Devoted Reefer 250

cmcoker · Jun 8, 2017

pelphrey said:
When I have the loc-line installed I have no issues at all, well the only issue I had was it shading some of the coral. I resolved that by pulling a link out.

Yeah, I felt the chains of locline and all was too much, my LFS had actually done it this way and gave me the idea.

A 3/4in Y, a little plumbers tape around the nozzle and it's snug on there. Very little added to the foot print of the stock nozzle

Scurvy · Jun 8, 2017

pelphrey said:
Thanks! I used 1/2" piece of acrylic and super glued a PVC table cap then bought a 2" to 1/2" tee. I really wanted to hard plumb the reactor in, the more I got into it the more I stayed away. Using the 1/2" mur-lok line gave me the flexibilty I needed on the short run, a gate valve or true union valve would have taken up to much space. I originally had the scrubber in the skimmer compartment, it fits perfectly. I wanted to move it back to give me a little extra room. To be honest at this point the sump isn't as "pretty" as I would like and my cable cabinet is a complete mess, at this point I am not worried about it since no one will EVER see it! I was missing the point for a long time and wanted it to look nice and be functional, right now I don't care much about the looks as long as it functions!

I actually have two of the AquaMaxx XS reactors, and as you can see I am not even running any media in the one I installed. I have no plans to run gfo and I may not run carbon much at all. We'll see! haha I got some stuff coming in to make a new mount for my lights and I am done with equipment. Corals and fish, corals and fish, corals and fish! hahaha

Thanks for stopping by!

Function 1st brother! I found the neater i made things with wires and whatnot the harder maintenance became. Either cutting zip ties or trying to get cords out for cleaning it just adds to the dread of doing it.

Im right there with you on not running any media. I had been using both carbon and gfo but nothing was growing or coloring. I pulled it all and am finally seeing the results i want. Ill drop a bag of carbon or fire up a reactor for gfo if/when needed.

pelphrey · Jun 12, 2017

sromero287 · Jun 13, 2017

pelphrey · Jun 13, 2017

sromero287 said:
Ww

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Sockadueblue · Jun 17, 2017

Thanks for all your videos. I just finished hard pluming my 250. I'm just waiting on that ATO from blue tide.

pelphrey said:
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pelphrey · Jun 17, 2017

@Sockadueblue looks great! Thanks for following along, you've done an awesome job on the plumbing. It's been trial and error for me, I enjoy it. You are going to love the ATO, I went on vacation for a week and filled it up. 10 gallons when I left and still a few gallons to spare when I came home.

Sockadueblue · Jun 17, 2017

pelphrey said:
@Sockadueblue looks great! Thanks for following along, you've done an awesome job on the plumbing. It's been trial and error for me, I enjoy it. You are going to love the ATO, I went on vacation for a week and filled it up. 10 gallons when I left and still a few gallons to spare when I came home.

Thanks. That's awesome. I'm going on a cruise for a week in July, can't wait. The apex also added alittle piece of mind before we go.

pelphrey · Jun 19, 2017

When I first installed the AquaMaxx reactor I had plans to run GFO/Carbon. Since I got the ATS online I don't want to run any GFO and my carbon usage has gone down. I decided to pull the pond matrix out of the media bag and place it in the reactor. I do also have pond matrix in the drain section of the sump -

Decided to build a light mount out of 8020. As a comparison this is a picture of the Kessils on the A Series Mounts -

The long span is 48", I went with 48" to reduce the shipping costs. There is a 11" piece mounted to the long span with that Tee'd off into a 18" span for light mounting. This is all series 10. I used the Kessil 90's to mount the lights to the 8020 -

I painted a board white on the top, this section can be seen on the opening of the Red Sea Reefer stand. Drilled some holes and bolted the 8020 bracket to the board. Took a hacksaw to cut the bolts down.

Not the best side by side but it gives you an idea -

Final result -

Had a small piece of rubble rock laying in my cabinet, was to lazy to take it into the garage and put it in my bucket of rock so I dropped it into the tank. Crazy to see how white the rock once was compared to the background and the current color of my rock work.

Sockadueblue · Jun 21, 2017

Looks awesome. Question for you. I picked up the Tunze 3155 and a break out box for the apex, any chance you could send a pic of what wire goes where so I get mine hooked up. The ATO res will be here tomorrow from blue tide.

pelphrey · Jun 21, 2017

Awesome!!! You'll need to get a float switch for the ato. You'll also need to take the pin off the bottom of that float and flip it around so that the signal is triggered when the water level lowers and the float lowers. Floats are setup to work when they are raised up. On the breakout box you'll have 1-6 and then a common input. I am not sure that it matters what wires go where on the breakout box. Just use the first input and the common input. My breakout box is buried under all my other stuff so I can't get to it for a picture.

