Jason's Reefer 250: Fish added! Sump Mod, Clarisea, custom plumbing, aquascape w/E-Marco, IKEA cabinet mod. (Pic heavy!)

[canadianeh]

Hi there! Yes, no lights during the cycle to minimize algae. I actually have a tiny diatom bloom occurring right now, primarily visible on the sand. This has coincided with me turning on the lights for a few coral additions. TBH, this is a good sign for me as the tank is finally maturing. I am using strong flow and a turkey baster to keep diatoms in check and letting the clarisea keep the water column clear.

Today I might add in a small amount of GFO and adjust the carbon reactor. I noticed a small tiny leak at the Aquamaxx carbon reactor where I had to mod the joint with the double O-Rings. Should be easily remedied. Otherwise tank is doing great! I actually failed to exercise restraint with AquaSD's Leap Year sale, so expect a bunch of frags to come in tomorrow.

So do you see tumbling on the GFO and Carbon reactor? Your due for another video

So with the reactors, you put double o-rings and still leaking? What size of o-rings? R-13? What remedy did you apply to solve this leak when two o-rings didn't work?

Also, how many 20lbs bag of sand you put in? I plan for a thin layer of sand and I want to see if one bag will achieve that.

 

[btmedic04]

Beautiful build so far! Following along!

 

[Okinawa_reefer]

Absolutely amazing. I've been reading through all of these builds as I'm about to embark on my own plumbing endeavor. I'll certainly be following this build! As an aside, your idea of linking all of your key topics in your first post is freaking genius. Well done sir!

 

[Eight]

Absolutely amazing. I've been reading through all of these builds as I'm about to embark on my own plumbing endeavor. I'll certainly be following this build! As an aside, your idea of linking all of your key topics in your first post is freaking genius. Well done sir!

Thanks! I really struggled with some of the other awesome but very long build threads, so I figured this would make it much easier for others to follow. I've been pretty busy but I will have an update this weekend. I added (probably too many) frags to my tank just this week, lol. I managed to purchase frags of some of my old favorite corals I'm really looking forward to growing out.

 

[Okinawa_reefer]

I am also planning on plumbing my main drain directly into the Clarisea. Since you're running a herbie style, do you find it hard to get the drain to full syphon since it's connected directly to the clarisea? Also, is there much noise as it drains into it?

 

[2000se]

Also, I may have missed it but what skimmer are you running? Have you had it from the beginning? What are your thoughts on it?

 

[Eight]

I am also planning on plumbing my main drain directly into the Clarisea. Since you're running a herbie style, do you find it hard to get the drain to full syphon since it's connected directly to the clarisea? Also, is there much noise as it drains into it?

The clarisea and the drain have been hassle free. Once it's dialed in, I don't need to mess with it again unless I change the return pump flow rate. The drain is completely silent.

The way I plumbed my drain with the union and the gate valve on the horizontal run has the added benefit of letting you simultaneously adjust the gate valve while watching the water level in the overflow. This makes tweaking the drain very simple. The water level reacts instantaneously. I think it's better to have the valve on the horizontal run vs. where most people put it on the vertical run just before the clarisea.

 

[Eight]

Also, I may have missed it but what skimmer are you running? Have you had it from the beginning? What are your thoughts on it?

I'm running the Nyos 120 and it's great. I like that I don't need to raise the skimmer height; the standard reefer 250 sump water level is perfect. It's quiet, easy to adjust and small. I debated between the Nyos and the Redsea 300 skimmer and I'm happy I went with Nyos. I've seen a lot of threads about people struggling with noisy Redsea skimmers or having to raise them on skimmer stands.

 

[2000se]

So you started your build in January. Your system has been running for about two months at this point correct? I’ve had my reefer 250 for close to four years now and I have changed things here and there over the life. I’m interested to see how things turn out for you long-term with your design and your wiring and with your general maintenance of the system. I hope it stays this clean looking! This has been a great build thread to read through. Your system looks super clean, compact and very presentable.
Great job!

 

[JorgeFern22]

This is such an inspiration! I was losing the itch and this build got me very well into the tank again! I am hoping to be able to make some nice custom plumbing also and organization for my electronics now! Following along!

 

[Eight]

Today was my first real 'tank maintenance day' and in many ways, was the first true run of my plumbing set up. I changed out the original carbon I had since I filled the tank, added GFO and finally fixed the leaking O-Ring on my Aquamaxx XS reactor. I also did a 10 gallon water change.

Here's a non-pretty/prepped 'beforehand' photo in the morning. Don't mind the diatoms and my messed up sand. I've found the single MP40 a bit strong for my aquarium and the Tunze 6105s from my older tank WAY too strong. I have a Tunze 6040 arriving tomorrow. I think that the MP40 turned down low with the Tunze 6040 blowing across the back will be a nice combination. Will update on that later. I went nuts on the frags on AquaSD's live sale, but everything looks amazing. (Photos of the corals later.)

