I have heard of some making people 3D printing shelves for them. Back syphon is a concnern for sure but with the really small feed line I am not too concern. It would take hours for any mesurable amount of water to escape. I also have lead detection sensors on my floor and in my sump. Just have to keep in mind that you cannot extend the feed line that is provided.
I didn't try the back wall but I have heard of other including BRS that did that with MP10s on a E170 just a little smaller than the RSR250. I wanted to be able to create a nice gyre and not sure that is possible with them on the back. I looked at the MP10s but given the thickness of the glass people have had problems with them falling off. I figured the MP40 was a better investment too because they can be used on much bigger tanks too. I just recently turned my down because my Euphyllia garden rock was getting too much flow. Can always turn down a powerful pump but a small pump can only go up to 100%.
Varios 4. I have and identical one on my mixing station. Cheaper than the vectra and just as good in my opinion.
Also managed to get my rainbow Monti to finally stick to the over flow knock on wood. It does seem to be bleaching a bit on the top since being mounted. Perhaps the light is stronger? I doubt it would be too much light as my a360ew lights only go up to 50% power. Hopefully adjusts to the new light intensity.Some more photos of the tank. All corals seem to be doing well except for my rainbow infused zoa. Not sure what is angrying that one but will keep trying with it. Just picked up 4 new coral and getting another tomorrow. Picture of coral in sand are new. From left to right have a bicolor hammer( toxic hammer), frog spawn hammer mix, Duncan and orange ricordia Florida. Picking up tomorrow a yellow green branching hammer.
Happy to report that 3 remaining fish are doing well in qt just about a week of copper treatment so far with them. Plan on doing at least one more week of copper before adding to display. Have in qt a pair of banggi cardinals (there was 3 one died singled out) and a diamond goby. Also sadly lost my oldest clown in the dt I found dried out on mesh top. Want to get a new mesh top that has a tighter seal. Still seem to be aiptasia free and Dino seemed to have disappeared on its own. So sand is looking good. I do seem to have cyano though on most of the rocks. I will give the new corals a week or so before dosing chemiclean for the cyano. Also got a light shield (Styrofoam from my frozen fish food purchase) to block out the light in fuge from the other side of the sump. Plan on doing icp soon. I haven't been running my normal auto water change and nutrient levels seem to be stable. Think I am going to keep it that way as my salinity keep swinging with the auto water change.
LOVE the sump area set-up as well as the raceways for the wires in the roof..almost similar to setting up a computer rack farm...so cool...and cool/interesting story about the clown getting to know each other and one the ultimate death via MP40 death (I had that too, but with a $90 anemone 90 minutes after I purchased it...)Growing up in my younger years I always had a freshwater fish tank, but always wanted to have a saltwater tank. Fast forward many years till fall 2018 and we received a gift of two Betta fish for my two young sons. While caring for our new Betta fish my childhood dream came back to me. After around 4 months of research, I decided it was time for my first saltwater tank. I decided on a Red Sea Reefer 250 tank for my home office with the Triton method and auto water changes.
I purchased my Red Sea Reefer 250 from my LFS and 40 lbs of live Fiji pink sand. For rock, I went with dry 70lbs Reef saver rock from BRS. Ended up needing around 45-55lbs of it. I needed everything to fit in the sump due to the limited space in my office. With a large list of equipment, I knew this was going to be a tight fit. Special thanks to Aaron Gustafson for providing the idea to mount the power strips and cord management on the top of the stand. If not for that everything wouldn’t have fit. Here is my equipment list.
Here is the custom mounting board I created. Just used desk grommets route the cables through. I painted the wood with black spray paint.
Sump a bit of a mess while parts still arrived and I set up the tank. You can see the 3 RO lines coming from the wall. These are the drain, salt, and RODI lines to the tank. I installed a dedicated 20 amp circuit just for the tank with a GFI outlet for protection. I made sure to turn on my Apex heartbeat too, so if the GFI does trip I will be notified that my apex is offline.
view of the top of my stand. I have cable raceways that run in a U shape from left to right in the stand. It is all lit from an LED strip that runs along the top of the stand as well. Between the 16 outlets in these 2 Apex energy bar 832 there are only 3 free outlets after everything is plugged in. This shot is from early on in the wiring.
Sump and stand complete with all equipment. Marine pure blocks have been removed as my Al was extremely high.
Here is my 7 stage with water saver BRS RODI unit. Has worked like a champ for me. I was able to mount my RODI directly below my PEX water switch. It provides me direct access to a very strong pressure water supply. Originally I had Schedule 40 connector for my RODI feed line, however, it broke soon after install. Upgraded to Scheduled 80 shown here and haven't had any issues. My normal pressure is around 85-95 PSI when the flush valve is off. With the flush on I still get over 60 PSI. I have lucked out and my supply water is only between 30-35 TDS. Most of the time the RO is able to get me to 2 or 0 TDS. DI gets me to zero if I am not there already. I have made around 300-400 gallons of water and show little if any usage on my filters. Not sure how long they will last given the low TDS and I only make around 50g a month.
