Erik's Red Sea Reefer 170 Build - a Return to Reefing

[FortLivingRoom]

Wow! Very nice, and what a diverse tank you’ve got. That live rock really looks great!

 

[SFREEF3R]

Wow! Very nice, and what a diverse tank you’ve got. That live rock really looks great!

Thanks man! It’s coming along.

 

[SFREEF3R]

Unfortunately one of the two banggai cardinals rapidly succumbed to an infection it acquired in (or before) shipping. I had anti-parasitic and dewormer on hand but no antibiotics and couldn't get any in time to save it. At least I'll be prepared for next time now :-/

The remaining fish appears to be healthy and is eating well.

I really do want a pair of these fish, so now I'm trying to figure out the sex of fish I have remaining to find a suitable mate.

Have a separate thread where I've asked for some help on this front:

Help Sexing Banggai Cardinal

Hey all - could use some help here. Received a mated pair of these lovely fish from Liveaquaria's Divers Den, however one of them succumbed rapidly to an infection it acquired in transit (or before). I'm trying to figure out the sex of the remaining one so that I can get it an appropriate mate...

www.reef2reef.com

Some new inhabitants from LA in QT/observation:
-pair of banggai cardinals
-emerald crab
-tunicate
-pink feather dusters

I’m typically very weary about adding filter feeders for fear they starve, but so far all of the filter feeders in my tank seem to be thriving so I have some confidence

I have tons of feather dusters that seem to be reproducing, multiple sponge and tunicate species going strong and growing a year after receiving the rock, and at least a dozen bivalves.

Unfortunately a day after drip acclimation, the feather dusters haven’t opened yet. Will keep observing but not sure they made it through shipping. I had a pistol shrimp in the order that was also DOA.

 

[alliesan648]

It was a very tight fit into the stand. The chamfer on the top/front corner of the box is there to enable fitting/rotating the box into place. And I couldn't avoid overlapping with the hinge slightly so I needed to route a small recess in the left panel for the enclosure. The push-push for the door had to be removed (I had planned to relocate lower but hasn't really been needed)

I mounted these lights under the access panel for extra light. There is a motion activation feature but it isn't great for working in the Sump. I have switch that I plan to add in the near future.

I had a piece of glass cut at a local glass shop for a shelf, mounted on these brackets.

A Bashsea 5 gal ATO reservoir lives between the tank and the wall.

I was pleased with the finished result:

Inside the electronics compartment:

Wow that looks impressively clean.
following your thread for some motivation as I’ve got a 170 as well.
one question, is it hard to access the plumbing behind the electronics compartment? I’ve had to replace the o-rings on mine twice now over the years and it looks a bit tight behind there. Could be just the photos though.
I’m trying to figure out where to put my profilux (older version with a longer pab) and this helps immensely.
Also, not sure if you mentioned this and I just missed it, where did you get the brackets that are holding the tunze and vortech controllers?

 

[SFREEF3R]

Wow that looks impressively clean.
following your thread for some motivation as I’ve got a 170 as well.
one question, is it hard to access the plumbing behind the electronics compartment? I’ve had to replace the o-rings on my twice now and it looks a bit tight behind there. Could be just the photos though.
im trying to figure out where to put my profilux (older version with a longer pab) and this helps immensely.
Also, not sure if you mentioned this and I just missed it, where did you get the brackets that are holding the tunze and vortech controllers?

Thanks! It is definitely not super easy to access behind the electronics compartment, though possible. It's completely blind unless I lay down on a bench and have my head inside the sump area. I can however reach my hand behind the compartment and grab the fittings without too much difficulty. How long have you had between replacing o-rings? Not looking forward to that job haha.

I don't think I said where I got the brackets. Here you go:
Tunze ATO mount from Eel River Coral (3D printed)
Ecotech Vortech mount from BRS (stamped metal)

 

[alliesan648]

I bought the tank used in 2016 and replaced them shortly after that due to one being a leaker, and again a few weeks ago. So I guess 6 or so years isn’t too bad?

Thanks for the links! One of my controllers went swimming a few years ago and I haven’t had them in there since. Velcro can not be trusted

 

[SFREEF3R]

Here's a current FTS October 3rd 2023:

Ok - so it's been wild last year and half. Had some ups and downs with the tank. We did a 4 month renovation during which my which we weren't in the house and my maintenance schedule and feeding/phyto dosing schedule was sporadic at best (beyond my autofeeder). I lost some of the filter feeding hitchhikers - the tunicates, most of the larger clams, some feather dusters, and sponges - though there are still many. I wasn't sure if the phyto dosing was actually doing anything and it's clear it was.

I had a bit of a hair algae outbreak. I tried algaefix and flucanazole, which slowed the growth a bit. I did eradicate the tiny patch of bryopsis I had. Ultimately I took a tooth brush to every rock and loaded up on snails and hermits and algae is now a thing of the past.

I also had a pin hole leak spring at the seam between the back glass and left panel. It was such a tiny hole and otherwise nothing compromised in the silicone at all I almost can't fathom how it happened. I almost wonder if a spine for my urchin some how pierced it. At any rate, I had to tear down the entire tank and store everything in rubbermaid bins while I waited several weeks for the replacement (was a good excuse to scrub the rock for the algae issue above). This was a very stressful time for my marriage . Fortunately the tank was replaced under warranty, I now have the G2 version with thicker glass and armored seams.

A few months back, I accidentally let my nutrients bottom out and lost a couple acro frags, my alveopora, and my hitchhiker rose coral.

I also had a kid (now over a year old)...somehow I've managed to keep the tank doing and its looks in pretty good shape. Things are thriving now and I'm in a good groove.

 

[SFREEF3R]

Here's right before the tear down in December of 2022:

And after in January of 2023:

Much less blues in these photos...

I also took the opportunity in the teardown to pull out about 15 lbs. of rock. I way overdid in my original aquascape and needed to make some space for corals to grow. Have had some great growth since the beginning of year. Some of my frags just took off recently and others like my Pearlberry (center top) and purple stylophora have been growing steadily all year.

 

[SFREEF3R]

I bought 4x Sexy shrimp back in April. Their numbers quickly dropped to two, but the remaining two have been going strong. I’m pretty sure something in my tank predates small inverts in my tank (perhaps some of the larger Eunicid worms?). Had the same issue with the berghia nudis I added several times when I was battling my initial aiptasia infestation (hitchhikers from the live rock).

One lives in the large purple stylophora and the other lives on/near the frogspawn. Love watching these guys.