed from the tank and put it back late at night in the dark with flow off
-Purchased 6 bottles of Ecopods
-Replenished my clean up crew with hermits, snails, limpets
-Created a small refugium with the auto-top off tank, a layer of garf grunge, chaeto and all sorts of pods


Well this resulted in the most massive diatom bloom I have ever encountered....the tank looks like its covered in vomit! Brown everywhere....sand, rocks, wav pumps, glass...everywhere!!

I sampled the worst areas in the evenings and at first I saw a mix of diatoms and those Amphidinium ba$tards!!
Then....each subsequent day I saw more diatoms and less amphidinium and an absolute helterskelter of life...pods, nematodes, little microscopic crab/tick like creatures....just teaming with life.

....Yesterday I sampled and saw just 1 amphidinium...just one in my little half dollar petri-dish. Today I saw no Amphidinium!! It truly appears the diatoms are winning out and also feeding all my benthic organisms. I'm going to maintain my Silica in this range for a while, then let it come down to 1-2ppm and keep it there to maintain a healthy by non blooming level of diatoms. I'll report back on the Dino threads.

On another note- I finally spent some time dialing in my Calcium reactor. When I first set it up I used it to supply 80% of my tanks needs and used the DOS pumps to supplement the rest with 2 part- controlled by the Trident.

A few months ago I ran into @trido 's thread on controlling his calcium reactor with the Trident. I used his exact program and it worked nicely but I was still getting pretty big swings. I spent the last few days playing with the bubble count until I achieved a level of Alkalinity dosage when the reactor is wide open for several hours that doesn't overshoot. My current demand is light so this was really helpful to do.

I ended up with settings of 35cc on the Kamoer pump, a bubble count of 8 sec per bubble on the CO2 Doser. This results in a reactor pH of 6.7-6.8 when wide open. I changed my throttle time to 30 minutes off and 5 minutes on. These settings have worked really nicely. I am not getting a max swing of 0.2 dKH with the Trident set to maintain the alkalinity at 8.25 dKH.

Check out the graph (The dial in point is just past the slow drop in Alk where it starts a nice small wave pattern). Loving this stability!

Also I purchased the 3D printed guides for the Trident reagent bottles that @Brasileiro561 came up with. Absolutely perfect....you can see how nice my Calcium and Magnesium graphs leveled out.

Anyway I thought it might be time to start replacing the lost SPS so I picked up a few pieces-

Well that's all for now.....thanks for looking.

 

[Brasileiro561]

So things continue to improve- to recap after the Ostreopsis/small cell amphidinium decimated my SPS came green cyano. UV and a bunch of other Voodoo employed and finally beat them only to get large cell amphidinium. After a few moments of rage and venting on the Large cell amphidinium thread I regrouped and got back to battling.

I took the approach of allowing things to balance out without too much interference:

- I stopped siphoning the sand through the 1 micron filter
- I stopped dosing peroxide
- I stopped dosing MB7, MB clean, waste away and refresh as I noticed they would significantly drop the nitrate and phosphate levels.
-I stopped water changes
- I stopped reef roids, amino's, and all the coral "foods"

What I did do:
-Increased my Temps to 82
-Dose sponge excel until my silicate levels reach 2.6 or 1:1 with my Nitrogen Nitrate
-Dosed Nitrate for a few days to get it from 5 to the 15-25 range
-Set my skimmer to a very very dry skim
-Set my Wav pumps to run full blast 4 sec alternating side to side for 5 minutes every 3 hours
-Ran mostly blue lights for a week ( I was acclimating some new corals)
-Purchased an ungodly number of amphipods/Isopods ~ 10,000! Mixed the with some sand removed from the tank and put it back late at night in the dark with flow off
-Purchased 6 bottles of Ecopods
-Replenished my clean up crew with hermits, snails, limpets
-Created a small refugium with the auto-top off tank, a layer of garf grunge, chaeto and all sorts of pods


Well this resulted in the most massive diatom bloom I have ever encountered....the tank looks like its covered in vomit! Brown everywhere....sand, rocks, wav pumps, glass...everywhere!!

