Lion King's NPS Predator's Reef

[lion king]

Well primarily I'm a predator guy, but I have always had a fascination for nps corals. Most of the equipment is recycled from previous tanks, and it is in my fish room.

An outline of the build; it's a 40B with a 20L sump, will have a refrigerated food dosing system and an automated water exchange system.

Here's what I have so far;
40B drilled and using GlassHoles 700 overflow with a 3/4" return, sitting on an Edsel utility rack from Home Depot, painted black with black pressed board background.
The refugium/sump built with a kit from JaxRacks on eBay, n Eheim Compact Plus 3000 return pump, and the refugium light is a 50w red and blue grow light.
The tank light is an old Marineland metal halide/t5, I'm using a single 24w ATI Blue Plus and an 18w actinic blue led reefbar from 21LEDS.
A diy STC-1000 heater controller with 2 heater outlets and 2 cooling outlets.
A JBJ ATO.

The feeding system will consist of an Avanti ThermoElectric 1.7 cubic fridge, a Jebao 3 channel doser plumbed with a venturi valve and a Sicce pump. More on this later.

The water exchange system will consist of 2 x 20g Brute containers, 2 small adjustable water pumps connected to a dual outlet digital timer. More on this later.

I should be getting some macro from Gulf tomorrow and some amphipods and copepods from Aquarium Depot.

Some corals should be going in this weekend, I'm picking up a Spider Sponge, red and yellow gorg, blue seafan, and maybe a couple of orange tubastreas. I'll be adding other color tubastreas, dendros, and maybe even be bold and try a blueberry gorg.

The predator has been a challenge to decide, the flow will be substantial.

I'm waiting for Black Friday to purchase The Eshopps Axium 120 protein skimmer and the Current eflux wavemakers.

 

[Oscaror]

Well primarily I'm a predator guy, but I have always had a fascination for nps corals. Most of the equipment is recycled from previous tanks, and it is in my fish room.

An outline of the build; it's a 40B with a 20L sump, will have a refrigerated food dosing system and an automated water exchange system.

Here's what I have so far;
40B drilled and using GlassHoles 700 overflow with a 3/4" return, sitting on an Edsel utility rack from Home Depot, painted black with black pressed board background.
The refugium/sump built with a kit from JaxRacks on eBay, n Eheim Compact Plus 3000 return pump, and the refugium light is a 50w red and blue grow light.
The tank light is an old Marineland metal halide/t5, I'm using a single 24w ATI Blue Plus and an 18w actinic blue led reefbar from 21LEDS.
A diy STC-1000 heater controller with 2 heater outlets and 2 cooling outlets.
A JBJ ATO.

The feeding system will consist of an Avanti ThermoElectric 1.7 cubic fridge, a Jebao 3 channel doser plumbed with a venturi valve and a Sicce pump. More on this later.

The water exchange system will consist of 2 x 20g Brute containers, 2 small adjustable water pumps connected to a dual outlet digital timer. More on this later.

I should be getting some macro from Gulf tomorrow and some amphipods and copepods from Aquarium Depot.

Some corals should be going in this weekend, I'm picking up a Spider Sponge, red and yellow gorg, blue seafan, and maybe a couple of orange tubastreas. I'll be adding other color tubastreas, dendros, and maybe even be bold and try a blueberry gorg.

The predator has been a challenge to decide, the flow will be substantial.

I'm waiting for Black Friday to purchase The Eshopps Axium 120 protein skimmer and the Current eflux wavemakers.

Awesome! Keep us posted man

 

[biophilia]

Nice! Solid plan so far.

 

[SPR1968]

The tank looks great so far and thanks for sharing it with us

Very nice indeed

 

[NY_Caveman]

Very nice. Looking forward to this.

 

[azbigjohn]

Nice looking setup! I can't wait to see some life in it!

I would love to hear about your experience with Aquarium Depot. I used to use them a fair amount in their previous incarnation when they were having a lot of issues; when they renamed Aquarium Depot, there was a lot of growing pains, and I basically gave up on them (I think I still have unused store credit there)

 

[lion king]

Nice looking setup! I can't wait to see some life in it!

