jtone_philthy_aquatics
Active Member
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Los Angeles Aquatics Club
Midwest Reefer
What’s up everyone long time no see. I haven’t been very active on here lately and it feels great to be back!! Hope everyone is doing well out there!
So I’ve finally been putting together a reef system that I’ve been planning since I moved to the Midwest this past February. It’s a 40 gallon breeder drilled with a stand alone overflow bulkhead and the same matching bulkhead for the return. This is more of a budget build due to the fact that I did just move here and a lot has been going on over the past 8 months. It has a 20gal long sump.
EQUIPMENT USED
•40 gallon breeder
•20 gallon long sump
•1 inch over flow ( stand alone drilled on back side with rigid tubing standing above the displays water line for a nice air/ water ratio and
to silence the gurgling)
•1 inch return bulk head
•black flexible pond tubing for both return/drain lines.
•marine aqua return pump (model DC-4000) 28watts (can also work as a wave maker)
•red devil protein skimmer (I believe this model is rated 70 / 75 gallons)
•13 watt UV sterilizer
•tunze ato (model 5070)
•2 ceramic bio bricks
•filter floss for bubble trap
•jebao cross flow wave pump (model cp-90)
•jebao wave maker (just for detritus in corner) (model slw-5)
•20lbs aragonite sand ( refugium section in sump)
•25 lbs two little fishies (staxx reef rock)
•Marco reef rock cement for aqua scape design
•200 watt heater
•5gallon innovative marine ro tank
•kessil a80 refugium light
•viparspectra 165 watt modified (removed a lot of the 470nm blue and the cyan leds along with some others) (added 10 - 440nm royal blues and 10 - 400nm violets) I have mostly 120 degree lenses but I left about 4/5 90’s on just to mix it up a bit. I know SB reef lights have a mixture so I figured I’d give that a try I can always switch them out or just remove them all tog
•aliexpress 470nm 54 watt led bar
•AliExpress white blue cyan Uv 54 watt led bar (arriving in a few days)
I don’t have a par meter at the moment so I’m getting a ballpark idea of my par based off of the lux/ footcandle photometer readings. it’s going to be very heavy blue and violet so I’m using (70 / 75 / 80) as the constant when using the Lux converted to par formula. I’m hoping that will give me a decent idea on what I’m working with in the system. Im going to use the (Milwaukee ap 700 photometer) I’m using a cheap one at the moment while I’m waiting for that one to arrive. I’d prefer to get some readings under the water and check out each area of the rock work. I’ve been studying up on a lot of the Lux to par threads out there and it seems that a good amount of people rely heavily on this system and achieve great success with it.
the tank has been cycling for around 3 weeks to a month now and the ammonia is pretty much fully converted to nitrite at this point. Nitrite is still reading decently high in the system. Things are moving along though!
•bacterias used / experimented with so far
•fritz #9
•microbactr 7 brightwell (small amount)
•seachem stability (tried out the prime as they recommended but I stopped because I didn’t want to interfere with the natural process too much. I just felt that chemically it’s probably not too good to remove nitrite and ammonia that way during a cycle. I could be wrong but I didn’t wanna play around with any of that)
•now I add a small amount of dr. Tim’s here and there in hopes that it will help to boost different types of bacteria colonies. I have had a lot of great success using dr Tim’s in the past for multiple different reasons.
So yea that’s where I’m at with the frag grow out system at the moment! I’m happy with everything so far. I know a lot of people aren’t into using cheaper equipment these days. I enjoy the high end stuff as well I use alot of name brand products on my other systems. Personally I think you can succeed with the off brand equipment as well. I will be sure to update along the way and let everyone know how things work out! Thanks everyone happy reefing
So I’ve finally been putting together a reef system that I’ve been planning since I moved to the Midwest this past February. It’s a 40 gallon breeder drilled with a stand alone overflow bulkhead and the same matching bulkhead for the return. This is more of a budget build due to the fact that I did just move here and a lot has been going on over the past 8 months. It has a 20gal long sump.
EQUIPMENT USED
•40 gallon breeder
•20 gallon long sump
•1 inch over flow ( stand alone drilled on back side with rigid tubing standing above the displays water line for a nice air/ water ratio and
to silence the gurgling)
•1 inch return bulk head
•black flexible pond tubing for both return/drain lines.
•marine aqua return pump (model DC-4000) 28watts (can also work as a wave maker)
•red devil protein skimmer (I believe this model is rated 70 / 75 gallons)
•13 watt UV sterilizer
•tunze ato (model 5070)
•2 ceramic bio bricks
•filter floss for bubble trap
•jebao cross flow wave pump (model cp-90)
•jebao wave maker (just for detritus in corner) (model slw-5)
•20lbs aragonite sand ( refugium section in sump)
•25 lbs two little fishies (staxx reef rock)
•Marco reef rock cement for aqua scape design
•200 watt heater
•5gallon innovative marine ro tank
•kessil a80 refugium light
•viparspectra 165 watt modified (removed a lot of the 470nm blue and the cyan leds along with some others) (added 10 - 440nm royal blues and 10 - 400nm violets) I have mostly 120 degree lenses but I left about 4/5 90’s on just to mix it up a bit. I know SB reef lights have a mixture so I figured I’d give that a try I can always switch them out or just remove them all tog
•aliexpress 470nm 54 watt led bar
•AliExpress white blue cyan Uv 54 watt led bar (arriving in a few days)
I don’t have a par meter at the moment so I’m getting a ballpark idea of my par based off of the lux/ footcandle photometer readings. it’s going to be very heavy blue and violet so I’m using (70 / 75 / 80) as the constant when using the Lux converted to par formula. I’m hoping that will give me a decent idea on what I’m working with in the system. Im going to use the (Milwaukee ap 700 photometer) I’m using a cheap one at the moment while I’m waiting for that one to arrive. I’d prefer to get some readings under the water and check out each area of the rock work. I’ve been studying up on a lot of the Lux to par threads out there and it seems that a good amount of people rely heavily on this system and achieve great success with it.
the tank has been cycling for around 3 weeks to a month now and the ammonia is pretty much fully converted to nitrite at this point. Nitrite is still reading decently high in the system. Things are moving along though!
•bacterias used / experimented with so far
•fritz #9
•microbactr 7 brightwell (small amount)
•seachem stability (tried out the prime as they recommended but I stopped because I didn’t want to interfere with the natural process too much. I just felt that chemically it’s probably not too good to remove nitrite and ammonia that way during a cycle. I could be wrong but I didn’t wanna play around with any of that)
•now I add a small amount of dr. Tim’s here and there in hopes that it will help to boost different types of bacteria colonies. I have had a lot of great success using dr Tim’s in the past for multiple different reasons.
So yea that’s where I’m at with the frag grow out system at the moment! I’m happy with everything so far. I know a lot of people aren’t into using cheaper equipment these days. I enjoy the high end stuff as well I use alot of name brand products on my other systems. Personally I think you can succeed with the off brand equipment as well. I will be sure to update along the way and let everyone know how things work out! Thanks everyone happy reefing