I sampled the worst areas in the evenings and at first I saw a mix of diatoms and those Amphidinium ba$tards!!
Then....each subsequent day I saw more diatoms and less amphidinium and an absolute helterskelter of life...pods, nematodes, little microscopic crab/tick like creatures....just teaming with life.

....Yesterday I sampled and saw just 1 amphidinium...just one in my little half dollar petri-dish. Today I saw no Amphidinium!! It truly appears the diatoms are winning out and also feeding all my benthic organisms. I'm going to maintain my Silica in this range for a while, then let it come down to 1-2ppm and keep it there to maintain a healthy by non blooming level of diatoms. I'll report back on the Dino threads.

On another note- I finally spent some time dialing in my Calcium reactor. When I first set it up I used it to supply 80% of my tanks needs and used the DOS pumps to supplement the rest with 2 part- controlled by the Trident.

A few months ago I ran into @trido 's thread on controlling his calcium reactor with the Trident. I used his exact program and it worked nicely but I was still getting pretty big swings. I spent the last few days playing with the bubble count until I achieved a level of Alkalinity dosage when the reactor is wide open for several hours that doesn't overshoot. My current demand is light so this was really helpful to do.

I ended up with settings of 35cc on the Kamoer pump, a bubble count of 8 sec per bubble on the CO2 Doser. This results in a reactor pH of 6.7-6.8 when wide open. I changed my throttle time to 30 minutes off and 5 minutes on. These settings have worked really nicely. I am not getting a max swing of 0.2 dKH with the Trident set to maintain the alkalinity at 8.25 dKH.

Check out the graph (The dial in point is just past the slow drop in Alk where it starts a nice small wave pattern). Loving this stability!

Also I purchased the 3D printed guides for the Trident reagent bottles that @Brasileiro561 came up with. Absolutely perfect....you can see how nice my Calcium and Magnesium graphs leveled out.

Anyway I thought it might be time to start replacing the lost SPS so I picked up a few pieces-

Well that's all for now.....thanks for looking.

Looking awesome brother

 

[CDavmd]

Looking awesome brother

Thanks bud!

 

[drawman]

Glad to see your persistence is paying off. Feels good to win against dinos!

 

[CDavmd]

Glad to see your persistence is paying off. Feels good to win against dinos!

Not declaring victory yet but it sure is nice to see corals growing again and the tank looking clean! thanks!!

 

[RichieE46]

Looking into the ARID N18 but I read in the instructions that it should be out of the sump and not submerged. Do you have an issues with the ARID? Recommend it? Thanks!

 

[CDavmd]

Looking into the ARID N18 but I read in the instructions that it should be out of the sump and not submerged. Do you have an issues with the ARID? Recommend it? Thanks!

It can be submerged as long as the top portion(electrical part) is out of the water. I checked with them on this before purchasing. It works well but became a pain in that you have to harvest every 2 weeks. It became a chore getting it out of the sump to open and harvest. I found my nutrients also bottomed out with it so I have stopped using it.

 

[RichieE46]

It can be submerged as long as the top portion(electrical part) is out of the water. I checked with them on this before purchasing. It works well but became a pain in that you have to harvest every 2 weeks. It became a chore getting it out of the sump to open and harvest. I found my nutrients also bottomed out with it so I have stopped using it.

Thanks for the review and update! I was considering it since this is my first tank with a sump setup and its only a 3' tank so the sump takes up the entire space and no extra space for refugium. Wish my sump looked as amazing as yours! It looks awesome! If you decide to sell the ARID, let me know.

 

[revhtree]

Beautiful ref you have here!

 

[CDavmd]

Beautiful ref you have here!

Thanks Rev....its had a bit of bumpy year but seems to finally be recovering and hitting its stride.

 

[CDavmd]

Thanks for the review and update! I was considering it since this is my first tank with a sump setup and its only a 3' tank so the sump takes up the entire space and no extra space for refugium. Wish my sump looked as amazing as yours! It looks awesome! If you decide to sell the ARID, let me know.