My Tunze Eco Chic refugium light runs counter cycle to my main lights, so you can see that they're on in the morning. I dropped a bunch of ceramic bio balls in the left portion of the sump and you can see a healthy amount of chaeto in the right side. Clarisea continues to clear the water and keep things hassle free and the Nyos 120 skimmer is pulling out a nice wet skimmate.

First step is to remove the skimmer cup and the right reactor return. I keep the reactor returns dry fit so that everything is more easily maintained. So far that's worked out great. I get a tiny amount of salt creep on the return pipe, but no big deal. You can see the right reactor return pipe resting on the Clarisea. Both reactors are easily removed after shutting off the gate valves, loosening the reactor screws and then twisting off.

I've never enjoyed reactor maintenance... and in this case, carbon is the biggest pain. The sponge on the AquaMaxx is pretty large, so little particles and fines find their way into my sump. This time I decided to put the carbon into a long filter bag and then put that into the reactor which seems to be working much better. It might be a little less efficient, but I don't think it makes much of a difference. The GFO went straight into the left reactor. Since the flow rate through GFO is quite slow and it doesn't float as much as carbon it hasn't been a problem.

Here's a full tank and stand shot with everything put back together. It took me a couple hours to do everything, but that included a water change from scratch, O-Ring repair on the right reactor and fumbling my way through this for the first time. I think that a straight carbon and skimmer clean up should take around 20 mins once I get the hang of it. For the O-Ring repair, I did manage to repair it and I no longer have any leaks. It took me a couple tries playing around with different size rings and combinations... in the end, I went with a smaller one on the bottom and a thicker one on top. (I don't know the sizes I ended up using.) I think the key is to not over tighten the nut on the lid. Over tightening causes the O-rings to contort out of shape which was the problem I had before.

I will share some nice coral/frag photos shortly! I have a few really nice pieces, especially the torch trio in the middle (Aussie gold, Electric green with blue tips and purple with green tips) and some really cool montis and chalices.

 

[Eight]

This is such an inspiration! I was losing the itch and this build got me very well into the tank again! I am hoping to be able to make some nice custom plumbing also and organization for my electronics now! Following along!

Thank you! I also sometimes struggle with the hobby, especially when things aren't going well in the tank or life gets too busy. My friends used to joke that they could see into the state of my life/mind based on how nice my tank looked, lol.

This time around I made choices to keep things smaller and simpler, where my natural tendency would be to go bigger and crazier with more automation. This keeps me engaged with smaller tasks regularly as opposed to long runs where I don't really interact with the tank. Hopefully this helps 'smooth out' my tank enthusiasm over time.

 

[2000se]

Do you have a drain on your skimmer cup?

 

[Eight]

Do you have a drain on your skimmer cup?

Nope, no drain on cup. I figure ATO topoff, skimmer cup maintenance and alk/CA testing will be the things I do minimally on a weekly basis.

 

[YankeeTankee]

I like your scape

I wanna see it in a year!

 

[Eight]

I like your scape

I wanna see it in a year!

Thank you me too! This tank needs time to grow out and mature.

 

[Eight]

A little out of practice, but managed to get a few decent coral pics today! And yes I realize I violated my goal of 'going slow', but everything is doing pretty awesome right now!.

 

[canadianeh]

We are all guiltily of that. My first tank I said I am going slow and then I ended up going fast.

But on my current build I am going slow.....I promise

Nice anemone! I am debating whether I want one or not. They may move around and sting your corals. Yours on one island and hope stay on that island. Can they move on sand to travel to the other island?

what will be your fish stockplan?

 

[Eight]

We are all guiltily of that. My first tank I said I am going slow and then I ended up going fast.

But on my current build I am going slow.....I promise

Nice anemone! I am debating whether I want one or not. They may move around and sting your corals. Yours on one island and hope stay on that island. Can they move on sand to travel to the other island?

what will be your fish stockplan?

Thanks! Yes I used to have a pretty epic anemone collection. I've found that if you place them right they don't move much. This guy I managed to get right into the cave I made for him and he has been planted there ever since. As a precaution, btas all go on that rock on the right to limit where they end up.

As for fish, if you look carefully you might see that I picked up a Frostbite clown to pair with my Picasso. He's already acting submissive and there's no signs of aggression between the two.

In addition to the clowns, I have a Lawnmower Blenny and will look for probably two more fish, probably one wrasse and possibly a mandarin.

I have both phyto and Tisbe copepods culturing right now and it's going great. I have more than I need of both.

 

[canadianeh]

@Eight hey is your clarisea gen 1, or gen 2? My 1” white PVC and orange PVC don’t fit to the grey elbow that comes with the clarisea gen 2?!? The grey elbow says 1” on the end connected to clarisea and the other end to plumbing marked 32 (inside a circle) but my PVC don’t fit. Did I get wrong part or am I missing anything here??