Sockadueblue · Jun 21, 2017

Oh snap. Looks like I might have to wait a couple days then. The float that came with the RSR I took out cause for some reason after cementing everything my return pump now sits all the way against that side. I'll have to watch your video again anyways

pelphrey · Jun 22, 2017

Attempting to be better at testing my tank, right now it isn't a huge concern. Once I have more coral in the tank I will keep better track. Before my water change I tested dKH it came back 8.4, tested my freshly mixed Red Sea Coral Pro salt 12.8dKH. Four hours after my water change I tested dKH and it came back 8.5, on Sunday evening I tested again 8.4 skipped Monday and tested on Tuesday came back at 8.3dKH. I will be testing tonight and again on Saturday. I've been using the Coral Pro salt for months now, I would have suspected that my dKH would be a little higher. Granted I am doing a weekly 5 gallon water change, total water volume is 65 gallons +-1 gallon. I may look at a different salt if my demands pickup and I do 2 weekly water changes. Otherwise I will look into an alternative method of stability.

Aside from that I noticed this morning that the nem that has been in my tank for a few months now split. Never owned a BTA until recently, very beautiful piece.

Stay tuned, looking to have a new light over the tank in a few weeks!

HolisticBear · Jun 22, 2017

I found this calculator really handy. Not only does it tell you want a balanced Ca would be for a particular Alk, you can play with the numbers and start to get a feel for how much Alk swings compared to Ca. So 12.5dKH would be 446ppm while 8.4dKH 417ppm.

I've gotten in the habit of doing the Hanna Alk check every morning. It's honestly a bit annoying, but having the data is helpful to understanding my tank.

Scurvy · Jun 22, 2017

How much is the 5% Coral Pro water change bringing up the tanks DkH?
Before i switched to Blue Bucket from CP a 10 gallon change spiked DkH almost 1.5 which i disliked a lot. Now with Blue Bucket and keeping the tank at 8.5ish the swings are minimal.

Scurvy · Jun 22, 2017

And congrats on the BTA split! I had 2 split in different tanks a day apart just a couple weeks ago.
I think elevated PH from windows being open did it since there were no other apparent changes.

pelphrey · Jun 22, 2017

MrMichael said:
I found this calculator really handy. Not only does it tell you want a balanced Ca would be for a particular Alk, you can play with the numbers and start to get a feel for how much Alk swings compared to Ca. So 12.5dKH would be 446ppm while 8.4dKH 417ppm.o

I've gotten in the habit of doing the Hanna Alk check every morning. It's honestly a bit annoying, but having the data is helpful to understanding my tank.

Thank is awesome, thank you!!! I really need to start testing like that as well, great tip!

Scurvy said:
How much is the 5% Coral Pro water change bringing up the tanks DkH?
Before i switched to Blue Bucket from CP a 10 gallon change spiked DkH almost 1.5 which i disliked a lot. Now with Blue Bucket and keeping the tank at 8.5ish the swings are minimal.

It went from 8.4 to 8.5 - going to test tonight and again before and after I do my water change this weekend. Def plan to keep better track and make sure there are no large swings.

Scurvy said:
And congrats on the BTA split! I had 2 split in different tanks a day apart just a couple weeks ago.
I think elevated PH from windows being open did it since there were no other apparent changes.

The BTA stayed put for a few weeks, then walked around the rock and basically decided it liked the spot close to where I put it when I added it to the tank. I suppose it really liked that area. Don't know what I'll do if I need to remove one or they continue to split. Heard they are a pain to get out.

Scurvy · Jun 22, 2017

pelphrey said:
Thank is awesome, thank you!!! I really need to start testing like that as well, great tip!

It went from 8.4 to 8.5 - going to test tonight and again before and after I do my water change this weekend. Def plan to keep better track and make sure there are no large swings.

The BTA stayed put for a few weeks, then walked around the rock and basically decided it liked the spot close to where I put it when I added it to the tank. I suppose it really liked that area. Don't know what I'll do if I need to remove one or they continue to split. Heard they are a pain to get out.

I hear ya on getting them out. 2 of mine are small and didnt wander after the split.

In the reefer it was a Big green one so each half is about 6" now and one went moving about. Ive procrastinated getting it out but really have to. Its taken down a nice purple digi. My fault for leaving it there for 2 or 3 weeks though