Thanks!!
pm sent

 

[powers2001]

@CDavmd your Trident must be a real joy! I can’t wait to get mine. I’ve got a Cronos door also and finally mounted it after the thing gathered dust in our farm shop for a few months. The door itself is very nice but I wasn’t pleased with their customer service or the hinge mounting options. I specified in my build thread on page 8 that if anyone reading that particular post was thinking about getting one of those doors that they better be careful with the hinge details before they buy. Nice thread BTW.

 

[BonelessEvil]

A couple things:

First, why did you use the plastic filters in this image, instead of filter socks? Is there an advantage?

2nd, did you happen to list all of your plumbing parts purchased? Sizes, item names, etc.? I'm going to be redoing my 425 XL, so would love to save some time.

3rd, love your astrophotography. I'm trying to do night sky stuff (Sample) myself, but would like to get a better prime 24 lens. Any advice?

 

[Johnsoto25]

Current Status of the Build
May 2020

GROWTH PHOTO TIME LINE

1. March 2019

2. April 2019


3. May 2019

4. June 2019

5. July 2019

6. August 2019

Background-
The time has finally come. I've been reefing for many years, relatively small systems which were pieced together with what was available at the time. For the past 11 years I've run a small 36 gallon corner bow tank in my home study and a small 14 gallon nano on my desk at work for about 4 years. I've had my share of ups and downs, a couple power failures in the dead of a New England winter almost destroyed my entire little reef....but yet it plugged on, recovering, growing, thriving until the next calamity.

The Corner Bow which is a mixed LPS/SPS system has done relatively well given its beginnings. It's a small AGA "el cheapo" aquarium on a flimsy particle board stand that has seen better days. It was started in 2006, when reefing was still a haphazard miss-mash of equipment. Originally started with a canister filter, way too much rock and sand, a hang-on back "freight-train" noisy skimmer and some T5's...it gradually evolved. Hang on back fuge, MH-T5 combo, deeper sand bed, no sand bed, less rock, vodka dosing, and LED's. Yes I was an early adopter of LED's with the original Solaris for those that remember that fixture before they went out of business. That fixture did remarkably well given the technical limitations of the day until one day more than 50% of my LED's were dead and I had to junk it. At that point I went with the AI Hydra, built a very narrow and tiny sump that would fit under the stand, and got rid of all the ugly hang on back stuff. The tank really started to thrive with the sump, improved Skimmer, and modern LED's. In any event this little tank has thrived and tried to keep pace with the truly marvelous advancements our hobby has sustained these past few years. I truly marvel at what is available today that we could not even imagine 10-15 years ago.

So this tank continues to plug away but it has reached the twilight of its life. The laminate is all peeling off, the stand has suffered so much water damage over the years that it's disintegrating. It wobbles unsteadily if moved and I worry its all going to come crashing down any day now.

Here's some pictures of its evolution....

In any event.... "She who must be obeyed" noticed it was looking a bit ragged and asked if it might collapse. Could I be so lucky??? I pushed my luck and said " oh yes!" Any day...you know I've been thinking of maybe just tearing it down.....it worked....she responded "What??, but you love that tank!" That was all I needed...the go ahead was signed and sealed for a new system. !! It didn't hurt that she loves the two clowns we've had for close to 7 years!

So with permission in hand, I traveled to my local LFS and put in an order for a red sea reefer. I debated just getting the 250 but the wife said why don't you just get a big one so we can finally get a "Dory" LOL!! Sure Honey anything you say!

So I went with the 425XL...It basically covers a corner wall in my study leaves about 3 inches on each side. Perhaps it is a tad to big, but I think when its up and running that it will be a spectacular piece of the ocean in my home.

So without further ado here is the new reefer that was delivered this morning-

I'm going to take it slow. It will be my autumn and winter project as the weather starts cooling off here in New England. I've gotten some great ideas from many of your build threads and I ask for forgiveness outright as I shamelessly copy many of your themes, manifolds, etc.

I'll list my equipment at a different time given it is still evolving given what I currently own and what I want and need to get. I'm going to try and use all my previous experience and mistakes in order to build a system that will be stable and easier to maintain. First thing I looked into today was to have a plumber friend see if we can plumb a pipe from the basement directly beneath the tank ala "Broadfield's". It looks like it will be easy and near my RO/DI unit. I just need to get some tanks and setup a mixing station and retire all the home depot buckets. Best, I will be able to T-into my home water softeners brine waste line for the water change dump.