I would love to hear about your experience with Aquarium Depot. I used to use them a fair amount in their previous incarnation when they were having a lot of issues; when they renamed Aquarium Depot, there was a lot of growing pains, and I basically gave up on them (I think I still have unused store credit there)

I've only ordered pods from Aquarium Depot, and in that you can't go wrong. I chose to order the pods from them because they mix in amphipods, those big juicy tiny shrimp like creatures. A couple of years ago, 2 orders of $50 each and I was able to raise up a couple cuttlefish from hatchlings. At the time everyone was using mysid shrimp and costing about $500-600 to raise up a couple. I just knew there had to be a better way. If you're going to get a difficult fish that needs pods to get acclimated, I would recommend their pods. Plan a head and you'll have a good population before your leopard wrasse of potters angel starves.

Anything I can't answer for, but I do know they ship 2 day, which might be an issue for some things. But pods seems to do fine as long as the weather permits.

 

[lion king]

A little grove of gorg sapling's and a spider sponge

 

[lion king]

Time to feed

 

[lion king]

Starting to take shape, here's a shot of the room. It gets great light in the morning, so I can see the natural color of the corals. Finished up the feeding system. I chose the Avanti 1.7 fridge(https://www.homedepot.com/p/Avanti-...VdRh9Ch0wjA6cEAAYASAAEgIoG_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds), because it has no freezer area there is more room for larger bottles and the temp stays more consistent. I mounted the venturi valve( https://www.ebay.com/itm/Venturi-Valve-V50-by-CPR-1-2-Sch-40-Slip-X-Slip-/280220911892)on the outside and only had to drill a small hole for the 1/4" tube. Connected the 3 outlets of the Jebao DP-3 doser(https://www.amazon.com/Jebao-DP-3-Programmable-Dosing-Channel/dp/B01KB86J9G) with murlock fittings. I chose to try the cheapo Jebao becuse it good just as many good reviews as the ones priced $200-250 more, and these higher priced dosers got just as many bad reviews and incidents of failure; so why not give it a try. I ran a 1/4" tube along the exit of the power cord, just to help with negative pressure, if it were to become an issue. I'm running a Sicce multi 1300 which is an adjustable 320gph, I dialed it back a little, and will play with it to get it dialed in. I included a float switch to turn the pump off in case the water level in the return drops, just in case there's a leak along the way.

 

[biophilia]

Clean looking mod on that fridge! For what it's worth, I've been really happy with the Jebao doser on the auto-feeder for my NPS tank. I've found that the way the three rollers contact the tubing running through the dosing heads can occasionally cause the line to not be adequately pinched to prevent it from draining a few mL back into the dosing container which traps air in the line. Not sure that it would be an issue with your setup given that you have it plumbed into a venturi, but worth mentioning...

For ease of mind, I added some check valves like these which are water tight and don't have any issues clogging (even with cyclops and similar foods passing through them every few hours):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N92AXHF/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The one other super minor issue I've had with it is that the clock gradually gains time by a minute or two every few weeks. Both Jebao dosers I own do this and I bought them almost two years apart. It's only a slight inconvenience for me because I have a digital timer hooked to an air pump to stir the food prior to dosing -- and I have to remember to check that they are still set to the same time as one another.

 

[lion king]

Clean looking mod on that fridge! For what it's worth, I've been really happy with the Jebao doser on the auto-feeder for my NPS tank. I've found that the way the three rollers contact the tubing running through the dosing heads can occasionally cause the line to not be adequately pinched to prevent it from draining a few mL back into the dosing container which traps air in the line. Not sure that it would be an issue with your setup given that you have it plumbed into a venturi, but worth mentioning...

