KY_acc’s Red Sea Max E-170 Build thread

[Ky_acc]

Starting a build thread today to document the ups and downs of my system

I have had a number of issues - one of which nearly caused me to take down the tank entirely

I will be adding some more details in subsequent posts, but here is an overview:

-Tank: Red Sea Max E-170 (~45 gallons with sump)
-Sump: Red Sea sump upgrade kit pluming kit however using an eshopps RS-75 sump instead of the glass Red Sea sump as I didn’t want the sump to take up the entire area under the stand. Made some diy adjustments to replace the standard Red Sea valve with a gate valve
-Light: Red Sea reef led 90
-Skimmer: reef octopus 110sss skimmer (space saver)
-Flow: Nero 5 and tunze 7095 for flow
-Return: Sicce 2.0
-Dosing: Ecotech versa - dosing 12ml of tropic Marin all for reef daily (mixing this stuff DIY)
-UV: Aqua advantage 8w HOB
-Control: APEX EL
-Co2 Scrubber: just the simple BRS co2 scrubber feeding directly into my skimmer air intake. I bought a 5 gallon container of media from Amazon. I get about 2 weeks between refills and this keeps my PH from about 8.1-8.25+ through a 24hr cycle. (Previously my PH never reached above 7.8 due to me living in a new apt that is tightly sealed - low O2 inside)



Tank as of April 2020 — all blues (to much blue...). This shot is post recovery of a coralline algae mass die off event that started in Dec. 2020. I lost 80% of my LPS and had a horrible outbreak of cladophoropsis algae (I’ll provide more details in a subsequent update). I just started adding some frags again in early April ‘21 after trying to get the system stabilized from Dec. ‘21 to Mar. ‘21

 

[FortLivingRoom]

Looks good! What is that drag on the top left of your rockscape?

 

[iMi]

This look great.

 

[Ky_acc]

Looks good! What is that drag on the top left of your rockscape?

It’s a little finger of some birdsnest — got it on sale from Jason fox!

 

[Ky_acc]

Just to switch it up here is a few pictures from before I had the mass coralline die off / algae explosion

I think my issue has been a combination of dry rock and bare bottom which has resulted in an unstable environment

 

[Ky_acc]

I have been using an auto feeder in my sump with good success, just had to diy a covering for the output to keep too much food from being dropped in.

the key here is using a small power head capable of variable flow in the return section to keep the pellets suspended so they can be picked up by the return.

 

[Ky_acc]

Just a few updated pictures - added some new corals last week

 

[orreefkeeper]

Looks great! Can the RS-75 sump handle the back flow from the tank when the pump is off? I have an RS250v2 sump in my e170 cabinet and it's taking up all the space! I only added it out of a fear of the sump overflowing during a power outage.

 

[Ky_acc]

Looks great! Can the RS-75 sump handle the back flow from the tank when the pump is off? I have an RS250v2 sump in my e170 cabinet and it's taking up all the space! I only added it out of a fear of the sump overflowing during a power outage.

Yes it can!

That said it fills up to about 2 inches from the top so not much extra room (haha) but it does completely hold all the backfill with all my pumps completely off

 

[jopo4343]

Hi
I have the same tank what’s your lighting schedule for the reefled90?Been struggling to find a happy place for lighting.

 

[Minnesota Reefer]

Are you able to provide some updated pics of the tank??

 

[Ky_acc]

Hi
I have the same tank what’s your lighting schedule for the reefled90?Been struggling to find a happy place for lighting.

Here is my current schedule — about 11 hrs per day

majority of the day is about 20k and then shifts to 23k in the evening

I have never run a par test so I don’t know whether what I am running is optimal

what have you been running on yours?

 

[Ky_acc]

Are you able to provide some updated pics of the tank??

Yes! Finally have something to show — ended up picking up some frags from @CherryCorals (great experience as usual)

picked up a torch, some hammers and an Oregon tort

tank has been doing well since identifying low phos / nitrate and starting to dose tropic Marin plus np

thanks for looking

 

[jopo4343]

How much tropic Marin np do you dose?
what do you keep nitrate and phos at?
Tank looks great!

 

[Ky_acc]

How much tropic Marin np do you dose?
what do you keep nitrate and phos at?
Tank looks great!

I just started dosing plus np about 2 weeks ago: ~1 - 2 ml per day (tank is about 45 gallons total, prob a bit less)

my green staghorn to the right went completely pale on me about 1 month ago — I then starting to dose plus np the green coloration is making a great comeback.

my Hannah ULR pho’s checker was consistently giving me readings of .08 to .15 (I hate doing the test on this checker with the powder pack)

then an ICP test came back and showed .01 phos — I then bought a Elos Low Range phosphate test which has shown the same - this elos kit is expensive but so much easier then the Hannah

I always knew nitrate was very low as I have way too much nitrate reducing media for a tank my size.

that said I stated dosing plus np daily and colors on some of my bleached lps and the green staghorn have been making a comeback

 

[Ky_acc]

Just a quick update for today to show some growth over the past few months

 

[Ky_acc]

Just a quick update.

I have been pretty much hands off this tank and just letting it do it’s thing — it’s finally starting to come together.

 

[Schumanistan]

Did you start with the sump or add it after the tank was going? I’ve already got mine up and going but miss having a sump.

 

[Ky_acc]

Just another quick update — I have mainly just been letting the tank do it’s thing

 

[Ky_acc]

Did you start with the sump or add it after the tank was going? I’ve already got mine up and going but miss having a sump.

I added it while it was running (had been setup a year by then) — it was super easy, just drained the back chamber, unscrew the plugs and install the pipe kit!