I'm looking forward to gradually bringing this baby online and eventually transfer over the bow tank's scape and livestock and finally retiring that system. I will post pictures as I progress but I warn that it will be a slow process given I only have a few hours each weekend to devote to it.

Thanks for tuning in all... and again thank you all for documenting your builds. They are truly a spectacular resource.

CD

UPDATE: The build took much longer than expected- from the time of this post until March of 2019 it was in the dry state. It was finally filled and began cycling on March 10, 2019. Below was the final equipment list as of the wet date.

Equipment List Addendum:

Red Sea Reefer 425XL
BroadField Custom made display panel
Giesemann Stellar T5/Custom LED Hybrid
Marco Premium Rock
KP aquatics Live rock (10 pounds to seed)
Mixture of Tropic Eden Reef Flakes and Meso Flakes
(2) Ecotech G4 Pro XR 30
Neptune Apex Controller
FMM Kit
1 inch Flowmeter
1/2 inch Flowmeter
Leak Detector
ATK Kit
COR-20
(2) Neptune Wav
Maxspect Gyre 230
DOS for Automatic Water Changes
DOS for Supplement Dosing
Reef Octopus Skimmer
Pax Bellum ARID N18 (Still not in use)

Plumbing Fixtures from BRS and https://www.pvcfittingsonline.com/accessories/pipe-support/straps.html

Custom Glass Aluminum Frame Doors from Cronos Design (Contact: [email protected])

In the basement I have a second EB832, FMM, 1 link for my water station and Fish QT tank. They all connect to the main apex brain in the DT via a conduit through the floor to the basement below.​

My friend can’t say enough how beautiful job this is. I love in Boston and I’ll love to chat with you if ok..

 

[Johnsoto25]

Current Status of the Build
May 2020

GROWTH PHOTO TIME LINE

1. March 2019

2. April 2019


3. May 2019

4. June 2019

5. July 2019

6. August 2019

Background-
The time has finally come. I've been reefing for many years, relatively small systems which were pieced together with what was available at the time. For the past 11 years I've run a small 36 gallon corner bow tank in my home study and a small 14 gallon nano on my desk at work for about 4 years. I've had my share of ups and downs, a couple power failures in the dead of a New England winter almost destroyed my entire little reef....but yet it plugged on, recovering, growing, thriving until the next calamity.

The Corner Bow which is a mixed LPS/SPS system has done relatively well given its beginnings. It's a small AGA "el cheapo" aquarium on a flimsy particle board stand that has seen better days. It was started in 2006, when reefing was still a haphazard miss-mash of equipment. Originally started with a canister filter, way too much rock and sand, a hang-on back "freight-train" noisy skimmer and some T5's...it gradually evolved. Hang on back fuge, MH-T5 combo, deeper sand bed, no sand bed, less rock, vodka dosing, and LED's. Yes I was an early adopter of LED's with the original Solaris for those that remember that fixture before they went out of business. That fixture did remarkably well given the technical limitations of the day until one day more than 50% of my LED's were dead and I had to junk it. At that point I went with the AI Hydra, built a very narrow and tiny sump that would fit under the stand, and got rid of all the ugly hang on back stuff. The tank really started to thrive with the sump, improved Skimmer, and modern LED's. In any event this little tank has thrived and tried to keep pace with the truly marvelous advancements our hobby has sustained these past few years. I truly marvel at what is available today that we could not even imagine 10-15 years ago.

So this tank continues to plug away but it has reached the twilight of its life. The laminate is all peeling off, the stand has suffered so much water damage over the years that it's disintegrating. It wobbles unsteadily if moved and I worry its all going to come crashing down any day now.

Here's some pictures of its evolution....

In any event.... "She who must be obeyed" noticed it was looking a bit ragged and asked if it might collapse. Could I be so lucky??? I pushed my luck and said " oh yes!" Any day...you know I've been thinking of maybe just tearing it down.....it worked....she responded "What??, but you love that tank!" That was all I needed...the go ahead was signed and sealed for a new system. !! It didn't hurt that she loves the two clowns we've had for close to 7 years!