For ease of mind, I added some check valves like these which are water tight and don't have any issues clogging (even with cyclops and similar foods passing through them every few hours):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N92AXHF/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The one other super minor issue I've had with it is that the clock gradually gains time by a minute or two every few weeks. Both Jebao dosers I own do this and I bought them almost two years apart. It's only a slight inconvenience for me because I have a digital timer hooked to an air pump to stir the food prior to dosing -- and I have to remember to check that they are still set to the same time as one another.

How do you feed your nps tank, I thought about the powder foods and using a magnetic stirrer, didn't think about an air pump. I'm starting with 3 varieties of Reef Nutrition, which is why I went with the fridge mod.

 

[biophilia]

How do you feed your nps tank, I thought about the powder foods and using a magnetic stirrer, didn't think about an air pump. I'm starting with 3 varieties of Reef Nutrition, which is why I went with the fridge mod.

I mix Reef Nutrition Phyto-Feast & Oyster Feast along with frozen cyclops and some Reef Roids powder into a 1 liter bottle of saltwater (could just as easily be freshwater). I have a tiny air pump connected to a cheap "seconds-interval" digital timer with a rigid airline (no airstone) into the dosing container. The timer turns the air pump on for 30 seconds before the doser runs and turns off 30 seconds after. I was worried that just running an air pump 24x7 would either add too much warm air to the container or add too much outside bacteria, but for all I know that would be an easier solution and work just as well...

here's the timer I'm using: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0752PHMTL/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It can be programmed to come on for only a few seconds at a time (or longer) up to 20 times per day... but you may lose your mind trying to follow the horrible programming instructions!

 

[samnaz]

Very cool!

 

[lion king]

Well, the automatic water change system is not going to work. No matter what I could not get the pumps synchronized. The fresh water needed a siphon break in the line, as much as I tried I'm sure the head was ever so slightly off. One time I would get it perfect, everything lined up perfectly, then ran it again and it would be off more than I would like. I never got 2 consistent runs back to back. So for this system to work it needs to run with a peristaltic pump, and I'm not spending that kind of money.

Back up plan, it will still be used as a quick change system. Although not automatic, it's set up to do a manual water change in minutes. This will be a big bonus to keep me on track. Although I don't like storing water for reef tanks, because of precip. I have found Fritz salt mix to maintain it's stability over a weeks time, more so than other salt mixes I've tested. I'll be able to mix up 20g of water on my leisure(tanks) day and switch on a couple of pumps and make a quick 5g at a time water change(that's roughly 10% of my water volume). And pump out the dirty water tank.

 

[lion king]

I did add the skimmer, and it's already pulling. Almost immediately and seems easy to dial in. I choose this model for 3 reasons: previous good experiences with Eshopps skimmers, the price, and the footprint. It really was tough finding a skimmer with a small footprint, ones that I used previously I didn't care for. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/x-12...MIjaj_wu7q3gIVMB-tBh2yVAyEEAQYAyABEgJiz_D_BwE

It's been tough going finding corals for this tank, it's just my luck, everything I plan proves to be more challenging than not. Taking a trip to a few lfs today.

 

[lion king]

I did score some dendros and a black sun coral today. The dendros are already happy, we'll see about the black sun coral, they're tough. I'll get better pics tomorrow with some natural light.

 

[lion king]

Still no action on the sun corals

 

[lion king]

Refugium starting to grow a bit, you can see the fresh shoots on the caulerpa. I did a combo red and green, I got it from Gulf Coast, not their usual quantity or quality. They are moving and have suspended shipping, so I'll give them a pass, and order again when they get settled.

 

[lion king]

I put the wavemakers together, https://www.aquacave.com/current-us...MIqrLFmafu3gIVpRx9Ch0DlAbuEAQYASABEgLgsvD_BwE and so far a bit frustrated. I had gotten the add on pump cheaper from Amazon and had been running it alone, I was very happy with the single pump, it is very small and powerful, more than enough for a 40B. When I connected them together, I don't know what this thing is doing, the remote is very unresponsive, and as they are supposed to run synchronized, I can't figure it out. WArning though, I'm not a gadget guy, so I'll try again later.