Name Quantity Reefer 250 1 Crystalreef aquatics Sump RSRN250 1 Varios-4 Pump 2 Apex 1 EB832 Energy Bar 1 Neptune auto feeding 1 Kessil A mounting arm 2 neptune dos 1 neptune breakout box 1 MP40 2 A360W-E 2 H380 1 Eheim Jager 125W 2 Small BRS Carbon Reactor with Pump 1 LED Refreacatomtor 1 BRS ROX .8 carbon 3lbs 1 Red sea blue 175G salt 1 Nyos Quantium 120 Skimmer 1 BRS dosing pump 3 cabinet light 1 WXM VORTECH 1
Here is the mixing station. I decided to go with Schedule 80 piping just because it looked cooler and matched the valves I used. I went with Cepex valves I got from BRS. The piping is all 3/4 inch. I just went with that as that is the same size used in my tank. So far the valves are very easy to turn, looking forward to it staying that way for a long time. If not with the double Union it is super easy to just purchase another valve without having to re-do any PVC. The RO lines connect at the top too long Acrylic Tubes that go close to the bottom of each barrel.
My mixing station would be in my basement and consists of 2 50G Norwesco containers and a pump. They sit on a homemade stand with drain. The drain for the stand flows into my sump pump for the house for added protection. Given that my office on the first floor I was able to run RO tubing around 30-40ft from my mixing station to my office for the tank. I have 3 lines run from the tank, drain, fresh RODI and saltwater. The drain line goes directly into the drain for the house. These lines allow for easy making of RODI and Saltwater without having to carry any buckets. The ability to make large amounts of water at once is really nice.
In June I purchased my first two clownfish after a 2-week cycle with Dr. Tims. Shortly after I purchase the beginnings of my cleanup crew. After around a month I spooked one of the clowns at night and he got sucked into the MP40 instant death. It sounded like someone cut a 2x4 and my heart instantly dropped. I have since purchased some guards for my MP40’s but have since removed as they get dirty quickly, cut down on the flow and are bulky. After restocking the clownfish to bring me back to two and around a month's time I lost the remaining first clown I purchase to suicide. They were attempting to bond and would frequently chase each other around the tank. The first time I left the tank in a long while and my wife comes home to find Nemo dead on the floor. The remaining clown seemingly very lonely and after a week or two, we decided to purchase another clown. After the death, I purchased a mesh lid for the aquarium to prevent any future jumpers. When I picked up the second clown I decided to pick up a yellow tang as well. It has been around 3 weeks since introducing the new clown and tanks with all seeming to do very well. Currently, I have a PAR meter on rent and will be purchasing my first corals very soon. I plan to start with some zoa’s and likely a hammer coral.
Salt mixing in the tank for the first time.
Slowly acclimating my new yellow tang here.
My sons enjoying the tank during feeding time.
Quarantine/hospital tank. I haven't had to use it yet but will be QT all new fish I get now for 2 weeks plus.
New tank and clowns in background. Yang (yellow tang) is being shy. Getting better about being shy as he gets more comfortable.
My giant 3-4 inch emerald crab decided he wanted some seaweed.
WIll share some new photo's once I get some corals.
Glad you like it. I work in IT so it feels like home to use raceways. I saw a post from another reefer using them and thought it would be perfect. Yeah sad about the clowns for sure. Sucks to lose a second one even after I put the. mesh top on. think I am going to get a custom mesh top made to ensure there are no gaps. I never owned an Anenome but think I might get a smaller tank with clowns and anemones.
You gave me an idea about that race rack, I am in the process of rebuilding my return/sump area. I am looking at yours and getting inspired...did you have a separate area for the controllers, i do not remember seeing one.
Not the best photo but yeah all my gear is mounted to this plywood I painted black. Also have one of the board before I painted and mounted everything. My energy bars are mounted on the ceiling of my stand. I also have various other power bricks mounted to the inside and back of my stand. I also have an ecotech battery backup behind my equipment board.
Yes it has more than doubled since I got it and doesn't seem to be slowing down. For some reason it like to tilt towards the front glass. Gives it a really nice look. Also polyps are super extended probably 2-3 inches or so.
Thanks as always a work in progress want to get some more fish and corals still growing out. Think of getting a Monti cap for the back wall of my tank on the left. So far not many places seem to have any Monti caps right now. Also thinking about giving acros a try.Tank is looking really good
www.triton-lab.de