So with permission in hand, I traveled to my local LFS and put in an order for a red sea reefer. I debated just getting the 250 but the wife said why don't you just get a big one so we can finally get a "Dory" LOL!! Sure Honey anything you say!

So I went with the 425XL...It basically covers a corner wall in my study leaves about 3 inches on each side. Perhaps it is a tad to big, but I think when its up and running that it will be a spectacular piece of the ocean in my home.

So without further ado here is the new reefer that was delivered this morning-

I'm going to take it slow. It will be my autumn and winter project as the weather starts cooling off here in New England. I've gotten some great ideas from many of your build threads and I ask for forgiveness outright as I shamelessly copy many of your themes, manifolds, etc.

I'll list my equipment at a different time given it is still evolving given what I currently own and what I want and need to get. I'm going to try and use all my previous experience and mistakes in order to build a system that will be stable and easier to maintain. First thing I looked into today was to have a plumber friend see if we can plumb a pipe from the basement directly beneath the tank ala "Broadfield's". It looks like it will be easy and near my RO/DI unit. I just need to get some tanks and setup a mixing station and retire all the home depot buckets. Best, I will be able to T-into my home water softeners brine waste line for the water change dump.

I'm looking forward to gradually bringing this baby online and eventually transfer over the bow tank's scape and livestock and finally retiring that system. I will post pictures as I progress but I warn that it will be a slow process given I only have a few hours each weekend to devote to it.

Thanks for tuning in all... and again thank you all for documenting your builds. They are truly a spectacular resource.

CD

UPDATE: The build took much longer than expected- from the time of this post until March of 2019 it was in the dry state. It was finally filled and began cycling on March 10, 2019. Below was the final equipment list as of the wet date.

Equipment List Addendum:

Red Sea Reefer 425XL
BroadField Custom made display panel
Giesemann Stellar T5/Custom LED Hybrid
Marco Premium Rock
KP aquatics Live rock (10 pounds to seed)
Mixture of Tropic Eden Reef Flakes and Meso Flakes
(2) Ecotech G4 Pro XR 30
Neptune Apex Controller
FMM Kit
1 inch Flowmeter
1/2 inch Flowmeter
Leak Detector
ATK Kit
COR-20
(2) Neptune Wav
Maxspect Gyre 230
DOS for Automatic Water Changes
DOS for Supplement Dosing
Reef Octopus Skimmer
Pax Bellum ARID N18 (Still not in use)

Plumbing Fixtures from BRS and https://www.pvcfittingsonline.com/accessories/pipe-support/straps.html

Custom Glass Aluminum Frame Doors from Cronos Design (Contact: [email protected])

In the basement I have a second EB832, FMM, 1 link for my water station and Fish QT tank. They all connect to the main apex brain in the DT via a conduit through the floor to the basement below.​

My friend love this set up and with this I made up my mind on having one of them. I also live in Boston and I’ll love to chat with you if ok..

 

[CDavmd]

A couple things:

First, why did you use the plastic filters in this image, instead of filter socks? Is there an advantage?

2nd, did you happen to list all of your plumbing parts purchased? Sizes, item names, etc.? I'm going to be redoing my 425 XL, so would love to save some time.

3rd, love your astrophotography. I'm trying to do night sky stuff (Sample) myself, but would like to get a better prime 24 lens. Any advice?

Sorry for the late reply. I've been off of here for months...

I used the plastic cups with filter media because its easier to change out than socks. Work about the same.

Honestly I do not have the list of plumbing parts. I basically borrowed similar plans from Broadfield's build. Basically you can try to figure it out from the picture. I used 1 inch plumbing except at the reactors, where I down size to 1/2 inch. I got most of it from BRS and plumbing supply.com

Lots of options for lenses. I recommend starting with a simply kit lens but if you are ready to move up my fav's are the
Rokinon 16mm for wide field and the Nikon 180 for deep field work. you will need a good tracking mount if you go with the 180.

Hope this helps.